Columbia

Welcome to Columbia, NSCDA-SC’s First Town Committee.

In March of 1926, the Columbia Town Committee was organized in the home of Mrs. Alexander S. Salley at 901 Laurens Street. Eleven charter members (State Society members residing in Columbia) were present. Mrs. Salley (Harriet Milledge) served as the committee’s first chairwoman. Both she and her husband were lifelong supporters of the Dames. This spring we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of this meeting with a commemorative event in May of 2026.

In addition, Columbia will host the statewide meeting and luncheon in October. We are excited to have a decorated local high school teacher speak to us about the challenges of teaching the American Revolution in our high schools. We have also scheduled informative and educational meetings for November and January, with both a respected author and the chair of the South Carolina Historical Society as our speakers. In March, we will host our annual recipient of the Walter Edgar Scholarship who is always a talented researcher with a fascinating topic.

We also look forward to helping the SC250 host fourth grade South Carolina history students at Colonial Day at the State House in January of 2026.

The Columbia Town Committee looks forward to a wonderful year!

Pride Owens

(Mrs. Timothy Brooks Owens)

Columbia Town Chair

COTC 2025-2026 Program & Meeting Calendar
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
NSCDA-SC Statewide Meeting and Luncheon
Forest Lake Club, Columbia, SC
Hosted by The Columbia Town Committee
10:30 am State Board Meeting (Pink Room)
10:30 am Registration (Foyer) and Reception (Ballroom)
11:30 am General Membership Meeting
12:00 noon Luncheon (Ballroom)
12:30 pm Program: Mike R. Burgess
“The Soul of America: The Challenges of Teaching the American
Revolution in the 21st Century”
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Columbia Town Committee Meeting and Luncheon
Forest Lake Club
11:00 am Board Meeting (Pink Room or Card Room)
11:30 am Reception (Lakeview Room)
12:00 noon Meeting and Luncheon
Program: Andrew Waters
“Backcountry War: The Rise of Francis Marion, Banastre Tarleton, and
Thomas Sumter”
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
NSCDA-SC Christmas Luncheon
Charleston, South Carolina
Hosted by The Low Country Town Committee
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Columbia Town Committee Meeting and Luncheon
Forest Lake Club
11:00 am Board Meeting (Card Room or Pink Room)
11:30 am Registration and Reception (Lakeview Room)
12:00 noon Meeting and Luncheon
Program: Bill Davies
“Lafayette in South Carolina”
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Columbia Town Committee Happy Hour and Hors d’oeuvres
Forest Lake Club
4:00 pm Board Meeting (Card Room or Pink Room)
4:30 pm Happy Hour and Hors d’oeuvres
5:15 pm Meeting and Program (Lakeview Room)
Program: Matthew Drew, COTC’s Walter Edgar Scholarship Recipient
“Race, Slavery, and Freedom in the British Caribbean During the Age of
Revolutions”
Wednesday and Thursday, April 15 and 16, 2026
Spartanburg, South Carolina
Hosted by The Spartanburg Town Committee
May 2026
Columbia Town Committee May Event
TBD
The Columbia Town Committee Board
Officers
Chairman - Lucy (Pride) Owens
803-238-7471 prideowens@icloud.com
Vice-Chairman- Elizabeth Wyman
803.463.4800 christine@kjainteriors.com
Secretary Caroline (Elizabeth) Cotter
803-920-5221 ec7878858@aol.com
Treasurer - Anna (Anne) Gluse
803.319.6464 agluse@live.com
Past Chairman - Caroline Williams
803-606-9442 cgw010591@yahoo.com
Committee Chairmen
The Powder Magazine - Clara Weston
803-238-9363 cweston@sc.rr.com
Historical Activities - Josephine Laney
803-622-9977 jlaney27@gmail.com
Dumbarton House - Elisabeth Christopher
803-447-2839 elisabethdchristopher@gmail.com
Gunston Hall - Lura Folline
803-727-3561 readlura@aol.com
Hostess Chair - Rebecca Warren
704-877-0661 rebeccabev5@gmail.com
Meeting Coordinator - Elizabeth Wyman
803-463-4800 ewyman803@gmail.com
Members-at-Large Co-Chairs - Anne Bristow
803-360-5694 annejbristow@gmail.com
Caroline (Gibbie) Ellsworth
803-360-0073 cgcoker1968@gmail.com
Necrology/Chaplain - Kristen Moorman
803-261-3562 kirsten@kirstenmoorman.com
Patriotic Service - Katherine Robinson
803-269-5745 kmr29205@gmail.com
Programs - Helen Milliken
803-587-9011 helley0814@gmail.com
Scrapbook - Videau (ViVi) Simons
803-603-8241 videau1m@gmail.com
Sulgrave Manor - Elizabeth Dorn
803-238-9361 elizabeth.m.dorn@gmail.com
Yearbook/By-laws - Sarah (Scotty) Frantz
803-413-0417 ssgfrantz@gmail.com
Name Tags - Carroll Powell
803-404-1300 carrollsweston@yahoo.com
Young Dames - Juliana King
803-920-6114 jsedmunds@yahoo.com
