Chapter History

Organizing Regent, Mrs. Emily Karns Dixon, was a member of the Sierra Chapter, NSDAR, in Berkeley, California, years before the organization of the Gaspar de Portolà Chapter, NSDAR. In November 1924, Mrs. Frank Schofield asked Mrs. Dixon to lead a movement to organize a new chapter. The organizing meeting for Gaspar de Portolà Chapter, NSDAR, took place on December 12, 1924, at the home of Mrs. Emily Karns Dixon in Palo Alto. There were 12 members of the National Society present as they organized the new chapter.

Our chapter was named after Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà (1716-1786).  As commander of the Portolà expedition on land and sea that established San Diego and Monterey, Portolá expanded New Spain's Las Californias province far to the north from its beginnings on the Baja California peninsula.  In 1769, Portolá's expedition also was the first known European to see and record what we now call San Francisco Bay. 

National Society Daughters of the American Revolution

California State Society Daughters of the American Revolution