Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/1140

 PATRIOTIC:

, was organized July 25, 1883. Its object is specially to aid and assist the Grand Army of the Republic and to perpetuate the memory of its heroic dead; to assist such Union veterans as need help and protection, and to extend needful aid to their widows and orphans; to cherish and emulate the deeds of army nurses and of all loyal women who rendered loving service to the country in her hour of peril; to maintain true allegiance to the United States of America; to inculcate lessons of patriotism and love of country among children and in the communities; to encourage the spread of universal liberty and equal rights to all.

General legislation is enacted by the annual national convention, the supreme authority; States are governed by department conventions. The association has educated women in an exact system of reports and returns. There are no "benefits," as it is strictly philanthropic. It supports a National Relief Corps Home for dependent army nurses and relatives of veterans; has secured pension legislation from the general Government for destitute army nurses; has influenced State legislation in the founding of homes for Union veterans and their dependent ones in Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, California, New York and Kansas; has led to the establishment of industrial education in the Ohio Orphans' Home; has been foremost in financial aid in every national calamity; has unitedly furthered patriotic teaching in schools and the flag in school rooms; and has raised and expended for relief in the eighteen years of its existence, $2,500,000. The corps has thirty-five departments, 3,174 subordinate corps and 142,760 members.

were organized Jan. 12, 1886, to assist the G. A. R., encourage them in their noble work of charity, extend needful aid to members in sickness and distress and look after the Soldiers' Homes and the Homes of Soldiers' Widows and Orphans; to obtain proper situations for the children when they leave the homes; to watch the schools and see that children are properly instructed in the history of our country and in patriotism; to honor the memory of those fallen and to perpetuate and keep forever sacred Memorial Day. Its departments and circles have spent for relief $16,685 and given to the G. A. R. $2,658; to the Soldiers' Homes, $364; Soldiers' Widows' Homes, $1,461; Soldiers' Orphans' Homes, $179.

The organization has twenty-three departments and 28,070 members — mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, granddaughters and nieces of soldiers and sailors who served honorably in the Civil War.

was organized and chartered in 1885, to perpetuate the memories of the fathers and brothers, their loyalty to the Union and their unselfish sacrifices for its perpetuity: to aid them and their widows and orphans, when helpless and in distress; to inculcate a