The Decoration of the Fallen in 1884
Thousands gathered in the university grove to honor the Civil War dead and reflect on the changing definition of loyalty in a young, healing nation.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The morning dawned pleasant, and from a score of flagstaffs in the city and from the shipping in the harbor, our national colors floated at half mast. Soon the various business houses closed their doors and the mills and factories shut down so that their employees might join in the solemn services. At 11 o'clock a committee from Stevens Post, consisting of D. L. McGowan, J. H. Hawthorne and M. V. Mills, visited the various cemeteries and decorated with sweet flowers the graves of Union soldiers. The procession moved down First street to Commercial, to Main, then marched to Mill, to Second, to Columbia, to Third, and then to the University grounds. The procession was half a mile long, and contained over a thousand persons, including several hundred children from our public schools. At the grounds, full three thousand people had assembled in the beautiful grove to witness the memorial exercises. Dr. T. T. Minor, orator of the day, delivered a powerful address on the sacrifice of the war and the enduring duty of citizenship. Mayor H. G. Struve also spoke, urging that the community honor not only the dead, but also the living veterans who survived to see the nation reunited.
“The past is gone. Gone not alone from us, but forever gone as well from the noble spirits whose silent graves kept this day had fitting decoration.”
This Memorial Day service took place on what is now the site of the downtown core—a far cry from the 'beautiful grove' described in 1884. The site of the University of Washington was located in the downtown area (now the Fairmont Olympic Hotel block) before moving to its current location in 1895.
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