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![\"The](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/OCPL-Archives_Hoffmann_GAR-Reunion_1886.jpg?resize=300%2C217\")
Now known as Memorial Day, the first \u201cDecoration Day\u201d was held on May 30, 1868. Created by proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), it was originally intended to be a day to honor the memory of those who died in the Civil War. Congress made \u201cMemorial Day\u201d an official, national holiday in 1971.<\/p>\n
Wheeling played host to reunions of Civil War veterans of the G.A.R. numerous times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The J. W. Holliday Post, No. 12, of Wheeling was usually front and center during these activities. <\/p>\n Period newspaper accounts described elaborate Decoration Day ceremonies staged by the Holliday Post at Greenwood, Mt. Wood, Mt. Cavalry, Stone Church, Peninsula, and Mt. Zion cemeteries. These graveside ceremonies were inevitably preceded by a parade through the Wheeling streets involving the G.A.R., various other veterans groups, patriotic social clubs, and school children.<\/p>\n Located on Fairmont Avenue along Caldwell Run above South Wheeling, Mt. Zion Cemetery is one of Wheeling\u2019s most historic burial sites. The cemetery was dedicated by Zion Lutheran Church on July 3, 1864, and, according to wvgenweb.org<\/a>, at least 138 Civil War veterans have been interred at Mt. Zion Cemetery.<\/p>\n As such, Mt. Zion was often a focal point for Decoration Day activities.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no lack of flowers,\u201d The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em> reported on May 31, 1898. \u201cThe Woman\u2019s Relief Corps had deftly arranged the bounteous baskets of flowers the old boys in blue carried to the cemeteries, and every grave, designated by small American flags at its head and foot, whether it covered the remains of Federal or Confederate soldier, was almost hidden by heaps of floral tributes\u2026The Ritchie school children, with drum corps, marched with the \u2018odd fellows\u2019 to Mount Zion, and the Clay school children attended the Peninsula exercises.\u201d<\/p>\n Plentiful flowers and flags are certainly evident in this very interesting photograph of the 1911 Decoration Day ceremony at Mt. Zion Cemetery<\/a>, which was recently donated to the Ohio County Public Library<\/a> Archives by our Heritage Partners at Friends of Wheeling and the Wheeling Area Genealogical Society.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/1911-cartoon-intelligencer-e1418950564136.jpg\")
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