The
Soldiers' Monument by sculptor Guiseppe Moretti, located on
the corner of Central Avenue and College Street, Canonsburg.
The bronze was dedicated Memorial Day 1924.
Memorial Day, 1939 was one in a long tradition of holidays
honoring those who had served their country in times of war. Veterans
of the Civil War had originated the holiday, and Canonsburg’s Paxton
Post, No. 126, Grand Army of the Republic had been in charge of the
ceremonies—the parade, the memorial service at Oak Spring Cemetery,
and the decoration of veterans’ graves—while its members were able.
The 1878 ceremonies, threatened by rain, began after noon with
speeches in the old college chapel, better known for its later
service as the high school’s Chapel Gym. Then a band led the veterans
and speakers (who rode in a carriage) down College Street to
Greenside Avenue, then to Pike Street. The line of march proceeded
west on Pike to Bluff, then by way of College Street and Oak Spring
Road to Oak Spring Cemetery.
After the G.A.R. memorial service and decoration of soldiers’
graves with flowers, the procession returned to Pike Street. There a
delegation of veterans and the speakers left the procession and drove
to Hill Church cemetery to honor the soldiers buried there. The band
and the main part of the procession went to Payne A.M.E. cemetery.
to. There after the graves were decorated, a second band joined the
procession for the march back down Pike Street to Speer Spring
Cemetery on the edge of town. After ceremonies there, the parade
returned to the center of town and the participants were dismissed.
"Decoration at Home,"
Canonsburg Herald,
June 7, 1878.
By the turn of the century, many of the veterans were in their
sixties. Veterans of the Indian Wars and the Spanish-American War had
joined the Civil War soldiers, but the number who had served in the
more recent conflicts was relatively small. The G.A.R. Post still was
in charge, but the honor of firing the salute over the graves had
gone to the Sons of the Veterans. The 1902 parade began at the G.A.R.
post on Central Avenue at eight o’clock in the morning. Led by a
band, the parade circled the block: up to College Street, east to
Greenside, south to Pike, then west along Pike. At Jefferson Avenue,
carriages were waiting to carry the veterans to the cemetery, where
the ceremonies began at ten o’clock.
The speaker in 1902 was Boyd Crumrine, lawyer and author of
History of Washington County (1882). The decoration of graves
in the other cemeteries was given to details drawn principally from
the ranks of the Sons of the Veterans.
"Annual Observance of Memorial
Day," Notes,
May 30, 1902.
Canonsburg's Paxton Camp, Sons of the Veterans of the
Civil War, circa 1905. The photograph was taken in the
G.A.R. rooms in the Martin (later Johnson) Building on North
Central Avenue. In the front row are Burt Berry, Basil
McMillan, and ? Grubbs. Second row, Bill Jones, Hugh Clyde,
Rev. McCurdy, Sam Moyers, Alf Newton, and a second Sam
Moyers. Back row, Martin Estep, George Jones, unidentified,
Walter Moyers, George Hoch, and Bill Shisbey
Observance at the G.A.R. Plot, Oak Spring
Cemetery, Memorial Day 1917
Flag raising at the dedication of a new Memorial
Monument in the old Veterans Section. Harold Cypher at the
halyard.
In February 1924, Canonsburg’s Paxton G.A.R. Post closed its
meeting room above the Corcoran 5&10. There were just two members
left, James F. Speer and John W. Grubbs. Speer had been one of the
original members of the post, and as acting commander returned the
charter to state headquarters in Philadelphia.
"Paxton Post Has Given Up Its
Charter," Canonsburg Daily Notes, Feb. 20, 1924.
Fifteen years later, at the 1939 observance, no local Civil War
veterans remained. The last Canonsburg resident who had served in the
war, Alexander McCracken, had died the year before, on the eve of
Memorial Day 1937. That had left William A. Lockhart of Houston, a
veteran of Sherman’s campaign through the South, but he had died the
previous October. Just one soldier of the Indian Wars of the 1870s
and ‘80s remained, 88-year-old James T. Vactor. Within a few weeks he
was gone as well.
Daily Notes, "Last of Civil War Veterans Answers
Call," Oct. 6, 1938; "Death Claims Last Civil War Veteran in
Canonsburg Saturday," June 1, 1937; "Last Survivor of Indian War
Dies at Home," July 3, 1939. The last Civil War soldier in the
county, A. T. Anderson, died in Washington Hospital on September
15, 1944.
Memorial Day 1939 had somewhat of a special status. The worst of
the Great Depression was over. Events in Europe gave an increased
significance to the day, and the Daily Notes said the parade
would be the largest in years. Many of the men who would march and
some who would be memorialized had served in the European war little
more than twenty years before. By the following year’s observance,
Hitler’s blitzkrieg had swept through Belgium, and the evacuation at
Dunkirk was about to begin.
