WAUPACA REPUBLICAN

June 4, 1886

 

May 30

Flowers to the Memory of Loved Ones Gone Before

 

            The day sacred to the hearts of the old veterans of the war as well as in all having friends buried who were once in the service of our country, and also sacred to all having a love for the deeds of the brave boys in blue.  May 30 is a sacred and hallowed day, and its observance by gathering and strewing flowers makes it one calculated to enlist the children in the cause.  It was a wise thought in making May 30 a legal holiday and making the day a flower day will plant the memory of the war and a remembrance of those who fought to obliterate slavery and preserve the Union down deep in the hearts of the young and old which will be handed down from generation to generation as long as time shall last.  In Waupaca there was no public demonstration this year.  Sunday at 4 p.m. Rev. Geo. Gibson, Chaplain of Garfield Post No. 21, delivered a memorial address at St. Mark’s Church.  It was listened to by quite a number of our citizens and Garfield Post – veterans to the number of some forty-five attended in a body.  Mr. Gibson spoke of the value of maintaining the religious ceremony that has of late been adopted – that of memorial service on the Sunday preceding the day of strewing the flowers over graves.  He hoped the day would never be given over to a feast day but always be kept sacred as was intended by those who first suggested its observance.  He admonished his hearers to remember the fact that soon they would have to meet a certain enemy – death.  They should be as fully prepared to meet him as they were the enemy in battle.  Mr. Gibson’s remarks were well received and full of suggestions worth preserving for profit.  On Monday, the fife and drum called the old vets in line in front of Music Hall under command of J.O. Scott, Commander of Garfield Post.  About fifty old soldiers marched to the cemetery.  When such men as Major Roberts and Captain Spencer step out of their bank and store and place themselves in line with the rest of the boys it is a sign they revere the day, and if so many of the veterans are interested in the hallowed ceremonies the people surely should not forget memorial day.  At the cemetery the general ceremony and service was conducted by the officers of the Post and Chaplain and Comrade John Jardine’s grave decorated after which the veterans were divided into three squads and following each detail was a committee of little girls dressed in white, who carried baskets of flowers. 

            The following graves of Comrades were decorated, after which the Post re-formed and marched back to town:

                        John Jardine                                          A.M. Hobbs

                        John Comley                                         M. Boughton    

                        Delos Perkins                                        Frank Merry

                        J.H. Dexter                                           W.C. Pitcher

                        Chas. O. Brown                                                Chas. LeGro

                        S. Cartwright                                        Alvin Cartwright

                        W. Cartwright                                       R. Matteson

                        Lucious Gurley                                      Dr. L.B. Brainerd

            A large number of the people went to the cemetery in carriages, and not a few walked over.  It was observed also, while there, that many graves of those not soldiers were made cheerful and bright by placing thereon beautiful garlands and vases of flowers.  The following from the Oshkosh Northwestern shows that he day is destined to be a memorial day for all.

            The ceremonies of decorating the soldiers’ graves, with the attendant procession and exercises at the cemetery were held today, making, as it were, a double observance of the occasion.  But this annual custom has given rise to one other feature scarcely less noticeable and even more generally observed – and that is the adornment of private graves and tombs by the friends and relatives of those who sleep beneath the sand and sod. It has grown into an almost breachless custom for people to take this occasion to bedeck the last resting place of their dead with tokens of grateful love and remembrance; and on the day preceding the formal decoration of the soldiers’ graves may yearly be seen crowds of people, old and young, depositing their floral offerings upon the graves of loved ones, or watering the thirsty plants that faintly strive to fulfill a sacred mission.  The decoration of soldiers’ graves has given impetus to private decoration, attracting still more attention to the subject of beautifying our cemeteries and adorning burial places until the most beautiful and attractive spots at this season of the year are these gardens of the dead.  Year by year the occasion is having a wider significance and a more extended observance than that for which it it was originally intended, while the latter has in no wise been absorbed or lost sight of.