History Snoopin': Memorial Day--1919

Memorial Day, 1919

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by Bill Miller for the Mail Tribune

Monday, May 27th 2019

“This is not a day of the glorification of war, but a solemn recognition of the supreme sacrifice and terrible cost of war.”

The Rev. Myron Boozer, pastor of Medford Presbyterian Church, had begun his Memorial Day address on a day the Mail Tribune called “the most notable Memorial Day observance and the most deeply sentimental in its significance in the history of Medford.”

Friday, May 30, 1919, marked the first Memorial Day observance since the Nov. 11 Armistice of the previous year. Although the Armistice had ended fighting during WWI, it would still be almost another month before the Treaty of Versailles would formally end the “war to end war.”

The day began in Library Park (today’s Alba Park) with school children, Red Cross women dressed in white uniforms, and hundreds of residents gathering in front of the Carnegie Library. They circled around a floral column dedicated to the 40 local men who had died in the name of freedom and democracy.

Nearly 20 feet high, the patriotic memorial was fashioned from thousands of local flowers by the women of the Red Cross. Red roses were woven into its base, white roses in its middle, and clusters of blue “snakeheads” (Fritillaria) that had been hand-gathered from Jackson County forests, were molded into a tall shaft at its top. Attached on all sides were the names of the area’s fallen soldiers.

A bugle sounded and Junior Red Cross members, accompanied by the high school band, sang “Truth Is Marching On,” while tossing bouquets of red roses at the memorial’s base.

Major Robert Clancy, a Medford physician, gave a patriotic address from the library step, and then led the group in the singing of “America.”

            A rifle squad from the local National Guard fired a salute to the war dead, followed by a bugler blowing “Taps.”

The gathering formed a column that included veterans of previous wars and was led by surviving veterans of the Civil War. They marched down Main Street to the bridge across Bear Creek, following the martial tunes played by the high school band.

On the bridge, to honor fallen Marines and Navy fighters, the Junior Red Cross and the women of the Red Cross dropped roses down to the waters of the creek, all the while singing, “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean.”

After the National Guard’s rifle squad fired another salute, the crowd entered the nearby Page Theater for a presentation dedicated to those who had died in the Civil War. (The Page Theater was destroyed in a 1923 fire. A corner of the five-story building stood where a parking lot on the south side of Main Street stands today.)

The Rev. Boozer stood on a stage patriotically decorated with flags, bunting and flowers. His address was called the most important of the day.

“We are face to face with problems that war can never solve,” he said. “The blood of our heroic dead cries aloud from every field of battle, and from every grave on home or foreign soil; for the recruiting of a vast army of great hearts dedicated to the unfinished tasks they have bequeathed to us.”

Memorial Day 1919 ended with flowers lovingly placed on the graves of soldiers and sailors.

Writer Bill Miller is the author of “Forgotten Voices of WWI,” a different look at the war to end war. Reach him at newsmiller@live.com or WilliamMMiller.com.

https://mailtribune.com/lifestyle/memorial-day-1919

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Eugene Ely and the Birth of Naval Aviation

14 November 1910- Pioneer #Aviator Eugene Ely in the Curtiss built “Hudson Flyer,” took off from the cruiser Birmingham, thus completing the first flight from ship to shore—the birth of Naval aviation.

Aviator Eugene Ely

(An excerpt from Eugene Ely, Daredevil Aviator)

On Monday morning, November 14, Orson Harrington who was still Gene’s head mechanic, arrivedBirmingham steamed out onto the Hampton Roads, Gene eased the tension in his mind by inspecting the motor and poring over every inch of his machine. The original idea was to steam out as far as 50 miles onto Chesapeake Bay, turn the ship into the wind, and then attempt a takeoff and flight up the Elizabeth River back to the Norfolk Navy Yard. But the weather was bad. An observer on the edge of Chesapeake Bay reported fog so thick he couldn’t see further than four miles, and though he should have been able to see the Birmingham by now, he couldn’t. The clouds were dark and swirling and by 1:30 that afternoon, the light mist was turning to intermittent rain squalls speckled with hail. White caps licked at Birmingham’s hull as it sliced through the water. “The thickness of the weather rendered landmarks so obscure,” Chambers said, “that the ship was anchored off Old Point Comfort to await a possible improvement.”

Aviator Eugene Ely on cruiser Birmingham

The rain let up for just a moment, but black clouds were in the distance and another squall was coming on fast. Visibility was already down to less than a half-mile. Gene turned back to see what was happening on the bridge. Nothing! The Navy was too slow. If he didn’t go now, he’d never go. “I was anxious to complete the test without waiting any longer for more auspicious conditions,” he said later. He throttled his engine to full speed and gave Harrington the thumbs up. Harrington hesitated and Gene pushed his thumb even higher into the air and shook his fist. Harrington shouted to the sailors who were helping hold back the machine and all at once they let go. 

Aviator Eugene Ely flies away from the  cruiser USS Birmingham

“He flew off with the greatest ease,” Curtiss said. At 55 miles an hour, Gene roared straight down the centerline painted on the wooden platform, his tail clearing the end of the runway by twenty feet. “Ely just gone,” tapped the Navy wireless operator. “Ely off OK at 3:17:21 p. m.”

After four minutes in the air, uncomfortably cold and wet, Gene was lost. “By the time I had succeeded in drying my goggles, I lost track of the landmarks by which I intended to guide my flight over Norfolk to the navy yard,” he said. “Anyway, it was a very dark day.

He tried to get his bearings. Through the fog and rain, he could barely see a sandy strip of beach known as Willoughby Spit, directly across the water from Old Point Comfort. “I found myself making for a beach and choosing a convenient spot near the Hampton Roads Yacht Club.” He made it sound so simple. “I felt that it would be better to land than to attempt to continue the flight,” he said. It was a smart move. He didn’t know at the time that when he had left the Birmingham and hit the water, the driving edges of his propeller tips had splintered, and one edge looked as if it had been cut off by a saw. He landed in the soft sand and until he saw the damage to his propellers, he thought he might try to takeoff and continue his flight. “I landed with no trouble,” he said. “Had it been necessary I could have started the machine up again and tried to fly back to where I came from.” He said he was not fond of the water, but he was proud that he overcame his fears “long enough to accomplish my purpose.”

Eugene Ely had flown the United States Navy into the air.

Eugene Ely, Daredevil Aviator)

U.S. Navy finally chooses aviation

26 September 1910 - 

Captain Washington Irving Chambers

Captain Washington Irving Chambers, USN “designated as the officer to whom all correspondence on aviation should be referred.”

Captain Washington Irving Chambers

This is the first recorded reference to naval aviation within the Navy Department.

Eugene Ely

Through Chambers' efforts, pioneer aviator Eugene Ely, went on to become the first person in history to not only takeoff from a naval ship, but also to land and takeoff from another naval ship.

Eugene Ely flies from the U.S.S Birmingham