A Monumental Mystery

Anthony Borgo April 2024

I have lived in Whiting for my entire life, but it wasn’t until I started working at the Whiting Public Library 25 years ago that I learned what a rich past the city has.  Whiting, Indiana is a unique place and its history is just as unique.  Since I began working in the library’s Local History Room, I have been amazed by the many interesting events that have unraveled over the years.

Several years ago, I was contacted by Gayle Kosalko, a noted Whiting historian, to assist her in a project.  Gayle was contacted by Ruth Mores, a representative from the Hammond Historical Society, who was interested in finding information about a monument that was discovered at the Oak Hill Cemetery. 

Every year the Hammond Historical Society commemorates historically significant members of the Calumet region.  In 2017 they highlighted nineteen grave sites of Civil War veterans buried at Oak Hill.  The Hammond Historical Society was preparing to celebrate twenty years of their Oak Hill Cemetery tour, when they found an interesting headstone with a Whiting connection.

The nearly 6 foot tall metal obelisk discovered in Oak Hill had an inscription that read, "Erected by the Whiting Memorial Association - May 30, 1905."  The monument was dedicated to Civil War Veterans and it contained a relief of Abraham Lincoln on the front and G.A.R. insignias on the back. From there my search was on.

I began by searching the Local History Room for any mention of the Whiting Memorial Association but it was to no avail.  I then searched the Whiting newspapers from 1905; however I hit another brick wall.  My last hope was to perform a word search for Whiting Memorial Association at the website Newspaper Archive where I finally got a hit.

In a Whiting Evening News article dated April 18, 1930, I learned that the Whiting American Legion Post 80 wanted to take back an odd memorial.  The Legion was looking for help in solving a grave mystery.  Anyone with information to properly identify a monument at Oak Hill Cemetery was asked to contact the Post 80.   The article goes on to describe the very same monument that Ruth Moore was inquiring about.

At that time the cemetery office had no record of the owner of the lot, nor had it any records of any grave.  The Whiting American Legion had been searching for some time to find who was responsible for the monument but had met no success in this endeavor.  Even though many people had been interviewed nobody seemed to know anything about where the memorial came from.

At this point my interest was piqued and I wanted to know more about this mysterious monument.  I did a quick internet search and I came across an entry on the Find A Grave webpage.  The website had a photograph of the Whiting memorial with the following description, "Grand Army of the Republic monument erected in 1905.  This monument was badly damaged for over two decades. Vandals had torn the obelisk off its base.  Made entirely of zinc, also known as 'white bronze' by the Monument Bronze Company located in Chicago, Illinois; in 2011 the monument was restored by the Midwest Cemetery Preservation through private donations."  Attached to the website was a Hammond Times article from 2011.

According to the article Lawrence Varkalis, of Lansing, and Ed Kaminsky, of South Chicago Heights, repaired the Oak Hill obelisk.  After weeks of studying zinc monument restorations and even getting a consultation from Washington's Smithsonian Institute the two men restored this century old sculpture.  The two men stated that the upper tier of the monument had broken off decades ago and had been placed loosely on the base of the monument.  "About a dozen 1970s-era pull-tab beer cans and other rusty litter and debris had collected in the hollow base of the monument."

After contacting the Smithsonian, Varkalis chose to use a metal-based epoxy and finished the repair patch with zinc powder to closely match the rest of the memorial.  During the restoration process the two men discovered more about the structure.  "I didn't even know what the G.A.R. was until I came across the monument and saw the relief of Abraham Lincoln on it," said Varkalis.

The G.A.R. stands for the Grand Army of the Republic. The G.A.R. was a fraternal organization founded by Civil War veterans from Decatur, Illinois.  The fraternity was established in 1866, a year after the war ended.    By linking men through their shared experience of the war, the G.A.R. became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying the United States Congress to establish regular veterans' pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. The organization was dissolved in 1956 after the death of its last member Albert Woolson of Duluth, Minnesota.  Its peak membership, at more than 490,000, was in 1890, a high point of various Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies.

Once Ruth Mores was provided with this new information her wheels began to turn and she may have discovered a connection to the monument.  According to Mores, one of the other zinc memorials on the (Oak Hill Cemetery) tour is for Sara M. Collins. Her obelisk contains an inscription that reads, "Ruthie and Milton's Mamma and the beloved wife of Clay C. Collins."  Clay C. Collins was a police officer and chief of police in Whiting for over 38 years. 

Interestingly, Clay C. Collins was the son of William Milton Collins who was born August 21, 1844.  William Collins was a Civil War veteran who with his wife has a monument standing at the Oak Hill Cemetery.  The back of their memorial states, "G.A.R. served in 51st Indiana Volunteer Regiment 1861-1863."  William Collins passed away on September 5, 1905.  Although nothing is definitive this does show a connection to the Collins family, the Grand Army of the Republic and zinc monuments.