DIVISION FOUR — BOOM. 32 1 



loads, and numbering fully a thousand, for that many railroad tickets were 

 sold, and nearly as many more must have come by other conveyances, as 

 fully 1800 people must have been fed at the banquet tables ; and many 

 sought food elsewhere when they got tired of waiting for their turns in the 

 endless procession that for hours filed in and out of the banqueting halls. 



' ' The visitors were met at the station by the Pasadena band and 

 escorted to Williams' hall — that is, as many of them as could get in — 

 where the preliminary exercises of the day were had. Mayor Holmes called 

 the multitude to order and introduced Major J. D. Gilchrist, commander of 

 the G. A. R. Post here, who in stirring words welcomed the visitors to 

 Pasadena, and cordially invited them to remain and make homes here. 

 Response was made with three rousing cheers for Pasadena. 



" Major Bell, editor of the Porcupine, gave a stirring and characteristic 

 address, in which he recalled the interesting fact — highly creditable to 

 himself — that he was one of the only two soldiers furnished to the Union 

 cause by lyOS Angeles during the war. Los Angeles was then excessively 

 pro-slavery ; and while she had soldiers ad lib. for the rebel army, furnished 

 only two fighting men for the Union. 



' ' The company were then dismissed to dinner, which had long been 

 waiting, and were served as rapidly as possible, by the numerous citizens on 

 hand to assist. Gen. Bennett, department commander of Indiana, Col. 

 Robinson of Ohio, and Sheriff Gard of I,os Angeles, vice-commander of the 

 department of California, were among the distinguished visitors of the day. 



" A floral wreath and bells in the banquet hall were made by Dr. 

 Rachel F. Reid of this place, an old Army Nurse. She was the first woman 

 ever mustered into the army hospital service west of Washington, having 

 enlisted in St. lyOuis in September, 1861, under Gen. Fremont. 



' ' An event that will live in history is the hauling in a carriage by en- 

 thusiastic ' vets ' of four members of the ' Old John Brown ' family, who 

 live here. Jason and Owen Brown, Mrs. Ruth Brown Thompson and her 

 husband, Henry Thompson, have long been residents here, and were objects 

 of the enthusiastic admiration of the boys-in-blue, so much so that in the 

 course of the afternoon they were got into C. C. Brown's fine carriage, the 

 horses taken off and a long rope attached, and for a half hour or more they 

 were hauled up and down the streets by the soldiers, singing, 'John Brown's 

 body lies mouldering in the grave ; His sozil is marc/iing- on ! ' ' Jason 

 Brown is exceedingly modest, even to bashfulness, and he protested with all 

 his power against the embarrassing publicity thus given them, while Mrs. 

 Thompson's womanly heart broke down at the starting of the historic song, 

 and she wept during almost the entire time. However, it was all meant in 

 kindness, and they will doubtless forgive the old soldier friends whose en- 

 thusiasm thus constrained them to trespass upon their privacy.* 



"Among the historic incidents of the day. Dr. H. A. Reid of Pasadena, 

 wore the identical badge (first division sixth army corps) which he wore in the 

 battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, etc. He was 

 then chaplain of the fifth regiment Wisconsin volunteers, and also member 

 for Wisconsin of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, and was within a few rods 

 of Gen. Sedgwick, when that noble officer was killed in the battle of Spott- 

 sylvania. 



*In the Union of August 27, 1886, a card was published, signed by Jason and Owen Brown, Ruth 

 and Henry Thompson, thanking the old soldiers for their kind remembrance. 



