Two Iowa Veterans Find Each Other After Thirty Years in an Olympia G.A.R. Hall
At the first meeting of Geo. H. Thomas Post in its new rooms, a visiting commander discovered a fellow Iowa soldier in the audience—and the speechmaking dissolved into a handshake.
Geo. H. Thomas Post No. 5, G.A.R., held its first meeting Friday night in the new and pleasant rooms at Woodruff’s Hall, Commander Adams in the chair.
Four new applications were received, one of them from the famous Eighth Wisconsin regiment, that carried with them through the war the eagle “Old Abe.”
The post is fast increasing and will soon reach a membership of one hundred. Commander Forrest, of the G.A.R. Post of Chehalis, brother to Public Land Commissioner Forrest, was a visitor, and in a few brief remarks incidentally mentioned that he was in the Thirty-third Iowa regiment, that fought in the rebellion from start to finish.
“So was I,” said Delano Myers, a member of the post, who was present. The two veterans looked at each other for a moment, then the speaker walked over to his comrade and said, “Shake.” This ended Capt. Forrest’s speech-making to the post.
The two Iowa veterans had not seen each other for about thirty years, and they talked about old times, much to the amusement and gratification of their comrades.
Major O. M. Barton was admitted to membership, having withdrawn from Phil Sheridan Post No. 44, of Tacoma, of which he was one of the founders. The post will meet again May 6th, when arrangements will probably be made to celebrate Memorial Day.
“The two veterans looked at each other for a moment, then the speaker walked over to his comrade and said, “Shake.””
The G.A.R. halls that once anchored downtown Olympia are gone, but the scene of old soldiers finding one another in a new meeting room still feels familiar. Veterans’ organizations have long served as places where people who shared a conflict could reconnect. The chance reunion after thirty years is a reminder that the Civil War was still living memory in 1892.
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