Time to be Counted Among Those Keeping Christmas

I feel a holy indignation toward those who are trying to take Christ out of Christmas. A subtle movement is under way in America to be “politically correct” about our most revered time of year. Dark and daunting, this action by a minority would seek to rob us of the meaning of Christmas.

It is not the possible loss of our wonderful traditions that angers me most. It is the apathetic way we Christians stand aside and allow the season to be just that, “A Season of Happy Holidays.” And when a minority dictates what will offend and what is acceptable, we generally keep quiet. I, for one, want my voice to be heard.

Do we have the fortitude to boycott stores that refuse to put “Christmas” in any of their advertisements or in their decorations? Those who refuse any reference to the birth of Christ as the reason for the season? Those that have prohibited the Salvation Army personnel to stand outside stores with the familiar kettle and bell asking for donations for people in need? Are we willing to be counted among those who care about Christmas and send letters of protest to stores that make huge profits from the season but are unwilling to admit what the season means and why we celebrate it? Why we buy gifts in the first place?

If you detect a sense of being “fed up” flowing through these lines, that’s exactly what I am—fed up with those who are in the minority yet are getting their way about our important age-old customs that speak of our faith. I’ve been active in sending messages of protest. According to Agape Press and the American Family Association, our voices are being heard. Big merchandisers are taking another view of Christmas and promise that, even though it is too late this year, next year will be different in their advertisements and approach to Christmas.

Many “pro” and “con” arguments are being aired about Christmas. To list a few let us look first at the date, December 25.

It is true that we don’t know the exact date of the birth of Jesus. December 25 is an “assigned” date, taken at the time of the Roman saturnalia which already existed and was pagan in nature. In my thinking, the date is not a matter of argument. The Bible tells us that “in the fullness of time” God became flesh and dwelt among men.

Another argument is that there wasn’t even an inn in Bethlehem, so how could there be “no room in the inn” for the Holy Family? For those doubters, scholars tell us that inns for wayfarers date back as far as the Exodus, Joshua, Jeremiah and Isaiah. Public inns existed throughout the Greek and Roman Empires. The wayside inns had water available for travelers, a walled-in space for protection, rooms for rent and a keep for animals. For those who argue that Bethlehem was too small to have an inn, the stopping place might have been a private dwelling with rooms to rent. The inn-keeper helped the Holy Family find room among the animals. His was a hospitality house much like Jesus referred to later in his parable of the Good Samaritan.

Agnostics argue that the information in Luke about a census is wrong and does not match Roman history of the period. Herod the Great died in AD 4 and Cyrenius was Governor of Syria in AD 6-9. How can there be truth in such a disparity in time?

Scholars place the birth of Jesus at 6 B. C., not AD 1 as we so often assume. Considered in this light, Jesus was born during the time when Herod ruled. Records show that Cyrenius functioned as military governor in Syria synonymously with the political governor, Sentius Saturnius. The reference of the census in Luke is of a general census of the Roman world for both taxation and military conscription. Gamaliel, the Jewish historian, stated that Judas of Galilee rose up in rebellion “in the days of the census.” We must remember that our calendar has undergone many changes from the pivotal point in time when Christ’s birth began to mark Anno Domini—“in the year of our Lord.” But there is history to confirm a census at the time of Jesus’ birth.

It takes faith to overlook the arguments of the naysayers against Christmas.

As we walk through the malls and drive through our towns during days leading up to Christmas, 2006, we will find changes from the familiar. In many places nativity scenes are banned because such a display might “offend.” The Christmas tree is called a “holiday” tree. The word Christmas is absent from advertising. Christmas carols are muted or the words have been changed so as not to mention the Holy Family. Imagine singing these words to the melody of “Silent Night,” that beloved carol made famous by Franz Gruber and Joseph Mohr. The new words go: “Cold in the night, no one in sight, winter winds whirl and bite, how I wish I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm.” The pessimism of these new words holds no candle to the promise of the original words of “Silent Night.”

I have a very strong conviction that the majority of Americans still want Christmas in its truest sense as the apex of this “holiday season”. Why then do we stand idly by and let the minority water down, steal, and seek to hide the very meaning of Christmas?

