Book -PT) 7c- 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
MMANDERY of 
 THE STATE OF 
 PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 TO 
 
 Brevet Lieut.-Colonel 
 John P. Nicholson 
 
MILITARY ORDER OF THE 
 LOYAL LEGION OF THE 
 UNITED STATES 
 COMMANDERY OF THE 
 STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 Resolutions adopted by the Commandery 
 
 November 2, 1904, expressing 
 
 appreciation of the services of 
 
 Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel 
 
 John P. Nicholson 
 
 as Recorder for 
 
 twenty-five 
 
 years 
 1879 — 1904 
 
 Printed by order of the Commandery 
 Nineteen hundred and five 
 
Gift 
 Author 
 
MINUTES OF STATED MEETING 
 OF THE COMMANDERY OF THE 
 STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1904 
 
 Extract : 
 
 * * * 
 
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 Companion Major-General 
 
 John R. Brooke, Commander, presiding 
 
 Companion Brevet Major William H. Lambert 
 
 Commander : 
 
 Most, if not all, of the 
 members of the Commandery know 
 that Colonel Nicholson has completed 
 twenty-five years of service as its 
 Recorder. Some of his many friends 
 in the Commandery have had oppor- 
 tunity to testify their personal regard 
 and gratitude for his service but it 
 seems proper that official record should 
 
 Twenty-five 
 
 Years' 
 
 Service 
 
be made of the Commandery's high 
 appreciation of his work, and I there- 
 fore move that a Committee of seven 
 be appointed by the Commander to 
 prepare a Minute appropriate to the 
 occasion. 
 
 Resolution 
 Adopted 
 
 Committee 
 Appointed 
 
 The Resolution was unanimously 
 adopted. 
 
 Commander John R. Brooke 
 appointed the following Committee: 
 
 Companions Brevet Major William 
 H. Lambert, Brevet Major-General D. 
 McM. Gregg, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert 
 B. Beath, Brevet Major R. Dale Benson, 
 Captain John P. Green, Captain Noble D. 
 Preston, and Brevet Captain John O. 
 Foering. 
 
The Committee submitted the following 
 
 Philadelphia, 
 
 November 2, 1904. 
 To the Commandery of the State of 
 Pennsylvania, Military Order of the 
 Loyal Legion of the United States : 
 Your Committee appointed to 
 prepare a Minute expressive of the Com- 
 mandery's appreciation of Lieutenant - 
 Colonel John P. Nicholson's twenty-five 
 years' service as its Recorder respect- 
 fully reports the following Minute and 
 asks that it be entered upon the Journal 
 of the Commandery and that a suit- 
 ably engrossed copy be presented to 
 him: 
 
 The Commandery of the State of 
 Pennsylvania of the Military Order of 
 the Loyal Legion of the United States 
 records that Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel 
 John P. Nicholson has completed 
 
 Minute 
 Reported 
 
 Colonel 
 Nicholson 
 
Elected 
 Recorder 
 
 His 
 Qualifications 
 
 twenty-five years of service as its 
 Recorder, and that during that period 
 he has also served the entire Order as 
 Recorder of the Commandery-in-Chief, 
 acting or constituted. 
 
 Companion Nicholson 'was elected 
 to membership in this Commandery 
 May 7, 1879, and, on the 21st of August 
 of that year, vv-as elected to the office 
 of Recorder, which had been vacated 
 by the death of Colonel S. B. Wylie 
 Mitchell, one of the founders of the 
 Order, who had held the office from 
 the beginning. 
 
 Colonel Nicholson was admirably 
 equipped for the duties of the position 
 to which he had been elected. Possessed 
 of administrative ability of highest 
 character, intensely proud of the achieve- 
 ments of the Army and Navy of the 
 United States during the W^ar of the 
 Rebellion, with profound conviction of 
 
the privilege and duty of the survivors 
 of the great conflict to cherish its 
 memories and to perpetuate its results, 
 he apprehended the value and possibilities 
 of the Loyal Legion and entered the 
 office with full sense of its obligations 
 and opportunities, and for a quarter of 
 a century he has devoted himself to 
 the promotion and furtherance of the 
 objects and principles of our Order. 
 Colonel Nicholson's zealous and self- 
 sacrificing service has compelled the 
 admiration of our membership, and 
 the prosperity of the Order furnishes 
 most convincing proof of his especial 
 fitness and rare gifts. 
 
