The Caroline Brevard Chapter, NSDAR, was organized May 28, 1923, by a group of fourteen Tallahassee women. At that first meeting the name “Caroline Brevard” was chosen to honor a remarkable woman who was an educator and an author.

Caroline Brevard was a true renaissance woman, well ahead of her time. She was born in 1860, when women were not encouraged to go to college or have a career. She not only graduated from Columbia University, but had two successful careers — even eventually becoming Vice President of the State of Florida’s Organization for Women’s Suffrage.

While teaching history in Tallahassee, she discovered errors in the text in use at the time. She proceeded to write her own History of Florida, published in 1904. She also wrote a Florida Supplement to a Geography, and a book on Southern Literature. A two-volume, “History of Florida” was published after her death in 1920.

Her interest in Indian Lore is reflected in “Around the Lightwood Fire,” a collection of tales of the Florida Indians for children. Miss Brevard came from a history making family. Among her ancestors was Ephraim Brevard, who was secretary for the drafters of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, adopted more than a year before the formal Declaration of Independence.

Chapter History
Organized: October 16, 1923
Organizing Regent: Mrs. Milton Smith
Organizing Members*
Mrs. E. M. Brevard
Mrs. F. L. Cassil
Mrs. P. A. Claassen
Mrs. Jane Brevard Darby
Mrs. E. A Hayden
Mrs. G. S. Johnston, Jr.
Mrs. J. O. Knauss
Miss Ella Manning
Mrs. H. B. Phillips
Mrs. L. W. Scott
Dr. Venial Lovina Shores
Mrs. Milton Smith
Mrs. Bunyan Stephens
Miss Emily Pitman Wilburn
 * All deceased