Forest Park in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615 Memorial

Photographed By Sean Flynn, February 22, 2024

1. Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615 Memorial Marker (east-facing side)

Inscription. [Plaque on east-facing side of monument:]
In loving memory
of past commander Wilbur F. Crummer
and his comrades here buried
of other comrades of the post buried
in Forest Home Cemetery
of all deceased comrades of the post wherever buried

"Cover them over with beautiful flowers
Deck them with garlands these comrades of ours"

Comrades buried in this memorial plot
1. John W. Scribner, Co. D, 16th U.S. Inf., died Aug. 6, 1897 • 2. Herman Hirsekorn, Co. B, 13th Illinois Cavalry, died Feb. 1, 1898 • 3. Richard L. Boyd, 39th U.S. Col. Inf., died May 5, 1905 • 4. George H. Frizzell, Co. E, 19th Me. Inf., April 13, 1912 • 5. Amza L. Fitch, U.S. Transport Service, died July 13, 1913 • 6. August Sternitski, Co. I., 2nd D.C. Inf., died Sept. 26, 1917 • 7. Wilbur F. Crummer, Co. A, 45th Ills. Inf., died Feb. 17, 1920 • 8. Fred Heald Bowen, Co. E, 1st Florida Vol., died Jan. 27, 1921

[Etched on the west-facing side of the memorial:]
Erected by
Phil Sheridan Post
No. 615
Department of Illinois
Grand Army
of the
Republic
in
memory and honor
of
deceased comrades

[Etched on the south-facing side:]
Eternal vigilance
is the
price of liberty

Erected

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1921 by Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615.

Topics. This memorial is listed in these topic lists: Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Fraternal or Sororal Organizations • War, US Civil.

Location. 41° 52.065′ N, 87° 49.571′ W. Marker is in Forest Park, Illinois, in Cook County. The marker is in section 17 of Forest Home Cemetery. It can be reached from the Des Plaines Avenue entrance by following the signs for the bridge. The memorial is about 125 yards east of that bridge, which crosses the Des Plaines River. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 863 Des Plaines Avenue, Forest Park IL 60130, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within one mile of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Forest Home Cemetery Veterans Flagpole (about 500 feet away, measured in a direct line); Columbia Post No. 706 (about 700 feet away); Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument (approx. 0.4 miles away); Native Prairie Plants (approx. 0.7 miles away); Forest Park War Memorial (approx. 0.8 miles away); Veterans Memorial (approx. 0.8 miles away); George Dilboy (approx. 0.8 miles away); Veterans Honor Roll (approx. one mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Forest Park.

More about this memorial. The top of the marker features a small cannon. The east of the marker includes the memorial plaque;

Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615 Memorial image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Sean Flynn, February 22, 2024

2. Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615 Memorial

This view of the memorial is taken from north, where the etching of medal can be seen on the side. According to the marker, seven members of GAR Post 615 who died between 1897 and 1921 are buried within this memorial plot.

the south- and west-facing sides are etched with words. The north-facing side includes an etching of a medal. The memorial is also the gravesite for Maj. Wilbur Fisk Crummer, who was a past president of the GAR post.

It is one of two G.A.R. memorials erected in Forest Home Cemetery; Columbia Post No. 706, based in Chicago, has its memorial on the other side of the Des Plaines River, perhaps 500 feet from this spot. The bridge between the two sides of the cemetery is closed as of February 2024.

Regarding Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615 Memorial. Phil Sheridan Post No. 615 of the Grand Army of the Republic was the active Civil War veterans group that represented Oak Park, a near-west suburb of Chicago that is about 3 miles northeast of this cemetery. Few if any of the members were natives of the area, most among the many settlers who came to the area in the years after the Civil War and then when Chicago boomed after the Fire of 1871. Two post members, William Hatch and William Beye, are still memorialized today in the names of Oak Park elementary schools. One of the Sheridan Post's primary meeting places is also still in existence today on Lake Street about 4 miles from this location, and is currently the home of the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest and its OPRF Museum. Originally a Cicero Township firehouse,

Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615 Memorial (west-facing side) image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Sean Flynn, February 22, 2024

3. Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615 Memorial (west-facing side)

it was later called G.A.R. Hall.

Contemporary news articles along with the post's meeting agendas show that funding and erecting this memorial and its bronze plaque were long-time goals for the group, whose heyday in the 1880s and 1890s was, as it was for all G.A.R. posts, followed by a slow decline as the veterans of the Civil War passed away. The last living member of the Phil Sheridan Post, John Kievlan, died on January 19, 1944, at age 97. According to a 1936 article in the Chicago Tribune about Cook County's 43 remaining Civil War veterans, Kievlan was a native of Sligo, Ireland, and emigrated to Chicago in 1853. He joined the 153rd Illinois Infantry in the final months of the war and later served in the Spanish-American War. According to the Tribune, the last commander of the post was Le Roy A. Simmons, who died in May 1936 at age 98 and was a veteran of the 9th Ohio Light Artillery.

Wilbur F. Crummer was a native of Pleasant Valley in Northwest Illinois, about 135 miles from Forest Home. At age 18 in 1861, he enlisted in the 45th Illinois Regiment and fought in famous battles including Fort Donelson, Shiloh and the Siege of Vicksburg. According to his obituary, he was shot by a sharpshooter through his right lung on July 2, 1863 in Vicksburg—two days before the Confederates surrendered the city to Union troops. After moving to Galena in 1867,

Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615 Memorial (south-facing side) image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Sean Flynn, February 22, 2024

4. Phil Sheridan G.A.R. Post No. 615 Memorial (south-facing side)

where he attended the same church at Ulysses S. Grant, Crummer relocated to Oak Park, where he spent the rest of his life as an active participant in a variety of patriotic and veterans organizations, and where he worked for Chicago Title and Trust Co. He was the only Civil War veteran to participate in the Four-Minute Men's organization in Chicago, a volunteer organization set up by President Wilson during World War I to give four-minute speeches on a variety of topics. He also wrote a book about his Civil War experience, titled With Grant at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. Crummer died in Oak Park in 1920 at age 76.

Phil Sheridan Post 615 image. Click for full size.

Philander Barclay Collection, Oak Park Public Library, 1897

5. Phil Sheridan Post 615

The members of Post 615 line up for this 1897 photo. Former post president Wilbur Crummer, who is buried under this memorial, is believed to be just above and to the left of the front-most man in the photo. The photograph was taken in front of the Scoville Institute, the predecessor to the Oak Park Public Library. The building, along Lake Street to the east of Oak Park Avenue, was torn down in the 1950s and replaced by a modern building, which itself was torn down and replaced in the early 2000s by the current main library building. The Scoville Institute was named after James Scoville, a businessman and one of Oak Park's earliest landowners; Scoville's mansion can be seen in the background of this photo, to the right of the institute. Scoville's estate was sold in 1912 to the Park District of Oak Park, and the mansion was demolished soon thereafter to make way for Scoville Park, designed by famed Prairie-style landscape architect Jens Jensen.

OPRF Museum — former GAR Hall image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Sean Flynn, September 16, 2023

6. OPRF Museum — former GAR Hall

The Historical Society of Oak Park & River Forest is headquartered today in an 1898 Cicero Township firehouse, which in later years became known as the GAR Hall, as the Phil Sheridan Post held its regular meetings there.

Credits. This page was last revised on February 26, 2024. It was originally submitted on February 22, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 52 times since then. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. submitted on February 22, 2024, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 6. submitted on September 16, 2023, by Sean Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.