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Lucius L.
Mitchell Camp #4 Bulletin Board
CAMP BY-LAWS
Camp By-Laws are in the process of being reconfigured
in accordance with Department Council recommendations
and are pending approval of Department Commander.
Our Last
Meeting
SPECIAL
MEETING
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
At
G. A. R.
Hall
1101 Massachusetts Avenue
St.
Cloud, Florida
FYI EVENT
Preparations are all ready underway for the Centennial Jubilee
Celebration of the city of St. Cloud , Florida
The SOLDIERS CITY
The Official date of the Centennial is April 18, 2009 and various events will be unfolding in Osceola County
To date the committee assigned at the last camp meeting consists
of PCC, C. D. “Skip” Whitlam and DSec./Trea. Michael Farrell. If you would like to assist in
establishing the rules, entry form, categories and prizes please contact
Brother Whitlam or Farrell and make yourselves known! Momentum starts with motion, let’s
get going!
Our next
meeting
Saturday September 6, 2008 , 1 PM
At
St. Cloud
GAR Hall
1101 Massachusetts Avenue
St. Cloud , Florida
CAMP MEMBERS
Please
keep Camp Commander
Camp
meeting, Phil mentioned that he will probably need an
additional operation in the near future.
Brother Ron McCracken is on the mend from a sustained
broken heel bone, please
keep him in prayer. Brother
Ron Criswell spent a month in the Hospital as the result of his ongoing
respiratory difficulties. Brother
Bob Fisk continues to be a remarkable young man on the mend at he strides
toward 90 years old this November.
ABOUT OUR
CAMP NAME
Lucius L.
Mitchell, Pvt. Co D, 35th KY Inf.
The
Lucius L Mitchell Camp #4 of The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War was
organized in August 1996, through the hard work of our founding members Ron
Criswell, Fred Everett and Gary Guinan and other charter members. They chose to
use the same name for the camp as the original GAR Post #34 did, Lucius L.
Mitchell, the first Union Veteran to die in the St. Cloud Colony.
Lucius
L. Mitchell, served in Company D of the 35th Kentucky Infantry and he died in
the earliest days of the veterans' settlement, sixteen days before the GAR Post
34, Saint Cloud Florida received its charter. A cemetery had not yet been
established. So, his remains were interred at Rose Hill Cemetery in nearby
Kissimmee with the intent of bringing him back to St. Cloud as soon as
possible. However, time passed and the Mitchell family moved far away to a new
home in Oklahoma.
By
the time local veterans got around to reclaiming Lucius Mitchell's body, they
had forgotten exactly which cemetery he was buried in. The cemetery they did contact
was the wrong one, so the sexton there could hardly be blamed for not being
able to find the grave!
Eventually,
it was assumed that Mitchell was buried in an unmarked grave that would never
be found, or perhaps that his family had taken his body with them when they
moved west.
It
was not until 1998 that his grave site was re-discovered at Rose Hill.
Descendants were contacted and it was still their wish that his remains be
returned to St. Cloud to be re-interred next to his old comrades.
Through
the efforts of the GAR, SUVCW and Florida genealogists all the work that was
needed to be accomplished was accomplished to place Lucius L. Mitchell, where
he rests today seen below at Mount Peace Cemetery in Saint Cloud Florida, one
of the largest Civil War Cemetery in the South with 342 Union Civil War
Veterans, and two Confederates.
For
an alphabetical listing of those Union Veterans buried there. If you should see your ancestor listed
as being buried at "Mount Peace Cemetery", contact Camp Historian,
Bob Fisk or Camp #4 Signals officer
for additional grave stone information.
For a listing of Union Soldiers at Mount
Peace Cemetery St. Cloud , Florida
·
Union Soldiers buried at Mt.
Peace Cemetery, St. Cloud, Florida
For a listing of Civil
War Veterans buried in Orange
County , Florida Union and Confederate you can click on
the hyperlink below to a rootsweb site.
·
Civil War Veterans, Orange County, Florida
History
(Open 10am - 2 pm, Monday, Tuesday & Thursday, a
25 minute guided tour
available
$3.00 per person please call in advance 407-892-6146)
The
Grand Army of the Republic was birthed at Decatur, Illinois, in 1866. But, it
wasn't until the 1880's with the coming of the railroads, that large numbers of
Union Veterans began to settle the remote frontier of Central Florida. Most of
those early veterans lived in the "big city" of Orlando, and were
members of the U. S. Grant post there.