 During his service the office of 
 Commander-in-Chief has been held by 
 Generals Hancock, Sheridan, Hayes, 
 Fairchild, Gibbon, Schofield, and Gregg, 
 and Rear- Admiral Gherardi, all of whom 
 were loyal to the Order and by their 
 
 His 
 Service 
 
" 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 high fame dignified the office and the 
 organization, and all have testified to 
 his efficiency and gratefully acknowl- 
 edged the indebtedness of themselves 
 
 
 
 
 and the Order to him. 
 
 W^hen Colonel Nicholson became 
 Recorder the number of Commanderies 
 
 
 Growth of 
 
 
 was six, the membership 794, and the 
 
 
 the Order 
 
 
 aggregate of the funds held by the 
 
 
 
 
 several Commanderies was $11,182. 
 The membership of this Commandery 
 
 
 
 
 was 212 and the amount of its funds 
 $1107.09, with an indebtedness of $3,000. 
 Now the number of Commanderies is 
 20, the membership 8949, the aggre- 
 
 
 
 
 gated funds $142,142 ; this Commandery 
 numbers 1106 and the amount of its 
 
 
 
 
 funds is $45,685. 
 
 
 
 
 It is beyond the power of the 
 
 
 His Work 
 
 
 Commandery to recompense Colonel 
 
 
 Appreciated 
 
 
 Nicholson for the services he has freely 
 
 
 
 
 and lovingly given, but it is in our 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
power to tell of our appreciation of 
 his work and to congratulate him 
 upon its splendid results, and it is our 
 privilege to express the earnest desire 
 that he may be spared long to enjoy 
 the companionship of the Order and 
 the proud consciousness of accom- 
 plishment so largely his own. 
 
 ■Whilst gratefully acknowledging 
 the obligation of the Loyal Legion to 
 Colonel Nicholson, we deem it appro- 
 priate to express as well our pride 
 and gratification in his achievements 
 in other spheres of patriotic usefulness. 
 He bore an active and honorable part 
 in the war from its beginning in 1861 
 to its close in 1865 ; he is and has 
 been a devoted and intelligent student 
 of the history of that war, and has 
 collected a great library of its military 
 records unsurpassed in completeness. 
 ^Endowed with remarkable memory 
 
 Achievements 
 In Other 
 Directions 
 
Battle-field 
 
 of 
 
 Gettysburg 
 
 and with wide acquaintance with the 
 participants in the War, including the 
 most distinguished, he has acquired 
 vast knowledge of its causes and 
 progress, and has generously imparted 
 of his stores of information to his 
 companions, to patriotic societies, and 
 to the State and Nation, and he has 
 made authentic contributions to the 
 history of the War and collaborated 
 with the Comte de Paris in his able 
 work, and successfully edited the 
 American Edition. 
 
 Entrusted by the National Govern- 
 ment with the custody and preservation 
 of the field of Gettysburg, Colonel 
 Nicholson has re-established the battle 
 lines and perfected a system of roads 
 and memorials which has made the 
 story of the momentous conflict plain 
 to all who visit that hallowed ground, 
 and has won the admiration of the 
 
A Splendid 
 Record 
 
Resolutions 
 Adopted 
 
 who made it and to the generations 
 whose heritage it shall enhance. 
 
 WILLIAM H. LAMBERT, 
 D. McM. GREGG, 
 ROBERT B. BEATH, 
 R. DALE BENSON, 
 JOHN P. GREEN, 
 NOBLE D. PRESTON, 
 JOHN O. FOERING, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 The question being on the adoption 
 of the resolutions as submitted by the 
 Committee. 
 
 They were adopted unanimously 
 by a rising vote. 
 
 :;-■ ;:: :}: * ^ ^fc :{i ^c ;]: :i^ 
 
 John R. Brooke, 
 
 Commander 
 
,« \v,\ V\f 
 
 QQ.P^90 412 3