History of the Society from 1912 Yearbook

The first meeting of the descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence was held on July 4th, 1907, at the Jamestown Exposition, in Virginia. Read more about the Jamestown Exposition here. The meeting was held under the joint auspices of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States and the Exposition officials. At the general assembly in the Convention Hall, Hollins N. Randolph of Atlanta, Georgia, a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson, read the Declaration of Independence. Dr. Woodrow Wilson, then President of Princeton University, delivered an address on “The Author and other Signers of the Declaration of Independence and Their Descendants.”  

After the public exercises of the day, more than 150 descendants, representing a majority of the Signers, assembled in the Pennsylvania State Building, and the organization of this Society was affected. Another meeting of the Society was held the following day and was adjourned to October 19th, 1907, in the Maryland State Building, on the Exposition Grounds, at which a constitution was adopted, and the following officers were elected to serve until July 4th, 1908:

President Albert McClellan Matthewson
Secretary Thomas Jefferson Randolph
Treasurer William Shields McKean

Dr. Henry Morris was elected President in 1909, and served until 1912, when Mr. Peter Vivian D. Conway was elected.

The First Annual Congress of the Society was held in Philadelphia, on July 3rd and 4th, 1908, in the room in Independence Hall, in which the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed by most of the Signers. Each subsequent Annual Congress has been similarly held.

Charles Thornton Adams, Historian. Source: Yearbook of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, 1912.

Submitted by Johnny D. Alexander, when he served as Assistant Historian. Source: Spirit of ’76 Magazine, Vol. 45, No. 1