The
Seminole Land & Investment Company began to advertise the St. Cloud area
(southeast of Orlando) as a retirement haven for Union Veterans. In 1909, the
GAR sent agents to Florida to determine if the land was suitable to develop a
retirement community or was it in fact some Florida swamp land. On December
20th of that year the GAR Post was established in that town. The members
initially met in an old frame hall, construction began on a new hall (pictured
above) in 1914.
To
help defray the cost of construction, subscriptions for name bricks were sold
for between $1.25 and $2.00 a piece. Sadly, several of these bricks were
defaced during a vandalism spree in late 1914, but work was completed by the
following year.
On
December 3, 1915, the post installed its new officers in the new hall, which
was described as "one of the finest buildings in the South, costing
considerably over ten thousand dollars." The cornerstone was not
officially laid until February 12, 1916, to coincide with Abraham Lincoln's
birthday. It wasn't long before St. Cloud became known as Florida's "Wonder
City" because it was constructed and functioning in four years. Later it
was also called the "Soldier City".
The
hall quickly became the showcase of the city, and even served as its unofficial
"opera house." It has also served as a meeting place for the American
Legion and the local Masonic Lodge.
The above photograph of the 60th anniversary of
the GAR on 6 April 1926, taken at the GAR Post #34 St. Cloud, Florida came to
us through the courtesy of Tad D. Campbell, Commander, Phil Sheridan Camp 4 of
San Jose, CA and JVC & Signals Officer, Dept. of CA & Pacific. Brother
Campbell is also a member, National Committee on History.
But, the hall's proudest moment came when it was
chosen to host the GAR Annual Encampment in 1940. By that time, though, there
were fewer than 30 surviving members of the Department of Florida. And, the
last local member, W. C. Russell, died at his home on Delaware Avenue on August
12, 1942 aged 98 years.
The
GAR Memorial Hall can be visited on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday between the
hours of 10:00 AM and 02:00 PM. Telephone there is (407) 892-6146. Curator,
Beverly J. Thomas, will give you a personal tour of the Hall and its displayed
artifacts.
Camp
Communicator
June-July 2008
·
Camp Communicator
Chaplain's
Message:
Robert
Fisk
“GOD
WORK IN WONDERFUL WAYS”
He redeemeth
thy life from destruction, says the Psalmist:
But we do not
often think of the wonderful ways in which God works.
Take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart. Matt. XI. 20
Ancestors
needed!!
Who
are your Civil War ancestors? Let your fellow Camp members know about them.
Send information on who you would like to honor in the Camp 4 Newsletter, to
skipwhitlam@tealah.com or mail to:
C. D. "Skip" Whitlam, Editor & Signals Officer
2078 Live Oak Blvd.
St. Cloud, Florida 34771-8441
If
you have more than one that you would like to tell us about, feel free to send
something on each of them. The articles will appear in the Camp Communicator as
space is available. Articles and photographs will be accepted at the above
address.
Daughters
Of Union Veterans of The Civil War Website
The Daughters of Union Veterans Tent #10
webmaster has developed a photographic website for further demonstration of the
efforts of their order and can be view from the below hyper-link.
·
Daughters
of Union Veterans
Mrs. Sandra Vogelpohl, has been
installed as President of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
Her presents at any Veterans event has
always included her striking appearance in her creations of clothing that would
represent the Civil War time frame.
CONGRADULATIONS Sandy, we salute your
willingness to serve.
If you
come across an interesting book on the Civil War and the struggles that our
Nation struggled with, SHARE IT!!
2007 CAMP
MEETING DATES and TIMES
July 12, 2008
September 6, 2008
November 1, 2008
At the
GAR Hall, on 1101
Massachusetts Avenue , St. Cloud , Florida
Special
Dates to remember
Department
Encampment will be on 21st of June 2008 at the St. Cloud
Senior Center
Main Hall
on 17th
Street St. Cloud , Florida
Continental
Breakfast, registration and Camp Set 8:00 AM
National
Council member, James Hanby will be attending our Department Encampment,
Let’s have
a good turn out.
The SUVCW,
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, was incorporated by an act of congress
(H.R. 3034)