Revolutionary War daughter honored

DAR tends to grave of woman whose father served during Revolution

Members of the Sons of the American Revolution present the colors of the flag during a special rededication ceremony Saturday at Oak Hill Cemetery.

Members of the Betty Washington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution braved the cold weather on Saturday afternoon to remember one of their own.

Lucy Pratt Estabrook was a Real Daughter of the American Revolution, a designation meaning her father actually participated in the Revolutionary War.

Club members gathered around her grave in Oak Hill Cemetery to replace a plaque that had gone missing designating her as a Real Daughter.

Members of the Sons of the American Revolution donned period attire and marched to the beat of drums to place the colors at Estabrook’s grave during the ceremony.

Shirley Coupal, a past state regent of the Kansas DAR from Roeland Park, was the one who noticed the plaque had been missing and began a process to get a new one installed. That process came to fruition Saturday.

“History is our only guide to the future, and we have a responsibility to preserve it,” Coupal said.

Though Estabrook had no children of her own, two great-great-grandnieces of Estabrook attended the ceremony on Saturday.

Estabrook, a Massachusetts native born in 1818, moved to Lawrence in 1855 with her husband, who would eventually leave her and the city accompanied by his mother. Estabrook still maintained several friendships in the city and would go on to be one of the founding members of the area’s DAR chapter in 1896.

She died in 1925.

DAR members said Kansas chapters of the organization can boast six Real Daughters, and two women from other states’ groups are buried in Kansas, including Mercy Faxon, who is also buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.

Shari Johnson of Lawrence is the regent of the Betty Washington Chapter of the DAR. She said Estabrook was living in Lawrence during the Civil War and during William Quantrill’s famous raid on the city in 1863.

“I am sure that she had a very hard life, but she had a very interesting life as well,” Johnson said. “We’re very proud of our Lucy.”