WVH Campfire 01

 

Waupaca Record

August 13, 1908

 

CAMP FIRE AT THE VETERANS’ HOME

 

Was Held Monday Evening in Celebration of the 21st Anniversary of Founding of Institution

 

            A camp fire was held at the Wisconsin Veterans’ Home on Monday evening, August 10, to commemorate the founding of that worthy institution.

            This date marks the twenty-first anniversary of the opening of the Home and the festivities in celebration of this event was attended by about 12,000 people.  The members of the G.A.R. and W.R.C. of this city attended in a body.  The grounds were fittingly decorated in flags and the nations’ colors, red, white and blue were everywhere in evidence.  At the main entrance to the grounds was an illuminated arch bearing the following:  “1887 – W.V.H. – 1908”.  The band stand from which the speeches were given was elaborately decorated with bunting and flags and brightly illuminated.

            All the members of the board of trustees were present and several distinguished guests, chief among them Col. Marston, who with Col. Bryant of LaCrosse, one of the trustees, are the only surviving members of the committee who were selected by the G.A.R. to secure a site for the Home.  The guests were:  Hon. E.Q. Nye, Milwaukee; Capt. J.H. Marston; Col. J.W. Ganes, Fox Lake; Col. Watrous, Whitewater; Albert Bantly, Milwaukee; J.B. Jones, Milwaukee; Hon. S.A. Cook, Neenah; O.F. Chase, Oshkosh; Col. Edw. D. Coe, Dep. Commander; Col. B.F. Bryant, Pres. of Board of Trustees, LaCrosse; Phil Cheek, Oshkosh; C.H. Henry, Eau Claire; D.G. James, Richland Center; J.P. Rundle, Milwaukee; H.E. Mann, Marinette; Mrs. Scott, Michigan; Mrs. Julietta Morris, Pres. W.R.C.; Mrs. M.C. Peck, Sec. Of W.R.C., Milwaukee; Mrs. Katherine Bleyer, ex-pres. W.R.C., Milwaukee; Miss Celestia Edwards, ex-pres. W.R.C., Oconomowoc; Mrs. Rowe, Jacksonville, Ill.; Mrs. E.Q. Nye, Milwaukee, Mrs. Lutrop, Chicago; Mrs. S.H. Bowe, Oshkosh; Mr. E. Schram, Chicago.

Col. Bryant made a very efficient toastmaster and after the assemblage had all joined in singing America and Rev. Brown, Chaplain of the Home, pronounced the invocation, Col. Bryant made a very brilliant address of welcome in behalf of the trustees, officers and members of the Home.

            The program was as follows:

            Singing by the audience – “America”.

            Invocation – Chaplain W.R. Brown

            Address of Welcome – Col. Benj. F. Bryant

            Song duet – Mrs. Scott and Albert Bantly

            Response to address and welcome – Col. J.A. Watrous

            Solo – Albert Bantly

            Address – Hon. E.Q. Nye

            Solo – J.B. Jones

            Five minute talks by visiting comrades.

            Closing, all sing, “Old Hundred”.

            Col. J.H. Woodnorth, commandant of the Home gave a pleasing impromptu address in which he revived the growth of the Home from its establishment to the present time.

            Owing to the fact that there was no place in the world for the old soldier and his wife, who, thru illness or misfortune, were incapable of taking care of themselves, but the poor house, as the National Home would provide for only the husband.  The Grand Army of the Republic of Wisconsin conceived the idea of a home where the old soldier and his wife could be cared for together in the evening of their lives. A committee was appointed to select a suitable place for this home and in 1887 a purchase was made of this property on the Chain o’ Lakes at Waupaca.  The property then consisted of a small summer hotel, now Marston Hall, and five cottages and would accommodate 50 people.  Today there are 96 buildings and the capacity of the Home is 700.  This Home is entirely under the supervision and ownership of the Grand Army of the Republic of the State of Wisconsin and receives National and State aid.

            From a home of very meager means and accommodations has grown this fine institution with its buildings all heated and lighted from its own central heating plant, everything modern and sanitary, and an up-to-date hospital where everything is done to alleviate the suffering of those afflicted.

            The Wisconsin Veterans’ Home here was the first institution in the world which provided for the care of the soldiers’ widows and mothers and is the pride not only of Waupaca, but of the state.

            The first officers of the Home were:

            Commandant – A.J. Longworthy

                        Surgeon – Dr. D.L. Manchester

                        Mr. Longworthy was succeeded as Commandant by Capt. C.C. Coldwell and Dr. Manchester held the office of Surgeon up to the time of his death.  Mrs. Coldwell was chosen as Matron and E.N. Cooley as Adjutant.

