1903 "County Doesn't Own the Cannon"
That was the headline I stumbled across recently, while researching something else. It referred to 4 cannons, which can be spotted around the court house in Williamsport in many old photos.
The cannons were donated by an act of congress to The Soldiers & Sailors Monument Association, in Williamsport.
This is where it starts to get a little confusing - because according to that 1903 article,
The cannons were to be placed in Grand View Cemetery (today, a section of Wildwood). When the Grand Army did not build the monument in that cemetery, the cannon were placed in the courthouse lawn.
And then the GAR (Reno Post) placed a monument in the cemetery, in 1886.
But the Soldiers & Sailors Assn didn't get their monument placed, in Ross Park, until 1893. They didn't even know where it was going to go, until 1892.
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Arrival of Howitzers
“Yesterday afternoon there arrived in the city from Governors Island, four twenty-four pounder flash defense howitzers, weighing about fourteen hundred pounds each, consigned to James N. Kline, Secretary of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Association of Lycoming County.
The Pennsylvania Railroad delivered the cannons "Free of freight charges".
They were deposited on the court house yard and later in the day transferred to the sidewalk in front of the west side of the court house, by members of the Grand Army of the Republic, Reno Post No. 64. These howitzers are to become a part of the Soldiers and Sailors monument to be erected in this city. They were procured through Congressman R. J. C. Walker.” - December 19, 1882
The cannons were originally intended to be a part of the civil war memorial at Grand View Cemetery (today, a section of Wildwood). Grand View Cemetery had offered the reno Post a plot of ground in the cemetery if the Post would "do certain things deemed fitting for the burial of the soldier dead. "
"The proposition was accepted, but, although the cemetery company preformed it's part, the Grand Army Veterans did not perform their part, and the project was never carried into effect."
The RENO post DID however, install a monument at Wildwood, in 1886.
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument Association was chartered on Chartered on April 29th 1880. Although the two organizations likely many of the same members, they were two separate organizations. This assn. struggled to organize, raise enough money, and agree on a monument and plan. They made sporadic efforts, for more than 12 years, to secure and place a monument - which they finally did in 1893.
But when the cannons arrived, in 1882, neither monument had yet been erected. ..."for want of a place to store them, they were put on the courthouse lawn."
The Second Of Lycoming's 3 courthouses, this one was built in 1860 and stood until 1969
One of the inscriptions on the monument at Wildwood states that it was "erected by RENO POST No 84, Dept Of G.A.R. and Veteran Corps Of Co.G 12th Reg T.N.G.R AD 1886"
In other words, four years after the cannons arrived, the Reno post erected a monument in the cemetery. But the cannons were not moved there at that time - in 1886, the Reno Post did not yet own the cannons, The Soldiers & Sailors Association owned them.
Finally, January 27th 1890, a vote of the association decided that the monument was to be erected at Market Square. The design for the monument was chosen, and on May 13 1890 the contract was ordered and signed.
"With an eye to the protection of the monument, it was suggested that the cannon be placed at the four corners to prevent any person from driving against it and injuring it."
That however, wasn't going to work.
On July 14th 1890, "Mr. Sprague called to attention of the association to the fact that councils could not give permission to obstruct the highways".
Market Square could not be the location for the monument.
For two more years the committee stalled, over the location. Brandon Park, and the Court house lawn, were two locations considered, with the Grit in particular making it VERY clear that it should, in their opinion, be in Brandon Park.
That same year, the City gave permission to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Association to erect their monument in front of City Hall in Ross Park, and $307.50 was appropriated from the general fund for the purpose of a monument and payment of bills for removing the dead from Ross Park to Grand View Cemetery.
The G.A.R Monument that was placed in Grand View - Today Wildwood - in 1886.
"Upon motion of David Bly, duly made and seconded, it was resolved that the four cannons donated to this association several years ago by the United States government - according to an act of congress - be here by given by this association to the Board Of Managers of the Reno Post. "
Three of the cannons were moved to the cemetery.
Then, in 1903, a substantial addition was made to the courthouse. Apparently, at that time, the commissioners decided to move the cannons back to the courthouse yard.
And that is when the Reno Post reminded everyone, that the county did not own the cannons.
"Thus the title passed to reno Post, and there it remains [in 1903] although facts in the case had been so long lost sight of that the County Commissioners believed that they had once owned the big guns."
On November 5th 1903 the G&B reported:
“And they brought them back again.
“Cannon will once more adorn the Court House Lawn.
[Note, most of this article appears to be incorrect. The monument was in the cemetery in 1886. The one in Ross Park in 1893/4 . Only the part about them being back at the court house appears to be accurate.]
“For some years three of the guns donated to the city by Hon. H. J. C. Walker have reposed in Grand View Cemetery but the County Commissioners yesterday had them brought back to the Court House.
