Memorial Day Monday May 28, 2007, a celebration

For all our family war veterans 

 

Compiled by Richard Roland Grayson, May 28, 2007

 

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday that is observed on the last Monday of May.  It was formerly known as Decoration Day. 

 

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

 

 

The American's Creed

(If you need a toast at your Memorial Day dinner)

William Tyler Page

“I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.  I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.”

 

NOTE: William Tyler Page, Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, wrote “The American's Creed” in 1917. The House on behalf of the American people accepted it on April 3, 1918.

 

 

Revolutionary War

 

John Stone, who married Anne Hunt in 1778, was a private in Captain Edgell’s Company of Framingham Minutemen, which marched to Concord and Cambridge on the Lexington Alarm, 19 April, 1775, and was discharged after numerous battles 21st October, 1777. His great granddaughter married Wyman Tasker.

 

Benjamin Grayson, Sr., of Wilkes County, North Carolina, served in the North Carolina Militia, Morgan District, pay voucher dated 31 July, 1784.

 

War of 1812

 

John Tasker of Newberry, Vermont, father of Wyman Tasker, father of William Frederick Tasker, father of Una May Tasker Grayson, mother of Roland Howard Grayson, served as private in the War of 1812, against Great Britain, for 3 months in the Vermont Militia, in the regiment commanded by Col. Underhill, discharged the 30th of November, 1813, at Plattsburgh, New York.

 

Andrew C. Cummins, father of Permelia Cummins, the wife of John Wren Grayson, who was the father of Andrew Jackson Grayson, Sergeant, 28th Kentucky regiment fought at the Battle of the Thames in Michigan in the War of 1812.

 

Wren Grayson, Sr., (son of Benjamin Grayson, sr.) father of John Wren Grayson, served with the Third Militia of East Tennessee under Captain James Tunnel, 13 September 1814, to May, 1815, fought at the final battle of Mobile, Alabama after the defeat of the British at the Battle of New Orleans by General Andrew Jackson.

 

Civil War

 

Andrew Jackson Grayson, Lieutenant, in the 6th Indiana Regiment fought from the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 until after the Battle of Shiloh April 6th and 7th, 1862. He was at the first battle in the Civil War, the Battle of Phillipi, W. VA. and saw action at the Battle at Shiloh under Ulysses S. Grant

 

Four cousins of Andrew Jackson Grayson served in Indiana regiments in the Civil War.  They were the sons of John Wren Grayson’s brother Wren Grayson, Jr.: Hiram, William, John, and Beryl Grayson.  John T. Grayson fought at the battle of Gettysburg.  Beryl died of wounds in the war.

 

 

Wyman S. Tasker of Cabot, Vermont, served in the Civil War in Company I, Regiment 2, Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, 1864-1865.

 

Andrew Jackson McCoy, Great Grandfather of Robert Jebavy, enlisted in Capt. Grigsby Company, 2nd Company M, 62nd VA Mounted Infantry, Confederate Army of America, 1864, fought at Battle of Newmarket in 1864, captured at Battle of Waynboro in 1864, b 1847, d 193_ age 107.

 

 

World War II

 

Sherman Lans, son of Anna Leah Mandelbaum Lans, (sister of Sylvia Mandelbaum Grayson,) served in the United States Army throughout Europe as a medic, including the Battle of the Bulge.

 

Robert Jebavy, Sr., served in the United States Marine Corps in the Pacific including the Okinawa Campaign and immediately after the war was posted to northern China to protect munitions from the Communists and to help repatriate Japanese soldiers.

 

Robert Douglas Clevenger, Lieutenant j.g., father of Roberta Gerbrecht Grayson, served on the battleship USS Mississippi in the Pacific campaigns and was on board his ship in Tokyo Bay at the signing of the surrender of Japan.

 

Richard Roland Grayson, assigned to Wabash college and U of IL medical school V-1 and V-12 and Internship by the USNR, 1943-1948; Apprentice Seaman, Ensign, and Lt. j.g. Transferred to USAFR, US Training Command as physician at Reese AFB, TX, then Base Surgeon, Greenville AFB; Greenville, MS, 1950-1952, 1st Lt., then Captain, discharged June 1952.

 

 

Iraq War II

 

 

Aaron Rutter, son of Priscilla Grayson Rutter, served as a United States Navy medic attached to the United States Marine Corps for 7 months duty, 2004-2005.  September 14th, 2004, he left for Iraq with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines. They were in the city of Mahmudiyah about 25 miles south of Baghdad, which the Marines took over from the Army on March 24, 2004.

 

John Blasdell, USNR, Petty Officer 3rd class, E-5, husband of Rachel Rutter, (daughter of Priscilla Grayson Rutter) since April 1, 2007 has been serving in Kuwait in Navy Customs Battalion Sierra, Bravo Company, stationed in Ali Al Saleem Air Base LSA .