palm beach chapter p.o. box 16735 west palm beach, fl...
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Palm Beach Chapter P.O. Box 16735
West Palm Beach, FL 33416
The Patriot Florida Society Sons of the American Revolution
Volume 20 March 2014 Number 03
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PLEASE JOIN US ON
TUESDAY, March 18, 2014 AT 12:00 noon
THE EMBASSY SUITES 1601 Belvedere Road
West Palm Beach
GUEST SPEAKER –CHRIS NOEL 60”s Movie Star, Author, and Veteran’s Cause Advocate
Toured with the Bob Hope USO Show Founder of the Chris Noel Vetsville Cease Fire House
Lunch is $28.00 inclusive For Reservations, please contact: Ray Wess 561-795-9598 or Buddy Miller 561-793-1780 Reservations must be made by Thursday, Mar. 13Guests are always welcome!
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Please visit our Website: www.sarpbchapter.org
President’s Message:
MISS CHRIS NOEL
It is with great pride that I announce this month’s guest speaker, Chris Noel. Every Vietnam era veteran knows her as she toured with the Bob Hope USO shows during the Vietnam War. She also hosted a daily radio show called “A Date With Chris”. Chris is a local West Palm Beach girl who graduated from Palm Beach High School. During the 60’s, Chris made many movies with Elvis Presley, Steve McQueen, Dennis Hopper, Jackie Gleason, Ed Byrnes and others. Chris was on top of the entertainment world when she visited a California Veteran’s Hospital that changed her life forever. She was so taken by the sacrifices of the
soldiers that she met in the hospital that she vowed to dedicate the rest of her life to veteran’s causes. The military newspaper, “The Stars and Stripes”, called her “every soldier’s gal back home” and made her the official military pin-up girl.
Chris continues the fight for veteran’s causes today. In 1993 she founded, Chris Noel's Vetsville Cease Fire House in Boynton Beach, FL. For over 20 years this non-profit charity has been providing food, shelter, and tender care for homeless American military veterans. Miss Noel has also authored six books that she has dedicated all proceeds to the charity that she founded.
As a two tour Vietnam Veteran, I am particularly looking forward to personally meeting the woman that I like most of my fellow soldiers fell in love with during the war.
Please join me in thanking Chris for her lifetime dedication to veteran’s causes and maybe purchase a book to help finance the Cease Fire House. At the very least, have your picture taken with this outstanding American citizen.
“Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.”………Ray Kroc
JROTC OUTSTANDING CADET
We will be announcing the winner of the Palm Beach Chapter’s 2014 JROTC Outstanding Cadet Contest . The deadline for entries is March 15. We have received one entry as of this date. This will be the second year in a row that the chapter will have an entry in the Florida State competition.
Cont. page 2
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The Patriot Is the official publication of The Palm Beach Chapter
Florida Society of The Sons of the American Revolution
2014 Officers and Board Raymond F. Wess 561-795-9598 President [email protected]
Samuel A. (Buddy) Miller 561-793-1780 Vice President [email protected]
David Coldwell 561-622-4699 Member -at- Large [email protected]
Benjamin Tidwell III 561-737-0230 Membership Secretary [email protected]
Peter Johnson 561-729-6667 Treasurer [email protected]
Raymond F. Wess 561-795-9598 Registrar/Genealogist [email protected]
Rev. Harry Champion 561-966-9325 Chaplain
Benjamin Tidwell III 561-737-0230 Sergeant-at-Arms [email protected]
Samuel A. (Buddy) Miller 561-793-1780 Editor, The Patriot [email protected]
Chris Williams 561-301-0325 Chapter Historian [email protected]
If you would like to place an advertisement in The Patriot for your business, organization, or any other purpose, the costs for eight consecutive issues are:
Business Card $25 Quarter – page $50 Half page $100 Full page $200
PRESIDENT’S BRIGADE
James Blackburn BRONZE $50 - $99
Bruce Long Craig Odell
Jeffery Young
Rev. Harry Champion SILVER $100 -$199
Robert Culpepper Alexander Dreyfoos Jr.
Joseph Harper Dan Shepherd Sr.
Wally Turner Arthur Griswold Jr.
David Riker GOLD $200 - $499
F. Russell Greenspan Robert Banta
Edward Buckley David Coldwell William Meakin
John Curry Michael Vecellio
Michael Burkhardt Robert Rewey
Duane Lewis PLATINUM - $500
James Kane Jack Miller
Ray Wess
President’s Message Cont. from page 1
The Outstanding Cadet Contest was established by Florida State Society Compatriot, Carl Hoffmann in 1999. Each chapter is allowed to select one cadet from their chapter area to compete in the State competition. The state winner proceeds to the National Congress to compete against all state winners. The cadets that compete in the program are outstanding cadets who must be academically in the top 10% of their JROTC program, the top 25% of their school and submit endorsements from their school principal and JROTC unit instructor. They
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must also submit an essay entitled, “How JROTC has prepared me to be a better citizen of the United States of America”. Compatriots, this is another example of how the SAR encourages the youth of America to participate in good citizenship.