Canonsburg’s newspaper, the Daily Notes, devoted an
unusual amount of space to the holiday, and photographer William A.
Amon took pictures of the parade from his location on Pike Street.
Most of the material is from
the Daily Notes
newspapers published
May 25 through 31, 1939 and will not be annotated.
May 30, 1939, Memorial Day, was a Tuesday. School was out;
Canonsburg High School’s Class of 1939, the largest in the school’s
history, had graduated the previous Friday evening. The day before
had been Class Day, directed by Miss Louise Scroggs. The two highest
honors were so close that there was no valedictorian. Helen Benowitz
and Betty Jane Jacobs shared the honor. Instead of speeches, they
presented a dialog commemorating the half-century of Canonsburg High
School classes.
There was a ceremony at neighboring Chartiers Township that
evening as well. The Chartiers Township School District did not yet
have a high school, but the building was dedicated that May evening.
The newspaper reported that a thousand people crowded into the gym of
the new school and heard Principal Ralph Bluebaugh and Board
President Brad Williams speak of the efforts and vision of J. C.
Bedillion, deceased, the former principal of the Chartiers schools
and, before that, principal of Canonsburg High School. June Barnickle
and Donald Bebout tendered greetings from the students.
Of course, there were other cultural activities of interest that
weekend. Sammy Secreet and Pete (Kid) Spotti of the Cecil A.C. won
their boxing matches at Weirton. Also on Friday night some boys from
the Canonsburg A.C. were showing their stuff in the ring at the
Donora Zinc Works. Red Foley, 120-pounds, won on a TKO in the second
round. John Drochak and Cooper Lugenski were defeated, but Frank
Barbosky won on a forfeit.
Canonsburg did very well in high school athletics that year. The
school had a remarkable track team in the spring of 1939,
particularly since they had no stadium in which to hold home meets.
They practiced at makeshift facilities in the Town Park. The team was
undefeated in dual meets, the last meet of the season having been run
the previous Wednesday at Turtle Creek. Mario Palmer had set a new
school record for the mile, 4:42.5, and Robert Perkins tied his pole
vault record of 10’6". Joe Rybacki won the high hurdles and the high
jump; Howard Gamble the low hurdles. Ross Hume, Zigmund Sulkowski and
George Nikas swept the half-mile, and Floyd Robinson and Steve Berti
finished one-two in the hundred. Bob Smith, who later would coach at
CHS, won the 440 in :54.2.
The coach, Edgar "Dick" Mason, had run for Carl Olson at Pitt and
this was his first year at Canonsburg. Earlier in the year, his
cross-country and wrestling teams had been undefeated WPIAL
champions. Of course, he had not started from scratch. He inherited
Roc O’Connell’s wrestling program and replaced Donley Mollenauer as
cross-country and track coach.
At the banquet given for the track team that spring, Don
Mollenauer, who was teaching and coaching at Mt. Lebanon, said he
found himself still rooting for the Gunners, just like a fan. He said
that at one of the big meets, Coach Mason had asked him to give
hurdler Howard Gamble some pointers. "I’ll talk to Gamble," he
replied, "if you go over and have a few words with my pole vaulter."
On the Saturday before Memorial Day, Coach Mason and hurdler Joe
Rybacki were at State College for the state championships. Rybacki
was the favorite, having won the high hurdles at the WPIAL
Championships at Pitt Stadium the previous week with a time of :15.1,
setting a new WPIAL and PIAA mark. The record for the state meet was
:15.3.
The blond six-footer from Canonsburg didn’t waste any time at
State College. He set a new record in the trials with a :14.9 and
became state champion with a time of fifteen seconds flat in the
finals.
Pictures of the 1939 Canonsburg High School
track season, from the 1940 Canon
Log.
Canonsburg photographer William A. Amon.
Back in Canonsburg, there was a bit of a snag in preparations for
Memorial Day. The seven men who had been getting Oak Spring Cemetery
ready had formed a union and on Friday went out on strike. The usual
work force was about four men, but extra hands had been hired to get
the cemetery ready for the holiday. Most of the men had been getting
$2 for a nine-hour day, while one got $3.50. They were striking for a
uniform wage of 50 cents an hour for eight-hour days; time and a half
for overtime and Sundays.
A board of directors ran the cemetery, and most of the directors
were out of town, so no official action was possible. The
responsibility and the work of getting the cemetery ready fell on the
shoulders of the superintendent, Earl Wilson. To make matters worse,
a new veterans’ section was to be dedicated, and ceremonies would be
held both there and the old G.A.R. section.
