It was 1866 and the United States was recov­er­ing from the long and bloody Civil War between the North and the South. Sur­viv­ing sol­diers came home, some with miss­ing limbs, and all with sto­ries to tell. Henry Welles, a drug­store owner in Water­loo, New York, heard the sto­ries and had an idea. He sug­gested that all the shops in town close for one day to honor sol­diers who were killed in the Civil War and were buried in the Water­loo ceme­tery. On the morn­ing of May 5, the towns­peo­ple placed flow­ers, wreaths and crosses on the graves of the North­ern sol­diers in the ceme­tery. At about the same time, retired Major Gen­eral Jonathan A. Logan planned another cer­e­mony, this time for the sol­diers who sur­vived the war. He led the vet­er­ans through town to the ceme­tery to dec­o­rate their com­rades’ graves with flags. It was not a happy cel­e­bra­tion, but a memo­r­ial. The towns­peo­ple called it Dec­o­ra­tion Day.

In 1868 the north­ern states com­mem­o­rated the day on May 30. The south­ern states com­mem­o­rated their war dead on dif­fer­ent days. Chil­dren read poems and sang civil war-era songs and vet­er­ans came to school wear­ing their medals and uni­forms to tell stu­dents about the Civil War. Then the vet­er­ans marched through their medals and uni­forms to tell stu­dents about the Civil War. Then the vet­er­ans marched through their home towns fol­lowed by the towns­peo­ple to the ceme­tery. They dec­o­rated graves and took pho­tographs of sol­diers next to Amer­i­can flags. Rifles were shot in the air as a salute to the north­ern sol­diers who had given their lives to keep the United States together.

In 1882, the name was changed to Memo­r­ial Day and sol­diers who had died in pre­vi­ous wars were hon­ored as well. In the north­ern United States, it was des­ig­nated a pub­lic hol­i­day. In 1971, along with other hol­i­days, Pres­i­dent Richard Nixon declared Memo­r­ial Day a fed­eral hol­i­day on the last Mon­day in May.

Chap­man Wealth Man­age­ment salutes those who have died in the ser­vice of our coun­try, those cur­rently serv­ing, and the fam­i­lies who have made great sac­ri­fices for our free­dom. We con­tinue to live in the great­est coun­try in the world. On this Memo­r­ial Day, take a few min­utes to con­sider the bless­ings you have, cel­e­brate the rela­tion­ships in your life, both fam­ily and friends, and thank a veteran.

God Bless America!