Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1904-02-20
The First G. A. r. Camp.

The movement to erect a monument
to DIR. e. F. Stephenson, founder of
the Grand Army of the Republic, is of
especial interest to Capt Christian
Riebsame of Bloomington, Ill, who is
one of four surviving charter mem
berS of the first post which was organ
lied at Decatur, Ill, April 6, 1866.
Capt Riebsame was resident of De
catur and clearly recalls the incidents
connected with the early history of
the great order. The other survivors
are Capt. NJ F. Kanan and Lieut.. l. n.
Coltrin of Decatur, and Capt. ]. T.
Bishop of Pittsburg Pa. c. NJ. limbo
den of Decatur has all the records of
Post No. 1, including the charter and
all the correspondence that passed
back and forth when city in Michi-
gan was claiming the honor of being
the birthplace of the order. This cor
respOndence only strengthens the
claims of Decatur for that honor. He
also has the first ritual used. This
reposes in the vaults of a bank in De
catur. An interesting souvenir is
small block of solid silver that was
sent to the surviving members, when
the twenty-ffth anniversary was cele-
brated in 1891.
DR.. Stephenson, who belonged to
the Fourteenth Illinois infantry surgi-
cal department, consulted with w ].
Rutledge, chaplain of the same regi-
ment, in Springfield, in the spring of
1866, relative to a veterans organiZa-
ton. He found in Mr. Rutledge cor
dial sympathizer. He procured a copy
of the ritual of a soldier organization
already formed and outlined a form
for use in the new order.
1. n. Coltrin, who joined the first
post, was the first one who set up
part of this as printer. He said of
it recently: The ritual had lot of
stuff in it that was afterward cut out
The Sons of Malta was the thing then,
and it was patterned somewhat after
that order. The copy furnished by
Stephenson was a mixed up mess and
contained long eulogies of Lincoln and
Douglas and did not resemble that of
the Grand Army. l had a lot of the
original rituals which we printed
stored at my house for many years,
but finally 1 destroyed them"
The first post was organized on the
anniversary of the battle of Shiloh,
with twelve charter members. The
name of DR.. Stephenson is appended
to the charter and he is designated as
commander of department" He died
Aug. 80, 1871, without beholding the
later realization of his dream of an
organization of hundreds of thousands |
who enlisted in defense of the Repub- |
lie
The original plan of organization |
was cumbersome. including, besides |
the present system, a district or coun- |
ty government, with officers having |
of the posts
The work of organizing posts was |
pushed and before the close of 1866 /
the order was extended into twelve /
states Post No. was organized in /
Philadelphia and included twenty-one |
officers. The depart /
ment of Illinois was organized July II. |
1866, at Springfield. and Gen John NJ.
Palmer chosen commander The first |
was held in Indianapolis
on November 20, 1866 Gen. s A
HurIhut was chosen first commander
in chief
Dr. Stephenson was greatly disap-
pointed that he was not honored at
either gathering by being chosen COM
mander, but Loyalty accepted the post
of adjutant general, and during the
year following labored Zealously by |
the upbuilding of the organization.
The membership in 1868 aggregated
24O, geo, but in the years following
there was a marked decline in inter
est and membership until in 1878
there were but 81 900 members. After
that year, however, there was a new
lease Of life, and since then the I
growth has been marvellous.