Poe Toaster Remains A Mystery

(WBAL) From the tombstone of Edgar Allan Poe, one can reach the street by taking a narrow dirt path between two tall stone mausoleums and crouching for a few steps underneath a portion of Westminster Hall.
This was a favorite getaway route for the Poe Toaster, the mysterious man in black who for decades left three roses and an unfinished bottle of Martell cognac at Poe’s grave on the birthday of the father of macabre fiction.
The tradition ended four years ago, just as mysteriously, when the visitor failed to appear.
Ahead of Poe’s 204th birthday on Saturday, the person who has overseen an annual cemetery vigil since the 1970s talked in detail about the story behind it. Continued

Memorial Day

(LoC) In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land."
The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade.
Southern women decorated the graves of soldiers even before the Civil War's end. Records show that by 1865, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina all had precedents for Memorial Day. Songs in the Duke University collection Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 include hymns published in the South such as these two from 1867: "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping," dedicated to "The Ladies of the South Who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead " and "Memorial Flowers," dedicated "To the Memory of Our Dead Heroes." Continued

Baltimore's oldest black cemetery finally restored, with help of inmates

(Baltimore Sun) ... Founded in 1872, when blacks could not be interred next to whites, Mount Auburn was known as "The City of the Dead for Colored People." The cemetery, which overlooks the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River, became the final resting place for many pioneers of Baltimore's black community.

They include Lillie May Carroll Jackson, who led the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP for 35 years; Carl J. Murphy, a leading voice of the civil rights movement, and his father, John Henry Murphy, the founder of the Afro-American newspaper; and Joseph Gans, the first lightweight boxing champion.

"Successive generations of colored people around the Baltimore area have been buried at this site," said the Rev. Douglas B. Sands Sr., an area pastor who was been involved with efforts to restore the cemetery. Continued 

A marker for Norman Chaney

(Baltimore Sun) Only people who know where to look would be able to pay respects to Norman Chaney, who is buried in an unmarked grave in Baltimore. But if fans of the chubby "Our Gang" star have their way, he'll soon have the headstone he's done so long without.

Chaney, the son of a Baltimore electrical worker, won a national contest in 1929 to become "Chubby," the new "fat kid" in the popular film series, replacing the original Chubby, who had grown out of the role. 

But with his impossibly round face and impish charm, Chaney eclipsed his predecessor — becoming the fat kid people remembered. Continued

Effort under way to replace Confederate soldier's gravestone along Susquehanna

(YDR) Carol Posinski drove along the Susquehanna River in Hellam Township to find the grave of an unknown Confederate soldier after the flooding from Tropical Storm Lee washed away the headstone.
Posinski, a Civil War history buff, spotted the grave marked with a Confederate flag along the narrow River Drive. All that remained was the base of where the modern, granite stone once stood.
"I was hoping we could find the original stone," Posinski of Codorus Township said.
So far, though, no one has been able to find the marker, and an effort is under way to replace it. Continued

Photo: "The 1st Virginia Cavalry at a halt" bt Alfred Waud.

In the Netherlands, a fallen WW2 soldier from West York 'will be remembered'

York, PA (YDR) It was a Thursday, Dec. 16, 1943, when the Eighth Army Air Force's 413th Bomb Squadron took off from the airfield at Snetterton Heath, on the east coast of England, on the edge of the North Sea, to bomb Bremen, an industrial town in northwest Germany.
The fleet of B-17 Flying Fortresses left the base and climbed above the clouds, leveling off at 25,000 feet over the North Sea, heading northeast toward the coast of the Netherlands.
Tech. Sgt. Kenneth Elwood Slenker was the top turret gunner and engineer on one of those aircraft, one of 10 crew members. He was a 19-year-old kid, the second youngest of the four Slenker boys from West York, all of whom served during World War II. Growing up, Kenneth Slenker never ventured far from his family's home on West King Street -- the family didn't have a car -- and here he was, flying over the North Sea in a bomber. Continued

Memorial Day

(LoC) In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land."
The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade.
Southern women decorated the graves of soldiers even before the Civil War's end. Records show that by 1865, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina all had precedents for Memorial Day. Songs in the Duke University collection Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 include hymns published in the South such as these two from 1867: "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping," dedicated to "The Ladies of the South Who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead " and "Memorial Flowers," dedicated "To the Memory of Our Dead Heroes." Continued

Local African-American cemeteries topic of program

(YDR) Small cemeteries dot the York County landscape, some attached to country churches, others small family plots on ancestral farmland.
The York County Heritage Trust is presenting a program about African-American cemeteries at 5 p.m. Saturday in York.
The Beatty family cemetery -- sometimes called the Batty's Chapel, River Hills Cemetery or Black Diamond -- is different because it is one of the few African-American cemeteries throughout the county. Continued

Photo by Kim Choate

A World War II airman finally comes home

(Baltimore Sun) In the photo from 1943, Tech. Sgt. Charles A. Bode and his fellow airmen gaze into the camera, some shirtless, some smiling, looking to modern eyes like cast members of the musical "South Pacific." But the B-24 bomber crew would soon embark on a very real mission during the intense combat for the Pacific in World War II. The men took off from a port in New Guinea on Nov. 20, 1943; after a routine radio check, the 11 crewmen were never seen or heard from again. Continued

Henry Bacon

(Wikipedia) Henry Bacon (November 28, 1866 – February 17, 1924), an American Beaux-Arts architect, is best remembered for his severe Greek Doric Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. (built 1915–1922), which was his final project. Continued

Photo: View of the Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool, and WWII Memorial, from the Washington Monument, NW, Washington, D.C. by Carol M. Highsmith (Library of Congress).

