Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/377

344 Georgia, and the National W. R. C. Home, in Madison, Ohio, but the latter was turned over to the state of Ohio as a gift, several years ago. Last year Andersonville Park was also turned over to the government as a gift free of encumbrance.

The way the Woman's Relief Corps acquired this property is interesting: The department of Georgia Grand Army of the Republic, purchased the old prison site, of the owners, but found that as their number was growing less year by year, and as it required a great deal of money to keep up the place, it would be better for them to offer it to the auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic. When the Woman's Relief Corps was in annual session in St. Paul, Minn., in 1896, representatives of the Georgia Grand Army came before them, and offering the old prison, asked them to accept the gift and keep it from desecration. The women accepted it as a sacred trust, and immediately appointed Mrs. Lizabeth A. Turner, of Massachusetts, as chairman of a board to beautify the grounds and make a park of them. A house for a caretaker was needed, and as the women did not want to build it within the old stockade, more land was purchased making the acreage within the enclosure about eighty-seven. A ten-room house was erected, a caretaker installed, and then the tedious process of making a park was begun. Bermuda grass was planted root by root, a pear and pecan orchard set out, and a rose garden planted, with rose bushes sent from almost every state in the Union, and then the desert began literally "to blossom as the rose." Several states were given ground upon which to erect monuments to their sons. These were Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Mrs. Turner having died while in discharge of her duty, the Woman's Relief Corps also erected a monument to her memory in the park. This beautiful spot, the mecca for all the country side every Sabbath, and for the nation upon Memorial Day, was last year accepted by the