Olathe Chapter was organized on November 11, 1921,
Armistice Day, with twenty members. One of these, Mrs. Rebeca Secor Robinson, was a "Real Granddaughter."
Mrs. Emily Barnes Kelly was the organizing regent.
The chapter was named for its home town of Olathe, Kansas. Olathe, pronounced
[o-LAY-tha], is the old Shawnee Indian word for "beautiful."
Dedication Day of Mission Ridge Baptist Mission marker, 16 October 1929.
The chapter erected four markers in its first two decades:
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11 November 1923 - red granite marker placed in memory of the old Friends (Quaker)
Mission near the town of Merriam.
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16 Oct 1929 - granite marker dedicated at Mission Ridge, commemorating the Baptist
Mission to the Shawnee Indians founded in 1831. This was also the site of the
first printing press in Kansas in 1833. It is located in the present-day town of Mission.
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11 Nov 1930 -- red granite marker placed in Gardner, Kansas, at the point on the
Oregon Trail where it separated from the Santa Fe Trail and continued Northwest.
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30 May 1934 -- Memory Lane dedicated. This is a lane of 43 hard maple
trees in Olathe Cemetery. At the beginning of the lane was placed a red flint
boulder with an inscribed bronze plaque. The chapter annually marks the graves
of deceased members in this cemetery on Memorial Day.
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Our chapter has always served America's veterans and our community. In 1955,
the chapter knitted 1,500 caps for Veterans at the Dwight D. Eisenhower VA
Medical Center. Over the years, chapter members have made caps and mittens to
send to schools requesting these articles for children in need.
In 1996, chapter members began to serve as docents to the historic
Ensor Farmsite and Museum, as a fund-raising project.
