Valley Girl Views: Coffin The Kaiser, In Sunbury Pa

In 1918, the town of Sunbury celebrated a week long "Thrift Week", a campaign to sell War Savings Stamps that included a ceremony for locals to pound nails into "The Kaisers Coffin" in Cameron Park.

"He says we're a pack of pikers - that we're too busy making money and spending it on ourselves to back up the boys at the front. Start calling his bluff to-day! And keep on calling it! Every time you buy a War Savings Stamp you give him a solar plexus knock out. And you're saving money for yourself too."

"War Savings Stamps" were issued by the U.S. treasury department to help fund World War I, and later, W.W.II. The stamps were a way for ordinary citizens to "do their part" and lend the government money to use for the war effort.

The idea was that citizens would purchase a War Savings Certificate for $4.12, loaning the government that $4.12 for a period of 4 years. January 1 1923 they could redeem their War Savings Certificates for $5, having earned 4% interest on their loan.

However, the average family in 1918 could not afford $4.12 (roughly $76 today) for a war Savings Certificate. They could instead purchase 10 or 25 cent stamps, which were affixed in a booklet, which when full, could be exchanged for a War Savings Certificate.

Market Square & Cameron Park, Sunbury

Store fronts in Sunbury had window displays for the Thrift & War Savings Stamps, and clerks asked each customer to take a war stamp as part of their change.

In May of 1918, the town of Sunbury placed a coffin in Cameron Park. In a ceremony on the 13th of May, every person who purchased a 25 cent stamp had "the privilege of placing a nail in the coffin."

The first man to subscribe $1,000 was to have the casket as a souvenir to do with as "he sees fit".

Additionally, a contest was held to nail a special silver nail into the coffin. "The lodge, society, or individual that wins that silver nail from the Kaiser's coffin in the patriotic exercises at 8'oclock this evening will have to pledge themselves to buy at least $100 in stamps" reported the Daily Item, the morning of the ceremony.

The silver nail was displayed in the store front of W.W. Fisher.

Six young women, Elizabeth Smith, Helen Kaufman, Sara Messner, Flossie Clark, Valeria Mengle & Helen Shultz, were selected to serve as pall bearers.

The ceremony was held at the east end of Cameron Park, with an estimated crowd of 2,000 in attendence. The Rev R.C. Aukerman officiated, saying "This si the first time I have been called upon to officiate at the burial of a man who is dead in spirit but still living in the flesh. I do not want a man present to show his reverence by removing his hat. We want to show our contempt for this arch criminal. "

The silver nail was auctioned off by Rev. A.W. Brownmiller. It was won by the building committee of the First Presbyterian Church, who purchased $300 in war savings stamps. Additional nails were auctioned off for $200, $100, and $10, while "children took great delight in driving home nails after buying a single stamp for 25 cents."

One young lady bid $5, and in her "considerable excitement" knocked over the coffin while attempting to drive in her nail. $2,000 was raised in one evening. The plan was for the coffin to remain on display in the park, with one or more of the pallbearers on hand to sell stamps to anyone who wanted to add a nail throughout the week.

At 9pm on Saturday May 18th, "while the young lady pallbearers were enjoying a treat at the Central Drug Store", the coffin was removed by members of the Americus Hose Company. They took it to the fire hall, where it was filled with excelsior and soaked with kerosene. It was then returned to market square, where it was burned. "There was a keen contest among the youngsters to secure souvenir nails from the coffin."

Although an unplanned end to the ceremonies, the townspeople however, found it to be a fitting burial.

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