VA Watchdog Stuff
cups, hats, shirts
click here to
support the site





Be sure to get all five
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
VSO Press
Releases

Download your
free copy of the
2007 VA benefits
handbook here...

Printer-Friendly Version

AUTHOR TRACES HISTORY OF BATH VA MEDICAL CENTER --

"When I signed up for services at the VA, I started asking

questions about the place's history, and nobody

had any answers. So I started looking into it."

Story here... http://www.stargazettenews.com/ap
ps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071213/COLUMNIST05/712130318

Story below:

-------------------------

Author traces history of Bath VA Medical Center

John P. Cleary

Robert Yott has been a Civil War buff ever since he was a little boy. So when he started getting services and volunteering at the Bath VA Medical Center, he was naturally intrigued by its Civil War roots.

Now Yott has written a history of the medical center, which began as a home for Civil War veterans in the 1870s. He'll sign copies of "From Soldiers' Home to Medical Center" Friday at the Information Center of Corning, next to Centerway Square.

Yott once worked for the Bath center and helped prepare for its 125th anniversary in 2004.

"When I signed up for services at the VA, I started asking questions about the place's history, and nobody had any answers," he said. "They had this generic, one-page history thing. So I started looking into it, started doing a lot of research, and I was amazed at what I was finding out."

The New York State Legislature first enacted laws incorporating a New York State Soldiers' Home in 1863, Yott learned, but provided no funding for the project. It wasn't until 1876 that a veterans' group, the Grand Army of the Republic, began raising money to build a home for veterans in New York. The cornerstone was laid in 1877, and the formal opening of the New York State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home was in January 1879.

Yott began looking into the lives of the veterans who came to live at the home (they were called inmates back then) and started collecting photographs. For the 125th anniversary, he produced a 60-page booklet on the center's history. He no longer works or volunteers at the center.

He expanded that booklet for his new book, which traces the stories of the ordinary and not-so-ordinary veterans who used or visited the place, including at least two presidents, Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt. The book begins with the Grand Army of the Republic encampments at the site of the future home and ends with the record-setting Echo Taps event of 2005.

He's selling it for $17.95. You can get it online through his Web site, www.unionblueenterprises.com.

His research has resulted in the accumulation of quite a database of people associated with the center. He's had several requests from people looking for information about ancestors who lived in the soldiers' home or the medical center. You can request genealogical information via his Web site. He charges a $2 fee for searches.

The book signing is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

-------------------------

Larry Scott  --

Don't forget to read all of today's VA News Flashes (click here)

Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage

email Larry

(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page)

VA Watchdog Stuff
cups, hats, shirts
click here to
support the site