After several early efforts to organize chapters of the DAR in North Dakota, Mrs. Augusta Freeman Young, wife of a North Dakota Congressman, was appointed State Organizing Regent in 1915 by then President General Mrs. William Story. The first chapter organized by Mrs. Young was the Sakakawea Chapter established in Valley City in 1916. Due to her efforts and the efforts of many prominent and hard-working women in the state, twelve more chapters were organized. The chapters that were organized were Minishoshone Chapter, Bismarck in 1918; Ft. Seward, Jamestown in 1919; Dacotah Chapter, Fargo in 1919; Red River Chapter, Grand Forks in 1920; Mandan Chapter, Mandan in 1921; Sully Hill, Devils Lake in 1922; Carrington Chapter, Carrington in 1923; Pierre Verendrye Chapter, Minot in 1925; Quentin Roosevelt, Williston in1929;  The Badlands, Dickinson in 1930; Fingal Chapter, Fingal in 1937; and Arthur Chapter, Arthur in 1937.  However, there are only five active chapters at this time.

Their main objective was to preserve the history of North Dakota’s early years, both as a territory and later as a young state.  One of their notable achievements was the preservation of Theodore Roosevelt’s Maltese Cross cabin. To read more about this, please go to the history of Minishoshe-Mandan Chapter.

Maltese Cross cabin