Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-12-24
SILVER JUBILEE
George II. Legate Post Organized
Twenty-Five Years Ago.


Geo. II. Legate Post No. 1875, Dept.
Wis, G. A. r. met in regular meet
ing on Friday, Dec, IS, for the pur.
pose Of celebrating the Silver Jubilee
of the Post The following comrades
were present: Commander Shepard :;
Senior Vice Chas Cox; Junior Vice
w n. Whitford; Adiutant H. Pitts.
Surgeon E c. Reynolds: Chaplain
William Coad: Quartermaster J. A.
Hoare; Officer Of the Day Geo. Jeuck;
Officer Of the Guard B. T. Prideaux:
Serg't Major Geo Nicholson; Geo.
G. Cox, W. H. Bennett, J. B. Pri-
deaux, J. G. Martin, J. J. Heathcock,
W. W. Williams, J. II. Tyack, VIM.
Skinner.
After transacting the routine bust
ness the doors we're thrown open when
some forty odd members of the W. r.
c. filed into the Hall. An interes-
ting program was carried out, con-
sisting Of speaking by Commander
S. z. Shepard, T. NJ. Priestley, w.
3. Bennett, and J. c.. Martin, inter-
spersed with music by the male quar-
tet, and vocal solo by Master w alter
Horn, Duets by Gordon Shepard and
Osborne Fox, accompanied by Wearne
Harwck on violin, and selections by
Prof Anderson, and reading by Mrs.
J. f. Hendra. A short history was
given Of Company [, Wis. Inf. flag
presented the company, by J. B.
PrideauX, the present custodian.
The principal speaker Of the evening
was T. NJ. Priestley of this city, son of
the late Capt. Thomas Priestley, who
was the first Commander Of the local
Post. Upon taking the platform, Mr..
PriestIey said that since entering the
hall he had been told by one of the
members Of the Post that, as said mem
Der was passing little grave at
Gettysburg, he came across the resting
place of three Mineral Point boys, who
had given up their lives upon that
bloody field. The speaker regarded this
simple statement as more eloquent and
more truly significant of the sentiment
of the gathering than anything he could
say.
He then briefly stated the war rec
ord of the city Of Mineral Point, show
ing that over 500 men went to the
front from this city and vicinity. Geo.
H. Legate Post was organized Dec. 20,
1883 with % charter members. There
have been 1877 musters and IS deaths,
the present membership being So. Of
the % charter members, 8 are now
dead, II active in the Post and re-
moved from the vicinity.
Mr. Priestley spoke of the regard
and affection he had always held for
members Of the G. A. R., and said that
despite the fact that their organization
was secret, they had been as unable to
keep secret their good works in time
of peace as they had their great deeds
in the dark days when the very life of
the nation was at stake.
He then spoke of the lack of concep-
ton of the young people of today of
what the struggle of 1861 to 1865 meant
to members of the C. A. r. and to So
ciety generally, and said it shocked the
imagination to think of what might
have been the results if the valor, self
sacrifice and exalted patriotism of the
union soldiers had been in vain and the
secession had triumphed, for if the
principle of secession had been estab-
lished by the war, the natural sequence
would have been the division of our
country into innumerable petty SOW
eraignties, until we should have rivalled
the comic opera governments of some
Of the Central and South American
states where revolutions, dictators, in
IDENTITIES, foreign battleships and flee
ing presidents follow one another across
the stage of action in bewildering ra-
pidity, and an European Protectorate
would have been the probable result of
the chaos that would have followed
The changes that have come to Geo.
H. Legate Post in the past twenty-five
years were then discussed and the use
of the word Boys" as applied to G. A.
r. men was justified in the opinion of
the speaker because statistics and au-
thentic history show that the war of the
rebellion was fought and won by beard
less boys and that it was as mere boys
that they had won laurels as rich and
a fame as lasting as ever came to VIC
torious soldiers.
Concerning the personnel of the G. A.
r. he said
Your rolls are made up for the most
part of the volunteer soldiery of
America, aud ! speak to you ia sim
pie truth when l say that history has
yet to present r more inspiring figure
yhan the American volunteer. From
Bunker Hill to Santiago the pages of
American history write large his
eternal fame. With jackson among
the cotton bales at New Orleans, with
Taylor at Monterey, with Sherman
when he marched down from Atlanta
to the sea, in that death grapple at
Gettysburg, and on one hundred other
battle fields; our citizen soldiery
taught all the world the lesson that
the safety and glory Of this country