I, for one, am ready to stand up and be counted for Christmas which I love and cherish. Keeping Christmas holy and full of its intended meaning is both a heart-acceptance and a mind-acceptance, something to hold in deep faith. I hope readers will seriously consider and join me in a “holy” Christmas, the time when God came to earth, Emmanuel, God with us. This news is transcendent and to persons among whom there is good will, it is held in highest reverence.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Dec. 15, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Christmas Truce of 1914

On Christmas Day soccer games were organized and enemy soldiers laughed and sported as they engaged in the games. I heard the story of how enemies during the Great War, which we call World War I, the “war to end all wars,” had a truce on Christmas Day, 1914.

It had been five months since the war began in Europe. British, French, Belgian and Russian forces were allied in defensive warfare against Germany. In the “no man’s land” that delineated the eastern and western fronts, signs in broken English began appearing along the German lines on Christmas Eve, 1914, with the message, “You no fight, we no fight.”

Were the signs a ruse to ensnare the allies in yet another German trap? The weather was cold. In the trenches both allied soldiers and the German troops experienced all the dread of war. Christmas season seemed to maximize their loneliness, deprivation, separation from families, the bitter cold and discomfort of a severe winter, the fear of war with its mortar shells, and, even worse, face-to-face confrontation with the enemy bringing mortal wounds at any time with bayonet or gunfire. Add to that the monotony of field rations as visions of sugarplums and the Christmas feasts they had enjoyed back home came to mind again and again.

“You no fight, we no fight!”? Daresome, indeed. Had the allied forces the courage to venture forth to see if the Germans actually meant to declare a truce or if it was a dirty war trick to get the allied forces into a position for good aim.

Some from warring factions met, bayonets at rest. They shook hands, and shared gifts they had received in care packages from home, miraculously delivered by Christmas Eve.

Throughout the German battlefield, the strains of “Silent Night” sounded with lyrics in the language of the soldiers. The tune was familiar, having been used throughout most of the churches in Europe since Franz Gruber composed the music in 1818 set to words by Father Joseph Mohr written two years earlier. The lovely and simple carol had become a favorite at Christmastime.

In language native to soldiers on every side, the words were raised to the stars that twinkled in the cold December sky as the chorus of the music echoed along the trenches. It was a “Stille Nacht,” a night of wonder when enemies celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace. Guns were silent. The men slept more peacefully in their trenches that Christmas Eve night, drawing their field blankets about them in an effort to find some creature comfort from the biting cold.

On Christmas Day soccer games were organized and enemy soldiers laughed and sported as they engaged in the games.

Officers on both sides could hardly contain their consternation. They had not ordered cessation of hostilities. The soldiers had managed it on their own. One French general, still suspecting the move to be a trap set by the Germans, ordered explosives laid just in case it was a trick. Another fear of the allied officers was that such action on the part of enemy troops would damper plans to defeat the enemy. After all, what soldiers would want to fight and kill those with whom they had enjoyed Christmas?

After that unique Christmas truce in 1914, hostilities continued for almost four years with America joining the Allied Forces on April 6, 1917. It was not until November 11, 1918 that Armistice was signed on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

A historical commentator has written of that Great War, “the war to end all wars”:

“It was more than a war between nations. It was a war between what was and what was to be. The ‘old world’ was dying, and the new world had yet to be born. People of all classes and nations saw it as a great cleansing fire that would accelerate this battle and lead to a better world. But, when it was over, more than men had died in the mud of the battlefields. The naive dream of progress, along with the innocence of the pre-war world, faith in God, and hope in the future all died in the trenches of Europe.” (from pitt.edu/~purgachev/greatwar/ ww1). This was indeed, a pessimistic view of the results of the Great War. Faith did not die, nor did hope.
During a time of truce on a German battlefield at Christmas time, 1914, the strains of “Silent Night” lifted through the cold of wintertime to become a sacred moment of shared beliefs and mutual yearnings for peace on earth among men of good will.

[Note: The news of this event was published on January 9, 1915 in The Illustrated London News under the headline “Saxons and Anglo-Saxons Fraternize on Battlefield.” The article had pictures of smiling soldiers from both sides engaged in greetings and friendly games.]

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Dec. 8, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

December Comes: Take a Look at Some Presidents With December Birthdays

The poet A. E. Houseman penned the sentiments I feel when I realize how rapidly December descends upon us and how near Time hovers at the end of 2005.

