Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War 1861-1865

History of Tent No. 2

On April 3, 1912, Eva Gray Tent No. 2 was instituted in Grand Rapids with 21 charter members. This was the second tent in Michigan under the name of National Alliance, Daughters of Veterans. The Tent became inactive on January 1, 1988.
 
Then, in 1999, Eva Gray Tent No. 2 was revived. Today, we are over 40 members strong!

The Tent was named in memory of Mrs. Eva A. Gray, who was a President of Custer Relief Corps in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1890, and President of the Department of Michigan, Woman's Relief Corps, in 1905.
 
From The Grand Rapids Herald, Sept. 9, 1910, page 2:  "Mrs. Eva Gray, aged 56 years, died Wednesday, September 8, 1910, at her home, 296 Grandville avenue, after an illness of two months.  She is survived by one son and four daughters."
 
Eva Gray was the wife of Freeland H. Gray who was a Sergeant in the 13th Michigan Infantry, Co. B, and was discharged by reason of a gunshot wound on June 22nd, 1864.  
 
Freeland H. Gray, for many years a resident of the city, and long watchman at the Wealthy avenue crossing of the G. R. & I. died at his residence, 296 Grandville, Monday night, December 21, 1903, of hemorrhage of the stomach.  Gray, aged sixty-two, was a veteran of the Civil War and a member of Custer Post 5 of the G.A.R.  Funeral services were held at the residence on Thursday with interment in Oak Hill Cemetery [known today as Oakhill Cemetery, South].
 
Source: The Grand Rapids Herald, Dec. 23, 1903, page 2 and The Grand Rapids Press, Dec. 23, 1903.
 
All four of their daughters were members of Tent No. 2 and mustered in during the years of 1915 and 1919.
 
Elizabeth Erwood    b. Ganges,  MI              aged 43 in 1915
Minnie A. Cooper    b. Grand Rapids, MI      aged 41 in 1915
Francis English        b. Grand Rapids, MI      aged 39 in 1915
Helen Vogelsong     b. Grand Rapids, MI      aged 36 in 1919
 
Submitted by Susan Norder, October 2004

History of Tent No. 3

The Tent was chartered April 15, 1914 with 42 members led by May C. Kidder, National President.  
 
Tent No. 3 was named for Sarah M.W. Sterling who was a native Detroiter married to a Union colonial in the Civil War.  She was actively involved in everything connected to the Civil War and left her home to be near her husband riding her own horse.
 
Tent No. 3 met at the GAR Building in downtown Detroit until 1973 when members became unable to attend due to advancing age.
 
The Tent remained inactive until June 1992, when due to the efforts of Celestine Hollings, the Department of Michigan initiated eleven new members and reactivated it.  On June 7, 1992 the first organization meeting was held at Elias Brothers Big Boy Restaurant in Detroit, MI.  The following officers were elected:  President, Celestine Hollings; Sr. Vice President, Sarah Fox; Jr. Vice President, Ada Maxwell, Secretary, Peggy Williams; Treasurer, Vivian Porche*; Chaplain, Anna Strauther*.
 
* now deceased
 
Submitted by Celestine Hollings, PNP, October 2004

History of Tent No. 14

On June 17, 1918, in Lansing, MI, 88 years ago, there was a meeting to organize the 14th tent (chapter) of the Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War.
 
Tent No. 14 became a holding tent later on for a few  years and started back up in Corunna in 1996.  In 1999 it had approximately 15 members.  Today, there are 38.
 
Why was Tent No. 14 named after Juliet E. Stevens?  Juliet E. Stevens was a Civil War Nurse in the camps. Juliet, as a nurse, accompanied her husband, First Lieutenant Sylvanus H. Stevens in Illinois in the Chicago Board of Trade Battery.  
 
Juliet moved to Nashville, Tennessee in early 1863 where the Army Headquarters of the Department of the Cumberland were established.  The Chicago Board of Trade Battery was then encamped in that vicinity. For the next three years she made only a few trips back to Chicago, until the close of then war.
 
When Lieut. Stevens was mustered out on the 23rd of June, 1865 , he returned to his civil duties.  On the Chicago Board of Trade he was an expert and an acknowledged authority on flax in every market in this country and his inspection was recognized in foreign countries as standard.
 
Juliet’s dedicated service as a war nurse is depicted in the Chicago Republican. It said:  “During the time the Battery has been in the service, Mrs. Stevens has been as near it as possible, and has devoted herself continually to the care of its wounded in hospitals, and to procuring its supplies of sanitary stores.
 
Indeed, all of the sanitary stores received by the Battery have been obtained through the personal efforts of this lady.
 
The hospitals of Nashville and Chattanooga have long known her valuable service from the hour of the first ...Battery at Stone River to the present, ‘Whenever a member lay sick or wounded, she was by his side to assist in restoring him to strength and health.’ ”
 
Two articles were published in Chicago newspapers fifty years after the war on Juliet, with the title: “Angel of the Battery” and “Mrs. Juliet E. Stevens - The Angel of the Battery.”
 
Her photograph was centered and surrounded by photographs of a score of members of the Battery including those of her husband.
 
One record said that Juliet (Brawner) Stevens, was born in February on the 4th in Chillicothe, Ohio.   When she was three months old, they moved to Henderson, Kentucky.
 
She died May 26, 1911 in Chicago, Illinois at age 77 and is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.
 
Edith Stevens Clark, Juliet’s daughter, attended nearly every annual convention of the DUV wherever it was held in the U.S. until she was 90 years old.  Her obituary was published in the Chicago Tribune on May 27, 1911.  She was 77 years old.
 
Submitted by Judith L. Fisher, January 2007

History of Tent No. 58

The tent was chartered in January, 2008 by ten ladies.  We have now grown to 16 with several applications in the process.  
 
The tent is named after a local Kalamazoo lady, Cornelia Stockbridge Sheldon who was one of the founding members of the Ladies Library and was instrumental in organizing a Sanitary Fair to send aide to the Civil War soldiers.  
 
Our members range in age from 16 to 80 years of age and we have a "real" granddaughter in our tent.  We are an active and friendly group and work closely with the Sons of Union Veterans Camp in the Kalamazoo area in headstone dedications and fund raising.  We have plans to eventually have members helping out at the V.A. Hospital in Battle Creek.
 
Submitted by Sally Redinger, October 2008

History of Tent No. 59

Lorinda Anna Blair married James Etheridge in 1860 and followed him when he joined the 2nd Michigan Infantry.  Although James deserted the army, his young wife Annie Etheridge transferred to the 3rd Michigan and later to the 5th Michigan where she remained for the duration of the war.  She was on the battlefield nursing wounded comrades at some of the bloodiest battles  including engagements at Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancelorsville, and Spotsylvania.  Surviving letters from two different soldiers wrote of Annie "binding the wounds of a man when a shell exploded nearby, tearing him terribly and removing a large portion of the skirt of her dress" and " in the very front of the battle dressing wounds and aiding the suffering where few surgeons dared show themselves."  Her bravery on the battlefield earned her the "Kearney Cross," a Civil War medal awarded exclusively for heroism.  It was designed as a cross of valor and Annie Etheridge and Marie Tebe were the first two women to be awarded  this honor. 

Submitted by Sharon Patton, April 2009