From the FIRST MATE's PHOTO ALBUM...

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... last night's TSGS meeting.

We had about 20-25 attend our meeting! We are trying to get more of our 425 members to attend, with a slight increase noted over some meetings of our last fiscal year of 15-20 attending. We would love to have more members & guests to come join us.
Our guest soeaker was Ken Gilkey, Presideent of the Ohio Valley Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. Ken gave an interesting account of George Rogers Clark capture of Ft. Sackville (Vincennes, IN). The after meeting comments were very good. Thanks, Ken!

The red & green 13 striped flag is known as the George Rogers Clark flag. Colonel Clark was a brother to William Clark of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

After cleaning the small G.A.R. sawhorse type stand, I showed it to our members to see if anyone knew why these were at Oak Hill Cemetery. This one was on loan to show. Everyone that gave a comment suggested this plus the other 8 or so others were used to set a coffin upon at the cemetery before it was moved to lower the coffin into the grave. (They may have been, also, used in the homes or other places where the body of the deceased may have been on display before going to the cemetery.) All agreed that it was interesting that these existed. "G.A.R." was determined to stand for the Grand Army of the Republic.

We had a very good meeting that many missed... next month's meeting will feature Robert N. Hall a very entertaining speaker who will discuss the works of author Washington Irving including Rip VanWinkle and the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (kind of a fall/Halloween theme). Mr. Hall will be dressed as Ichabod Crane! I have heard this and about 5 other programs by Bob and I believe this is his very best of the great programs I have had the opportunity & pleasure to hear!

- Photos taken & submitted by JGWest

Mystery at Oak Hill Cemetery

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Chris Cooke, Superintendent of the Oak Hill Cemetery, asked me to drop by when I got a chance to take a look at some small sawhorses that he found in the Administration Building basement. They had the letters "G.A.R." on each one. I counted at least nine of them, but there might have been a couple more; some were being used like stands for some planks that were marked "Oak Hill Cemetery." Chris speculated that the planks were used to stand on when lowering a coffin into the grave... that was just a guess. All of them had water stains on the legs and were dirty from being stored in the basement undisturbed for many years! Below is a picture of one of the legs with the letters stenciled on it with the "G" being at the bottom.
We used a 16"x 25"x 1" filter to show the approximate size. They were about 12 to 15 inches tall and about 15 inches long.

Photo above shows how most has been used in this storage area in the basement. The planks with the stands made a nice shelf to store some of the cemetery's wreaths.

The mystery has four parts. Why are they so small, why do they have the letters "G.A.R." on them, what does "G.A.R." stand for, and what were they designed to be used for?

The initials, immediately, point to the "Grand Army of the Republic." Or could they be the initials of someone or a funeral home (or even a vault company)?

The small size might be to use as a platform or even a stage. Maybe they were used like barricades to block off some of the streets during some funerals or special ceremonies. They seem too short for using as benches.

Were they donated to the cemetery or simply just abandoned? Anyone have any ideas, let us know, please!

- Photos taken & submitted by JGWest

"GAR Medallion"

Grand Army of the Republic emblem or medallion.

-Sent in by Don Counts