Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-07
WOMEN To TAKE PART
IN BIG c. A. R. CAMP
Four Allied Organizations Will
Take Care of Veterans When
They Gather at Washington

Washington, D. c., July --wo-
men will take a prominent part in
the forty-ninth annual encampment Of
the Grand Army of the Republic,
which will be held in Washington
September 27 to October 2, and at
which Harrisburg will be well repre-
Beuted.
Four organizations of women allied
with the Grand Army of the Republic
will participate in the encampment.
These are the Woman's Relief Corps,
the Auxiliary to the Sons of Veterans,
the Ladies of the G. A. r., and the
Daughters of Veterans. Many thou
sands of members of the four organ
izations will be in Washington during
the encampment and the Grand Re-
view, which is to reproduce, as far as
possible, the review of union troops
in Washington by President Johnson
and General Grant fifty years ago at
the close of the Civil War.
Women Number 1877 900
OF the organizations of women con-
nected with the Grand Army, the
largest and most important is the
Woman's Relief Corps.
The Woman's Relief Corps is
auxiliary to the Grand Army of the
Republic, and its only auxiliary. The
Ladies of the G. A, r. and the Daugh-
ters of Veterans are independent
bodies, auxiliary to no organization.
lie "OlIl6U IN6ll6I SOTpS IS lIt
largest organization of women in the
world under one eligibility clause, and
one motto. 1t now numbers $4,000
with department organizations in Al
States divided among 2,601 corps, as
the local organizations are known. Be-
sides these there are 81 detached
corps, which thrive in 10 Southern
and two Western States where there
are no department organizations.
1t is the greatest philanthropic,
charitable and patriotic organization
of women in the world.
Does Great Work
1t was organized at Denver, Col, in
1888, in response to the call of the
veterans for the organization of wo-
men that would be auxiliary to them
and which would meet with them at
national encampments, and assist them
in the tremendous work which was
becoming burdensome to the Grand
Army, that of helping to care for the
aged veterans and their dependent
widows and children. Pensions were
very small at that time, and the hard
ships of war were beginning to tell
on the veterans who suffered from
wounds and other disabilities incurred
in the service of the country. At the
encampment in Denver, the Woman's
Relief Corps, comprised of loyal wo-
men who never gave aid or comfort to
the enemies of the Union" was organ
iACu anu S@NNtplGh ny Nilt NTldllNl SIllN
which had called it into existence, and
gave it the motto of the veteran body,
Fraternity, Charity and Loyalty"
with the right to wear badge with
the medallion center of the G.. A. r.
badge.
Furnishes Homes for G. A. r.
Since it's organization the Woman's
Relief Corps has expended in
charitable and relief work for vet
Grams nearly $4,000,O00. 1t built and
equipped an army nurses home In
Ohio, where army nurses of the Civil
War could be cared for. 1t has been
instrumental in founding State homes
in all the Northern States where vet
erans and their wives may go together
and spend their declining years in
comfort. 1t instituted a patriotic curri-
culum in its regular work, and began
the inculcation of patriotic teaching in
public schools of the country, a work
which has been taken up by many
other patriotic organizations since
then. Tere are now more than 5000
women whose work as Patriotic In
structors' in corps and departments of
the Woman,s Relief Corps is COM
manding attention.
Secured Old Prisons
Besides the great sums spent in re-
lief work the organization has given
the Grand Army of the Republic about
s45,000 in cash for it's permanent
lullus II gives Tic NTTdllu AIuly Ol Tic
Republic $1,000 annually.
In 1896 the Woman's Relief Corps
accepted as a gift from the Depart
ment of Georgia, G. A. r., the old
Andersonville prison stockade grounds
near Americus, Ga, and expended
into a park. Old Providence Spring
has been canopied with stone, and its
sweet waters are as refreshing to-day
to travellers on the great Dixie high
way as they were to the starving priS-
oners when 1t broke forth in August,
1864. The park with it's neat cottage
for war-worn wayfarers, its rose gar
den, pecan orchard and other i'm
provements, is now one of the garden
spots of that section of Georgia. In
its grounds seven great States have
erected splendid monuments to their
dead of prison days, and the Woman's
Relief Corps has just honored Clara
Barton by erecting there a handsome
monument to the founder of the AM
erican National Red Cross who mark
ed all graves in Andersonville. under
Government supervision.
The Woman's Relief Corps gave
Andersonville to the United States,
and it Is now a Government Park.
These are but a few of the achieve
ments of the Woman's Relief Cops,
which will, next to the G.. A. r., be
the important factor at the coming
National Encampment.
The Ladies of the G. A. r. work
along the same lines as the w. R. c.
to some extent. Their membership is
about $4,000, the eligibility clause de-
pending upon lineal descent from vet
Grams of the Civil War. 1t is esti-
mated at all National Encampments
that the attendance of the members of
these organizations of women bring
to the Encampment as many women
as men.