Look at what New York soldiers ate for Chistmas Dinner at the turn of 20th century at the precursor to a Veterans Affairs Medical Center. On Christmas Day in 1878, 136 years ago, the New York State Soldiers and Sailors Home located near Bath, New York, officially opened to admit veterans for the first time. That day twenty-five (25) disabled Civil War veterans shared in the home’s first Christmas dinner. In 1876, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the largest fraternal organization of former Union soldiers, received a charter from the state of New York to establish a soldiers home in Steuben County near the town of Bath. At the time, nearly 700 disabled or destitute veterans were housed in various state poorhouses. The GAR sold subscriptions to purchase a 240-acre farm in Bath, then sought support from the state legislature for “removal from the Empire State of the disgrace attending the presence in the county poor-houses of so many hundred of her brave defenders.” The New York legislature agreed to accept the home and provide for its continued maintenance as one of the state’s charities. Source: Veterans Health Administration Historian
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 13:26:33 +0000
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