The Chester County Chapter was founded by Mrs. Abner Hoopes. The wife of a prominent Chester County nurseryman, she held two pre-organization meetings in her home in December 1893, and formed the chapter in January 1894 with twelve members, the minimum required for a new chapter.

Mr. and Mrs. Hoopes lived along Maple Avenue in West Chester at that time, near the railroad, where Henderson high school is today. Later they lived at 123 E. Chestnut Street. The nursery business was located farther out along Maple Avenue. For a time, nursery stock was shipped to every state and  territory, and to Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Maple Avenue Nursery supplied shrubs and trees for National Cemeteries and the grounds of the Library of Congress, as well as other sites in the nation's capital.

Mrs. Hoopes was born Malinda Marshall Worthington, the sixth child of Dr. Wilmer Worthington. Besides being a physician, her father served as a Pennsylvania State Senator.

According to early newspaper accounts, the first conference of the Pennsylvania DAR Chapters was held at Cresson, Pennsylvania on July 3-5, 1894. Mrs. Hoopes attended that conference along with fellow members Miss Hannah A. Marshall, Mrs. J. T. Rothrock, and Mrs. John N. Guss.

Mrs. Hoopes was widowed in 1920. She died in August 1924. Both she and her husband are buried in Oaklands cemetery.

(From information available at the Chester County Historical Society)

The DAR Insignia is the property of and is copyrighted by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.