Augusta County: "The Record Junior Chapter," by Unknown, 1914
Summary: Blurb about the new "junior" members of the SCV and UDC
The Staunton Juniors, Sons of Confederate Veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy (auxiliary to the J.E.B. Stuart Chapter, Staunton, Va.), was organized April 4, 1914, by Mrs. J.F.F. Cassell, ex-President of the J.E.B. Stuart Chapter. She is a daughter of Jacob H. Plecker, who served in Company F, 62d Virginia Regiment, and rendered gallant service in the battle of New Market, May 15, 1864. The fiftieth anniversary of this battle has just been celebrated by a semicentennial celebration at New Market, Va.
This Chapter of juniors is the largest ever organized. Letters have come to Mrs. Cassell from every State where Confederate Chapters exist asking particulars of her record-breaking campaign to secure this unprecedented number. Love for the Confederate cause and the empty sleeve first prompted her to try to leave something permanent and lasting in the hearts of the young people when we have ceased from our labors. So she made a personal, systematic canvass of the town and county. It took seven weeks, not only working during the day, but using the telephone in the evening for the country children. Three hundred and twenty-six names appeared on the roll for the first meeting. To give all a fair chance to become charter members, it was decided that those who entered their names by the next monthly meeting should be considered charter members, and in this way the membership quickly ran up to five hundred. A great many are descendants of Augusta County veterans, now residents of other States. The youngest member enrolled was two days' old; the oldest member, eighteen years.
The enthusiasm and patriotism of these boys and girls are wonderful. They already have their own Chapter badge designed especially for them, and they are arranging for Flag Day and several other means of raising money for the needy Confederate veterans in the near future.
Mrs. Cassell has been ably assisted by Mrs. E. H. Surber, a daughter of Col. William H. Harman, of the 5th Virginia Infantry, who has the music in charge and trained the children for Memorial Day.
In the group of officers are many grandchildren of prominent generals who rendered valuable service in the War between the States.
The officers are: Director, Mrs. Julius Frederick Ferdinand Cassell; President, Miss Constance Dana Curry; Vice Presidents, Miss Harriet Young Echols, Miss Virginia Henry Holt, Miss Elinor Schell Surber, Miss Merrill Cushing Yost; Recording Secretary, Miss Margaret Lynn Templeton; Corresponding Secretary, Miss Ida May Digges; Treasurer, James Lilley Templeton, Jr.; Registrar, Miss Carrie Sublett; Historian, Miss Annestine Crawford; Custodian, Winniett Peters Harman.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Confederate Veteran, Vol. 22, p. 300, 1914
