A Brief History of Veterans Day

The following brief on Veterans Day can be found at https://www.military.com/veterans-day/history-of-veterans-day.html

Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was originally set as a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918. In legislation that was passed in 1938, November 11 was “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day.’” As such, this new legal holiday honored World War I veterans.

In 1954, after having been through both World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress — at the urging of the veterans service organizations — amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

In 1968, the Uniforms Holiday Bill ensured three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. Under this bill, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holiday on its original date. The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on Oct. 25, 1971.

Finally on September 20, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed a law which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of Nov. 11, beginning in 1978. Since then, the Veterans Day holiday has been observed on Nov. 11.

ADDRESS TO FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN

The White House, November 11, 1919.

A year ago today our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and juster set of international relations. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggressions of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half.

With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought.

Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes, and the victory of arms foretells the enduring conquests which can be made in peace when nations act justly and in furtherance of the common interests of men.

To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations.

WOODROW WILSON

List of Those Interred at the Former Odd Fellows’ Cemetery on South Chestnut St. Clarksburg. WV

Roy Alexander
Osborn C. Alexander
Cpt. Charles Allen
Dr. James C. Appleby
Robert Appleby
Cecil Harry Bacchus
Joseph Bailey
Joshua Baker
John Baltzley
Dr. Thornberry Bailey Bartlett
John Bassell
Granville M. Bastable
Cooper Batten
Roley Bennett
Enock Blackwell
Foley Blackwell
W. M. Boggess
Betty Anne Boughner
Burton Z. Boughner
Oliver P. Boughner
Daniel G. Boughner
Samuel Jones Boyles
Ralph Brown
Pvt. Gideon Draper Camden Jr.
John Allen Camden
Judge Gideon Draper Camden
Earle V. Carskadon
Sgt. Danton Leon “Bunny” Caussin
Eugene Dixon Caussin
Carl C. Caywood
Jack Edwin Chipps
Jack Edwin Chipps II
Glen W. Clevenger
John Coleman
John Collins
Harrison Cork
Thomas Jefferson Cottrill
James L. Crim
Charles Custer
Joshua D. Daken
Pvt. James N. David
James Bond Davis
Corp. Cecil W. Davis
William H. Dawson
Philip C. Ernst
Cpt. Bruce Carr Fitzhugh
Albert Garett Fordyce
Col. Richard D. Fowkes
Maj. Robert Skiles Gardner
Cpt. John George Jackson Gittings
Nathan Goff
Charles J. Goff
Samuel Williamson Gordon
George Harry Gordon
Wilbur Gordon
Ray H. Griffin
Frederick Tyler Harrison
Lt. John Davis Hart
Pvt. Robert B. Hart
Clyde M. Hartsock
Col. Henry Haymond
Maj. Lee Haymond
Col. Luther Haymond
Lt. David Hewes
Col. David T. Hewes
Herman Hill
Col. John Stringer Hoffman
Fleming H. Holden
William L. Hursey
Curtis G. Ice
Col. Thomas Moore Jackson
Duane Kellar
Capt. John W. Kidwell
Col. J. Lang
James Lanham
Manley Lanham
Thomas Dale Lantz
Josiah Lepley
1st Lt. William Wilson Lewis
Mordecai Lewis
Ion L. Liggett
Henry F. Mayers
Jack M. McVaney
Ray Milstead
Maj. Richard W. Moore
Alexander Moore
Thomas Moore
LTJG. Charles Elmer Morgan
Dr. David Porter Morgan
Pvt. David Odgen Morgan
Capt. Hiram L. Munday
Cpl. Cecil Murphy
Gen. Robert Sanders Northcott
Oscar Lee Nutter
Robert Linn Osborn
Sgt. Alexander Hamilton Osborn
James L. Parker
Uriah W. Parrill
John C. Peck
Rev. Dr. Lewis E. Peters
Capt. Charles W. Phillips
Lyle H. Powell Sr.
George W. Pritchard
Dr. John Walter Ramsey
Dr. Robert Hudson Ramsey
Haymond Rapp
James Renshaw
Moses Scott Riley
William Selkirk
John H. Shuttlesworth
Notley A. Shuttlesworth
George Bland Siers
George Levi Siers
John Smallwood
Carl C. Smallwood
James H. Smith
Granville Staley
Reuben P. Stamm
John Paul Stamm
Corp. Justus (Justice) Stansbury
Harvey Steele
John R. Steele
Capt. Samuel R. Steele
Jacob W. Stitzer
Isaac T. Stuart
Dever P. Stuart
Hezikiah Stuck
William Sullivan
Daniel E. Sumner
Joseph William Supler, Jr.
Jacob Markwood Swartz
Markwood Samuel Swartz
Oscar Tate
John C. Taylor
Pvt. Earl Davis. Thompson
Cpt. Uriel M. Turner
Col. Cyrus Vance
Col. John C. Vance
Corp. Lee Horner Vance
Cecil Charles VanScoy
Rev. Thomas S. Wade
Frederick Wagner
Capt. R. M. Wallace
Col. Thomas Townsend Wallis
David C. Watkins
Ralph Weekley
James Weekley
Lawrence B. Wetzel
Lt. Benjamin F. Wicks
W. H. Williams
Bailey I. Williams
Col. Benjamin Wilson

List of Those Interred at Daniel Davisson DAR Cemetery, West Main St. Clarksburg, WV

Daniel Davisson
Peter D’Evecmon

List of Those Interred at Fraternal Memorial Park Cemetery In Anmoore, WV

Clarence W. Collins
Raymond Henry Booker