Historical Hall of Fame: Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell (1839-1930), was a founding leader of the National Society Daughters
of the American Revolution (DAR)
Virginia History Series
Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell (24 January 1839-4 July 1930), was a founding officer of the National Society Daughters of the American
Revolution. She was born at Point of Honor in her mother's hometown of Lynchburg, the daughter of Charles Ellet and Elvira
Augusta Daniel Het.
Educated by her father, Ellet became proficient in French and German and developed an interest in history.
She spent the momentous winter of 1860-1861 in Richmond, where John Brown Baldwin and Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart escorted her to
sessions of the state secession convention.
On 11 October 1890, Mary Cabell was one of eighteen women who attended the
organizing meeting of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Cabell presided at the meeting and was elected one
of the vice presidents general. Caroline Scott Harrison, wife of the president of the United States, accepted election as president
general on the condition that she not shoulder any functional responsibility. Cabell was then named vice president presiding.
While
she was in charge, the DAR: enrolled thousands of members in approximately 150 chapters in thirty-five states and the District of
Columbia; founded a journal, the American Monthly Magazine (later Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine), and made plans to
erect a national headquarters building in Washington, DC.
While living in Virginia, Mary Cabell attended national meetings of
the DAR from time to time through World War I but did not join a state chapter. The DAR named Cabell honorary vice president general
in 1898, and in 1901, in recognition of her services during the founding decade, the society created for her the office of honorary
president presiding.
Point of Harbor