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The GAR In Tuscola County
Fifteen GAR Posts
The Grand Army of the Republic was formed in Decatur, Illinois in 1866 and expanded, swiftly across the country through latter half of the decade and the one following. After an earlier false start, the Department of Michigan was chartered in 1879. Fanning out from the southwest part of the state, the GAR spread like wildfire eastward, northward and into the "Thumb" of Michigan. In community after community Union veterans of the Civil War petitioned the Grand Army Department of Michigan for a charter and creation of a local Grand Army Post.
The GAR came to Tuscola County in the spring of 1883 when Tuscola, then a thriving logging town, was granted a Charter for the Harper Post #102. Quickly, in the following months, Vassar would open two Posts and Caro one. It couldn't have been known then but the Whiteside Post #143 in Caro would, years later, be the last surviving GAR Post in Michigan, closing only with the death of Michigan's last Civil War veteran, Comrade Orlando LeValley in 1948.
The main swell of GAR expansion was at hand. In the following year,1884, Millington, Cass City, and Mayville would open local Posts of the Grand Army. By the end of the decade another five Posts would open to serve Gagetown, Unionville, Reese, Kingston, and Akron. Later, a third Post would open in Vassar to absorb the membership of the two earlier Posts which had closed. Next, Fostoria would get a Post to serve the extreme southeast corner of the county and, finally, in 1900 a Post would open in Kingston to replace the ill-fated Madison-Price Post which had only lasted four years.
Some of these Posts would last but a few years while others existed for decades, working for patriotic causes, soldier's pensions, and benefits for the the widow and orphan of their fallen Comrades. As the Boys In Blue entered their eighties and nineties the last of the Posts, one by one, surrendered their Charters and passed from existance. By 1935, seventy years after the conclusion of the war, only two Tuscola County Posts would remain--the Lonson Post #255 in Mayville and the Whiteside Post #143 in Caro. The following year, with only two Comrades left, the Lonson Post would close. Caro's Whiteside Post would continue another twelve years, becoming Michigan's last surviving Post of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Below, the Posts of Tuscola County are listed in the order of creation.
Grand Army of the Republic Posts of Tuscola County
| Tuscola |
Harper
Post #102 |
1883-1896 |
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| Vassar |
W.
W. Wheeler Post #142 |
1883-1893 |
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| Caro |
Whiteside
Post #143 |
1883-1948 |
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| Vassar |
Averill
Post #171 |
1883-1891 |
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| Millington |
Wm.
Richardson Post #214 |
1884-1926 |
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| Cass
City |
Milo
Warner Post #232 |
1884-1909 |
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| Mayville |
Lonson
Post #255 |
1884-1936 |
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| Gagetown |
T.B.
Myers Post #357 |
1886-1913 |
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| Unionville |
R.A.
Morford Post #359 |
1886-1896 |
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| Reese |
VanFliet
Post #368 |
1886-1917 |
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| Kingston |
Madison
Price Post #387 |
1887-1891 |
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| Akron |
Burlingame
Post #402 |
1889-1929 |
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| Vassar |
Wm.
T. Sherman Post #410 |
1891-1925 |
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| Fostoria |
Spencer
Post #439 |
1897-1907 |
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| Kingston |
Harlow
Pelton Post #453 |
1900-1926 |
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