The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-31
ORIGIN OF MEMORIAL DAY.
4 VETERANS STORY OF THE
 CUSTOM
Of Floral Decoration of Soldiers,
 Graves.

told by veteran who wore the blue.
 Tt was just forty years the 18th of last April, said he Two little girls children of a Michigan army chaplain were the first to lay spring flowers on a soldiers grave dug in Virginia soil, and from that little act of childish impulse grew up the custom which is now na
 tionally observed, north and south.
 T was a member of the Second regi- ment. Michigan infantry, Colonel J. B. Richardson commanding, which saw most of the fighting of the army of the Potamac until the war was well-nigh, ended. The chaplain of the regiment was Franklin May, a Methodist minis call to arms and marched to the front. ter, who realized his charge at the first There were three Mays in the regiment, brothers-tWo captains and the chap lain for war blood seemed to run in their veins. Three Mays did l say? Four for there was the captains wife, and no pluckier patriot served the Un- ion cause than the woman who followed him to camp, first at Arlington and AL exandria and then at a point near Mount Vernon, which was known as Camp Michigan. She brought with her their two daughters, Josephine, aged thirteen, and Ella, perhaps five years younger.
 "One spring day at Camp Michigan it happened to be April 13, the first an- niversary of the fall of Sumter-the lit- tie girls were wild flower gathering. Their hands were filled when they came across a grave-a rough, unmarked mound that had closed in over some northern boy for whom taps had sounded that first twelve-month
 "Oh, let's put our flowers on this grave, cried Josephine. He is a sol dier boy
 ''In a trice the two were down on their knees heaping nosegays oyer that bare hillock and claspng their hands in delight at their happy contrivance. They must have had in mind the little acts of remembrance they had seen at the gravesides in the grass grown cem- etery at home.
 "On their way home the little ones planned to go next day, gather armfuls of flowers ad put them on all the graves. When they were about to set out on the morrow Josephine told Mrs May of their project, and the sweet thoughtfulness of this child fancy ap- pea1ed to the older women as it only could have appealed to a mother who knew a hospital camp at first hand and had folded the hands of more than one young fellow in his last sleep With her companion, Mrs Evans, a young Red Cross nurse, Mrs. May joined the children in gathering flowers, and to- | gether they placed the blossoms on thr- | teen graves-all that they found, Union | and Confederate alike, among the thou | sands that later were to rest at Arling- | ton and along the shores of the Poto- | mac.
 "The next year they did the same | thing, and the next, each time in May, | and now for the soldiers who fell at Fredericksburg and other battles in the Old Dominion. What they did was mo- ticed and soon others began to do the same. There was opportunity for all, for as the months went by graves were multiplying faster than ever before in history, and before the close of the war the custom had spread quite widely.
 "In 1868 General John A. Logan is sued that famous order of his as com mander-in chief of the Grand Army ranks which set apart May 30 as Me
 
 spring In order to give the flowers a chance to outf1ank every snowbank in the north, however late the spring
 There has been some controversy here and there as to what source to at tribute the honor of suggesting deco ration day. General Chipman attribu- ted it to Cincinnati soldier whose let ter concerning such custom in Ger many he laid before General Logan. General John B. Murray, on the other hand, had advanced the claim of eel ebraton held at Watertown N. Y, May 27, 1866. Certain it is that General Lo- gan often referred to his first decoration ( day order as the proudest act of his life and the year it was held at Ar lington cemetery with General Arthur as the orator of the day. It is equally certain that further to the south, a few years before, those two little Michigan girls had begun the decoration of graves in a small way that as certainly de veloped into the national memorial, Yet so far as I know no recognition has been paid to it's girlish originators
 "Of the four persons who decked those first graves in 1862, not one sur wives. Little Josephine May died in 1872, ten years to a day from that of the first decoration. Before the death of Mrs Evans, in 1885, Crocker post of 1 Des Moines, la, gave to her recogni- tion for the part she played; and also to Ella May, Who when she died last year in the state of Washington, was accorded military honors by the Grand Army, and lowered to her grave wrapped in the American flag. Olive May, the actress, now playing in 'Ari- zona' in England, is a cousin.
 Chaplain May, his wife Marcia, and their two daughters lie buried in Noun tain home, Kalamazoo, Mich. With the exception of one year, the chaplain's family remained with him throughout the war. Mrs, May was called an an gel of mercy from God for her work at Alexandria. I recall circumstances when she literally stole dying men and them into the city hospitals hat she might minister to their wants. She had of course the uunulVdnCC Ot the 1 ,urgeons-it was either that or leave hem to die of neglect and lack of nurs- ug. for in those first months of the war