The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-05-13
MRS. RoUNTREE DELIVERS
REPORT IN HUNTSVILLE.

Three years ago the office of recorder
of the cross of honor was created by
the United Daughters of the Confederacy
and Mrs j. A, Rountree of this city
was chosen to NIL the position for the
Alabama division. During her term of
office over 5000 crosses have been distribu-
ted to old soldiers throughout the state
of Alabama. AS in accordance with a
rule adopted by the united division of
the south these crosses will not be award
ed after 1910, the work is most, i'm
portant one. Mrs. Rountree has been a
faithful and efficient officer, Mrs. l.. H.
Rains, the custodian of the crosses of
honor, having at the meeting held in
Atlanta designated her as the model re-
corder of the cross of honor of the south.
Yesterday afternoon at the convention
in Huntsville Mrs. Rountree read re-
port of which the following extract will
be of interest to those Daughters of the
Confederacy who could not attend the
convention in Huntsville:
"Since you honored me with reelection
last May" said Mrs. Rountree, II have
endeavored to give you the very best
work of which l was capable, and to
make smooth for your chapters president
as far as lay in my power the rough
places that will come in the course of any
undertaking of real Importance.
with a department of such tremend
Gus volume as that of the cross of
honor there is only one way in which
to handle it, and that is by having ex-
plicit rules, and following them most
rigdly.
"Were it not for this our custodian,
! Mrs L. H. Rains, would have found
it impossible to handle the situation as
she has done, by requiring of the state
recorders the utmost accuracy and sys-
| tematic adherance to rule. BY Keeping
In constant communication with every
chapter 1t has afforded me the oppor-
tunity to be in close touch with you and
your work, and has given me personal
interest in whatever you undertake.
'In my duties as your recorder I real
lie more constantly the Importance and
historic value of this great branch of
our United Daughters of the Confederacy
work. and since the action of the last
general convention, in deciding that no
crosses shall be conferred after the year
| 1910 It becomes the urgent duty of every
chapter in Alabama to see that not a
single Confederate veteran Is overlooked
| and left without this badge of honor.
In my intimate association with this
work, I find that many veterans do
not apply for crosses, for the reason
| that they feel that 1t is request for
| honors to be conferred, which they deem
| should come to them unsolicited. They
| fail to see that this cross of honor is
our means of securing their complete
| record, properly Endorsed, to be pre-
served unquestoned for future genera
| lions.
| So valuable will these records become
| that for the safety of their preservation
| and as a precaution against loss by fire
| or otherwise l recommend that when
| this branch of our work is finished and
| the records closed, that the division have
| duplicate made Of the recorders reg
lister to be placed in the state depart
| ment of archives and history.
And so, to you chapters, here rep
resented, I make this appeal: That you
| impress upon your chapter the neces-
| sty of immediate action; make a thorough
| canvass of your county and confer a
| cross upon every Confederate veteran
] for whom you can secure a proper in
| dorsement Some chapters have never
conferred crosses; begin before it is too
| late.
| "Only one more year remains to you
| for this work. and the veterans ranks
| are rapidly thinning, so begin at once
| in earnest and when the close of 1910
brings the end of this branch of worIs
| let it not be salu that one single vet
| eran in Alabama has failed to receive
| from some daughter our little bronze
| cross. to be worn for the honor of the
cause for which he fought and suf-
| Jared