DAR chapter helps OFMP with office renovations

FORT MADISON - Both groups are adamant about preserving local history and educating all about its lessons, so it makes perfect sense for one to lend a helping hand to the other.
That is exactly what happened Wednesday when the Jean Espy chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) helped prepare the basement of Old Fort Madison Preservation’s (OFMP) headquarters at 705 Ave. G to store hundreds of artifacts, materials and uniforms from the now closed Old Fort Madison garrison in Riverview Park.
“We give service to anybody. Our three areas of our mission are historical preservation, education and patriotism,” explained Candice Kage, the Regent of the DAR group.
Helping OFMP is just the most recent project for the Jean Epsy circle.
“Yesterday we had a celebration ceremony at Montrose at what we call the princess grave and in June we had a ceremony at the grave of Clarissa Claypoole Wilson,” Kage added.
The ‘princess grave’ is the memorial site of Kalawequois, a young woman and princess of the Sac and Fox (Sauk and Meskwaki) who died of consumption at a young age. In 1928, the Jean Epsy DAR chapter placed a bronze-inscribed granite boulder and memorial plaque at the intersection of Mississippi River Road and 290th Street that is historically known as the “mound farm.”
In Fort Madison, the chapter enlisted a gravestone contractor and renovated the grave site of Clarissa Claypoole Wilson, the daughter of Elizabeth Grdson Claypoole, better known in American history as the Revolutionary patriot seamstress Betsy Ross. 
The DAR group marked the nation’s 250th birthday with an entry in the Fort Madison Fourth of July parade and has plans to celebrate its own beginning next month.
“On Nov. 14, 1901, the Jean Espy circle was organized so on that date, on Nov. 14th, were having a celebration of that,” Kage said, adding that it will be at 11 a.m. and held at the Fort Madison Public Library.

The DAR group now boosts 36 members and all the circle’s officers – Robin Lochman (Registrar), Shirley Sweatt (Chaplain), Jane Powell (IT Person), Jeannette Diehl (Secretary), Cyndie Reppert (Treasurer) and Kage - were out in full force with brooms, vacuums, mops, tools and drywall to create a clean, dry, secure and temporary environment for the fort artifacts.
The DAR circle also recruited the drywalling talent of an “honorary daughter” – Nicholas Schultz.
“This is my favorite thing to do. I love drywalling and helping. Cyndie (Reppert) asked me to come down,” Schultz said.
|“It’s phenomenal the time and work they are doing here for the fort. They’re making a great effort to preserve our local history ad it is greatly appreciated,” added Hugh Vandegriff who serves on the OFMP Board of Directors and is spearheading the moving and cataloging of fort artifacts.
The Three Rs
OFMP is the nonprofit that is working on the “three Rs regarding Old Fort Madison – to renovate, reopen and revitalize the fort replica in Fort Madison’s Riverview Park.
The first phase is to begin this spring and consists of removing existing structures off their foundations to raise all buildings 4 feet above the floodplain to protect against future flood damage. The buildings will then be returned to their foundations and repaired, in addition to the reconstruction of the blockhouse, the enlisted men’s barracks and the Palisade stockade that were at the site before their demolition.
The second phase will bring a new asset to Fort Madison’s most significant landmark – the Living History Center - that will be built near the site of the old factory “trading post” building and will house ADA accessible and modern restrooms, exhibition space for fort-related and local historical artifacts and year-round use for programs and activities.
These phases will require about $3.5 million and OFMP has already raised almost $2.5 million and is currently conducting a campaign for the remaining $1 million needed. Grant funding with Fort Madison SIRRC and Destination Iowa is also being pursued.