Palm Beach Chapter
P.O. Box 16735
West Palm Beach, FL 33416
The Patriot
Florida Society Sons of the American Revolution
Volume 21
May 2015
Number 05
PLEASE JOIN US ON
TUESDAY, May 19, 2015
AT 12:00 noon
THE EMBASSY SUITES
1601 Belvedere Road,
West Palm Beach
Recognition Luncheon was also held. Mark your
calendar, your next opportunity to attend a BOM
will be October 23 – 25, 2015.
Dr. Larry Fehrenbaker was installed as the new
President of the FLSSAR. President Fehrenbaker’s
announced that his theme for his term will be “Back
to Basics”. He also spoke of reaching out to the
extremely large number of Hispanics who live in
Florida, and help them establish their ancestor’s
participation in the cause of the Colonies.
FIRE SAFETY COMMENDATION AWARDS
Lunch is $28.00 inclusive
For Reservations, please contact:
President - Gary Green (561)-968-5117
Vice President – Don Lanman (561)-315-5073
Reservations must be made by Thursday, May 14th
Guests are always welcome!
CONGRATULATIONS TO RAY WESS on his
election and installation as the Florida Society’s
Senior Vice President. Ray was also one of the
recipients of the Silver Roger Sherman Medal. This
medal is awarded to the SAR members who have
rendered faithful service to their chapter, state
society over multiple years. Ray is certainly
deserving of this recognition.
Please visit our Website: www.sarpbchapter.org
President’s Message:
On May 1st and May 2nd the FLSSAR held
another successful Board of Management (BOM)
and Annual Meeting. Once again the event was
held at The Florida Hotel and Conference Center in
Orlando. This just the 2nd time I have been able to
attend and I highly recommend that each and every
one of our members attend at least one of these
meetings. You do not need to be an officer in the
chapter in order to attend. I think that if you are a
part of an organization like ours, you should see
how the organization is run. Plus, you will be able
to personally meet the State Officers and other
Compatriots from around the state and share ideas,
ask questions etc. Besides the business meetings, a
Memorial Service for Compatriots who have died in
the past year was conducted. A special Youth
MEMBERSHIP
The Palm Beach Chapter membership total is now at
160. In the first 4 months of 2015 Registrar
/Genealogist Wess tells me we have had 34
applications at one stage or another in process. Of
these 34 applications, 10 have recently been
approved for membership. They are Joseph C.
Dorsey, Raymond Miller, Richard Miller, Tyler
Smith, David Wratislaw, Scott Johnson, Grey
Johnson, James Wynns, John Wynns and
Gregory Wynns.
Cont. page 2
1.
PRESIDENT’S BRIGADE
The Patriot
Is the official publication of
The Palm Beach Chapter
Florida Society of
The Sons of the American Revolution
BRONZE $50 - $99
Chris Williams
SILVER $100 -$199
Dan Shepherd Sr.
Arthur Griswold Jr.
Robert Culpepper
Gary Green
Bruce Long
William Told Jr.
GOLD $200 - $499
Robert Banta
Edward Buckley
William Meakin
Marvin Graham
2015 Officers and Board
Gary T. Green
President
561-968-5117
[email protected]
Donald Lanman
Vice President
561-315-5073
[email protected]
David Coldwell
Member -at- Large
561-622-4699
[email protected]
Brian Davey
Membership Secretary
561-310-0040
[email protected]
Peter Johnson
Treasurer
561-729-6667
[email protected]
Raymond F. Wess
Registrar/Genealogist
561-795-9598
[email protected]
Father Sanford Sears
Chaplain
272-259-1413
[email protected]
Benjamin Tidwell III
Sergeant-at-Arms
561-737-0230
[email protected]
Raymond F. Wess
Editor, The Patriot
561-795-9598
[email protected]
Samuel A. Miller
Chapter Historian
561-793-1780
[email protected]
PLATINUM - $500
Duane Lewis
James Kane
Jack Miller
John Curry
Robert Rewey
Ray Wess
Alexander Dreyfoos Jr.
President’s Message Cont. from page 1
At our April Meeting we inducted the following:
Scott Webster Johnson by rite of: Honorable Oliver
Ellsworth-Delegate to the Continental Congress,
Connecticut.
Grey Sexton Johnson by rite of: Honorable Oliver
Ellsworth-Delegate to the Continental Congress,
Connecticut.
David Leslie Wratislaw Jr. by rite of: Silas RawsonMember of the Massachusetts Militia
Richard Arthur Miller by rite of: Henry Morrison,
member of Pennsylvania Militia.
If you would like to place an advertisement in The
Patriot for your business, organization, or any other
purpose, the costs for eight consecutive issues are:
Business Card
Quarter – page
Half page
Full page
$25
$50
$100
$200
2.