The night is freezing fast.
Tomorrow comes December;
And winterfalls of old
Are with me from the past.” (-A. E. Housman, 1859-1936)

This name of the last month of our calendar year actually gets its name from the Latin word “decem” which means tenth. Like November, October, and September, the three preceding months, December is misnamed for the Latin words meaning numbers tenth, ninth, eighth and seventh, because these months held these positions in the Roman calendar until the two months of January and February were added in the seventh century B.C. under Roman Emperor Numa Pompilius. Emperor Julius Ceasar revised the Roman calendar again in 46 B.C. His calendar had 365 and 1/4 days and was known as the Julian Calendar until Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 ordered the system we know now as “leap year” with an extra day coming every four years in the second month, February. We live and work, therefore, according to the Gregorian calender, and rarely do we consider the old meaning of the word “December” as deriving from the Latin word meaning tenth.

One of my favorite columns in the daily newspaper to which I subscribe is “Today in History.” If your newspaper carries this syndicated column, perhaps you, as I, delight in seeing the list of important events and births that happened in December. As Poet Housman wrote,

“And winterfalls of old/Are with me from the past.”

With December dawning the day this issue of Sentinel is published, let’s look at a few significant dates in Decembers past.

Fifty years ago, on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks a black seamstress in Montgomery, Ala., refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her stance has been noted as one of the significant events of the Civil Rights Movement that spurred bus boycotts, marches and voting privileges for her race. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. She died October 24, 2005. Born Rosa Louise McCauley, she lived in fear as a child, heard the Klu Klux Klan ride and demonstrate in her neighborhood in Pine Level, Alabama, saw them burn houses and perform lynchings. She was the first woman in America who was chosen for the honor of lying in state in the rotunda of the nation’s capitol at her death, an honor usually reserved for presidents.

Three United States Presidents thus far had December birthdays. Martin Van Buren was born December 5, 1782 in Kinderhook, N.Y. The eighth president of our country, he was the first chief executive to be born an American citizen after the United States became an independent nation. His term of service was from March 4, 1837 through March 3, 1841. Van Buren died in his hometown of Kinderhook on July 24, 1862.

The seventeenth president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, was born December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, N.C. He had a rugged childhood. His father, a handyman at a tavern, died when Andrew was 3. His mother had to take in washing to care for her children. Andrew did not go to school as a child, and was apprenticed early to a tailor where he learned the trade and also how to read. At age 16 he left Raleigh and went to Greenville, Tenn., and set up his own tailor’s shop. At 18, he married 16-year-old Eliza McCardle. She was much better educated than Andrew, and taught him how to write and to read better. He began to walk to a school that would let him participate in student debates. His quick mind, booming voice, and familiarity with current events on which the teams debated made him a champion debater and prepared him for his career in politics. He was first on the town council, then mayor, next congressman, at age 45 became governor of Tennessee, following which he was elected for two terms to the U.S. Senate. Johnson remained in Congress at the outbreak of the Civil War, and in 1864, he was nominated from the “Union” Party as Vice-President for Abraham Lincoln’s second term. No one foresaw Johnson becoming president, but when President Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson became president, serving from April 15, 1865 through March 3, 1869. Civil unrest and the strong impetus on punishing the rebelling south made Johnson’s term one of trials and troubles. In fact, Congress tried to impeach him, but by one vote Johnson remained as president. The seventeenth president, with the nickname “Tennessee Tailor,” died July 31, 1875 in Carter Station, Tenn.

The next president with a December birthday was Woodrow Wilson, twenty-eighth president, born December 29, 1856 in Staunton, Va. Son and grandson of Presbyterian ministers, at one time his father’s church in Augusta, Ga., was turned into a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers. Educated at Davidson College, the College of New Jersey and later at Princeton, he received a degree in law and for a short time practiced law in Atlanta, Ga. He received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from John Hopkins University and began to teach. He became president of Princeton University in 1902. In 1910 he was elected governor of New Jersey and in 1912 was elected president of the United States. His term of service was from March 4, 1913 through March 3, 1921. When he was reelected to a second term in 1916, his slogan had been: “Wilson kept us out of war.” But when German warships began to sink American ships in the Atlantic, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. Following the Armistice in 1918, Wilson worked hard on his famous “Fourteen Points” peace plan and for the establishment of the League of Nations. However, because the U.S. Senate would never vote to join the League of Nations, Wilson’s dream of America becoming a leading member was not realized. He was married first to Ellen Axxon of Rome, Ga., who died during his first term in 1914. They had three daughters. He married Edith Bolling Galt in December 1915. When Wilson suffered a massive stroke on October 2, 1919, his wife Edith read government reports, shielded him from visitors and relayed his decisions. He finished out his second term as an invalid and died quietly in Washington in 1924.

