was $5000. The hall was finished in the late fall and was dedicated on November 14, 1885. Shortly after the dedication, the members deeded the Memorial Hall, as they called it, to the Village of Litchfield with the condition that it be kept "as is" as a memorial to the Veterans of the Civil War and be opened to the public for reading. It became the first public library in Meeker County. The city has kept the meeting room as it was at the last meeting. In that meeting room there are large portraits on the north wall of most of the original members and the same chairs that were used by them in 1885. At their first meeting, the members brought their own chairs from their homes to the Hall. So all the chairs, now painted gray, are different from each other, but generally just ordinary kitchen table chairs. The original organ is also there along with other original furniture. In 1889 the Post was given an oak log from the actual Acton cabin where five members of the Jones family became the first settlers killed in the Dakota Indian War of 1862, previously called the Sioux Uprising. It was taken to a sawmill in Forest City and made into lumber from which an altar, in the center of the room, and a gavel, which were both used during the meetings, were made. The altar is 32 ½ inches square and 36 inches high. It has a cushioned top covered with heavy leather. In the northwest corner of the meeting room is a miniature model of the Jones cabin and it was also made from wood from that log. The Civil War cannons on the front lawn have been brought inside the Hall and displayed near the entrance. The entrance room, with a guest book, is a Civil War museum in its own right with tall glass showcases displaying rifles, uniforms, flags and other Civil War artifacts, such as munitions, medals and ribbons. The hall actually had many more artifacts but it was broken into several years ago and many of the Civil War rifles were taken. GAR members started the celebration of Memorial Day in 1868. W. A. Olmstead, who died in 1933, was the last Civil War veteran and GAR member to live in Litchfield. Albert H. DeLong was the last Meeker County veteran. He died on