MYSTERY MAN TO BE REVEALED
Compatriots, as you remember, I rambled on in the January newsletter about a mysterious elderly stranger and his personal servant making his way to a farmer’s field and writing notes about the crops that the farmer was successful in growing. I asked the question, “Who was the stranger? What was he doing in the farmer’s field and where was the farmer’s field?” I promised the rest of the story at the March meeting. I will keep my promise to reveal what Paul Harvey used to call, “The Rest of the Story”. Therefore attend the meeting to find out who the mystery stranger was.
ATTENTION ALL VETERANS
Those of you who attended the February meeting witnessed the presentation of a Military Service Medal to Compatriot Edward Payne III and the Vietnam Certificate of Patriotism to Compatriot Steve Brook. We continue to seek out every prior service member and veteran in our chapter so that we can make these presentations. If you served in a combat zone, non-combat zone or during peace time, we want to make the appropriate presentation to you. Regardless of your participation, all levels of service are cherished. We are very fortunate in the Palm Beach Chapter to have a veteran who purchases all Military Service and SAR War Medals for presentation as an act of appreciation for the member’s service. According to the Florida State Society Veteran’s Chairman, the Palm Beach Chapter is the most active chapter in these presentations. We are very proud of this recognition. Please forward your discharge papers to the Chapter President for proper processing. Vietnam veterans who are members of the National
Society of the Sons of the American Revolution Veteran’s Battalion will receive a special “Certificate of Patriotism” from the SAR’s new President General, Joseph W. Dooley. PG Dooley is a Vietnam veteran and has made veteran affairs a priority during his tenure as President General. The “Certificate of Patriotism” will be similar to its namesake issued to WWII and Korean veterans. As a Vietnam veteran who served two consecutive tours of duty in country, I am grateful to PG Dooley. I, like most Vietnam veterans felt abandoned by our country when we returned home from war. There were no welcoming committees at the airports, no parades, and no “thank yous”, for your sacrifices. We gave up voluntarily or involuntarily some of the prime years of our lives. Some of us left our blood on the battlefield. We were boys, barely out of high school, called upon by our political leaders to enforce their will. Many landed in country as innocent boys and returned home hardened, emotional men, never able to reclaim our innocence or lost years. A well-deserved “Thank You” should always be accepted by all who served, and celebrated, regardless of how late it is issued. When the certificates arrive, I will present them in open meeting. If you have not yet submitted your DD214 to obtain membership in the Veteran’s Battalion, please forward it to me and I will submit it to the FLSSAR Battalion Chairman.
“When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends”………Japanese Proverb
SAR NATIONAL CONGRESS
The SAR National Congress dates and headquarters hotel have been announced. The dates are: 17 July 2014 – 24 July 2014. The location will be in Greenville, South Carolina. The headquarters hotel will be the Hyatt Regency Greenville. This should be an exceptional congress for the Florida Society because one of its members, Compatriot Lindsey Brock will be elected the next President General. One of the historical side trips sponsored by the congress will be a tour of the “Kings Mountain”
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battlefield. Since this national congress is within driving distance of most of the state of Florida, it would be nice if we are well represented. Please consider attending.
MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE
For the third year in a row, the Palm Beach Chapter will be participating in the Forgotten Soldiers Outreach Memorial Day Service. The chapter places a wreath every year to honor the heroes of the American Revolution. This year’s event will take place at Palm Beach Memorial Park Cemetery, 3691 Seacrest Blvd., Lantana, FL. on May 26th, from 11:50AM to 2:00PM. It is an exceptional ceremony and attendees are seated in a tent, shaded from the sun. Free food and beverages are provided after the event. Please join me this year as we continue the tradition of placing a wreath to memorialize our patriot ancestors
PRESIDENT HERBERT HOOVER, THANK YOU! If you have ever challenged yourself to come up with one of the crowning achievements of the Hoover Presidency, you might be hard pressed. However, we have President Hoover to thank for one of the most significant pieces of legislation in US history. On March 03, 1931, President Hoover signed into law legislation making the “Star Spangled Banner” the Official National Anthem of the United States. Congress passed the sponsored legislation and Hoover signed it. Many have confused the executive order issued by Woodrow Wilson in 1916 offering the song, originated from the lyrics penned from Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812, as the National Anthem with the law passed and signed in 1931. So the next time you hear the National Anthem performed, impress your friends by informing them that it was Hoover not Wilson who sponsored and signed the legislation establishing our Official National Anthem. You might also tell them that our beloved anthem is only 83 years old.
