Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1917-05-31
RANDOM RECOLLECT|ONS
Continued from First Page.

ing mostly German and Irish, with
preponderance of Germans, for
in the few years previous to the
breaking out of the war there were
many thousands of immigrants to
this country from all parts of Ger
many, and Perrysburg township
got its full share of them, most of
whom became sturdy and thrifty
tillers of the soil. There were 1876
Germans arrived in Perrysburg at
one time, all from the same locality
in the old country. And at Presi-
dent Lincoln s call for troops in
April, 1861, the foreigners as we'll
as the native-born Americans were
eager to enlist to serve their
adopted country. And it was only
through pure patriotism that these
Irish and Germans volunteered,
for there was no way in which the
foreigners could have been COM.
PEELED to do military service here
for very few of them had even
taken out their first naturalization
papers or declared their inten-
tions. They were still subjects of a
foreign country therefore exempt
from military duty unless they
chose to volunteer. There was no
thought of pensions, as pension
laws were passed after the war be-
gan; no bounties, for they came
later; no thought of preferment or
of political ambition for the
future; no "selective draft" such
a thing was not needed. With
them it was simply a case of pat
riotism-they thought it was their
duty. The first man to enlist in
Perrysburg, or in Wood county,
for the matter, was native-born
w. Chappell, and he was
only boy of Is. The first soldier
from Perrysburg killed in battle,
and in whose honor the Grand
Army Post was named, was Ger
man-John Wolfuert-not VOL
ford-and he was only a boy of 16
"a member of Capt. Frank Saut-
er's Company B, 55th Regiment,
o. V. I.-killed at the battle of
Bull Run, Va. And the one family
in the town that furnished more
soldiers for the Union Army than
any Other-fve in number, the
McMahan's - was Irish. Their
ages ranged from 16 to % years.
And the father of these five
wanted to enlist, but was rejected
for physical disability. And of
such as these is the Grand Army
of the Republic composed, so it is
eminently fitting and proper that
they have charge of the Memorial
Day ceremonies and patriotic ex-
ercises, not only in these, but on
other occasions. And it was
Grand Army-the grandest army
that the Almighty ever allowed to
be assembled, composed as it was,
of native-born and foreigners, all
fighting for the one object-to
save the government from destruc-
ton from within-not for the ac-
QUESTION of territory; not to gain
markets for our commerce; not
through jealousy of other govern
ments; not to further the political
ambitions of any man, or any set
of men-but for an undivided gov
ernment in the land in which the
natives had been born, and the
land to which the foreigners had
come to make for themselves
permanent homes and to rear their
families.
In the years gone by the Grand
Army patrons of the Memorial
Day parades were sometimes rath-
er huge affairs in the larger cities,
and the marchers passed with a
firm and steady tread that always
caused feeling of pride and joy
within the onlookers. But with
the passing of years the ranks
were gradually thinned out, and
the step. no longer so firm and
steady, and while a parade of the
veterans still causes a feeling of
pride, it is more or less a pathetic
pride. Of the sevral hundred
thousand who at one time consti-
tuted the membership of the Grand
Army of the Republic, there are
but a few thousand left. They are
passing to the eternal camping
ground very rapidly. This was
brought to my mind very forcibly
in letter from my sister some
time ago in which, after announc-
ing the death of very dear friend
of our family who was a member
of Wolford Post, she used these