The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-21
SCRAP BOOK FOR TO-DAY.

To-day is sacred to the memory of the Fighting McCoo@s," the heroes of the greatest brother act' ever en- acted on the grim stage of war.
 On the twenty-frst of July. in 1861, in 1883 and in 1884, three of the Fighting McCooks gave up their lives on the altar of patriotism.
 Fifteen of the famous Fighting Family there were who fought under the Stars and Stripes In rne war pe- tween the Northern and Southern States-ffteen, and only one a pri- vate.
 To-day is the semi-centenary of the death of the chief of the cEans Major Daniel McCook, who died July 21, 1863, from wounds received in a, skir- mish with Morgan's raiders.
 Two years before that, to a day, one of his eight warrior sons had died in his arms at Bull Run-died, crying with his last breath. Father. I will never surrender"
 Exactly a year after the elder Me Cooks death, July 21, 1864. another son died from wounds received at Kenesaw Mountain.
 We'll may the descendants of the Fighting McCooks" celebrate the twenty-hrst of July as their Memorial Day.
 The fifteen 'sFighting McCoolzs'' were the descendants of George Mo Cook, an Irish refugee, who came to America in 1730 and settled at Can nonsburg, Pa His wife was Scotch English. Irlsh-Sco6ch- English blood it was, therefore, that flowed in the veins of Daniel and John, sons of the Irish immigrant, fathers in turn of the valorous thirteen who fought for the Union.
 Daniel McCook. oldest of the fight ing family, was born at Cannonsburg. Pa, in 1z98, and was a lawyer when, he of iYfv he the Northern army as a major of an Ohio regiment.
 His eight sons, ranging in age from sixteen to forty-one, followed him to the front. In the order of their age they were:
 Latimer, physician. served with H. linois regiment as surgeon; wounded at Vicksburg, died in 1880 from injur- ies received during the, war.
 George w., lawyer, prominent in Ohio politics. veteran of Mexican war, brigadier-generaI in civil war.
 Robert L., lawyer in Cincinnati at outbreak of war, so distinguished him. self that he was made brigadier-g eral, died in 1862 from wound rel ceived in action.
 Alexander M, West Point graduate. made major general in 1862, hero of many engagements.
 Daniel, IT,, lawyer at Leavenworth, Kan, fatally wounded in the charge at Kenesaw.
 Edwin S., Naval Academy graduate served on gunboats during the war.
 Charles M., left school to go to the front, killed at Bull Run. July 21, 1881.
 John J., shouIdered gun at sixteen breveted lieutenant colonel at eight cen.
 Dr. John Mccook, physician. headed the other branch of the McCooks. He a nf George MC(SaOl<. the Irish refugee. He served through the war as surgeon, and his five sons complete the roll of the fifteen Fight ing McCooks'' These were Edward M, lawyer: Anson G., lawyer; Henry C., clergyman and war chaplain; Rod erick s., naval officer, and John J., clergyman. None of these died in action, although Dr. John died soon after the close of the war.
 The first observance of Thanksgiv- ing Day in the United States took ance with the recommendation of the Continental Congress that that date be made a day of fasting and prayer. Instead of feasting, as in later years, the people of the infant republic ob- tained from food, and it was not until many years later that turkey began toi play an important part in celebrations of Thanksgiving Day. Although held in midsummer, the first Thanksgiving established the Thursday precedent, but it was not fTnr1 edtaLtely respected. for the second Thanksgiving took place on a Friday in May, 1776! Wash ington's first Thanksgiving proclama- ton set the date as Thursday, Dec. Is, 1777, and the day was generally ob- served in the army, although for sev- eral years Congress continued to set the date for civilians. AS President
 
 26. 1789, a day for general Thanks giving. This was the first observance of the Autumn festival that is now so popular throughout the United States and Canada.
 The arrival of the first steamship of the Cunard Line, the Britannia was publicly celebrated in Boston sew enty-three years ago today, July 21, 1S4O. The Britannia was a wooden side-wheeler. and made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic, from Liv- erpool to Boston, in fourteen days and four hours For a time the Cunarders made Halifax and Boston their Amer ican ports but later New York was made the principal terminus of the line. Sir Samuel Cunard, founder of the line, was native of Halifax, N. s., and built the Britannia and three similar vessels to carry out a con tract with the British government for transporting the mails between Eng land and America In 1852 the com pany began to substitute iron screw vessels for the wooden craft with paddIe-wheels in use up to that time. The record passage of the Atlantic is now held by the Britannia's giant suc- cessor, the Cunarder Mauretania, which made the voyage from Queens town to New York in four days, ten hours and forty-one minutes. The Mauretania and her sister ship, the Lusitania, will soon be surpassed in size and probably in speed by the Aquitania, now building, which has a length of SS5 feet and 5O,000 gross tonnage. The Britannia was not the first steam vessel from Europe to en- ter Boston harbor, the Unicorn having