“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on” ………Thomas Jefferson
FINALLY, DON’T FORGET TO MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS FOR THE MARCH MEETING BY THURSDAY, 13 MARCH. PLEASE CALL 561-795-9598 OR E-MAIL [email protected] for making reservations.
“What lies ahead of us and what lies behind us will always be small compared to what lies within us.”
Yours for the Republic, and Always for the Revolution,
Ray Wess Palm Beach Chapter President
THE SEARCH FOR JOHN PAUL JONES' REMAINS
After John Paul Jones’ death in July 1792, his body was preserved in alcohol and sealed in a leaden coffin. The turmoil created by the French Revolution at this time meant that the location of his burial soon was forgotten. In fact it wasn’t until the 1840’s that any interest was shown in locating Jones’ grave. Historian John Sherburne, who conducted a search for Jones’ burial site, believed that Jones was buried in an old Protestant cemetery near the Cathedral of Norte Dame. But when he discovered the cemetery had been sold years earlier and that the bodies had been removed and buried in the catacombs, he concluded that any further attempt to locate Jones’ remains would be futile. He abandoned the search.
There the matter rested until 1899, when another American Ambassador to France, General Horace C. Porter, arrived in Paris. Porter was graduated from the United States Military at West Point in 1860 and entered the Civil War. Arriving in Paris 36 years after his own exploits at Chickamauga, the old soldier “felt a deep sense of humiliation as an American citizen in realizing that our first and
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most fascinating naval hero had been lying for more than a century in an unknown and forgotten grave….” Undaunted by Sherburnes’ fruitless quest fifty years earlier, Porter began his own search for Jones’ grave in June 1899.
Porter delved into the records himself. The original certificate of burial, which might have provided such information, had been destroyed by fire in 1871. However, Porter’s research revealed that a writer and investigator named Charles Read had made a transcript of the certificate in 1859. After a diligent search, the general managed to locate a copy of an article in which Read quoted the certificate in full.
The transcript noted merely that Jones “was buried in the cemetery for foreign Protestants.” To this information, however, Read had appended his own conviction that this graveyard was the long-forgotten cemetery of Saint Louis, located on a street known as Grange-aux-belles. This was significant, for if true, it meant that Jones’ remains would not have been removed to the catacombs and that his grave might be found intact.
Meanwhile, evidence mounted in the favor of Saint Louis Cemetery as the site of Jones’s grave. This cemetery for burial of foreign Protestants was opened in the 1760’s and remained in use until January 1793, six months after Jones death. Perhaps most important of all, a search through documents and journals of the period turned up no evidence of any other cemetery used for the interment of foreign Protestants at the time of Jones death. By now satisfied that Jones had indeed been buried in Saint Louis Cemetery, Porter set out to inspect the long-lost site, which he described as being situated in an “uninviting section” of the northeastern quarter of Paris.
Renewing his paper chase, Porter located two old maps of the property, one dated 1773 and the other 1794. These showed that the original site
consisted of a corner courtyard with a frontage of about 130 feet and a depth of 90 feet. Three years after the burial site ceased being used in 1793, it was sold to a building contractor, and in the 1820’s, the grade of the street had been changed. The sunken garden was filled in to the level of the courtyard, and apparently the existence of the cemetery below was forgotten. As buildings went up on this piece of land, it quickly became just another part of the city.
The sad truth, a mortified Porter observed, was that John Paul Jones lay “in ground once consecrated, but since desecrated by having been used at times as a garden and a common dump pile, where dogs and horses had been buried. And, the soil was still soaked with polluted waters from undrained laundries.
Having ascertained that the caskets had never been removed from the Saint Louis Cemetery, Porter entertained high hopes that he would be able to find and identify Jones’s remains. A letter written by Colonel Blackden soon after Jones’s death gave the ambassador reason for optimism. Blackden had observed that Jones’s “ body was put in a leaden coffin on the 20th, that in case the United States, which he had so essentially served and with so much honor, should claim his remains, they might be more easily removed.”
Highly encouraged, General Porter was preparing to open discussions with the owners and tenants of the building on the old cemetery site when details of his project leaked out. With local rumors indicating that the American government was prepared to pay fabulous sums for the property, practicable negotiations became impossible. Porter decided to drop the matter temporarily in order to let the excitement subside.”
