Clear to partly cloudy. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable..
Clear to partly cloudy. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable.
Green Hill Cemetery will be recognizing the coming holiday a little differently than most, going back to Memorial Day’s roots with a Decoration Day event.
Green Hill Cemetery will be recognizing the coming holiday a little differently than most, going back to Memorial Day’s roots with a Decoration Day event.
MARTINSBURG — While everyone is honoring those fallen service members on Memorial Day on Monday, Melissa Gantt and her boyfriend, Donald, will be doing so in a throwback manner.
Serving as caretakers of Green Hill Cemetery, the couple is hosting a Decoration Day event at the cemetery to tie back to the history of the importance of the holiday and to that within the cemetery and the town.
In 1890, Decoration Day was adopted as a time to honor fallen soldiers from the Civil War, later changed to Memorial Day to encompass fallen heroes from all wars.
“I thought it would be cool, because they did used to do a Decoration Day in Martinsburg,” Gantt said. “What they used to do, which I thought was amazing, was they would start in the middle of town for a parade, and then, that parade would walk from the middle of town to Green Hill Cemetery. That’s where the parade ended with a final salute, and they would have Decoration Day, where people would place flags at different people’s graves.”
She said through research, Gantt found articles dating back to the 1800s that explained the celebrations in town and Decoration Day. Since taking over as caregivers three years ago, the couple has always done Memorial Day-related events, including giving out flags for a donation, but coming across this piece of forgotten history proved to be the inspiration to being back in a day gone by.
The table with flags available for donation — minimum $5 — will remain, but with the original concept of Decoration Day in mind, Green Hill Cemetery will truly serve as a place to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice from all eras with a scavenger hunt. Participants will search the location for soldiers of different eras. The participant with the most found will win a prize, and if there’s a tie, a random name picker will choose the winner.
“We have so many soldiers. I’ve only found one, but we do have one from the Revolutionary War,” Gantt said. “That’s the oldest that we’ve found, and he’s the only one. It’s so weird, because his headstone is facing towards the mausoleum, but the rest of his family is facing the opposite way. It’s this one tiny headstone beside all these really nice flat ones that have these big, engraved crosses on top of them.”
Her passion for the history housed inside the fence, for the chance to honor those who gave everything to defend the country, is clear. And it’s that passion that Gantt’s excited to share with the public.
“My favorite is when people come in and actually want to know this history,” she said. “I could talk to them for days about the history we’ve learned since we’ve been there.”
All donations made go to the upkeep and maintenance of the cemetery.
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