BW schools begin Lincolns for Rosecrans drive

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Most area res­i­dents know that Major Gen­eral William Starke Rose­crans was born in Kingston Town­ship in 1819, attended West Point, and became one of the Civil War’s least under­stood gen­er­als. There’s a marker in Kingston Town­ship rec­og­niz­ing the general’s birth­place, and the Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict named its new ele­men­tary build­ing after the gen­eral – Gen­eral Rose­crans Ele­men­tary School, a.k.a. GRE.

Everyone’s also famil­iar with the effort to erect a bronze eques­trian statue of Gen­eral Rose­crans on his­toric Sun­bury Vil­lage Square. Fundrais­ing has been under­way for the past two years, there have been major con­trib­u­tors and mod­est dona­tions along the way to reach­ing a goal in excess of the $175,000 needed to fin­ish the sculp­ture, cast the bronze, and have it fin­ished and installed for a Sep­tem­ber 28 ded­i­ca­tion ceremony.

The money is mostly in place, with only a few thou­sand dol­lars needed to com­plete the project; and statue com­mit­tee mem­bers decided what bet­ter way to give chil­dren in the com­mu­nity own­er­ship of the new land­mark sculp­ture hon­or­ing one of their own than ask them to help fin­ish rais­ing the money.

To accom­plish that task, on Jan­u­ary 7 Big Wal­nut schools began a Lin­colns for Rose­crans fundrais­ing project that will end on Feb­ru­ary 12, Abra­ham Lincoln’s birthday.

Abra­ham Lin­coln and Gen­eral Rose­crans have an his­tor­i­cal almost, what-if con­nec­tion that’s not well known. Lin­coln sent word to the bat­tle­front ask­ing Gen­eral Rose­crans to run as his Vice Pres­i­dent for Lincoln’s sec­ond term. Although Rose­crans telegraphed his con­sent, Lin­coln did not receive it and selected Andrew John­son, who became pres­i­dent upon Lincoln’s death.

Dur­ing the Lin­colns for Rose­crans fundrais­ing drive school chil­dren will learn about Major Gen­eral William Starke Rose­crans, his life, his edu­ca­tion, his con­tri­bu­tions to soci­ety as an inven­tor, states­man, and the role he played in the Civil War.

Dur­ing that same time school chil­dren will gather pen­nies to donate to the Gen­eral Rose­crans Statue Fund.

“The Lin­colns for Rose­crans project began not so much as a fundraiser, but as a way to help edu­cate and gen­er­ate excite­ment among our school chil­dren about Gen­eral Rose­crans and the build­ing of a statue to honor this local hero,” said Rose­crans Statue Com­mit­tee chair Bill Comisford.

At the cul­mi­na­tion of the Lin­colns for Rose­crans project, the class­room and the school that raised the most pen­nies will be rec­og­nized with a visit from Civil War re-enactors por­tray­ing Gen­eral Rose­crans and Pres­i­dent Abra­ham Lin­coln, and will also be rec­og­nized at the Sep­tem­ber statue unveil­ing ceremony.

Mem­bers of the local com­mu­nity who wish to par­tic­i­pate in the Lin­colns for Rose­crans project may do so by drop­ping off their pen­nies and other coins at The Myers Inn Museum between Jan­u­ary 7 and Feb­ru­ary 12.

The Myers Inn Museum is open from 12 noon to 3 p.m. every Thurs­day, Fri­day and Sun­day, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

For more infor­ma­tion on Lin­colns for Rose­crans con­tact Rose­crans Statue Com­mit­tee mem­ber Sue Com­is­ford at 614–403-4565, click on the Statue but­ton < BigWalnutHistory.org >, or visit The Myers Inn at 45 South Colum­bus Street fac­ing his­toric Sun­bury Vil­lage Square.

Posted by Gary Henery on Jan 16 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.