Rosa Parks, Civil Rights proponent, and three U.S. Presidents had December birthdays, as well as a host of other notable people. But the month reminds us more of the birthday of Emmanuel, God with us, which we celebrate on December 25, although the exact date of His birth has been lost in the mists of time. The fight is on to call the season only “Happy Holidays” and omit any mention of Christmas, which means “birthday of Christ.” My hope is that we all remember the “reason for the season,” and as December comes we will prepare hearts to celebrate the best birthday of all time.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Dec. 1, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Brief Thoughts on Thanksgiving and a Look at the Firstborn Son of the Rev. Milford G. Hamby

As you gather with family and/or friends for a Thanksgiving Day celebration may you find many things for which to give thanks. In our family celebration, no two years are exactly the same, except that the menu does not vary that much. But with extended family, we never know who will be invited for the first time or who will be unable for scheduling and other reasons to attend the Thanksgiving fest. For many years one thing has remained traditional with our family. As we hold hands around the laden board, ready to offer thanks, one by one each names a highlight in the year just past for which he or she is thankful. This tradition helps us to focus on God’s providence in our lives and the true meaning of Thanksgiving. We are admonished: “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (I Thes. 5:18).

Last week this column was about the Rev. Milford Gilead Hamby (1833-1911), outstanding early circuit-riding preacher whose influence reached across not only Union County but into many counties in north Georgia.

While Rev. M. G. Hamby was in his charge in Franklin County, GA, at Carnesville, his first son, named William Thomas Hamby, was born September 16, 1860.

It has been written that with 25 churches to visit and exhort, the young son’s father was gone from home much of the time. Monday was an exception because it was “wash day” when Rev. Milford’s wife, Eleanor Caroline Hughes Hamby, got her husband’s clothes laundered and ready for his week’s circuit. Likewise, much of the rearing of Elder Hamby’s ten children was left to their mother, who succeeded well at mothering.

It was noted of the Rev. William Thomas Hamby that “blood of preachers coursed through his veins.” He was the fourth generation of known Methodist ministers. He being in the fourth generation ordained, his father, Milford, in the third, his grandfather, Rev. Thomas M. Hughes, in the second, and his great, great grandfather, the Rev. Francis Bird, in the first. There could have been preachers in generations back of these, but these are known. Likewise, three uncles were Methodist preachers: the Revs. W. C. Hughes, Francis Goodman Hughes and Tom Coke Hughes.

Rev. W. T. Hamby spent forty-five years in the active ministry. His first charge was the Hiawassee, Georgia Mission. He held pastorates at Calhoun, Winder, Trinity Methodist in Rome, Epworth, Buford, Barnesville, Walker Street Methodist in Atlanta, Carrollton, Marietta, and Kirkwood in Atlanta. In one year at Kirkwood, he made 1,046 church-related visits and took into the membership 146 persons. He also served as Superintendent and Presiding Elder in both the Augusta and Gainesville Districts. He was a trustee of Young Harris College for 45 years and served as president of the Board.

In retirement he remained active, preaching on the average of 75 times per year. In a news article lauding his life of service, he was called the “nestor of Methodism.” During his active ministry he delivered 8,000 sermons, conducted 500 funerals and married 300 couples. His annual salary for pastoral duties ranged from $65 in the beginning to $3,250 at his retirement.

Some of the lighter moments he shared were about weddings. While he was at Calhoun, he drove a wild horse 20 miles in a storm to get to the place of the wedding. After he had performed the ceremony, the groom took him aside and said he wanted to “reverence” him for his trouble. The preacher was given 50 cents. At a wedding at Walker Street in Atlanta, the groom gave Rev. Hamby an envelope with the words, “I think this will make you happy.” When the pastor opened the envelope, neatly written on a piece of paper were the words, “Thank you.” When he was pastor at Marietta, he had more weddings than at any other church. One he counted unique was of a man who had received six honorable discharges from the U. S. Army. His own wedding was the first the military man had ever attended.

