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Show Mistorical I ighlights Lf CMno. Scott Watio (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) Founding of the G. A. R. SEVENTY-FIVE years ago the city of Decatur, 111., became the birthplace of an organization which for nearly a half century was to play an important part in the political history of the United States. That was the Grand Army of the Republic, Repub-lic, composed of veterans of the Union army in the Civil war. Founder of the G. A. R. was Dr. Benjamin Franklin Stephenson, who had enlisted in the f Fourteenth Illinois infantry in 1862 and served in it through to the end of the Civil war. Stephenson's Stephen-son's tent-mate and bosom companion was the chaplain of the regiment, Rev. W. J. Rutledge. During Dur-ing General Sherman's Sher-man's expedition against Meridian, Miss., in February, Febru-ary, 1864, Rutledge suggested to Stephenson Ste-phenson that men who had been so closely bound together by the hardships hard-ships of war would, when mustered out of service, naturally want to form some sort of association to keep alive their friendships. After the war ended the two men corresponded with each other frequently fre-quently and in March, 1866, they met by appointment in Springfield, 111. There they spent considerable time working on a ritual for the organization or-ganization which they named the "Grand Army of the Republic." Finally they had their plans for the G. A. R. completed. When they were ready to have the ritual printed, print-ed, Gov. "Dick" Oglesby, another veteran whom they consulted, suggested sug-gested that, in order to secure secrecy, se-crecy, it be set up and printed in the office of the Decatur Tribune, since the owners of that paper, I. W. Coltrin and Joseph Prior, and ail 5 " DR. BENJAMIN F. STEPHENSON of their printers and pressmen were Union army veterans. Accordingly, Capt. John S. Phelps went to Decatur De-catur and sought the co-operation of his old comrades on the Tribune. Meanwhile Dr. J. W. Routh of Decatur, De-catur, a friend of Stephenson's, went to Decatur to make some inquiries about his work and interested Capt. M. F. Kanan in the idea. Next they called upon Dr. Stephenson and urged him to found a Grand Army post in Decatur without delay. He promised to do so if they could secure se-cure a certain number of signatures to a petition for a charter. They had no difficulty in doing this and hurried to the Illinois capital to be the first to present their application for a charter. The result was that Dr. Stephenson, assisted by Captain Phelps, on April 6, 1866, organized Decatur Post No. 1 of the Grand Army of the Republic. Immediately other posts were founded throughout the state, mainly main-ly through the evangelical zeal of Dr. Stephenson who was neglecting his practice as a physician to build up the G. A. R. So it was a great disappointment to him when his comrades in the new society, meeting meet-ing in Springfield a little later to organize or-ganize the Illinois department of the G. A. R., passed him by and selected another man as departmental commander. com-mander. During the next few months the G. A. R. grew into a national organization or-ganization and plans were being made for a national "encampment" at Indianapolis in November. Its founder felt reasonably certain that he would be chosen the first national commander but again he was disappointed". dis-appointed". For that honor went to a fellow-veteran from Illinois, A. S. Hurlbut, although Stephenson was made adjutant-general. The second national commander of the G. A. R. was Gen. John A. Lo- , gan, the "Black Jack" of Union army fame. It was General Logan Lo-gan who issued 1 the famous Gen-I Gen-I eral Order No. 11 f on May 5, 1868. which resulted in , the establishment I of a national Memorial Me-morial dav for decorahng the graves of the Civil war's honored dead. |