|
Mr. Ruel Colt Gridley
carried a 50 lbs sack of flour through town to the neighboring town of
Clifton on April 19, 1864 as part of an election bet. Mr. Gridley, a
southern supporter had to carry the sack while the town band marched
behind playing the Star Spangled Banner, the Battle Hymn of the Republic,
and other patriotic ditties. The deed done with good natured aplomb, the
participants retired to the Grimes and Gibson Saloon to celebrate and
auction off the sack of flour to raise money for the Sanitary Commission.
After raising $3,500 from locals, Mr. Gridley took it on the road around
Nevada, California and finally to the cities of the east. The sack was
last auctioned at the Sanitary Fair in St. Louis. Altogether, Mr. Gridley
raised between $200,000 and $275,000 for the relief of wounded Civil War
Solders. The amount depends on the source you happen to be reading.
The silver failed while Mr. Gridley was on the road auctioning off the
sack and he returned home to find himself broke. He died in Stockton, CA
in 1870 and was buried in a grave marked only by a simple cross. When word
of his demise reached veterans of the Union Army, they sold thousands of
miniature flour sacks to raise the funds to erected a proper monument in
honor his service to them.
As an interesting side note, the original flour sack still exists; it
resides in the Nevada State Museum in Sparks, but it is currently in
storage and not on display. For a time, the sack would travel back to
Austin every year for their annual Austin Days celebration but the red
tape got so bad that nobody wanted to deal with it any more. There is a
movement of sort to demand that the state give the sack back, they are
just storing it, and Austin has a museum of its own that would love to
display it. |