The new section was needed
because the original veterans’ section, also known as the G.A.R.
plot, could not accommodate all the veterans of World War One. The
section was called the "World War plot" in the newspaper’s account
of the 1940 observance ("Community Prepared to Observe Annual
Memorial Day Thursday," Daily Notes, May 29, 1940).
The decoration of the graves had already begun. The county
Veterans’ Grave Registrar, David Gillie, whose office was in the
county courthouse, was responsible for coordinating the task. The
Canonsburg Veterans’ Council had the responsibility for Oak Spring,
Speer Spring, Payne A.M.E., and Hill Church Cemeteries as had the
G.A.R. before them. They also were assigned St. Patrick, Cross Roads
(Chartiers Township), as well as the Mt. Prospect and Mt. Pleasant
Cemeteries near Hickory.
The Veterans’ Council, formed
in 1935, was made up of representatives of American Legion Post
253, Veterans of Foreign Wars James Perry Post 191, and David H.
Welch Camp No. 117 United Spanish War Veterans ("Memorial Day
Preparations Are Complete," Daily Notes, May 29, 1939).
While the veterans were fanning out to decorate the graves, 68
merchants of Canonsburg and Houston were holding a Vacation Tours
Contest. Sales bought votes that were assigned to an individual. On
the Saturday before Memorial Day, the stores were giving 500 extra
votes for every dollar purchase, and the contestants were encouraging
friends to go on shopping sprees (or pay off bills).
There were local and out-of-town contestants. The local leader
was Tom Totterdale, followed by Ida DiCio, Ted Klinger, Jean Layburn,
Nellie Meredith, Kenneth Small, Mary Templeton, and Glenn Friel.
G.R.Armstrong and Frank Mals led the out-of-town list, followed by
Teresa Ducsay, Margaret Delost, and Martha Kochanski.
The promotion was a rousing success. Stores were crowded all day.
Several merchants said they had their largest Saturday sales in
years, and the newspaper reported that Monday sales were brisk as
well.
The police also had a busy weekend. Offenses included someone who
decided it would be fun to steal automobiles’ gas caps, routine
traffic accidents, and a car stolen from McPeake’s parking lot that
was found Sunday near Speer Spring Cemetery. A man tried to pass what
probably was a counterfeit bill, but he grabbed it from the clerk and
took off.
The Notes claimed that it was almost necessary to post a
"Standing Room Only" sign at the local lock-up. The guests included
nine drunks and three who were drunk and disorderly. The paragraph
concludes with the sentence, "Four persons were arrested for failure
to observe stop signs," but they probably weren’t tossed in the
clink.
The formal Memorial Day observance began on the preceding Sunday
with a special sermon by Rev. F. S. Eberle at St. Paul’s Evangelical
Lutheran Church. The veterans, whether members of veterans
organization or not, were urged to meet at the American Legion Hall
and march as a body to the Jefferson Avenue church.
On Monday evening there was a rally at Legion headquarters to
which all former servicemen were invited. The memorial exercises
began the following morning at 8:15 at the soldiers’ monument on the
high school campus. The Mothers of Democracy, formed during the First
World War, presided over the placing of a memorial wreath and the
raising of the flag by the boy scouts.
Mothers of Democracy was
instrumental Canonsburg’s having a memorial statue (see "Honor To
the Living; Glory To the Dead," JCTimes, May 1992).
While this first solemn tribute was being carried out, the parade
was forming nearby, on College Street. At the conclusion of the
ceremony, the parade moved out, led by the Canonsburg Volunteer Fire
Department’s Drum and Bugle Corps and the local national guard unit,
Company H, 103rd Medical Regiment. Automobiles carrying
the burgess, Harry L. Cook, and David M. McCloskey, a prominent
Washington County attorney from Charleroi, who would be giving the
oration at the cemetery, followed. Members of the borough council
completed the first division of the parade.
The negatives shot by Bill Amon are not identified
other than being in an envelope marked "Decoration Day
1939." This appears to be the start of the parade, with the
Canonsburg firemen presenting the flag (left), followed by
the Canons-burg Fire Department Drum and Bugle Corps
(right).
The local National Guard Company, left, was a medical
unit and therefore top heavy with physician-officers. The
musicians in the picture to the right appear to be the boys
of the Morganza Band, who led the second section of the
parade. The rotund little man marching with them was their
band director, Dionino Chiaverini.
The veterans were in the second section, behind the
Morganza Band. In front was the color guard, the firing
squad, and the officers of the veterans' organizations. They
were followed by the marching veterans, and a line of cars
carrying those who could not make the distance on foot.
