Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1913 — FORTY-NINE CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS LEFT Philip Blue Found That Number While Taking School Enumeration in Rensselaer. [ARTICLE]

FORTY-NINE CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS LEFT

Philip Blue Found That Number While Taking School Enumeration in Rensselaer.

In taking the school enumeration in Rensselaer Philip Blue also took considerable interest in complying with the rule to get the names and ages of survivors of the civil war, the Spanish-American war and the Mexican war. He found only one Mexican war veteran, William Bull, who is also a civil war veteran, and who is past 87 years of age. Mr. Bull, however, is not the oldest civil war veteran in Rensselaer, that distinction belonging to John Stively, father of Mrs. Joseph Sharp, who will be 90 years of age the 14th of this month, and who is mighty hale and hearty for his advanced years. ' . The two youngest soldiers in Rensselaer are Elizur Sage and George Morgan. The former is 64, while Mr. Morgan is 65, both were quite young during the time they were helping lick the “Johnnies.” Mr. Blue found that the 49 soldiers have a combined age of 3,506 years and average a little more than 71 years and 7 months. During the past fifteen months at least nine old soldiers haye passed away in Rensselaet, their names being as recalled by Mr. Blue and Burgess Dillon: J. F. Irwin, W. W. Matheny, James Overton, Holdridge Clark, Ezra Clark, J. M. Wasson, Samuel E. Yeoman, J. P. Warner, and William Daniels. Messrs. Irwin, Matheny, Overton, Holdridge Clark, Yeoman and Warner, six of the nine, died very suddenly, while J. M. Wasson, Ezra Clark and William Daniels were in failing health for some time. The number of deaths during the past year is apt to make us wondjer what the next year will bring forth to weaken the fast thinning ranks of the “old boys." Among the Spanish-American war veterans of the city are: “I. M. Washburn, Frank Shide, Theodore George, E. W. Hickman, A. E. Wallace and Harvey Gasper.