Combined families — Teaching next generation about Memorial Day

This is the latest in an occasional series of posts about the daughters of Samuel Pruyn and their families that lived in the three houses that now are the campus of The Hyde Collection art museum in Glens Falls.

“Every time the people of this country observe Memorial Day, the obligation becomes greater,” The Post-Star editorialized on May 29,1923. “For each year more have passed from this life to whom it is owed the debt of gratitude for service rendered in the development and preservation of the nation.”

Louis F. Hyde, chairman of the Glens Falls Memorial Day remembrance committee that year, recognized the importance of instilling the significance of Memorial Day on the next generation.

So he recruited local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to assist with the planning and implementation of the annual parade and remembrance ceremony.

“The general opinion was that they should be the ones to understand what Memorial Day means and see that is properly observed, not only this year but in years to come,” The Post-Star reported on April 14, 1923.

Local scouts lived up to the expectations of Hyde, the husband of Charlotte Hyde, daughter of Samuel Pruyn.

“The Boys Scout and Girl Scout organizations which have been entrusted with the carrying out of the plans have worked hard to this end, and everyone has joined in helping with the work,” The Post-Star reported on May 29.

Mother Nature cooperated too, and provided “perfect weather” on May 30 for “one of the largest” Glens Falls Memorial Day parades in recent decades.

The Glens Falls Band led the line of march, which stepped off from Warren Street at 10 a.m., and proceeded north on Glen Street to the Civil War Soldiers Monument, and then along Bay Street to the Glens Falls Cemetery.

Other marching bands were the Glens Falls Citizens’ Band, Glens Falls Boy Scout Band and Glens Falls Salvation Army Band.

Veterans of the Spanish American War and World War I marched, as well as local Red Cross workers and volunteers.

Civil War veterans rode in automobiles.

Boy Scouts and Company K National Guard soldiers escorted groups of students from each school of the city school district.

Fraternal organizations and local labor unions marched.

At the cemetery, Lucius Ades, music director of Christ Church Methodist an a voice student of Oscar Seagle, led in community singing of patriotic music.

The Rev. Charles O. Judkins, pastor of Christ Church, was keynote speaker.

“As we have observed these hundreds of children marching with us and have realized the efficiency of the Boy Scouts in conducting their departments, we have prayed that not one of these boys may ever have to fall in the carnage of war and not one of these girls may have to bear sons to suffer destruction,” he said.

Judkins spoke on the topic “The Old Arms and the New: Their Arms and Our Arms,” calling for an evolution to a new era of peacemaking, modeled after the principles of the American Boy Scout movement.

“If the world will listen to America, we shall have a world of peace, for America has been a peace-appreciating nation, both in war and peace,” he said.

“I want to make this truth clear today and to leave it as a hope and prayer in the hearts of our people, and I wish to leave it as a profound impression in the minds of our little ones,” Judkins continued. “Today a new army is being reared and the means of the new army of peaceful means. I refer especially to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and the way they propose to carry on the world’s social contacts with the arms of unrequited, courteous service.”

After the speech, local Girl Scouts raised a flag over the Grand Army of the Republic plot at Bay Street cemetery.

Click here to read the most recent previous Combined Families post.