            The management of the Home in 1897 came under the jurisdiction of the following:

                        Commandant – Col. C.J. Ellis

                        Matron – Mrs. C.J. Ellis

            Adjutant – Maj. T.L. Jeffers

            Surgeon – Dr. Noyes

                        Quartermaster – C.H. Russell

            Those in office at the present time are:

                        Commandant – Col. J.H. Woodnorth

                        Matron – Miss Osborn

                        Adjutant – Maj. T.L. Jeffers

                        Surgeon – Dr. B. Bantly

                        Quartermaster – Capt. A.G. Dinsmore.

 

Waupaca Post

August 27, 1908

 

THE “HOME” IS OF AGE

 

Snug Harbor for Veterans at Waupaca Has Attained its Majority

(By a Wisconsin Soldier – Journalist.)

 

            If one desires something new, interesting, cheering, inspiring, relative to the Wisconsin Veterans’ Home at Waupaca, one should visit the place.  That is what a number of people did this week, on the occasion of the Home’s twenty-first birthday, and some of the visiting delegation were present at the birthday, in August 1887.  The transformation at the Home during those twenty-one years, the length of time it takes to make a voter of an American-born boy baby is so marked, so very striking, that one is well nigh lost in amazement as one contemplates the change; a change from one cheaply built summer resort lumber structure and a few small cottages in a forest, to a village with a population of 750, ninety-six buildings, many of them of brick and stone, the main buildings with all modern improvements; graded streets, cement sidewalks, modern and the best of electric lighting and steam heating plants, cold storage, and hospital as perfect and as well managed as any in the state, large enough to accommodate 200 or more, a steam laundry, an amusement hall, a chapel, as pretty a park as can be found anywhere, a perfect sewerage system, a small but scientifically managed farm, upon which tons and tons of vegetables are grown, and where hundreds of  hogs are raise, nearly enough so supply the Home’s demand; with grounds so beautifully laid out and kept that one may be excused for imagining that one is looking over a millionaire’s premises; with scores of flower gardens as beautiful as they city florist’s best efforts.

            Look upon the two pictures – as the Home was in 1887 and as it is in 1908.

            Wisconsin leads the world in the matter of an abiding place for her soldiers whose misfortunes have called for an out-stretched hand of help – them and their wives and widows.  Wisconsin was first, in all the world, to undertake a home for soldiers and their wives and widows.  It would seem as if a more delightful spot for such a home could not be found, either in our own or any other country. In the lay of the land, the natural groves, the Chain o’ Lakes, glistening in the sunshine and moonlight, dancing in the storms – lakes for all sorts of pleasure craft, - the abodes of fishes by the millions – lakes and lake banks as pretty as any that Sunny Italy boasts, as pretty as any the Father smiles upon. Besides all of this beauty in location, it has become noted as a health resort.

            Such is the place chosen for the declining years of the stranded veterans and their companions.  A glimpse, and only a glimpse, of the improvements made in twenty-one years, has been given. At this Home of rare surroundings, in buildings good enough for any of God’s great family to live in, is gathered a population of more than 700 men and women whose ages run from sixty to one hundred and three.  There is an aged couple in each of the many cottages – snug homes admirably furnished and equipped.  These and the single men have their meals in the main dining hall.  In Fairchild, Rusk and Marston halls, all large, fine, modern buildings, each containing many ample and tastily equipped rooms, far better and more comfortable than the rooms of most first class hotels, is another army of old men and women.  In each of these halls, or palaces, more like, is a dining room that would do credit to almost any hotel, a kitchen where the cooking is done; hot and cold water, bathrooms, electric lights, sitting, reception and reading rooms.  Are these halls, or palaces, clean and well managed?  How they could be improved it is difficult to tell.  There is not a bad odor from basement to garret, in any of them.

            Is there anything about the entire Home that is a reminder of a poor house?  No more than there is in that palatial summer home of a Vanderbilt down south.  Only first class cooks are employed to prepare the best materials that the markets afford.  The service is better than in three-fourths of American homes.  The Wisconsin Veterans Home is pretty nearly a paradise for any one who could appreciate the real paradise.  All honor to the Grand Army of the Republic which founded this model Home and has had full management of its affairs and its building up; all honor to the Women’s Relief Corps for its ever ready help; all honor to citizens who contributed cottages; all honor to the noble souls who as trustees have given time, thought, hear, genius and much hard work among whom can be named Capt. J.H. Marston, Col. J.H. Woodnorth, Col. B.F. Bryant, the  late A.O. Wright, the late A.J. Smith, George L. Thomas, the last Maj. W.R. Roberts, and newer members, practical C.H. Henry, J.P. Rundle and David J. James; not to mention officers of various grades, and God bless Wisconsin for her ever ready and willing help. – Lieut. Col. J.A. Watrous, W.S.A., Retired. – Oshkosh Northwestern.