Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1896 — OUR VETERANS DYING. [ARTICLE]

OUR VETERANS DYING.

A Survivor of the War Will Be Hard to Find in a Few Year*. The National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic will be held this year in the month of September at St Paul. Last year the encampment was held at Louisville, the year before at Pittsburgh, in 1803 at Indianapolis, in 1802 at Milwaukee, in 1801 at Detroit, and in 1890 at Boston. In 1880 the . .ational Encampment was held at San Francisco, and the year previous at Portland, Me. The number of delegates to Grand Army encampments is regulated in each State by the total membership of the posts participating, and this year the G. A. R. of New York State will have but thirty-eight delegates, one less than last year, in the National Encampment at St. Paul During the last year 2,000 veterans left the posts in this State, a decrease caused mostly by death. One effect of this reduced membership is the putting of New York below Ohio on the G. A. R. roster, Pennsylvania continuing to be at the head of the column. The Grand Army reached ita highest point of membership during the administration of President Harrison. On January 1,1891, the membership of the Grand Army of the Republic was 385,000. and it increased gradually until

January 1, ISM, when it was 387.040. Then a decline began, and on January 1, 1895, the total membership of the posts had fallen to 369,660. On Jauu- ! ary 1, 1886, the total membership of the ■ Grand Army had fallen to X",»«9. I Since then there has been a loss of over i J.tluO members in New York, and of a i sufficient number in other States tc ’ bring down the total below 350.000. In respect of present membership Pennsylvania stands at the head of all the States with 43,000. Until thia yeai New York followed with 38,036, anc Ohio with 36,000. but now Ohio has taken the second place, fourth on th< list Is Illinois, with 27.000: fifth, Massa- : chusetts, with 22,000; sixth. Indiana, with 21,000, seventh, Kansas and Michigan and Missouri, with 16,000 each; then lowa, with 15,000 members, and Wisconsin, with 12,000. The first encampment of the Grand Army order was held at Indianaisilis on November 20, 1866. The several Commanders-in-chief of the Grand Army received much honor in American polities. John A. Logan, Com-mander-inch lef for three years, was United States Senator and Republican candidate for vice president in 1884. A. E. Burnside, his successor for two terns was United States Senator from Rhode Island. Charles Devens of Massachusetts, who succeeded Burnside, was Attorney-General of the United States, and John F, Hartranft was Governor of Pennsylvania and Collector of the Port of Pennsylvania. Mr. Hartranft’s successor, John C. Robinson, was twice Lieutenant-Governor of New York State, and Louis Wagner, elected in 1880, was director of the Philadelphia department of Public Works, of which, it Is said, C. H. T. Collis, New York Commissioner of Public Works, is a graduate. The late Lucius Fairchild was Governor of Wisconsin. Russell A. Alger, elected in 1889, was Governor of Michigan, and John Palmer, elected at the Detriot encampment in 1891, is now Secretary of State in New York, and one of the numerous Republican candidates for Governor this year to succeed Levi P. Morton. Present circumstances are not favorable to the further growth in membership of the Grand Army of the Republic, and it is expected by the 'leading men in the organization that from now on there will be a steady and gradual decline, in which the falling off In New York’s representation Is one of the first tangible and visible evidences