The Pennsylvania Training School (Morganza) Band led the second
division, which included the veterans, led by the firing squad, post
commanders, and the president of the Veterans’ Council. Then came the
marching World War veterans and disabled veterans in cars.
Next came the Houston Firemen’s Drum and Bugle Corps with Boy,
Girl, and Sea Scouts. The final unit, made up of labor and fraternal
organizations was led by the Midland United Mine Workers’ Band.
The parade route was east on College Street to Ashland Avenue,
south to Pike Street, then westwardly to Bluff, and then to the
cemetery. This year, the participants entered Oak Spring’s upper gate
and proceeded back over the hill to the new section. Three veterans
already were buried there.
Four Canonsburg clergymen took part in the dedication of this new
section: Rev. J. Edward Istocin, St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church;
Rev. H. Ross Hume, Canonsburg (Greenside) United Presbyterian Church;
Rev. W. A. Mason, Payne African Methodist Episcopal Church; and Rabbi
Benjamin A. Cantor, Tree of Life Synagogue.
At the conclusion of the dedication service, the observation was
continued at the old soldiers’ section, commonly called the G.A.R.
plot. There the Morganza Band accompanied the people assembled in
singing "America," followed by a brief introduction by Burgess Cook
and the invocation delivered by Rabbi Cantor. David McClosky
presented his oration, and the Canonsburg High School Band played the
"Star Spangled Banner." The observance was closed with a benediction
by Rev. Hume, the traditional three volleys by the firing squad, and
"Taps."
Canonsburg’s Town Park Swimming Pool had opened on Sunday, but
attendance on Memorial Day, some 900 persons, eclipsed opening day.
This was a far larger crowd than was usual this early in the season
and was attributed to the warm, sunny weather.
The pool, under the supervision of pool director Mike Basrak,
opened at two o’clock. Later in the summer, the opening would be at
one o’clock on weekdays, with swimming instruction given in the
mornings.
An improved Willow Beach, at Houston, opened for its seventeenth
season on Memorial Day. The park was privately owned and boasted of
facilities and equipment for boating, bicycling, fishing, picnicking,
and dancing as well as swimming. Owner and manager S. C. Reynolds
announced that new diving towers, playground equipment, and boats had
been purchased for the 1939 season. There was also a new 50-foot wide
driveway into the grounds. A newspaper advertisement suggested,
"Patronize the Park That Pays Its Own Way." The lake and the pool are
long gone, and the Houston American Legion post now owns the site.
Canonsburg’s Lodge 758, Sons of Italy, elected Fred Terling
president on Memorial Day 1939. He succeeded Joseph Cavasina. Other
officers elected were Steve Fragapane, Samuel Vincent, Fred Costanza,
Louis Aquilini, Joseph Sammartino, Marion DiAmico, Gabriel Spino,
James Scabbica, John Ranine, and Sacco Enrico. The names are spelled
as they were in the Daily Notes, which was not known for
accurate typography.
At Curry Field, the Washington County League baseball team
sponsored by the Canonsburg Elks played an exhibition game against a
team billed as Walkertown. Johnnie Grohal pitched an 8-hit complete
game, winning 17-2. Harry Lazorchak took the hitting honors, going
five for five with three triples.
Willow Beach advertisement,
Daily Notes, May 29, 1939.
Box score from the DailyNotes
of May 31, 1939.
The significant event of Memorial Day evening was the banquet
celebrating the completion of Slovak Hall on Iron Street. The
basement of the building had been built in 1933, but the Depression
had interrupted its construction. Finally the auditorium and
associated rooms were finished and the members and guests of the
Slovak Home Society celebrated the event with festivities that began
at 6 p.m..
The toastmaster was prominent Canonsburg attorney George J.
Modrak. Stephen Gonglik gave the welcoming address, and Rev. J.
Edward Istocin pronounced the invocation and extended the good wishes
of the St. Patrick congregation. Additional speeches were interleaved
with music and vaudeville entertainment.
The summer of 1939 had begun. By the following year, it was
evident that another generation of local boys would be fighting, and
dying, for their country. Rev. William R. McKim, who was the speaker
at the 1940 observance, pointed out that nearly every generation had
been required to serve under arms. The Notes paraphrased
McKim’s concluding remark, "If our men are called upon to participate
again in war, they will play their part with the same high ideals and
patriotic loyalty as their predecessors."
"Memorial Day Here Observed,"
Daily
Notes, May 31, 1940. It
began to rain heavily during the ceremony at the cemetery, and it
is possible that the rain ruined the only copy of Rev. McKim’s
speech. However, there probably was no written text to ruin. The
good reverend was said to be in the habit of composing his Sunday
morning sermons as he walked up to the pulpit.