Elleda Wilson: In One Ear: Decoration Day
May 27—According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, after the Civil War ended in 1868, it was decided that Decoration Day, a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers, would be observed on May 30.
Out of curiosity, the Ear decided to take a peek at the Wednesday, May 30, 1888, edition of The Daily Morning Astorian.
—The Cushing Post Grand Army of the Republic (aka the Union Army) and the Woman's Relief Corps took charge of Decoration Day.
A grand procession would wend its way to the cemetery for a ceremony, led by the Western Amateur Band, followed by the police force, school children and citizens.
—In the business cards section, a local notable, Dr. Bethenia Owens-Adair (pictured, right) advertised her medical practice: "Diseases of women and children, and of the eye and ear, specialties."
A tough-minded pioneer woman, she was a social reformer, and one of the first Oregon women physicians who actually held a medical degree.
She was involved in the temperance movement because of the effects of alcohol on her family, argued for women's suffrage and strongly believed in, and wrote about, eugenics and the involuntary sterilization of the "unfit."
Part of her autobiography is at bit.ly/DrOwensAdairBio
—In other news of the day, "Corporal Tanner" (James Tanner, pictured left) was set to appear at the Ross Opera House to stump for Benjamin Harrison's presidential candidacy.
After losing both legs in the Civil War in 1862, Tanner received wooden prosthetic legs and became a stenographer for the War Department in Washington, D.C.
It is said that his questioning of witnesses and shorthand notes were the most comprehensive record of events the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theater, during a performance of the comedy "Our American Cousin" on April 14, 1865.
"In 15 minutes I had testimony enough to hang Wilkes Booth, the assassin, higher than ever Haman (a Biblical villain) hung," Tanner noted.
(tinyurl.com/wasmay30, bit.ly/TannerNotes, bit.ly/DrOwensAdair)
