Wisconsin Department Dispatch Spring 2009 Our 126th Year Inside — Comments From Your Wisconsin Department Commander PDC Robert McCormick…….….…2 Greetings Brothers & Friends, Department Orders #3……………………..4 Since our last issue of the Department Dispatch, we have had a lot going on in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Now, Department our busiest season is upon us! Encampment Registration form…….5 We had a very successful Mid-Winter Meeting in February, followed by Camp #1's Patriotic Luncheon. We Map for Dept were honored to have PDC Bob Petrovic, of the Nat'l Encampment ………..6 Council of Administration, in attendance at both events. Memoriam Ernst He and his wife Cher, made the trip up from Missouri to be Frankenberg…………7 with us. I was very pleased with the information our Camp News and Department Officers and Camp Commanders shared with Activities……………...8 us, on what they have been doing for the "Good of the Order"! I have been honored to be able to install the 2009 Officers of Camps 4, 5 & 49. It is great to hear what is going on around the state, with the SUVCW. As always, it is great to be in our only GAR Hall, in Boscobel. rd Last weekend, I was able to join a number of others, from the Badger State, at the 53 Annual Lincoln Tomb Ceremony. Thanks to PCinC Steve Michaels, SVC Tom Brown, JVC Kim Heltemes, Patriotic Instructor Alan Petite, Brother Bill Raftery (Camp #2), Brother Eric Graf (Camp #1) and my son Andrew (Junior Camp #4) for representing our Department in Springfield. This was my first time attending this ceremony, and I am planning to go again next year. Last night, I was at Camp #4's Annual Gibbon Celebration Dinner, honoring Major General John Gibbon, of the Iron Brigade. The keynote speaker was author, John Driscoll. He has written, "Rogue, A Biography of Civil War General Justus McKinstry", "The Baraboo Guards, A Novel of the American Civil War" and "The Civil War on Pensacola Bay, 1861-1862". He did a nice job talking about a number of topics, about Wisconsin in the War between the States. Our 126th Department Encampment will be held in Madison, at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, on June 6th. Harden Camp #2 has been working hard making arrangements and I anticipate an enjoyable and informative Encampment. The activities will be held at the Wisconsin Veteran’s Museum on the Square in downtown Madison, followed by a memorial service. You’ll have a chance to look behind the scenes at the museum and later, visit Camp Randall to see the restoration project begun on the cannons. Please see the Encampment Registration form and map on the insert page of this newsletter. I hope we SUVCW SUVCW can have an outstanding turn out! Sons of of Union Veterans the Civil War Yours in Fraternity, Charity & Loyalty, “PRESERVED BY THE GRACE OF GOD” Wisconsin Department Pioneers Robert L. McCormick Lumberman, Banker, Captain of Industry, Department Commander Robert Laird McCor- In January 1884, in partnership with St. Paul multi- mick was born October 29, millionaire Frederick Weyerhauser, he organized the Sawyer 1847, at Bald Eagle farm, County Bank and served as its first president. In 1890, Clinton County, Penn., the McCormick also organized the Northern Grain and Flour- child of Alexander and Jane ing Mills company at Ashland. Hays Laird McCormick. Following the reorganization of Hayward’s Solomon Robert’s mother died when he Meredith GAR Post, L.P. Harvey Camp 96 was organized w a s two years old. He attended Lock on February 2, 1891, with a charter membership of 19. A Haven’s graded school from 1954 to 1861. In April 1861, Camp had been organized there years earlier, but like the he went with Co. B, 11th PA Inf. to Harrisburg, but was earlier GAR Post, was not successful. McCormick was con- sent home as he was too young for service. He was then sidered the father of Camp 96 and assisted it materially in sent to Saunder’s Military Institute in West Philadelphia, keeping its organization. where he remained during the war. Meanwhile, Alexander McCormick, who was a real estate agent, reportedly Brother McCormick was appointed to the Committees served three years as a private, usually on detached service on Ritual and Reports of Officers at the 1891 Dept. En- due to feeble health. campment, held in LaCrosse. Later at the convention, he was elected to the Dept. Council. After the Civil War, Robert studied law in Williams- port. He then worked in the P & E Railway Co. general From the four candidates at the 1892 Dept. Encamp- office for several months before clerking at a general store ment, held in Oshkosh, the 45-year old McCormick was in Tiffin, Ohio. In March 1868, he became a cashier for elected Commander over 56 Camps. Despite the Financial the Laird-Norton Company, his uncle’s lumber company Panic of 1893, efforts at growth continued. Camps at Kil- in Winona, MN. bourn City (Wisconsin Dells) and Wausau were chartered and an attempt was made to re-establish a Camp at Meno- McCormick married Anna Elizabeth Goodman (1850- monee, Michigan. 