The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1904-05-26

Hc Ftrat q ~ " Carp
The movement 90 erect a uionument
20 Dr. y. y. stephenson. founder q
the Grand Army of the Republic. ts of
especial interest 20 Capt Christias
Riebsame Of BioOmington. m. Who y
one Of four surviving charter mPn-
bers Of the FIRST post which was organ
lied at Decatur, III. April 6. lsie
Capt Riebsarne was . resident IL -
catur and clearly recalls the incsdeits
connected with the early history of
the great order. The other survivors
are Capt ". 2. Kanan and Lieut. n.
Cotirin of Decatur. and Capt : r.
Bishop Of PittsburE. Pa C. NJ nbo-
den Of Decatur has all the recoSs of
Post No. I. including the ehnrte and
all the oOrrespondence that asscd
back and forth when a city On aichi-
KAN vas claiming the honor o'being
the birthplace of the order. Tis cor
respOndence only strenEthes the
claims of Decatur for that h0yr. He
also has the first ritual use This
reposes In the vaults of q bar in De
caiur. An interesting souvdr Il a
small block Of solid silver iat vas
sent 10 the surviving menbs. when
the twenty-ffth annlversaryras eele-
brated in 1891. II
1T. Stephenson. who bSnged tof
the Fourteenth Illinois Inftry surEg
cal department. eonsrltedFtth W
RniiedEe. chaplain Of thesame RCD ma
ment. in Springfield. in { spring an
1855. relative 60 q veterAs organf m
ton He found in Mr. Ryedge Of
dial sympathiEer. He pTared = IA
az the ritual of a SoidieSrganizSn M
already formed and Ouned a m ea
for use In the new ord. m,
J. n. Coltrin. who jled thfrA ~,
post was the hrst OS Who up
part of this as q print He "a OF
q recently: The riiI had % Of
STUFF In n that vas award out ..
The Sons Of Malta wthe thii thea. tei
and Il was patternetomewk after ~
that order. The c. furnifed by "A
Stephenson was a ned up ess and th
contained Iong enIof OF l. I'oln and 10
Douglas and did ns'ese1f that oi op
the Grand Army. iad aSt oi me 81
original rituals seh prfcted Il
stored At my hor for Hpny years.
but finally ( dested thm-
The nrst post orgnt1ed on the =,
AnuiVerxary of battI OF Shiloh. -
with twelve chr nsnbers- The Vi
name OF DIR. Stensou is appended u
to The charter ne isdesignated as ~
Commander ofsartnenh ne dsed q.
Au~ m ISTt hout beholding the a.
later re.j,ya,I)f his dream Of an
oyva,,y.,Io, ,lndreis % thousands al
who eDI,x,ed efense of the Repub- y,
lie
The ort~,yplan OF organization
w.s ruu1,e,e. Including. besides
,he presen, EN-. a district or eoun- :,
tv rovernr with ofleers having Il
r,rer,tsi,,,lhe posts a
Ths ~ Organizing posts was d
u,shed .ysfOre the close Of ISss II
the or,,crs extended into twelve b
states No. 2 was organized In q
Ph5I.d.,v and included twenty one al
couDIsSd 0dieers- The depart Il
,,eD, N ois was organized July IL.
1860 NJ tngheld- and Gen- John NJ
p,lu,e, sen commander. The first
oorvc, was held in indianapolis y
nm Nober 20. lSes. Gen S. A 4
uyrI.y Jas chosen arst commander :.
IN chi .
Dr.. rhenSon vas greatly disap =
D,J,tshat he was not honOred at | q
a,,h, ,.therfns By being chosen com q
"a, but loyalty accepted the post Il
N lant general. =ai during the =
40, ,BlloWing labored Eealously by
~ Jbuiiding Of the organization
T,sembership In 1865 aggregated
90. but in the years folloEing :,
n was a marked decline In inter
lInd membership until in ISTs
:. were but $1,000 members. Alter
year, however. there was 4 new
of life. and since then the
Eth has been marvellous