People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1896 — VETS PARADE AT CAIRO. [ARTICLE]

VETS PARADE AT CAIRO.

Opening Ceremonies of the State Encampment. Cairo, 111., special: The opening exercises of the Grand Army encampment began Tuesday when the grand procession started from the opera house in Commercial avenue, passing through a great triumphal arch. Fewer that 500 veterans were in line. The thermometer was nearly 100 degrees In the shade. The avenue was decorated with patriotic colors and portraits of Lincoln, Grant and Logan, and 20,000* persons, many of them ex-confed-erates from Missouri and Kentucky, lined the sides of the street and cheered the veterans. Capt. J. H. Robinson was grand marshal and had for his aids Prof. C. Clendenen, Capt. T. C. Watkins and Col. Louis KrughofT. Then came the Egyptian band of Cobden and Stephenson Post, of Springfield, the largest in the encampment. There were three companies of militia in the parade, two from Belleville and Carbondale, commanded by Capts. Rogers and Williams; and one from Wycliffe, Ky., commanded by Capt. Roth rock. The battalion was led by Maj. S. A. D. McWilliams, of the Illinois National Guard, whp also had a company of high school cadets of one week’s training in line. The distinguished guests in the carriages included Commodore Walker, of Indianapolis, Department Commander Powell, of Belleville, and Gen. John A. McClernand, of Springfield. After the parade the Illinois Central Railroad Company furnished the veterans a train of twelve coaches and carried them over into Kentucky to look at the spot where Fort Holt once stood. It is being plowed for corn.