1935) on September 11, 1870. They had two sons: Wil- liam Laird (1876-1953) and Robert Allen McCormick Additionally, McCormick served on the Sawyer County (1885-?). A daughter, Blanche Amelia (1873), died in in- Board of supervisors (1892 & 1902) and was President of fancy. (Continued on page 3) In 1874, loosing his health from con- finement in the office, he opened a prof- itable retail lumberyard at Waseca, while continuing to work in his uncle’s firm. He also held interests in the large stone quarries of W.B. Craig & Co. at Man- kato, MN. He was elected mayor of Waseca and served in the Minnesota State Senate (1880-82). He remained there until 1882, when he and A.T. Hay- ward of Oshkosh erected a sawmill in the wilds of Sawyer County, Wisconsin. This was the start of the Northern Wis- consin Lumber Co. and the flourishing city of Hayward. Upon Sawyer County’s organization in 1883, Governor Rusk commissioned McCormick as County Treasurer, a position he served in for six years. PAGE 2 DEPARTMENT OF WISCONSIN SONS OF UNION VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR In Memoriam: Robert W. Wiesian Br. Bob Wiesian was an organizer, a diligent worker and a cheerful friend. He belonged to many organizations during his life and we were very fortunate that he chose to lend his time and talent to ours. Br. Bob joined the SUVCW on June 9, 1990, basing his membership on his great grandfather, Pvt. Joseph Menzel, Co. I, 35th Wis. Inf. Soon after, he was initiated at the 1990 National En- campment, held at Des Moines, Iowa. In 1992, he was appointed Dept. Patriotic Instructor and took over the position of Camp 1 Secretary/Treasurer; the latter position he held for the next six years. During that time, he retrieved records and historical property of the Camp and set the Camp’s finances in order. In 1993, he was elevated to the position of Dept. Chief of Staff, where he was responsible for raising needed funds. He held that position for four years before being elected Dept. Sr. Vice Co. Shortly after his election, he was forced to resign due to declining health. Along the way, Br. Bob served as our Department’s first Graves Registration Officer (1996-98), attended three Central Region Conferences and represented the Dept. at two Lincoln Tomb Ceremonies. He presented the Sons’ award at the annual Marquette University ROTC Recognition program (1995-97) and helped our Camp’s early recruiting efforts at the 84th Div. Open House (1995 & ‘96) and the 440th Open House (1996). His first Central Region Conference in 1992, in Lansing, inspired him to champion the placement of a plaque at Milwaukee’s Central Library, commemorating E.B. Wol- cott GAR Post #1 meeting place. While his health would not allow him to continue to actively serve as a staff officer, he did continue to attend Camp meetings regularly for the next three years with the aid of a wheelchair and brothers who volun- teered as chauffeurs. Br. Bob began kidney dialysis in 2002, outliving his contemporaries and beating all odds. He moved to the Wisconsin Lutheran Home in 2007, where he saw visitors regularly, including Camp 1’s Welfare Committee last Christmas. Bob passed away on April 15th. He was 86. (Continued from page 2) the Wisconsin State Historical Society (1901-1904). He was also active in Republican politics and was a Wisconsin dele- gate to the 1900 Republican National convention in Philadelphia and at Chicago in 1908. As a result of his extensive business and political interests, Br. McCormick’s participation in the Sons of Veterans (SUVCW) virtually disappeared after he stepped down as Dept. Commander in 1893. By 1899, Hayward seemed to have lost interest in the Sons, as one of the members advised that he was too busy to write a sketch of the Camp for that’s year’s Dept. Encampment program. In 1908, PDC McCormick moved to Tacoma, Washington, becoming secretary of the Weyerhauser Timber Company and president of that state’s historical society and two banks. He was appointed Republican National Committeeman from Washington in June 1908. He was an eminent member of the Masons, Sons of the American Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, the Minne- sota Club and trustee of the First Congregational Church of Hayward. PDC Robert McCormick died near Sacramento, presumably while on a business trip, on February 5, 1911 at age 64.