And the Spirit of '76 Marched On...

 

Memorial Day 2013

Forty-Fort Cemetery

Forty-Fort, PA

 

   Photo by D. LeVasseur

Memorial Days Past

 

 

 

 

Above: Eddie's last Memorial Day - May 1961

 

 

The headline in the obit above is off by 40 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based upon the dated pics/articles I've found so far, this will be my 31st year playing the fife and/or drums in the West Side Memorial Day parade. 

 

It will be the first without my father at my side.

  

 

Kingston PA's Centennial - 1957

With the "July 1957" calendar from Roat Hardware ( incorporated in Kingston - March 1928 ) in the background, the first pic below is of my father when he was 27.

As part of Kingston's ( Luzerne County, PA ) Centennial Celebration that year, I recall my father telling me that the employees of the Kingston Cake Company ( a/k/a Blue Ribbon Bakery ) decided to grow beards and have a "Brothers of the Brush" contest to see who would most closely resemble some noteworthy historical figure. My father went for the Abraham Lincoln look.

There was a parade along Wyoming Avenue in October 1957, and my father can be seen at the extreme left margin in the third pic below.

 

 

 

Kingston PA Centennial Parade - October (?) 1957

 

     

The Stewarts: Seventh generation?

As I wade through the accumulated pics of the Williams and Stewart families, I recently discovered two photos that I had really not studied, or perhaps seen, until now.

The first photo below is the family of my paternal great-grandmother, Sarah Maude (Stewart) Williams taken in about 1900. Sarah is in the center of the photo seated between her parents...my great-great grandparents - Edward and Sarah (Robbins) Stewart.

 

 

This next pic below, which definitely includes Sarah (Robbins) Stewart and the daughter standing almost directly behind her in the picture above, appears to be a "4 generations" photo which includes the child of one of my g-grandmother's sisters. I'm not quite sure why there's a fifth person in the photo.

 

 

The woman holding the baby on her lap is, I believe, the mother of Sarah Robbins Stewart, which would make her my great-great-great grandmother.

 

Below is another pic of that same woman with, quite possibly, her husband and some siblings that was probably taken between ~1900 and 1910 (+/-). I've studied numerous pics of my great-great grandfather  - Edward Stewart ( 1852-1922 ) - to be convinced the man in the pic below is not him.

 

Conservatively, using the known birth dates (years) of my great-great grandparents, my best guesstimate is that the folks seated in the pic below are my great-great-great grandparents from the Stewart/Robbins lineage of our family that were probably born in ~1830 or so.  

 

 

Knowing that the history of my ancestors and their time in northeastern PA dates back to the 1700's, I am now tasked with solving another (Stewart/Robbins) family history mystery; what were their names and where are they buried? 

 

Edward & Sarah Stewart Headstone - Trucksville, PA.

 

I wonder how many folks have pictures of their great-great-great grandparents? 

 

  

Black Diamond Post 385: The Marching Band

My great-grandfather Edward C. Williams was quite a musician, as were his brothers Samuel and Thomas. In addition to Memorial Day, they participated in many bands and other musical ensembles in northeastern PA.

Here are a few of the pics I've been able to find so far. More to follow, I'm sure.

 

 

 

 

  

Memorial Day: Time Marches On...

The picture below is from Memorial Day 1962. My father and his cousin, Glenn Williams, are playing the fifes. The drummer is Bill Thorne.

It was the first year, ever, that Edward C. Williams ( 1880-1961 ) did not play the fife on Memorial Day at the Forty-Fort Cemetery since he began this longstanding tradition in 1891 at the age of 10. 

Fifty-one years later, I will be playing the fife for the first time without my father, Donald Williams ( 1930-2012 ), either by my side or watching from his wheelchair. I am slowly beginning to understand how my father felt in the weeks leading up to Memorial Day in 1962.

In Marching Order: Memorial Day 2006.
2005 was the last year my father was able to play the fife.