VOLUME XXX

NUMBER 6

M

ASSACHUSETTS, the Mother Department of the Woman's Relief Corps, is to entertain her children during the week beginning August 15, 1904. They will come in vast throngs, for they number upward of one hundred and thirty thousand women. The annual conventions of the National society are always held at the same time and place as those of the Grand Army of the Republic, of which the Woman's Relief Corps is the only officially recognized woman's auxiliary.

To recount the actual beginning of the work of this society, it would be necessary to go back to the turbulent period through which the American nation passed in the years from 1861 to 1865. The work of women during the Civil War has never been fully estimated. It was not enough that some should sit quietly at home, with hearts almost breaking because of the agony of suspense; but in every city and

town, even in the smallest settlements, women were working earnestly to provide necessaries for those who were battling for freedom and for the unity of a great nation. Even tiny school girls were pressed into the service, and little fingers were seen deftly picking lint during many of the half-holidays. from school.

Delicately nurtured women willingly renounced the attractions of society, and gave their means, and, best of all, themselves, to the work. A conspicuous instance was that of Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis of Boston, a society leader at that time, who laid aside her beautiful gowns and costly jewels, and in simple alpaca

costume devoted herself unremit

tingly to the superintendence of the work of collecting and forwarding hospital supplies.

Many there were who sacrificed all, risking life itself, going into the hospitals, and even upon the battlefields, to minister to the sick, the wounded and the dying. A long list

of names of national reputation reputation comes to mind in this connection, and there were many, too, who live only in the grateful hearts of those to whom they gave care and comfort. Many a soldier's mother, wife, sister or sweetheart will forever hold in tenderest remembrance nurses who cared for their loved ones, and wrote the letters which conveyed messages of hope to their despondent hearts; or, as was so often the case, brought the last words of the young heroes, many of them cut off ruthlessly ere the full flower of manhood had been reached. And with the precious missives came the little trifles which had been fondly cherished by the dear boys so far away, to be henceforth of priceless value in the darkened homes. Perhaps a more eloquent tribute to the army nurses has never been given than that by Corporal James Tanner, who once said: "We did not have to die, to touch elbows with the angels. We found them upon every battlefield."

When the bitter conflict was over, the work of relieving suffering was by no means complete. Many who went out in the full power of physical perfection, returned crippled and broken. No longer able to pursue the avocations of peace, some provision had to be made for them and for those dependent upon them for support.

It was largely with this purpose in view, as well as to perpetuate the spirit of fraternity which originated in the presence of a common danger, and the share which all had in a great victory, that the Grand Army of the Republic was organized.

"As unto the bow the cord is
So unto man is woman."

It was, therefore, inevitable that

with the rise of that inimitable association of heroes, tried and true, there should appear societies of women with similar interests, to assist them in their work. The feminine ear is ever responsive to tales of distress, and feminine intuition, blended with the experience of generations of devotion to the welfare of others, has rendered the work of women, wherever relief is needed, especially valuable.

As early as 1869 auxiliary organizations of women were found working hand in hand with individual posts of the G. A. R. in most of the Northern and Western States. It remained for the women of Massachusetts, however, to formulate and carry into successful execution a plan for a State organization, which, because of its wider scope, should have a greater power for good than could be attained by individual societies.

By the official advice and sanction of General Horace Binney Sargent, then Department Commander of the Massachusetts G. A. R., and his Assistant Adjutant-General, James F. Meech, a convention was held at the headquarters of E. V. Sumner Post No. 19, at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Feb. 12, 1879, sixteen societies being represented by delegates, which resulted in twenty-three ladies signing a constitution and by-laws for a State organization, to be known as the State Relief Corps of Massachusetts, with Mrs. Sarah E. Fuller of East Boston as president. This little group of earnest workers proved to be, the nucleus of the grand organization of to-day, the second in point of numbers of associations of women in the United States. Mrs. Fuller is likewise entitled to the honor of being known. as the mother of this great instru

ment of good deeds, and her continuous active work during the twenty-five years of life which the society has known, proves how fully her heart was in the work; and she would be more than mere woman did she not contemplate with pride the outcome of that little gathering at Fitchburg, which must far surpass her most roseate dreams at that time. It is also a subject for congratulation that such a woman as Mrs. Fuller should have held the leadership at that time.

Although from the first the new society received the support and encouragement of prominent comrades of the Massachusetts G. A. R., it was not officially recognized by the Department encampment until January, 1881, when the following resolution was almost unanimously

adopted by that body:

"Resolved, That the Department of Massachusetts, G. A. R., recognizing in the Woman's State Relief Corps an invaluable ally in its mission of charity and loyalty, hails them as a noble band of Christian women, who, while not of the G. A. R., are auxiliary to it."

During the year 1880, loyal women of New Hampshire decided to adopt the work of their Massachusetts sisters, and on Dec. 8 of that year their department officers were initiated at the headquarters of Hiram G. Berry Relief Corps, No. 6, of Malden, Massachusetts. At the same time they were invited to form a Union Board of Directors of W. R. C. work, with the Department officers of Massachusetts. The Board was organized, with Mrs. E. Florence Barker of Malden as president, Mrs. Kathrina Beedle of Cambridge as secretary, and Miss Keyes of New Hampshire treasurer.

Among the first to become an advocate of woman's work as an auxiliary to the G. A. R. was Rev. Jo

seph Lovering, of Worcester, Massachusetts, then Chaplain-in-Chief. He sought, by correspondence with many who were actively engaged in the work, to bring about some united effort on the part of women which should be national in its scope. At the National Encampment of the G. A. R. held in Indianapolis, Indiana, in July, 1881, he presented the following resolutions, which were adopted:

"Resolved, That we approve the project of organizing a National Woman's Relief Corps.

"Resolved, That such Woman's Relief Corps may use under such title the words, 'Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic,' by special indorsement of the National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic.'

This indorsement proved an incentive to the extension of the movement, and in 1882 two corps were instituted in Connecticut, one in Illinois, one in Wisconsin and one in San Diego, California. Prominent women in several States urged the consolidation of effort, among them Mrs. Kate Brownlee Sherwood, of Toledo, Ohio, a pioneer in the West in work for the veterans. She had personally assisted in organizing nearly two hundred aid societies. A talented writer, she, by her graceful, eloquent pen, appealed to the women of the West, who, with the enthusiasm characteristic of that section, were not slow in responding, and have ever been most active in raising the order to its present numbers and efficiency.

During the the administration of Comrade Paul Van Der Voort, of Omaha, Nebraska, as commanderin-chief, his attention was called to the good work being done by the women in various sections, and grasping the significance of the movement, with his characteristic