“These cannon that erstwhile adorned the corners of the Court house lawn have been brought back again from Grand View Cemetery where they have reposed for several years.
“Ten or a dozen years ago [actually it was in 1882 – editor] Hon. R. J. C. Walker secured four condemned government cannon and donated them to the city. They were planted on the four corners of the court house lawn, and remained there until there was talk of erecting a soldiers monument in Grand View. When the Board of County Commissioners then in office allowed them to be moved to the cemetery, where they were proposed to be placed about the prospective monument, while the fourth remained at the northeast corner of the lawn.
“Time went on, and the monument failed to materialize, so yesterday the County Commissioners had them hauled back again. The four are now placed in carriages at the corners, where they were intended to be.”
The Reno post did not plan to object to the county's plans for the guns in 1903, they only wished for their ownership to be acknowledged.
The Reno post planned at their next meeting, to pass a resolution loaning the cannon to the county "for the purpose which is now desired to use them."
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Brick streets, trolley tracks, and a cannon in front of the courthouse. 1930s?
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Where are the cannons now? When the courthouse was demolished in 1969, the cannons were sold.
Two were purchased by the late Clifford Breidinger a civil war collector. He displayed them in his yard in Trout Run, Pa.
The other two were, reportedly, moved to the VFW in Duboistown.
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Labeled - "Looking toward Woodward Hill showing drive at Grandview - Williamsport Lycoming County" [In the James V. Brown archive] Is that hill in the background the Grandview Cemetery? I don't know - but that would be my guess.
Mounds Cemetery, and Mount Carmel Cemetery, also became part of Wildwood. Mounds had been owned by the Blair Fmily, and Mount Carmel was owned by the Catholic Church on 4th street.
Removal of the Bodies from the Almond Street Cemetery
WHERE HEBREW DEAD WERE BURIED
Selected as a Burial Site When the City Was Yet a Half Mile Away, But Now ‘Tis Crowded Out by the City’s Growth
The abandonment of the old Jewish graveyard on Almond Street, and the removal therefrom of all the bodies for the purpose of reinterment in the new cemetery on Grandview (at Wildwood), has been in progress for a week or more, and in a short time the remains, together with those from the old Jewish cemetery on Cemetery Street, will have been given burial in the beautifully located new graveyard.
When this has been done, the congregation of Temple Beth Hashalom will hold appropriate services at the new cemetery and consecrate it to its sacred purpose.
Tho’ abandonment of the old graveyards – especially the one at Almond and Wyoming streets – was found necessary because of the desecration of the properties. Those whose friends were buried there long since expressed a desire to have their dead removed to a more desirable place. Consequently, some time ago, a plot of 1 and ½ acres was selected on Grandview and the name purchased for a Jewish cemetery. There were fewer that half a hundred bodies buried in each of the old graveyards, hence the work of removal was not a gigantic task.
The work of removal was done by John F. Greininger, and Rabbi G. Levy gave it his personal attention.
The abandonment of the little burial ground at Almond and Wyoming streets awakens interest in the history of the place. When chosen as a site for a graveyard by the Jewish people of Williamsport, the spot was a half mile out of town – now the City surrounds it. Then the place appealed to those upon whom devolved the duty of selecting a burial plot. They bought one acre for $350. This was nearly 40 years ago – in 1858 or ’59 – and no thought was then given that some day this little place for the dead might be encroached upon by the city of the living.
The first body buried there was that of Isaac Strasburger, father of Carolyn (Mrs. Moses Ulman) and Aaron Strasburger, residents of the city. There were also buried within the white-fenced enclosure members of the families Goldenberg, Rothschild, Levy, Kohn, Ulman, Needel, Neuman and others – about 50 in all. Trees and shrubbery were planted and substantial gravestones and monuments were erected, and the plot in general kept in good condition. For many years the little graveyard was unmolested, but with the growing-up of the City no burials had been made there for a number of years.
Gruesome as is the task of removing the remains of the dead, the work of disinterments has proceeded without unusual incident. Most of the coffins have long since turned to dust – likewise, many of the bones of those who were laid away in them. But one coffin was fully intact and that was taken from the grave last Thursday. It was that of Abraham Neuman, who died in September 1885, in the 46th year of his age. The Neuman grave was at the northeast corner of the graveyard on the bank of the run crossing Wyoming Street. The coffin was of the old-fashioned styles , with wide head and gradually tapering toward the foot. It was of a greenish cast from the earth’s action, but none of the wood crumbled away when the men lifted it to the surface. It was immediately placed in a rough-box and transferred to the new cemetery.
As each grave was opened, a receptacle for the remains was made. These were properly marked so that in the new burial ground the old headstones can be correctly placed.
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