The Titanic Memorial in Washington, D.C.

(Wikipedia) The Titanic Memorial is a granite statue in southwest Washington, D.C., that honors the men who gave their lives so that women and children might be saved during the RMS Titanic disaster. The thirteen-foot-tall figure is of a partly clad male figure with arms outstretched. The statue was erected by the Women's Titanic Memorial Association.
The memorial is located on P Street SW next to the Washington Channel near Fort Lesley J. McNair. It was designed by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who won the commission in open competition, and sculpted by John Horrigan from a single piece of red granite furnished from Westerly, RI, by the Henry C. Smalley Granite Co. It was unveiled on May 26, 1931, by Helen Herron Taft, the widow of President Taft. Continued

Image: Carol M. Highsmith's America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Cleanup takes place at neglected cemetery in Clifton Park

(Baltimore Sun) After more than a week of hacking away at underbrush and weedy trees, landscape workers have tamed nearly 30 years of neglect at one of Baltimore's oldest Roman Catholic cemeteries.The 7-acre St. Vincent DePaul Cemetery, which is surrounded by Clifton Park, has emerged from its first cleanup since it officially closed in the 1980s. Workers cleared away tall grasses, unruly trees and nearly five tons of debris around four sections of askew grave markers and upturned headstones. Their work revealed the names, incised into limestone, of old Irish, Italian and German families who were members of the downtown Baltimore parish located near the main post office. Continued

Our Lady of the Highway Watches Over Stretch of Interstate Where Massive Pileup Occurred

(WoCCP) As speeding vehicles dash across Cecil County on I-95, Our Lady of the Highway watches peacefully over motorists zipping past a tranquil hillside in Childs, MD. The guardian of travelers, a 14-foot high white marble statue of the Virgin Mary, was placed there after a massive pileup took three lives one foggy October morning in 1968. Hearing the vehicle piling up, seminarians and priests from the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, the first outside aid to reach victims, tended the injured and dying while waiting for emergency crews to make their way through the dark mist. Moved by the sad tragedy that took place that unforgettable autumn day, the Oblates erected the shrine in 1973. Continued

Decoration Day, May 31, 2010

A celebration of the traditions of the local African American Civil War Veterans, Charles Sumner Post 35, GAR.

Memorial Day

In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land."
The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade.
Southern women decorated the graves of soldiers even before the Civil War's end. Records show that by 1865, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina all had precedents for Memorial Day. Songs in the Duke University collection Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 include hymns published in the South such as these two from 1867: "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping," dedicated to "The Ladies of the South Who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead " and "Memorial Flowers," dedicated "To the Memory of Our Dead Heroes." Continued

Remembering Lincoln funeral train stop in York

(YDR) Hannah Winand stood along railroad tracks and focused on her mother, Becky, who wore a black mourning gown, held a wreath made of white roses and waited for the exact time that marked the arrival of President Abraham Lincoln's funeral train in York.
Amid the modern-day downtown noises from car traffic and sirens, a ceremonial cannon salute and church bells could be heard in the distance.
As sundown approached, the noises melded and April 21, 1865, faded into April 21, 2010, in a stunning yet eerie display. Continued

Photos: Wikipedia, MDRails, Library of Congress.

Daniel Chester French

(LoC) ... By the turn of the century, French was America's preeminent monumental sculptor. He is best known for his colossal seated figure of Abraham Lincoln, which presides over the Lincoln Memorial. The Angel of Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor, created for Boston's Forest Hills Cemetery; John Harvard, located at Harvard University; a bust of Ulysses S. Grant, and a standing Abraham Lincoln at the west entrance to the Nebraska State Capitol are a few of the monuments that French produced during a long and productive career. Continued

Volunteers to place flags at York memorial for fallen soldiers

(YDR) The Iraq/Afghanistan War Flag Memorial will be re-established at Prospect Hill Cemetery in York on Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m.
Volunteers, including Gold Star Family Members who have lost loved ones in both conflicts, plan to attend, according to a news release. Participants will place more than 5,500 flags on the hillside. Continued

Image: Nightening

Did I Mention the Graves Out Back?

(NYTimes) ... Burial at home was once common in the country, and family cemeteries and plots can be found on many historic properties. But while they have intrinsic appeal to genealogists and historians, their effect on housing values depends a lot on who is buying, real estate agents said. Continued

Who’s Buried in the History Books?

(Sean Wilentz) RONALD REAGAN deserves posterity’s honor, and so it makes sense that the capital’s airport and a major building there are named for him. But the proposal to substitute his image for that of Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 bill is a travesty that would dishonor the nation’s bedrock principles of union, freedom and equality — and damage its historical identity. Although slandered since his death, Grant, as general and as president, stood second only to Abraham Lincoln as the vindicator of those principles in the Civil War era. Continued

Image: Library of Congress