About Our Chapter
Elizabeth Wadsworth Chapter, NSDAR, was organized on 8 October 1894, with 30 charter members. Our chapter was the first chapter of NSDAR formed in Maine. The organizing regent of the chapter was Ann McDaniels Palmer, who has the honor of having been the organizer of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Maine.
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- Discover our Charter Members
- View our Past Chapter Regents
- Browse through the list of our Patriots
- Meet our chapter’s Real Daughters
- Tour the Historic Markers our chapter has placed
- Visit our Photo Gallery
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Elizabeth Wadsworth, for whom the chapter is named, was the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Lothrop Bartlett, born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1753. She was two months short of 19 years old when she married Peleg Wadsworth, Jr., son of Deacon Peleg and Susanna (Sampson) Wadsworth of Duxbury, Massachusetts, on June 18, 1772. Peleg Wadsworth was born on April 25, 1748. He graduated from Harvard University in 1769 and was teaching in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Peleg was captain of a company of Minutemen during the Siege of Boston in Cotton’s Regiment. With his energy, courage, and intelligence, he rose rapidly in the service. He was second in command in the unfortunate Penobscot Expedition and the following year was appointed to the command of the coast of Maine. In February 1781, Elizabeth was with her husband in Thomaston, Maine, when a company of fifteen British soldiers from Castine took him prisoner. He was then General Wadsworth and resisted capture until a musket ball went through his left arm. From Castine, he wrote Elizabeth his memory of her surroundings when he was led away: “Windows dashed, the house torn to pieces and blood and slaughter around you without help.”
In 1784, the family lived in Falmouth, now Portland, Maine, where Peleg was a very active citizen. He was elected to the state senate and was the first representative in Congress from Cumberland District. In 1807, the family moved to Hiram, Maine, to occupy a large tract of land granted to him for his military service; he died there on November 18, 1829.
Elizabeth bore eleven children. She was alone, her husband in Washington, D.C., as a congressman, when she learned that their son Henry Wadsworth died the death of a hero in Tripoli. His name was perpetuated by his sister, Zilpha, whose first son was named Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Elizabeth was described as “a lady of fine manners and all womanly virtues, who was alike his friend and comforter in his hours of trial, the grace and ornament of his house in the days of his prosperity.”
