The
Grand Army
of the Republic
Department of New York
|
The |
|
Dr. John van Duyn
Commander
Department of New York
1926
|
Dr. van Duyn, Dean of Syracuse Physicians
College and oldest living graduate of Princeton University, responded to the
call of the "Great Commander" January 16, 1934 at the advanced age of 90 years,
terminating a long busy life devoted to the service of his country and humanity. He served in both the Wars of '61 to '65 and the World War. Having resolved to study medicine, in the early days of the War of the Rebellion, at the first opportunity, he enlisted as a medical student in the United States Army, thus gaining knowledge of practical surgery and medicine which he never forgot, finding time, meanwhile for a course of medicine at the University of Louisville, KY from which he graduated in 1865. Success came quickly, for his skill in surgery caused him to specialize in this branch of the profession and he was ranked with the greatest surgeons in central New York. |
| Upon the entrance of the United States into
the World War, he formed the John van Duyn Ambulance Unit, a medical corps in which he served as a volunteer surgeon at a hospital in France. Records reveal he was the only Civil War veteran to see service in the World War. Dr. van Duyn, one of the earliest members of Root Post No. 151, Grand Army of the Republic in Syracuse, was Department Commander in 1926-27. "Great spiits never with their bodies die." Source: 1934 NY Dept. Journal, Woman's Relief Corps, Aux. to the GAR |
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