Rev. W. T. Hamby married Emma Jane Curtis, daughter of Spencer Lafayette Curtis (1835-1865) and Mary Lou Twiggs (1835-1899). To William and Emma Jane were born five children: Frank Munsey Hamby (1883-1894); Nellie Lou Hamby (1889-1979); George Robins Hamby (b. & d. 1893); Fannie Lee Hamby (1895-1903); and Emma Lillian Hamby (1901-1902). Only one of the five children grew to adulthood. Nellie Lou Hamby marrried Dr. William Lester Matthews in Rome, Georgia on April 7, 1918.

Emma Jane Curtis Hamby was born October 10, 1860 and died in Rome, Ga., Dec. 23, 1901, evidently from complications from the birth of her last child, Emma Lillian, who died January 14, 1902. Rev. Hamby married, second, Mozelle Whitehead. Rev. William Thomas Hamby died August 25, 1947 in Decatur, Ga., shortly before his 87th birthday.

At Thanksgiving, another item to place on our thanks list is the legacy of a good ancestry. From our forebears we get not only physical characteristics that mark us as their descendants but the upbringing that helps to mold and make us who we are.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 24, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved

Circuit riding preacher—Rev. Milford Gilead Hamby

The work of circuit riding ministers in the early days of settlement in the mountain counties of north Georgia required a person of strong physical constitution as well as one with strong commitment and dedication to the spread of the gospel ministry.

Milford Gilead Hamby was born in Spartanburg, S. C on May 18, 1833. His parents were William and Nancy Christopher Hamby. In 1852 when he was nineteen years of age, he received a license to preach and was soon accepted into the North Georgia Conference of the Methodist Church.

By 1855 he was a fullfledged minister whose circuit included Dahlonega in Lumpkin County and a far-flung area including Upson (it is not clear if this is Upson County or a town named Upson), Cusseta, Blairsville in Union County, Carnesville in Franklin County, Canton, Cumming, Powder Springs, Ellijay, Morganton in Fannin County, and Homer, Georgia, in Banks County. From 1855 through 1885, a total of thirty years, he kept 29 appointments per month. Before modern transportation, except perhaps a train in some areas that would take him to Powder Springs, we can only imagine what trusty steeds he must have owned during this period to get him to his charges.

An error appears in the marriage date of this minister of the gospel in both the article in the “Union County, Georgia” History book (1994, p. 176) and the earlier “Sketches of Union County History, Volume 2” (1978, p. 70), both of which list him as marrying in 1850. The Union County marriage record gives the date of his marriage to Eleanor C. Hughes as August 9, 1859, with Joseph Chambers, minister of the gospel, performing the ceremony.

Eleanor Hughes, known as Nellie, was the daughter of a Methodist Minister and a merchant, the Rev. Thomas M. Hughes (1809-1882). Eleanor’s mother was Nancy Bird Hughes (1818-1881), daughter of the Rev. Francis Bird, another early Methodist Minister in Rutherford County, N.C. Like so many early settlers to Union County, the Hughes family stopped first in Habersham County. They were among those who moved over the famed Unicoi Turnpike to settle in Habersham, and then across the mountain later to Union before 1850.

Born to Milford G. and Eleanor Hughes Hamby were seven sons and three daughters. Son William Thomas Hamby became a noted Methodist minister; other sons were Francis B., Joseph O., Melvin, John M., Lovick O. and Manley P.; and daughters Nancy, Martha and Sallie.

During the Civil War Milford G. Hamby served for six months in the Cherokee Legion, Company A. of the Georgia State Guard. Records show his pay was forty cents per day.

In the eulogy to his wife, Eleanor Hughes (April 1, 1827-July 18, 1902) published in the “Wesleyan Advocate,” this account is given of how she helped him during the Civil War:

“During the war, while her husband was serving the Canton Circuit, surrounded by both armies, Brother Hamby’s wearing apparel was so badly worn that he thought he would have to stay at home. Sister Hamby happened to think of an old sheep skin that was in the house. She sheared the wool off and with some thread which she had, she made her husband a pair of pants that he might be able to go on with his work.”

The eulogy praises her for “walking by the side of her husband for forty-three years, proving herself in deed and in truth his helpmeet, cheerfully sharing with him the joys and hardships of the itinerant work.”

