History of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Florida
The Florida Society was the 28th state to organize and was chartered on 31 July 1937 with 24 charter members. The organizational meeting was held 07 Aug 1937, at “Perrydell” in Rio Vista, overlooking the Halifax River, north of Daytona Beach. The first annual meeting was held in Jacksonville in the home of the Secretary. Dinner was $1.00 per plate. Initiation fee $5.00; annual dues $3.00; and Life Membership $50.00.
The Florida Society’s Charter was presented by Governor General Burnham Standish Colburn. By 1958 six colonies had been chartered and many followed. We now have 17 colonies throughout the state.
Our State society operates under a charter given by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. The Member Societies are volunteer organizations that were authorized and granted a Charter by the General Board of Assistants. Each Member Society has their own Constitution and Bylaws and elects their own officers. Additionally, Member Societies set their own dues and fees.
FSMD’s primary object is to conform to the principles, policies, and standards adopted by GSMD, and to conduct all its activities and operations in a manner to support and further GSMD’s mission and values. To this end, FSMD endorses and adopts GSMD’s stated objects:
Objectives of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants
- To perpetuate to a remote posterity the memory of our Pilgrim Fathers. To maintain and defend the principle of civil and religious liberty as set forth in the Compact of the Mayflower, “For the glorie of God and the advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our countrie.”
- To cherish and maintain the ideals and institutions of American freedom and to oppose any theories or actions that threaten their continuity. To transmit the spirit, the purity of purpose and steadfastness of will of the Pilgrim Fathers to those who shall come after us, an undiminished heritage of liberty and law.
- To propose the interests that are common to all by the State Societies of the Mayflower descendants which can best be served by a federal body, and to secure united effort to discover and publish original matter in regard to the Pilgrims, together with existing data known only to antiquarians, and to authenticate, preserve and mark historical spots made memorable by Pilgrim association.