Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 108, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1899 — The Vanishing Grand Army. [ARTICLE]

The Vanishing Grand Army.

The Grand Army of the Republic has passed its zenith and is now on its* down ward course so far as membership is concerned, says the Lafayette Call It reached the highest membership in 1890, twenty five years after the war of the re- : bellion bad ended, and since that time there has been a steady decrease in membership, which will grow greater with each succeeding year until no veteran"of the great struggle is left. From 409,498 members in 1890 the roster now shows a membership of only 287, 891, or a loss of nearly 120,000, most of which was by death. But a fews years more and the Grand Army of the Republio will live only in name.