January 27, 1891 … Formation of Missouri Division of United Daughters of the Confederacy

When the ex-Confederate association of Missouri purchased a farm near Higginsville for a home for Confederate veterans, financial difficulties soon became imminent. At the call of Mrs. A.C. Cassidy, ninety-seven women met January 27, 1891, in the Southern Hotel at St. Louis and formed an auxiliary to the association, adopting the name "Daughters of the Confederacy," the first to use that name for a Confederate women's organization. Mrs. M.A.E. McLure was the first president.

The daughter of Jefferson Davis, Varina Anne ("Winnie"), was once introduced by General John B. Gordon in 1886 as "the daughter of the Confederacy." The Missouri women thought it an apt title and took it for their organization. Later, the national organization formed in 1894 took the name and became the national Daughters of the Confederacy. In 1895 it became United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The early St. Louis organization with festivals and other moneymaking schemes soon raised over $25,000. It paid for the main building of the Confederate home and furnished several cottages. Proving its moneymaking ability "in the two counties where the men could not raise a dollar, the local D.O.C. raised over a thousand dollars each." Other auxiliary societies to the ex-Confederate association, some under the general name "Daughters of the Confederacy," associated with the St. Louis group in raising money.

By 1897 four Missouri Daughters of the Confederacy organizations had become affiliated with the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In January 1898 a State division was organized in a meeting at Fayette, and the old D.O.C. chapters began to join as chapters in the Missouri division of the U.D.C. By 1901 there were nine chapters affiliated with the Missouri division. Today, there are fourteen active chapters in Missouri.

For primary source material see:

The State Historical Society of Missouri and various libraries in the University of Missouri system also hold sources relating to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Missouri Division.