GASCHLEY-L Archives

From: "Harris Hill" <>
Subject: [GASCHLEY] Decoration Day and Peruvian Guano
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 11:00:56 -0500

Ruth Gray has this to share about Decoration Day and the later part deals with the mention of Peruvian guano and something about what I thought might have been Chesapeake in the most recent of Charles Womack's letters. I think she's right! Good detective work Ruth.

In the city in Wisconsin where I grew up, May 31st was Decoration
Day. There were two parades---one in the downtown area, the other to the
Catholic cemetery. It was a holiday. My family decorated the family graves
with flowers.

WORLD BOOK source: MEMORIAL DAY, or DECORATION DAY, is a patriotic
holiday in the United States. It is a day to honor American servicemen who
gave their lives for their country. Originally, Memorial Day honored men who
had died in the Civil War. It now honors those who died in the
Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean War. (This
volume was published in 1960 and therefore does not list the ensuing wars.)
Memorial Day is a legal holiday in most states. The Northern States
celebrate May 30 as Memorial Day. Most of the Southern States have their own
days for honoring the Confederate dead. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and
Mississippi set aside April 26 as Confederate Memorial Day. North and South
Carolina observe this holiday on May 10. Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, and
Texas obseerve June 3, which is the birthday of Jefferson Davis, President of
the Confederacy during the Civil War. Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Mississippi, and South Carolina also observe June 3 as a second Memorial Day.
Observance. On Memorial Day, people place flowers and flags on the
graves of servicemen. Many organizations, including Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts,
and fraternal groups march in military parades and take part in special
programs. These programs often include the reading of Abraham Lincoln's
"Gettysburg Address."
Memorials are often dedicated on this day. Military exercises and special
programs are held at Gettysburg National Military Park and at the National
Cemetery at Arlington, Va.
To honor members of the armed forces who died at sea, some ports of the
United States also organize ceremonies where tiny ships filled with flowers
are set afloat on the water. A boat filled with flowers, made by the
students of Easton High School, is set afloat on the Delaware River.
Since the end of World War I, Memorial Day has also been Poppy Day.
Ex-servicemen sell small, red artifical poppies to help disabled veterans
(see POPPY Day). In recent years, the custom has grown in most families to
decorate the graves of loved ones on Memorial Day.
History. Memorial Day originated during the Civil War when some Southern
women chose May 30 to decorate soldiers' graves. The women honored the dead
of both the Union and Confederate armies. It is believed that a Virginia
woman, Cassandra Oliver Moncure, was largely responsible. Of French origin,
she may have chosen May 30 because in France this date was "The Day of the
Ashes." This French memorial day commemorated the return of Napoleon
Bonaparte's remains to France from St. Helena.
Major General John A. Logan in 1868 named May 20 as a special day for
honoring the graves of Union soldiers. Logan served as commander in chief of
the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans of the
Civil War. They had charge of Memorial Day celebrations in the Northern
States for many years. The American Legion took over this duty after World
War I.


Hope you enjoyed that bit of history as much as I did. Some 40 plus
years have passed since that article was printed, and there have been many
changes. I was sure we celebrated on 31 May----- That's a few years ago.

From ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA's article on FERTILIZERS:
It remained for Justus von Liebig, in 1840, to suggest that farmers could
increase their crops by adding salts of potassium and other elements to the
soil to increase crop growth. Liebig emphasized the importance of potashand
phosphoric acid in manures and fertilizers, but thought mostof the nitrogen
could be secured from the air.
John Bennet Lawes, founder of the Rothamsted Agricultural Experiment
Station, invented the process for making superphosphate from rock phosphate
and sulphuric acid. Patents were taken out and superphosphate production on
a commercial basis was started in 1842. Lawes also used ammonium sulphate
and potash salts as fertilizers. About this time, importation of Peruvian
guano and Chilean nitrate started in England and the United States.
The first mixed fertilizers produced in the United States in 1849 by
Chapell and Davidson in Baltimore. Several plants were started in the next
few years. Production in 1856 was estimated at 20,000 tons but had increased
to about 1,150,000 by 1880.

(A thot--location, Chesapeake Bay--- Could these have resulted
in the name of that fertilizer?)


Enough History for today. Enjoy you output!

Ruth

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• [GASCHLEY] Decoration Day and Peruvian Guano by "Harris Hill" <>