When Sharon Wallhausen of Irwin was growing up, her great aunt told stories about their family being part of the Revolutionary War Patriots, but Wallhausen was never able to uncover enough family history to prove the link.

Wallhausen, who had a passion for genealogy, eventually traced her family’s ancestry back to that of the colonists who rebelled against the British monarchy.

“The Queen Alliquippa Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was very patient with me as I worked through that process,” said Wallhausen, who serves as regent for the chapter and is helping to mark its 110th anniversary.

The McKeesport-based Queen Alliquippa Chapter, founded in 1911, draws members primarily from its hometown along with Monroeville, Irwin and White Oak.

“For me, it’s truly a sisterhood of like-minded people who are interested in preserving history,” Wallhausen said.

That starts with its namesake: Queen Alliquippa led a group of Mingo Seneca living along the three rivers near Downtown Pittsburgh in the 1700s, and eventually near the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers near present-day McKeesport. She had an audience with George Washington shortly before her death in 1754.

And while the club retains the double-L in their namesake’s title, the town that bears her name today in Beaver County uses only one.

The club has sponsored local ROTC cadets, given Good Citizen Awards to high school seniors, sponsored an annual history essay contest for children in elementary and middle school, and support a number of programs aimed at helping veterans.

“I think the club’s service to veterans is one of the things I find most important,” said Gretchen Baudoux of Monroeville, who has been a club member for several decades and served as regent from 2008-13. “We’ve sponsored some ROTC cadets, and I’ve gone to their graduation ceremonies. It’s very, very nice, and makes all the work worthwhile.”

Club members will mark the 110th anniversary with a social tea on April 10. Wallhausen said that, as with many community groups, the past year has been a challenge.

“We really did adapt,” she said. “We’ve continued to grow, about 24% in the past year. Because we couldn’t do as much in the community, we adapted to sew masks, knit scarves and form a partnership with a Bethel Park chapter to provide about 100 scarves to the Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit that connects veterans with private pilots who bring them to see national veteran monuments they may not be able to see otherwise.”

That project continued to grow, culminating in the two clubs providing scarves for West Mifflin-based Operation Troop Appreciation, a nonprofit that provides veterans with some of the comforts of home.

Wallhausen said the pandemic also allowed the chapter to focus on conservation projects, creating victory gardens and donating some of the produce to food-insecure neighbors, creating pollinator and backyard rain gardens, and working through its Conservation Committee to help local homeowners create wildlife-friendly enhancements to their backyards.

“I’m a community service-oriented person, and that’s what this is,” Wallhausen said. “I want to be part of something meaningful.”

For more, see QueenAlliquippaDAR.wixsite.com/qadar.

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