From the Feb. 8th Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Marylynne Pitz.
For many years, the Captain Thomas Espy Post of the Grand Army of the Republic met on the second floor of the Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall in Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
Thomas Espy was 53 (very old to enlist) when he enlisted in the Union Army and was wounded at the Battle of Gaines Mill in 1862, taken prisoner and died a few days later, leaving a wife and eight children.
The post was chartered in 1879 with many former members of the 62nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. They moved to the library in 1906. The last member died in 1937, and the hall was closed.
In the 1980s, Civil War buff Michael Kraus bought a sword from a man in Carnegie wo suggested he visit the old post which was then used for storage. The place was a mess, but he was sparked to action and volunteered to catalog 100 Civil War artifacts still remaining from a 1911 list of 177.
He then organized a group and helped clean the place up. It is now one of only six in tact GAR Halls left in the United States.
Hats Off to Mr. Kraus On a Job Well Done. --Old B-Runner
2 comments:
Thanks for spreading the word. The Espy Post is painstakingly restored, a true national treasure. We're beholden to Mike Kraus for the early role he played, but thanks now belongs to scores. The 9th PA Reserves, especially Jim White, for years of stewardship, the staff and board of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, the Chartiers Valley Partnership and thousands of supporters of the campaign to restore the historic landmark Library & Music Hall (a work in progress). Finally ALL thanks to the vision and generosity of the donor born and raised in Birmingham AL who funded the restoration of this one of a kind Grand Army of the Republic Post. see www.carnegiecarnegie.com
I always like to see any of our heritage preserved and restored. Congratulations to all involved.
Aurora, Illinois, also has a GAR Hall that still stands, but I haven't been inside.
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