Fifty Years After
Fifty Years After is the title of both a 26-page booklet and of a 1914 portrait in the Museum’s archival collection. Both commemorated the Civil War service of area veterans. The booklet’s author, Charles Green, was himself a veteran of that conflict and was one of the 23 veterans pictured in the portrait.
Green’s introduction to his 1911 booklet gave some figures helpful in understanding what the area veterans the background of many of the men. A significant portion of the 140 veterans, 24 by his count, had served from Kansas. Another 45 had settled in the state within a decade of the war’s end. Green stated: “Half of the 140, I think, were farmers in Johnson County within 5 years after the close of the war.” Local Grand Army of the Republic posts were a key social group for the Union veterans. The GAR post in Olathe had about 80 members at the time the booklet was printed.
Brief details for many of the lives of the elderly veterans were recorded in Green’s booklet beyond the basic information on their military service and eventual settlement in Johnson County. The soldiers held a range of ranks with private being the most common, although there were several officers among the group. Most of the names are not remembered now with some exceptions for those familiar with local history. Names included Governor of Kansas John P. St. John, Isaac O. Pickering, and David Page.
The men had served with units from fifteen states in addition to Federal regiments. The group that sat for the photograph, taken just a few years after the booklet was written, ranged in age from 65 to 87. Green’s comments included statements about a wheelchair-bound veteran, how one member could talk in a whisper, and another was blind.
--ALBUM vol. 18, no. 4 (fall 2005)