Memorial Day

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Image by Suzanne Morris from Pixabay 

In Flanders Fields


BY JOHN MCCRAE



In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
        In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
        In Flanders fields.
















Human need to honor

The need to remember our dead seems to be part of our human psyche. From prehistoric and Viking burial mounds to Egyptian tombs and Roman coffins, from Victorian mausoleums to battleground burials and monuments, humans from the beginning have sought to remember the ones they loved or revered.


Origins of the US holiday Memorial Day

The United States Memorial Day we now keep as a federal holiday had its beginnings as “Decoration Day,”  as states following the Civil War recognized the need to “remember” those who served and lost their lives during the War.


Early Commemoration in South Carolina by Freed Slaves

One of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was in Charleston, SC, organized by freed slaves less than a month after the Confederacy had surrendered.

Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, Charleston, SC
Photo from Library of Congress


Union soldiers as prisoners of war had been held in deplorable conditions at the formerly posh Washington Race Course and Jockey Club. More than 260 soldiers who died of disease were buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand.

After the surrender, former slaves disinterred the bodies from the mass grave and reburied them in a new cemetery. Newspaper articles from the day described how the graves were decorated with flowers and the freed slaves staged a parade around the race course.  https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston


Federal Honors at Arlington Cemetery

In 1868 a ceremony was held at Arlington to honor the Federal soldiers who lost their lives. Observed on May 30 through 1970, this holiday is now observed on the last Monday in May. National Cemeteries usually have a special public ceremony marking the day, and across the nation there may be parades and other forms of remembrance.


Decoration Day in the US South

In the South, Memorial Day is often still called Decoration Day, and in many areas has expanded beyond military observance to include remembrance of other family, both recent and further back. Family members visit private and public cemeteries to clean up family graves and leave flowers or mementos.


How do we remember and honor?

As genealogists, we work to remember our ancestors and loved ones by telling what we can find of their story. We work on our family trees, try to solve dead ends and puzzles, & hopefully contact new cousins.

And there are other creative ways to remember and pay respect to those who are gone. Many people choose to incorporate heirloom personal belongings and treasures into everyday life.

The following examples are from the family of Alexis Hacker Scholz:

Thomas “Tom” E. Pape, 1950-2010, U.S. Navy, service in the waters off Viet Nam during that war. Tom was my-brother-in-law, kind, talented, generous, funny, and a great dad. He was called "Tinker" by his family, because from the time he could walk he was interested in how things went together and could rebuild or take apart just about anything. He is so missed.

This is a large shadowbox with contents selected from Navy memorabilia by Tom’s wife Maria Hacker Pape; it was professionally framed.


Joseph “Joe” G. Scholz, 1911-1974, US Coast Guard, my husband’s father. He was the son of German and French immigrants, a first-generation American in the Scholz family. Joe and I share a birthday, but I never got to meet him. Someday. In the meantime, Joe’s famous penchant for telling puns and play-on-words lives on in his descendants, including grandchildren.

These Silver buttons are from Joe’s USCG blue dress uniform, mounted on black velvet in a 1-inch deep frame/shadow box by his deceased daughter Gay Scholz.



Have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day!


Thanks to Alexis Hacker Scholz for contribution to this article.

MaryLynn Strickland

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