Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1910 — AID FOR MONUMENT FROM VETERAN ASSOCIATION. [ARTICLE]

AID FOR MONUMENT FROM VETERAN ASSOCIATION.

Ninth Regiment Association and Old Colonel Endorses Movement Started by Mrs. Mary E. Thompson.

Alex. L. Whitehall, of Chicago, who has for years been the secretary of the 9th Regiment Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry Association, and who was here at the reunion of that regiment held three years ago, has issued under the direction of Col. Isaac C. B. Suman, of Valparaiso, a circular appealing to all members of the association and of the old '9th regiment to contribute toward the erection of a monument to General Milroy and the soldiers of Jasper county. Mr. Whitehead makes an appeal to his old comrades, many of whom are prominent in business and after placing S2O from the association funds to the monument fund, which ip to be equally credited to each of the ten companies, he pays a high tribute to General Milroy, the regiment’s first colonel. He also speaks as follows of the art of Miss Mary Washburn, who is to contribute her skill in the monument:

“Miss Mary Washburn, a very competent artist, at the Art Institute, Chicago, and a daughter of the late Dr. Israel Washburn, surgeon of the 46th Indiana Infantry, who spent most of her school-days in Rensselaer, moved by her admiration for General Milroy and the volunteer soldier, and also desiring to place among the friends of her youth an enduring memento of her art. Since she thus eliminates the chief cost of the sculptor’s art productions, namely, the remuneration for artistic skill, it is believed' that the memoir can be installed at a cost of $1,200. The figure of the General will be of heroic size, 8 feet hbgh mounted on a pedestal of proper proportion, resting on a stone or fine concrete dias or platform formed by three or more courses forming steps on three sides, with a massive seat in the rear, standing upon a mound of suitable elevation. “The figure will be garbed in the uniform of a Major General and in such pose as the artist may deem most appropriate and striking. The writer has examined many of Miss Washburn’s art creations, and particularly her model for the statue of the late Dr. Nicholas Senn, Assistant Surgeon General during the war with Cuba, and can testify to their excellence.” In endorsing the plan Col. Suman wrote to Secretary Whitehead, as follows:

“I received your letter some days ago and have noted the contents carefully. I have been unwell for some weeks, so have not seen Zea and Williams but will say for the old Colonel, you and Braden and Bonta and McConnell do what you think best in this matter. I think that under our Statute that the County Commissioners have the authority to erect a monument to be placed to the memory of their soldier dead, but I am in favor of this fund with any cash that the regimental society has on hand. I will say, as the last living Colonel of the Regiment, that Colonel Milroy was the hero of them all, twice over, and while we live we*should endeavor to perpetuate his heroism as our appreciation of the grand old man by starting this monument to his memory as a soldier. William T. Girard, from Jasper county was killed at Laurel Hill, Va., July 7, 1861, Company'G on the skirmish line the morning that opened the first battle of the great Civil War for the Union. Jasper county’s history will be marked way up on the scroll of history by giving the first life for the Union in that great struggle that followed from ’6l to ’65. A million of the best blood of America was shed that the Nation might live. I endorse Mrs. Mary E. Thompson’s patriotism for Jasper county to do honor to its grandest soldier who sacrificed all but life that the union might be saved. My best wishes are with Mrs. Mary E. Thompson that Jasper county will wake up in honoring this,* her grandest hero. I had marked way up among Patriots in my memory many aets of the boys of Company G who went d<?wn in the whirl frind of battle, that the flag might remain over a free nation. “God blew the grand women of Jasper county. They have not forgotten what their fathers and dear ones

suffered that this nation might endure the shock and liberty survive. If the young heroes who went down in the whirlwjnd of battle could have lived as we, to have seen for how much he fought. God bless the women. We will never forget their part in the great drama of war. “Write this grand women that the survivors of this old regiment will be with them in honoring this grand leader of men to save the union.” Col Suman also offers to contribute personally to the movement. Thos. Madden, of Indianapolis, has written Mr. Whitehead subscribing $25 toward the movement. The success of the effort so nobly made by Mrs. Thompson is now assured and Rensselaer people should all become subscribers without delay, while former resident's should hasten to send their pledges toward this splendid work to the memory of the soldiers of Jasper county and in honor of its first hero.