Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-08-31
IOWA BATTLE FLAGS
WILL BE MOVED TO A coNsPIcu
Gus AND PERMANENT LocA-
.-Asar
-, TION IN CAPITOL.
Hon. 8. II. Harper, Department Com
n1ander Of the G.. A. r., to Be Pre-
siding oficer-lmpressive ceremo.
f,ies-FIass Carried by Regiments.
Hon. S. H. Harper of ottumwa, de-

Hon. S. H. Harper of Ottumwa, de-
partment commander of the Grand
Army Of the Republic of Iowa, will be
the presiding officer at the exercises
at the state capitol in Des Moines,
Wednesday, when Iowa's battle flags
will be moved to an appropriately con-
spicuous and permanent location in
the capitol
For eleven years they have rested
in herm etically sealed cases on the
legislative floor of the state house and
are about to be moved In the inches
In, the corridor Of the main floor,
where 1t is thought thousands will see
them to one who has seen them dur
ing the eleven years they have been
at the capitol.
A simple ceremony, which it is be-
lieved, will be intensely impressive,
has been arranged for the removal
of the old flags, baptized In the tears
and many years afterward saved them
from humiliation by dust and decay,
consecrated and hallowed by the
blood of the Iowa soldiers who fought
beneath their starry folds forty years
ago.
Stacked In Arsenal.
These are the flags which the SOL
diers carried They were torn into
were dyed but not tainted by the blood
of brave men; in victory and rout
they cheered valient hearts to valorous
with implements of war in the forbid
years ago. they were found by an Iowa
woman whose heart was stirred by
the certainty that, uncared for, they
forever lost.
This woman was Mrs. John Henry
Gear, the wife of Iowa's governor, and
when she approached Adjt. Gen. w. l..
Alexander upon the subject she dis
covered that he had given many anxi-
Gus hours to consideration of means
to save the flags and preserve them.
He was a veteran of the war, and
he knew what the old battle flags
meant. Their preservation he re-
garded as a matter of infinite import
ance. But how?
A Noble Woman.
Mrs. Gear was one of the most ca
pable of Iowas noble women. OF great
ability, surrounded by loyal, true
friends upon whom she called, interest
ed in every patriotic and worthy public
enterprise, it was for her difficult
task easily performed to arrange to
save the flags With her own hands,
aided by those of some of her close
friends, Mrs. Gear tenderly covered
each Of the flags with tarletan to pro-
tect them and hold their tattered
threads together The women of Iowa
had made most of these flags; it was
appropriate that the women of Iowa
should devise the means of adequately
protecting them. Their history some
day may be written: then it will be
seen that nearly every one of these
flags and banners of color was made
by the tender hands of Iowa women
and by them entrusted to their fathers
and sons and husbands and brothers
and sweethearts to be carried to the
front, an inspiration to patriotic effort.
General Alexander for years urged
the legislature to place the flags IN
the state house. where they belonged.
Report of General Alexander.
The adjutant general urged the leg
islature to take the flags to the capt.
toll, even if the military branch of the
government were not to be given
: quarters there. 1t was in 1882, after
Mrs Gear and her friends had COW
cred the flags to preserve them, that
General Alexander said in his report
to Governor Gear:
The rapidity with which the old bat
tie flags of Iowa regiments have of
late years been going to decay has at
tracted the serious attention of those
most directly interested in their pres
eryation.
The solution of the question of how
to prevent this was accomplished in
the main from without this Office, and
during the year. at the small cost Of
$40 for the l24 here on deposit, each
flag has been given the protection of
piece of carleton on either side, and
now hangs in it's place with it's tat
tered fragments stitched between, and
while it can be almost as readily seen
as ever, what remains of it is in such
condition as to require no additional
attention until the time which, trust,