The Michilimacinac Chapter, NSDAR, was organized on February 9, 1952, with Ellen Hart Littlefield Elder of Farwell as organizing regent.
Ellen Hart Littlefield Elder was born in Farwell, Michigan, on October 28, 1875, to Josiah Loomis Littlefield and Ellen Hart Littlefield. Because her mother died in childbirth, Ellen lived with her grandmother, Mary Hall Littlefield, in Detroit, Michigan, and attended school there. She returned to Farwell, to spend her summers with her father and stepmother. Ellen attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, graduating in 1899, after receiving a Bachelor of Science degree.
Photo courtesy of Ellen Hart Littlefield Elder family.
While at college Ellen met Daniel Irvin Elder and the couple married on August 30, 1900, at the Littlefield home in Farwell, Michigan. Employment brought the couple to Iowa where Ellen was an instructor in chemistry at Iowa State College and her husband worked at the American Cement Plaster Company. Then in 1918, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Ellen was a research assistant in the home economics department at the University of Chicago. By 1945, the Elders returned to Farwell.
The chapter was organized with 12 charter members in 1952. Members named the chapter Michilimacinac, which is the name shown on maps as early as 1801, indicating the territory north of a diagonal line from Saginaw Bay to the Grand River.
Photo courtesy of Archives of Michigan.
Early meetings were held in the parlor of the Congregational Church of Clare and the library building in Farwell and by 1957, the chapter included 23 members.
Ellen passed on March 3, 1965, in Muskegon, Michigan, and is buried in the Surry Township Cemetery in Farwell.
The Michilimacinac Chapter, NSDAR, celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2022.
Photos courtesy of chapter members.