In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Getting In The D.A.R. SOMETIMES DELVING INTO FAMILY BACKGROUND MAY REVEAL UNTHOUGHT OF SITUATIONS -EVEN EVIDENCE OF LONG-AGO WOMEN'S LIB. by James H. Siler James Siler grew up in Tennessee, but for many years has lived in Oak Park, Illinois. Mae Dorton most badly wanted to join the Daughters of the American Revolution . She probably thought it would enhance her standing here in Whitleyville , where these last two generations members of her immediate family had enjoyed none. And maybe, too, she would gain some needed self-esteem—as an old maid secretary in the local bank she counted for very little in our casteconscious town. She was sure she must descend from old Squire Dorton who had been one of the prominent early settlers of the county and some of whose descendants were prosperous and important figures, looming large in the local scheme of things, Judge Silas Dorton, up at Barbourstown, for instance, and snobbish Ruby Garner, the wealthiest woman in town. Ruby had never treated Mae very kindly and certainly not like kinnery back in their school days. Mae had read that Squire Dorton had fought in the Revolution back in North Carolina (probably read it in my county history which had finally come out during the Bicentennial Year) and she knew that Ruby, the leading light in the local chapter, had joined the D. A R. on his record of service. The trouble was that Mae couldn't get back any further than her great-grandfather, Nimrod Dorton, whose mother, Louvinia Dorton, appeared to have been widowed early in her married life. None of her immediate family circle cared a rap and she had waited too long to question older members of the family who might have been able to help her. Of course, it was generally admitted among them that they were, indeed, kinfolks to Ruby Garner, but no one, on either side, went about proclaiming the fact. Ruby's ancestor was the Squire's son Isham Dorton, and according to all available records there was only one other brother, Pleasant, but several sisters. Well, Nimrod was definitely neither a brother of Isham and Pleasant, nor son of either. Just who was he? Mae was greatly frustrated on that score and was convinced that there simply must have been another son of the Squire about whom the courthouse and other records were silent, undoubtedly because he had died young after marrying Louvinia-whatever-her-maidenname -was. Mae simply wouldn't go to Ruby for her "files" on the family, which would have cleared things up had she been willing to share them, and Mae 42 hesitated to write or visit the redoubtable Judge Dorton, and so it was that she came to me. As unofficial and self-appointedcounty historian—and taking little stock in the quests for glorious ancestry—I had long had some misgivings about that war record of the old Squire and many years before had had some occasion to check into the North Carolina records. Ruby's family called the old Squire a Captain, but it was clear to me that he had only been a private, so he had promoted himself—or his children had— after crossing the mountains into Kentucky . As a matter of fact, he had served but one hitch and furthermore, the family passed for being Tory in leanings. So I always smile indulgently when I hear Ruby go on about the patriotism of her tribe. This last Bicentennial Year, when we worked on some committee together, I had to put up with more of it than usual. Well, I told Mae I'd look into the matter and since it interested me, I wouldn't charge her a cent. I didn't ask her why she wanted to join those old gals in the Asa Berry Frumpkin Chapter of the D. A. R. I imagined it might be a way to provide herself some secret revenge against the fate that had kept her folks rather on the margin of the "best" in town, and that in spite of the Dorton name, just barely this side of those proverbial railroad tracks. Just as I had figured...

pdf