Walter Edgar Scholarship
The 2021 Walter Edgar Scholarship award of $2,000 was presented to Riley Sutherland, a student in The University of South Carolina History Department’s new five-year B.A./M.A. program.
Mary Boykin Chesnut Project
The Mary Boykin Chesnut project spanned the COTC chairmanships of (l-r) Anna Haltiwanger (2017-2019), Verd Cunningham (2019-2021), and Kathy Armato (2015-2017), pictured here with Eleanor Pope, originator of the project, alongside the dress on display.
Historic Columbia debuted the Mary Boykin Chesnut dress in an exhibit entitled Mary Chesnut’s Columbia During the Civil War at Historic Columbia’s Annual Meeting on October 24, 2019. The exhibit is in the Textile room on the second floor of the Robert Mills House Museum and is the culmination of a COTC project that began in late 2015. In 1981, COTC Dame and Historic Columbia board member, Mrs. William Llewellyn Pope, was contacted by Ms. Catherine Glover Herbert, a descendant of the Williams and Chesnut families of Mulberry Plantation in Camden. Ms. Herbert said she wished to give Historic Columbia a gown that belonged to Mary Boykin Chesnut, four waistcoats of Chesnut men, and other outstanding items from her mother’s estate. It was Ms. Herbert’s wish that these pieces be in Columbia where James and Mary Chesnut had been frequent visitors and close friends of the Hamptons and Prestons. Mrs. Pope transported the dress and other items from Camden to Historic Columbia where Ms. Herbert felt they would best be preserved and displayed. In 2015, Mrs. Pope brought the existence of these long-stored treasures to the attention of the COTC and expressed the desire to see them displayed. COTC arranged the funding and implementation of the exhibit including having the ball gown and vests assessed and conserved by textile experts, Kathleen Staples and Mackenzie Sholtz. COTC also arranged to have a silk replica of the dress made for vertical display in the Hampton-Preston House (installed May of 2018). In the new 2019 Mills House exhibit, the original dress (French compound silk brocade, c.1790 in the style of the 1840s as Mary would have worn it) lies recumbent in a custom-made, state of the art display case which also houses the silk wedding vest of Mary’s husband Colonel James Chesnut, Jr. Displayed on a mannequin are replica cotton underclothes that would have been donned before the dress. In addition to other artifacts, there is a recording of Dr. Walter Edgar talking about Mary Chesnut and her place in history.
NSCDA-SC COTC was able to raise sufficient funds to underwrite the entire exhibit and is so credited on the donor plaque.
2020 New Member Orientation
Due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, COTC Chair Verd Cunningham welcomed new members in a “socially-distanced” manner with the mailing of a packet containing the book which tells the 125-year history of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in The State of South Carolina and other details of involvement in the society. Verd enclosed a hand-written note of welcome along with tea bags and encouraged the new members to enjoy a cup of tea while perusing the history.
2020 COTC Board and General Membership Meetings
Abiding by the COVID-19 protocols which did not allow in-person meetings, Chair Verd Cunningham conducted all board and general membership meetings electronically.
2021 NSCDA-SC Annual Meeting
After plans for the NSCDA-SC annual meeting to have been hosted by The Columbia Town Committee had to be aborted due to the restrictions of COVID-19 pandemic protocols, COTC Chair Verd Cunningham worked with NSCDA-SC president Angelyn Bridges to host the first-ever (hopefully only-ever) annual meeting on April 15, 2021 via Zoom whereby members were invited to join the video teleconferenced meeting.
Members participating in the video teleconference were treated to a program entitled “The Inland Settlement of South Carolina during the Colonial Period: Architecture, Trade and Daily Life” presented by John Jameson, Heritage Consultant, 12,000 Year History Park; J. R. Fennell, Director, Lexington County Museum; and Andy Thomas, Communications Associate, Cayce Historical Museum. Photographs of a stylized “Dame in the Garden” began and ended the meeting with an additional photograph of tea and gingerbread offered as “virtual” refreshments. Attachments to the meeting invitation included a 17th century gingerbread recipe adapted for contemporary use, instructions to play the colonial card game Whist, and a list of websites of historical properties in the Midlands area for members to explore. Attendance was in excess of 100 participants.

Columbia

Member Information