After a two year hiatus, Porter quietly resumed his investigation in 1904. He promised that any damage to houses would be repaired, victims of
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disease “caused by foul emanations from the disturbed soil” would be indemnified, and the property would be restored to its original condition. After prolonged negotiations with the local residents Porter managed to obtain options from everyone concerned, allowing him three months to explore the old cemetery.
Meanwhile, President Theodore Roosevelt had learned of the undertaking and contacted Porter for details. Advised that the entire project was expected to cost about $35,000, Roosevelt asked Congress to appropriate the necessary funds. When Congress failed to take action, Porter decided to pay the advanced fees himself so that work could begin immediately. It is well that he did, for several years passed before Congress offered to reimburse him.
General Porter was fortunate in securing an experienced engineer, Paul Weiss, to direct the work. Battling unstable ground and poor drainage, workers sunk the first shaft to the depth of 18 feet on February 3, 1905, and immediately encountered bones, apparently the remains of poorer people who had been buried in a trench. “The skeletons were found lying about a foot apart, generally in two layers, one above the other and in some places there were three,” observed Porter. This discovery raised hopes that a few leaden coffins would be found, thereby expediting the identification of Jones’s remains.
The workers, toiling night and day, sank five shafts in all and pushed out galleries in every direction. They took “sounding” between the galleries with long iron rods, so that no leaden casket could be overlooked. After six weeks of searching two leaden coffins had been discovered but inscriptions on the nameplates indicated they were not the remains of Jones. In early April a third leaden coffin was uncovered. Like the first two, it was mummy-shaped, wide at the shoulders and tapered down toward the feet. “It was much superior in solidity and workmanship to the
others,” noted Porter. Unfortunately, a thorough search uncovered no inscription plate. It was decided to open the coffin Porter remembered, “but as the odors were so disagreeable in the unventilated gallery the examination was postponed until a connection could be made with another gallery, so as to admit a current of air.” On April 7, as the coffin’s firmly-soldered lid was painstakingly removed, a strong odor of alcohol filled the gallery. Most of the liquid, apparently used to preserve the remains, has seeped out through a crack at the foot of the coffin of through a hole in the top.
The body itself, literally pickled in alcohol, was shrouded in a winding sheet and firmly packed with hay and straw, as if to protect it during shipping. The winding sheet was removed from the head and chest, exposing the face. “To our intense surprise,” wrote Porter, “the body was marvelously well preserved, all the flesh remaining intact, but slightly shrunken, and of a grayish brown or tan color…. The face presented quite a natural appearance….”
When a copy of a medallion bearing Jones’s likeness was held next to the corpse’s face, many of the men present exclaimed, “Paul Jones,” and respectfully removed their hats. The resemblance between the corpse and likeness on the medal was so striking that none of the witnesses had any doubt in their minds that these were the mortal remains of John Paul Jones.
The body was quietly removed from the gallery on the night of April 8 and taken to the Paris School of Medicine. Meanwhile, workmen explored the rest of the cemetery to ensure that no coffins had been overlooked. Two additional coffins were found but neither could have been the remains of Jones. Convinced that they had missed no other coffins, Porter ordered the excavations filled and turned his attention to the corpse at the Medical College. Though fairly certain the remains were those of Jones, he
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intended to place the matter beyond a reasonable doubt by means of a meticulous scientific examination.
A team of specialist was assembled, each possessing impressive credentials in his field. The body was carefully removed from the casket. According to Porter, the “remains looked like the anatomical specimens preserved in jars of alcohol such as one sees in medical museums…The joints were somewhat flexible. In taking the right hand in mine I found that the knuckle joints could be easily bent.” The corpse was clad only in a fine linen shirt. The hair measured nearly 30 inches in length and had been neatly gathered in a linen cap on the back of the head.
To aid in the identification, the investigators relied on two busts of Jones, fashioned from life by the famed French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon; a copy of the gold medal awarded by the American Congress in 1787, which showed his face in profile; and various documentary material describing Jones’s physical appearance. After watching this large group of men take countless measurements of the body, a witness later recalled, “there was a feeling of awe in the room. . .There was no shadow of a doubt but the body was that of John Paul Jones.”
(Next month: Returning Jones’s body to the United States )
Source:
“The Search for John Paul Jones,” James Henry Hallas, American History, August 1997.
Question of the month: The pockmarks on George Washington’s face were the sign that he had once suffered from smallpox. Having earlier been exposed to smallpox was in Washington’s favor during the years he commanded the America Army. Smallpox was rampart within the army but Washington’s exposure had made him immune to further infection. When and where had Washington contracted smallpox? Email me at the address found on page 2 of The Patriot as soon as you have the answer. The first to respond with the correct answer will be treated to a meal at our March meeting. Good Luck!
Samuel A. (Buddy) Miller Chapter's Vice President, Patriot Editor