River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-06-04
MEMORIAL DAY, MAY 80, 'O8.


number from outside the city and
owing to the state of the roads and
! the danger of rain the program
was carried out at the Opera Hall.
Less than the usual number were
present but the Grand Army Post
and Relief Corps were we'll repre-
sented.
The program was as follows:
Reading of Orders. .Adjutant G.. r. Ellis.
Music. Normal Quartette.
Reading OF President Lncoln's Address at
/ Gettysburg Experimentation. b. Skogmo.
/ Prayer. Rev Jacobs.
| Music .................... Normal Quartette.
This was followed by the regular
Memorial exercises, given by the
Post, consisting of:
| Prayer. Chaplain John Elliott.
Ritual Services ...... Com. Darwin w. Kline.
| Benediction..... Rev. Jacobs,
The weather not permitting the
usual procession to the cemetery,
the duty of placing the floral offer
ing fell upon the members of the
post under the direction of P. F.
Lowell, Officer of the Day, the regu-
lation salute being fired by the
Spanish War Veterans.
The address by Judge Weld was
for the larger part, reminiscent
one, beginning with sketch of
| the difference between the people
of the North and South just before
the war. The speaker described
briefly the situation of the territory
and people surrounding River Falls
at that period. The population of
Pierce county at that time was less
than five thousand souls, that of St.
Croix a little more. The people
around and including River Falls
numbered perhaps 5000 in all,
counting men, women and children.
Such a population would contain
hardly more than four to five hundred
able bodied men, and yet out of
that sparse population it sent more
than two hundred men to the front.
Of these, thirty-tive lie buried in
southern soil, many in unknown
graves. The little mounds which
cover their bodies will to-day be
decorated by the hands of strangers,
who will strew the orange and mag
nolia blossoms from sense of duty
and reverence for their country and
not from personal recollections of
departed friends.
The speaker then read roll of
such of the soldiers who went from
the immediate vicinity of River
Falls as a search of the records has
disclosed, the list being confined to
River Falls and the towns immedi-
ately contiguous. In addition to
this list of those who are now liv-
ing who have settled in River Falls
and near by, since the war.
The reason for reading this list
he said was two-fold. One to recall
the names of those stalwart young
men, the flower of the land, who at
once at their country's call left their
business, their homes, their wives
and children or father and mother
to do battle for the preservation of
the Union, and second, TO impress
upon the minds of the younger
people what it cost to save in its
entirety this Union. Two hundred
men taken from the ranks of the
people, thirty-fve dying in the sunny
south! How tremendous the cost,
and yet it marks the worth of our
country united and independent.
To keep and preserve such a
countryis now the duty of the present
generation. The same spirit, the
spirit of greed that compelled our
forefathers to rise to arms in 1776,
in 1861, is still in another form
present. The battle never ends,
but in the future it will be a battle
of ballots, not of bullets. The duty
of the citizen to cast his ballot is
the same in kind if not in degree as
that of those who gave themselves
to their country in battle.
That spirit which would take from
the nation for private greed the God
given resources must be met. Mr..
Root said at Washington at the con-
ference of governors and experts:
mo state has a right to exist for
itself alone" AS emphatically we
say: mo man has a right to live
for himself alone. His first duty is
to his God, next to his country and
then to his family and himself"
The following list includes the
names of all soldiers of the civil
war who are inferred in cemeteries in
this vicinity, and whose graves were