The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1914-06-04


from Dec. 27th, 1890, to May 2Sth, 1892,
while ! was Commander J w. Nc
Cool"
The Post increased fast in numbers.
From the original charter members,
numbering Ia, the Post increased to
over 20 in 1894. A great break was
made in 1891, at the opening Of the
Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservations,
when large number Of the members
went TO that new country.
The Post seems to have suffered from !
lack Of funds from the start At one |
time-July 8, 1892 IA motion was made |
and passed that note be made and !
signed by all the officers and members
Of the Post, for the amount of S. 90, |
and the money be borrowed, IL possi |
BILE, to pay the Indebtedness of the
Post to the Department. At another
time the Post borrowed 5000 of Com
rade McCabe to make up the amount
due the Department. After the organ
ization of the w r. c., however. the
Post seemed to get along better, finan-
cially. In fact, this Post is under many
obligations to the members of the Wo-
mems Relief Corps. They bought the
lots and the building which liz now the
q. A. II. Hall, thus furnishing the Post
a meeting place, rent free. Before the
W. X. o, gave us this hall we had
much difficulty in securing a Post
room Besides this, the Relief Corps
has furnished goodly amount of mon
ey to help the Post in carrying on its
benevolent work
This Post has passed through many
vicissitudes sometimes full of life and
courage and at other times in the very
deepest dspths of dependency. For
several years many OF the reunions OF
all the c. A h. Posts In the Depart
ment of the Southwest were held al
Beaver, and Oklahoma Post No. was
noted for its wide-awake reunions
The merchants and every body else al
ways donated literally of groceries.
vegetables, fuel, cash and everything
els needed for these reunions. We
std. thankfully remember how the
merchants handed out the sacks OF
-four and sugar and especially BEANS
and the cattlsmen saw to it that we
had all the beef the multitude could
consume Those were great days in
Beaver, when members of Posts in
other states were glad to be our guests
and numbers of G.. A. r, Posts came
from many miles away.
But Time, the great Sprinter. who
has never lost race, has nearly closed
the history of Oklahoma Post No. 4,
G. A r.. Only very few of its old
members are left. Some have gone to
other counties and to other states, but
the majority have passed beyond the
river that divides time from eternity.
Eleven are resting in Beaver cemetery
but many more are sleeping their last
sleep in other cemeteries in other
states and in other parts OF this state.
Do you realize that the War of the
I
| Rebellion ended a half century ago.
That this Grand Army Post was or
ganized a quarter OF century ago,
and that these soldiers were then
most OF them-over so years old? Do
you realize that a great many Of them
were mere boys when they donned the
blue and played that they were fight
ing-men? Aud they were fighting-men
Some of the best lighting companies
in the great Union Army were boys
from 10 to 20 years of age.
The soldiers of the Civil War who
yet live have had strange experience
A majority of them were mere boys
aud young men who had not finished a
common school course, learned q trade
or studied a profession. When they
enlisted they laid down their chances
for an equal start in the race for
knowledge and wealth. The only trade
or profession they then had chance
to learn was the trade of war-the
poorest paid trade in the world.
They gave four of the best years of
their young lives-and for what? Well,
the Nation had sinned, and the sin was
so dreadful that it had to be redeemed
with oceans of blood upon battlefields.
The man who died upon the battlefield
no matter whether he was in the
Union Army or in the Confederate
Army-died because American born
men and women traflicked in the bodies
and souls of men, women and children.
They lived upon the toll and sweat of
men and women. and tried to force
slavery upon every state and territory
in the Uuion. Aud the atonement is
not vet completed.
These old soldiers Of the Union Army