Started in 1899, the Woman’s Veteran Relief Union was a national patriotic society whose members included mothers, wives, widows, sisters, daughters and granddaughters of soldiers, sailors and marines who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. As an auxiliary society it was similar to the Woman’s Relief Corp (1884-1948). (From the New International Encyclopedia vol. 20, 1909).

In a Kalamazoo Gazette article dated 7/26/1899, it is suggested that the Woman’s Veteran Relief Union and the Woman’s Relief Corp were at odds. The article states that since the organization of the Relief Union a couple of months prior, there had been “an unpleasant feeling” between the two auxiliaries, especially since both organizations held social events on the same night two weeks prior. It was later decided that the Woman’s Veteran Relief Union would no longer hold their meetings in the Grand Army of the Republic Hall, finding another venue to do their business. The Woman’s Veteran Relief Union dissolved in 1910.