Among this vast army were multitudes suffering from wounds or helpless from incurable disease. They were unable to take up burdens of life they laid down four years before. Father, mother, or wife died and in many instances homes were broken up. A very few only were in receipt of pensions, and the amount then allowed for total disability was but eight dollars per month.

      To relieve these disabled comrades, for one thing, the Grand Army of the Republic sprang into existence. Its mission was to keep alive the fraternal feeling that had been formed in camp, on the march , and in line of battle; to help the disabled comrades on the march of life, just as they had helped them from the field when wounded, or had carried their muskets when they fell, faint and sick by the road-side.

      In 1876 the Grand Army of the Department of Massachusetts resolved that no man who had worn the blue and fought for the state and nation on land or sea should sleep in an almshouse or, dying, be buried as a pauper in a potter’s field. He must be taken out, and be placed in a Soldiers’ Home, where the old flag that he loved so well should float over him, and where he should be treated as an honored guest.

      Under the leadership of the noble and philanthropic General Horace Binney Sargent, then commander of the department, the work began. Letters were sent to cities and towns asking for the number of soldiers and sailors in the almshouses; and the response was, one hundred and thirty-seven. A petition was presented to the legislature, asking for $100,000 to establish a Soldiers’ Home. After a long hearing before the legislative committee, the petitioners were given leave to withdraw. This report was made, not because the committee lacked sympathy for the soldiers, but because they believed that state aid laws could be improved so as to provide for the care of the men outside of a home. An act was passed that opened wide the door, with the results that in nine months nearly $400,000 was expended; and it failed to produce the desired relief.

      In 1877 Horace Binney Sargent, Alexander H. Rice, William Gaston, Charles Devens, George S. Evans, George H. Patch, James F. Meech, Andrew J. Bailey. Henry Wilson Jr., William S. Brown, Joseph F. Lovering, Cyrus C. Emery, John McKay Jr., John G. B. Adams, E. G. W. Cartwright, and Charles W. Wilcox were incorporated as trustees of the Soldiers’ Home in Massachusetts. It was provided that fifteen of said trustees should be members of the Grand Army of the Republic. The board organized by the choice of General Horace Binney Sargent as president, James F. Meech as secretary, and William Gatson as treasurer.

      Now the trustees were busy selecting a location. Many places were visited, and at last it was decided to purchase the Highland Park Hotel, situated on Powder Horn Hill in Chelsea, a suburb of Boston. This estate comprised the buildings furniture, and about four acres of land. It had cost $110,000 and was purchased for $20,000. On June 8, 1881 this building was dedicated and on July 25, 1882 was opened for admission of men, accommodations being provided for one hundred. General James A. Cunningham was elected superintendent and Mrs. Cunningham matron.

      The Home was now an established fact. Those who had had little or no faith in the undertaking became its friends, and July 25, 1883, found it free from debt, with ninety-two men comfortably cared for within its walls, and a balance of $30,000 in its treasury. Applications for admission were received beyond the capacity of the Home, and in 1884 it was apparent that an addition must be built; this was required for hospital cases, one-half of the men needing constant care, which could not be given in the present quarters. Again a call for help went out, and it was not made in vain. During the fortnight from April 7 to April 21, 1885, a grand carnival was held at the Mechanics’ Building in Boston, and $62,312.17 was placed in the hands of the treasurer of the Home. A hospital was erected and additional provided for fifty men, Mrs. Caroline M. Barnard of Everett furnishing an entire ward, dedicating it to Chaplain Cudworth.

      The year 1886 found the Home in the best possible condition, few applications on file, over $68,000 in the treasury, and all bills paid. But in 1887 the pathetic fact again faced us; the Home once more crowded, and applicants being turned away. The demands were so pressing that there was no time to obtain money by other means than by legislative appropriation. Fifty thousand dollars were asked for, and were unanimously voted. With this sum a fine addition was built, making the Home capable of caring for two hundred and eighty-eight men.

      This is the Home then, -- doing quietly its good work from year to year. Since it was opened 1045 men have been admitted and 148 have died. Its support is from the state, which annually appropriates $20,000, and this year has shown extra generosity in making it $25,000, contributions from posts of the G. A. R., the Woman’s Relief Corps, and individual bequests and subscriptions. Added to this there is an organization called the Ladies’ Aid Association, auxiliary to the Board of Trustees, numbering nearly thirteen hundred earnest, patriotic women who are always “ waiting orders. The president is Mrs. Julia K. Dyer, a woman “nobly planned To comfort, counsel, and command. Her name is a household word in every home in Boston, where she has worked so long, and her kindly face is synonymous with charity. She is actively associated in the work of twenty-one charitable and literary organizations, is president of three Woman’s Charity Club, director of the Dedham Home for Fallen Women, the Boston Home for intemperate Women, and other similar societies. This Ladies’ Aid Association appoints visitors who visit the Home and provide the little comfort the sick require; see that the Sunday services are supplied and entertainment’s given during the week , ---indeed, it would require pages to specify their good works. They care for the living, the dead they bury in Soldiers’ Home lot in Malden, which was given by them and is directly in their charge. They are to the Home what the Sanitary Commission was to the army; and beside the constant shower of substantial gifts, they keep the fire of patriotism burning, that the people may not forget the men who stood by the nation in its hour of peril, and who now, in these their latter years, are entitled to their well-earned rest.....