September 15, 1881
RE-UNION OF THE SOLDIERS
OF THE MEXICAN WAR AND OF THE CIVIL WAR
Annual Meeting of the Aztec Club
Dinner to the Club and Other Distinguished Guests at Wayne Station
In pursuance of an invitation given some months ago
by Mr. George W. Childs the Aztec Club, composed of officers in the War with Mexico, held their annual
meeting at the beautiful new hotel, Bellevue, at Wayne Station, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, yesterday,
Sept. 14th, that day being the thirty-forth anniversary of the capture of the City of Mexico by the
American Army under General Scott. Besides the members of the club present at the business meeting,
a number of other gentlemen were invited to join them at dinner after the business of the Society was
disposed of.
The party was conveyed from this city to Wayne Station
in special trains, whence they were driven to the hotel. Hotel Bellevue is one of the buildings, erected
during the summer by Messrs. Drexel and Childs, at Wayne Station, and was enlarged but a few days ago.
The architecture is of the Queen Anne style, and the three fronts were decorated in a tasteful manner
with flags and bunting. The new dining room, in which the dinner was served is 47 by 28 feet, having
a ceiling paneled in imitation of mahogany.
The table was arranged along three sides of a square, and
artistically decorated with pyramids of fruit and flowers, one very beautiful floral design in the centre of
the table having been sent by Mr. William M. Singerly. At the head of the table, placed upon an easel,
was an excellent photograph of the late President of the Aztec Club, General Robert Patterson. The
walls were handsomely draped with festoons of colored bunting.
BUSINESS
MEETING
Previous to the dinner a meeting of the Aztec Club was held in
the east parlor of the hotel. After the transaction of some routine business an election for officers was
held, which resulted in the choice of General Winfield S. Hancock as President, General U. S. Grant
as Vice President, Mr. Randall Hagner as Treasurer, and Professor Henry Coppee, LL.D., as Secretary.
The following were elected members: Gen. Jas. Longstreet,
Gen. L. H. Graham, Gen. C. H. Crane, Gen. John H. Simonson, Gen. D. B. Sackett, Gen. H. J. Hunt,
Gen. J. H. Potter, Gen. Ramsey, Gen. Huger, Gen. G. W. DeRussey, Gen. A. J. Lindsay, Gen. J. G. Whistler.
The sons of Generals Meyer, Davis, Robert Lee, Jos. E. Johnston, Hardcastle and Craig, and relatives of
Col. Kendrick and Gen. Clitz were made associate members.
THOSE
PRESENT
At the conclusion of the meeting the members of the Club
and invited guests took seats at the table. Gen. U. S. Grant presided, and on either side of him were
Gen. W. T. Sherman, U.S.A.; Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, Mr. John Walter, of London; Hon. Henry M. Hoyt,
Governor of Pennsylvania; Gen. William Preston, of Kentucky; and A. J. Drexel. Seated at the other tables
were the following members of the Aztec Club and guests: Gen. Benj. Alvord, U.S.A.; Gen. Albermarle
Cady, U.S.A.; Prof. Henry Coppee, LL.D.; Gen. R. C. Drum, Adjutant Gen. U.S.A.; Gen. W. H. Emory, U. S. A.;
Gen. H. M. Frost, Gen. H,. G. Gibson, U.S.A.; Gen. O. L. Shepherd, U.S.A.; Gen. H. B. Clitz, U.S.A.; Gen. W. W. H.
Davis: Gen. P. V. Hagner, U.S.A.; Col. H. L. Kendrick, U.S.A.; Gen. Innis N. Palmer, U.S.A.; Gen. Fitz John Porter,
Gen. J.C. Robinson, U.S.A.; Col. James Simons, Surgeon U. S.A.; Stewart Van Vliet, Assistant U. S. Quartermaster
General; Gen. R. E. Patterson, Mr. Charles J. Biddle, Gen. W. J. Sewell, United States Senator from New Jersey;
Gen. Horace Porter, New York; Mr. Cyril T. Williams, of London, England; Mr. Norman Walter, of London, England;
Mr. Wm. Henry Hurlburt, Editor, New York World; Col. W. C. Church, Editor Army and Navy Journal; Mr. Joseph
Patterson, President Western National Bank, Phila.; Mr. George B. Roberts, President Pennsylvania Railroad
Company; Mr. A. Cassatt, First Vice President Pennsylvania Railroad Company; Mr. Edmund Smith, Second Vice
President Pennsylvania Railroad Company; Colonel A. Louden Snowden, Director United States Mint; Captain H.
C. Clipperton, H.B.M. Consul at Philadelphia; Mr. William V. McKean, Editor Public Ledger, Philadelphia; Mr. Joel
Cook, Public Ledger; General D. H. Rucker, Assistant Quartermaster General, United States Army; Colonel A. E.
McClure, Editor of The Times, Philadelphia; Colonel Clayton McMichael, Editor North American, Philadelphia.
Mr. Charles E. Warburton, Editor Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia; Mr. Charles H. Smith, Editor of The Press,
Philadelphia; Mr. Frank S. Bond, President Philadelphia and Reading Railroad; Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, of Drexel,
Morgan & Co. New York; Mr. Walter H. Burns, J. S. Morgan & Co., Bankers, London; Mr. A. J. Drexel, Banker.
Letters of regret at their inability to be present were
received from General P. G. T. Beauregard, General J. D. Blanding, Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, Hon. Simon
Cameron, Mr. George Jones, Proprietor New York Times; Mr. John Russell Young, of New York Herald;
and Mr. Frank Thomson, General Manager Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
As the company filed into the dining hall, each guest found
at his appointed place an envelope addressed with his name, the envelope containing, as souvenirs of
the occasion, a printed list of the guests, and a copy of the menu, with the name of the individual guest
at the top in illuminated text with illuminated emblems.
During the afternoon Beck's Philadelphia Band was
stationed on the piazza, and gave selections from some of the works of the prominent composers.
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