The museum was recently gifted a Grand Army of the Republic Charter for the Carterville Post 237. The charter was hanging on the walls at the Haven at Crab Orchard Lake for years and was donated to the museum for future safekeeping. Apparently the original charter for the Carterville post was lost in a fire long ago and this citation is a replacement for the original.
This charter is dated April 25, 1907 and the charter members listed were:
| Hugh M. Richart | Calvin M. Waggoner |
| Thomas Impson | Phillip Sprague |
| William J. Dowell | Nimrod G. Perrine |
| J.D. Beasley | Abraham H. North |
| James McCabe | H.C. Walston |
| Henry G. Price | Thomas Claxton |
| Bennett H. Stotlar | Jordan Halstead |
| Asa B. Blankenship | William R. McCall |
| James E. Ledbetter |
The GAR was a fraternal organization created in Decatur, Illinois in 1866 for Union soldiers and sailors. Linking men through their experience of the war, the G.A.R. became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying the United States Congress to establish regular veterans’ pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. Its peak membership, at more than 490,000, was in 1890, a high point of various Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies.
At least one or more of the charter members of this particular post were captured by the confederacy and served time at Andersonville Prison. Colleen Norman is working up biographies on each member and will publish her results in the next members quarterly of our society.