I looked for a printed eulogy for the Rev. Hamby who died in May, 1911, but to date my research has turned up only the one for Eleanor Hughes Hamby, who, upon her death in 1902, left “a devoted husband and six children to mourn their loss.” Both Mrs. Hamby and Rev. Hamby were interred at the Shady Grove Methodist Cemetery in the Owltown District of Union County where their tombstones may be viewed. Many are the Hamby descendants of these two stalwart ancestors who worked hard in the mountain region in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 17, 2005 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Armistice Day, Veterans' Day--Nov. 11

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 in the Forest of Compiegne in France, the Allied Forces and Germans signed a cease-fire and armistice that brought fighting in World War I to an end.

You may have read that “The Great War” officially ended with the Treaty of Versailles, signed June 28, 1919 in the Palace of Versailles. It is true that it did take from November 11, 1918 until June 28, 1919 for terms of the peace agreement to be reached, but for celebratory purposes, November 11, 1918 marked the end of “the war to end all wars.”

President Woodrow Wilson of the United States declared November 11 as Armistice Day, and began the public and official commemoration on that date in 1919, one year after fighting ceased. He declared that the observance of a day of remembrance will enable “America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”

In reading some of the early proclamations for Armistice Day, Congress and the President urged that the national holiday be observed with “thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.”

When General Dwight D. Eisenhower, himself a veteran of World War II, was president, Public Law 380 was passed on June 1, 1954, declaring that November 11 become not only the memorable Armistice Day commemorating the end of World War I, but Veterans Day, honoring American veterans of all wars. On October 8, 1954, President Eisenhower issued a proclamation that a Veterans’ Day National Committee work with the Chairman (now Secretary) of Veterans’ Affairs to plan for the day. Regardless of the day of the week on which Veterans’ Day falls, it is observed on November 11 to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love for country, and willingness to sacrifice their lives for the common good of all citizens of this nation.

Another significant milestone happened in American history. On November 11, 1921, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was dedicated at Arlington Cemetery on a hill overlooking the nation’s capital. The caskets of four unknown soldiers interred in France during the Great War were disinterred, and Sgt. Edward F. Younger, wounded in World War I and a highly decorated hero, chose the third casket from the left and placed white roses on it. Thus was designated the Unknown Soldier from World War I. The Unknown’s casket was transported to America aboard the USS Olympia and lay in state in the rotunda of the capital until Armistice Day, November 11, 1921. The other three unknown American soldiers of World War I whose remains stayed in France were buried in the Meuse Argonne Cemetery in France.

President Warren G. Harding presided at memorial services on the dedication day of Arlington Cemetery on November 11, 1921. The Unknown Soldier was interred in the white marble sarcophagus with symbols representing Peace, Victory and Valor. The inscription on the tomb reads: “Here rests in honored glory an American Soldier known only to God.”

Since that day in 1921, three other unknown soldiers from World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War have been interred west of the sarcophagus, their graves marked with white marble slabs.

In 1930, the perpetual military guard was set up to patrol the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a unique honor to be chosen for this assignment. Guards must pledge to abstinence, and cannot disgrace the uniform they wear by swearing or any sort of immorality. They take their duties as seriously and somberly as any soldier preparing for battle. Their 21 steps in formation are representative of a 21 gun salute. The gun carried by a guard is always away from the tomb. A 21 second pause comes with each about-face after each 21 pace march is completed. Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. They chose to serve when urged not to do so as Hurricane Isabelle threatened Washington in 2003. The servicemen chosen for this guard duty consider it the highest honor given to them. Each serves for two years.

To veterans, we salute and honor you. To those of us who are not veterans, we can only imagine the price you paid for the freedoms we enjoy. With deepest gratitude, we thank you.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 10, 2005 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A tribute to Otis Cecil Dyer, Sr.

In the mists of grief as I remember one of my favorite cousins, I will recall that I heard of his death on October 31, 2005, Halloween. I will remember the circumstances of hearing the news.

My daughter and I had taken my husband, her father, the Rev. Grover D. Jones to Macon, Ga., for a 3:30 p.m. appointment with a dermatologist who specializes in MOHS surgery for skin cancer. The waiting room was full to overflowing because Dr. Kent was ill and his patients had been rescheduled to another doctor in the Dermatologic Diseases Group. My cell phone rang. When I answered, my sister Louise said, “Our Cousin Otis died a little while ago.”

