Mrs. Catherine Forney, the widow of Mr. B. F. Forney, organized the first Arkansas Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy in Hope, AR in 1895. She would marry COL James Fulton Smith and move to Little Rock in 1899. On July 17, 1911, The General T. J. Churchill Chapter would be organized in Mrs. Forney-Smith’s home.
Charter members included Mrs. Anne Sevier Churchill, the widow of Gen. Thomas James Churchill, for whom the Chapter was named, and the 13th Governor of Arkansas. The Chapter was chartered on September 11, 1911 with a membership of 95 ladies. By 1912 membership had increased to 138.
Some years after the death of Col Smith, Mrs. Catherine Forney-Smith sold her large 10 room home to Arkansas Children’s Hospital for a fraction of its worth in memory of her 2 sons who died in WWI. However, before her death she had generously donated in excess of that amount back to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital
Catherine Forney-Smith died in Little Rock on the afternoon of December 10th 1930 and would be interred at Rose Hill Cemetery in Hope, AR beside her first husband and her young children. However, she was not recognized in Little Rock for her contributions until now.
Members gathered at Little Rock’s historic Mount Holly Cemetery on July 17, 2011, which was the 100th Anniversary of the organization of that Chapter. At the gravesite of COL James Smith members heard the history of his remarkable wife and dedicated their 100th Anniversary marker to her memory.
In closing, a poem was read by Chapter President, Kay Tatum that was written in 1911 by charter member, Josie Frazee Cappleman, and was published in the first Chapter Yearbook in 1911:
Here’s a smile for all the joy-days
Of this T. J. Churchill year;
For the saddened days of sorrow
We shed the silent tear;
Here are wishes, e’er the kindest,
For these many members true,
And Love—Love in abundance—
For, O Daughters, each of you.
--Josie Frazee Cappleman
