THE WAR TO END ALL WARS DELCO REMEMBERS
County plans series of events to mark 100-year anniversary
Delaware County will remember the events surrounding the beginning of World War I with a variety of commemorations this weekend.
Although the war had already raged in Europe since 1914, the United States did not join the War to End All Wars until an act of the U.S. Congress on April 6, 1917. Initially, the United States distanced itself from the conflict, even after 128 Americans died when a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania in May 1915.
However, the American stance changed after several German submarines sank U.S. merchant ships and when the intercepted Zimmerman telegram showed the Germans were courting Mexico to fight against the United States in exchange for Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
At that point, then-President Woodrow Wilson called for American involvement and Congress passed a declaration of war.
To recognize that moment in history and the impact it had in Delaware County, several events will unfold Saturday.
At 9 a.m., a remembrance will be held in Courtroom 1 of the Delaware County Courthouse featuring World War I-era music, a poetry reading, a color guard and World War I re-enactors.
The Destination Delco Tourism Board will be handing out red poppy seed packets and World War I Remembrance garden signs for those interested in growing their own poppy gardens.
Poppies became the symbol of fallen soldiers when Canadian
physician Lt. Col. John McCrae wrote the poem, “In Flanders Fields,” after presiding over the funeral of his friend, Lt. Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. He begins his poem with an observation of the many poppies growing on the graves of fallen soldiers, creating a connection between their sacrifice and the flower that remains to this day.
Tore Fiore, Destination Delco’s executive director, wants county residents to plant these poppies as their own tribute to those who served during the Great War.
“We want Delco residents and businesses to join the more than 150 gardens, parks, historic sites, hotels and individuals that have already signed up to plant poppy gardens, and be a part of this salute to local men and women who served in the war or in the war effort here at home,” he said.
A list of where to obtain poppy seeds or where they are being grown is available at wwOneDelco.com.
In Lansdowne, at the Lansdowne Theatre, there will be two screenings of “Memories of the Great War” for at 11:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. The film was produced by Barbara and Anthony Selletti and highlights the wartime family histories of four people.
At 2 p.m., the “We Remember” commemoration will be held at the Eddystone Explosion monument at Chester Rural Cemetery.
Attendees are asked to enter the cemetery on the Edgmont Avenue side and follow the balloons to the location of the memorial.
A century ago, more than 12,000 congregated at the same spot to honor the 55 people who died and were never identified, remembering as well the other 77 who were identified. Some were
only able to be determined to have been victims after pieces of their clothing were found.
Only a few days after the United States entered the war, several explosions pounded an ammunitions factory in the Delaware County borough.
Rifles were being made for the English from 1915 to 1917 at the plant with the site manufacturing 6,000 a day at its height. Almost two-thirds of all the rifles used by the American Army in France were made here.
On the day of the explosion, the first occurred between 9:55 a.m. and 10:10 a.m. in the shrapnel shop in the F Building, where 40,000 loaded shells were stored. An entire series of smaller, intermittent explosions followed.
All regional hospitals were packed and community members surged in response with doctors rushing to hospitals to help the
maimed and injured and housekeepers bringing blankets and containers of hot water to locations where victims were being treated.
Families and loved ones of the victims – many in desperate conditions – congregated at local hospitals, trying to determine the status of their beloved. Others gathered outside the offices of the Chester Times, now the Delaware County Daily Times, for information about the disaster.
The cause of the disaster has never been determined with certainty.
Those who were not identified, including some who all that was left were body parts, were interred at the site at Chester Rural Cemetery.
All are welcome to attend these events and for more information, they can visit wwwOneDelco.com.