We both knew he had been very sick and his death was expected. But Otis was only a month away from being a centenarian. He, his close family and cousins had hoped he would live to reach his 100th on December, 1, 2005. He died one month and one day shy of ten decades of a very good life. Somehow we though wise, good, gentlemanly Otis would be with us on and on with his sage but quiet advice, his encouragement, his genuine concern for people.

Otis Cecil Dyer was the first and only child born to Herschel Arthur Dyer (1880-1974) and his first wife, Sarah Rosetta Sullivan Dyer (1882-1920). Otis’s parents married January 5, 1904 and the next year, December 5, 1905, Otis came into their home. Early on, his parents told him of his ancestors who had been early settlers in the Choestoe Valley where the family lived. On his paternal Dyer side he went back to Elisha Jr. and Elizabeth Clark Dyer, James Marion and Eliza Louisa Ingram Dyer, and Bluford Elisha and Sarah Evaline Souther Dyer and on his paternal Souther side he descended from John and Mary “Polly” Combs Souther, John Combs Hayes and Nancy Collins Souther.

Otis’s father, Herschel, was a teacher, educated in county schools near his Choestoe home, and Young Harris College.

Otis’s mother, Sarah Rosetta, Sullivan, had descended from John and Elizabeth Hunter, builder of the Hunter-England old cabin. One of their sons, William, had married Margaret Elizabeth “Peggy” England and they were parents of Margaret Eliza Hunter (1852-1919) who married William L. Sullivan (1856-1897).

When Otis started to elementary school about age 5, he went to whichever school his father was teaching. Some of them were the Henson School (often known as the Wild Boar Institute), Old and New Liberty Schools, Track Rock School, and Choestoe School. When Otis was ready for high school, he attended the Blairsville Collegiate Institute and then Young Harris College. Later he would graduate from Piedmont College, Demorest, Ga., (BA.), the University of Georgia (MA). He did post-graduate work at the University of New York.

When Otis was 15, his mother died on February 27, 1920. She was buried at the Old Choestoe Cemetery near her parents. His father married, second, to Lillie Collins (1888-1975), a sister to his sister-in-law, Azie Collins Dyer, married to his brother Jewel Marion Dyer, and a sister to his brother-in-law, William Harve Collins, married to Herschel’s sister, Northa Maybell Dyer Collins. His stepmother was a loving mother to Otis and always treated him as she did her own children (and Otis’s half-siblings), Valera, India and H. A. Jr.

As a young man, Otis met his bride-to-be at the Blairsville Collegiate Institute. She was Margie Lee Cagle, daughter of Strawbridge and Edith Smith Cagle of Union County. Otis and Margie married November 5, 1927. With the Great Depression a near reality at the time of their marriage, they survived and built a strong home based on Christian principles and commitment.

Otis, the son of a teacher and seeing the example of a good teacher from his father, entered the teaching profession. At first he was a teacher in the Habersham County, Georgia School system and later a principal there.

In 1942, just as America was entering World War II, Otis became an employee of the Georgia Department of Education in the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. He was a counselor and later supervisor of Training and Placement Services. Otis retired from his position with Vocational Rehabilitation in 1969. Otis and Margie lived in Atlanta. She preceded him in death and was interred in the West View Cemetery, Atlanta.

Otis Dyer and Margie Cagle Dyer had three children, Harry Vaughn, Sarah Edith and Cecil Otis Jr. Sarah and Otis Jr. were twins, but the little boy lived only about 11 months. Otis delighted in his grandchildren, Margie Rose Dyer and Sarah Estelle Adams. He lived to enjoy five great grandchildren.

As his first cousin more the age of his son and daughter than Otis himself, I appreciate the encouragement Otis gave me at tough times in my life. When my mother died, I was one year younger than he had been when his own mother died. He knew how to give love and empathy, because his experience had been similar to mine. When I was struggling to get a college education without much money to support me, Otis encouraged me to keep my goals and press forward. When I became Dyer-Souther Family Historian, he told me many stories of our common ancestry, helping me to see and appreciate what a rich legacy we shared. If I could summarize Otis’s almost 100 years of life, I would use the adjective STALWART. He was a Christian gentleman always, serving as a deacon and in many other capacities in the church. He was a teacher and counselor, a lover of family, and a friend whose loyalty did not waver. Chaucer wrote in his Canterbury Tales: “And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach.” And Henry Adams, American educator, wrote: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” These quotations characterize Otis Cecil Dyer Sr., stalwart to the end.

c2005 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 3, 2005 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.