L to R, Scott Johnson, Grey Johnson, David Wriatislaw, Rich Miller
Eagle Scouts: 4 Outstanding Eagle Scout Certificates
were given to the young men who attained Scouting’s
highest rank.
LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMENDATION
MEDALS
In case you missed our April Luncheon, we
recognized 5 local law enforcement officers for their
outstanding service to their communities.
Children of the American Revolution or C. A. R.
This is an independent organization of persons under
21 who are linel descendants of a patriot of the
American Revolution. These society’s look to the
SAR and DAR for support. Our Chapter donates
$200 per year to the C.A.R. Chapters in Palm Beach
County, Chief Tiger Tail and Fifer Weisenfeld.
SUMMER TIME ACTIVITY
Flag Certificates. Outgoing FLSSAR President Steve
Williams gave each Chapter represented at the BOM
1 Flag Certificate and 1 presentation folder and
directed each Chapter to award this to a citizen or
business in our Chapter area. I think I am 10 steps
ahead of President Williams, because I already
purchased 10 Flag Certificates. If you know someone
who displays the American Flag in the proper way and
think they should be recognized for their patriotism,
please let me know and we will see that they receive a
certificate. Recipients can be businesses or private
citizens. However, the business cannot be obviously
displaying the flag for advertising purposes and
someone flying the flag at their home should be doing
so in a proper manner i.e. lit at night, and flag is not
torn etc.
The recipients pictured are from L to R:
From Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Deputy
Sheriff Anthony Musso, Sgt. James Hightower,
Deputy Sheriff Harold Murphy III, Deputy Sheriff
Kenneth Torrence and Town of Palm Beach Police
Department Detective Larry Menniti.
MAY MEETING/LUNCHEON
May 19th is our next meeting/luncheon. We will be
recognizing local Fire Fighters with the
Fire Safety Commendation Medal. A reminder to
register your attendance will be emailed to you one
week before. However, if you would like to register
now, feel free to do so at the email address or phone
number on page one of this newsletter.
Patriot Biographies. I would like to thank those who
submitted their patriot’s bio to me in the last few
months. Anyone can still submit a bio. This is an
ongoing project by NSSAR.
CHAPTER ACTIVITY
If you attend our meeting on a regular basis, then you
see some of the presentations we make during the
meetings. The Chapter is involved in much more than
what we do on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. Since
this is the last newsletter before our summer break, I
thought I would take time to inform everyone about
the activity of the Chapter in the last few months.
Memorial Day Service. On Monday, May 25, 2105
from 11:50 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will a Memorial Day
Service at Palm Beach Memorial Park, 3691 Seacrest
Blvd, Lantana, FL this is the 10th Annual “A Day to
Remember” put on by the Forgotten Soldiers
Outreach. The Palm Beach Chapter SAR will be
presenting a wreath.
JROTC: Thanks to Sgt. Ben Tidwell our JROTC
Committee Chairman, the Chapter has presented 9
ROTC Bronze Medals to outstanding area High
School students.
Gary T. Green
Palm Beach Chapter President
3.
In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson
declared Waterloo, N.Y., the “birthplace” of Memorial
Day and in 1971, Memorial Day was declared a
national holiday by an act of Congress as the last
Monday in May.
WHY MEMORIAL DAY
While the first commemorative events to honor our
honored war dead weren’t held in America until the
19th Century, the origins of remembrances to Honor
soldiers can be found in antiquity.
To ensure the sacrifices of America’s fallen heroes are
never forgotten, in December 2000, the U.S. Congress
passed “The National Moment of Remembrance Act”,
creating the White House Commission on the
National Moment of Remembrance.
The ancient Greeks and Romans held annual days of
remembrance for their war dead with public festivals,
feasts and the covering of graves with flowers and
offerings.
In 431 B.C., the Athenian general and statesman
Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen heroes of the
Peloponnesian War; “Not only are they
commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there
dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not
on stone but in the hearts of men.”
The commission’s charter is to “encourage the people
of the United States to give something back to their
country, which provides them so much freedom and
opportunity” by encouraging and coordinating
commemorations in the United States of Memorial
Day and the National Moment of Remembrance.
The Revolutionary War began as a war between Great
Britain and the Thirteen Colonies, but grew into a
World War between Britain, the newly formed United
States, France, Netherlands, Spain, and Mysore.
The National Moment of Remembrance encourages
all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m.
local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to
remember and honor those who have died in service to
the nation.
In 1776, the Continental Congress authorized the first
national Revolutionary War memorial in honor of
Brigadier General Richard Montgomery killed during
an assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775.
As members of the Society of the Sons of the
American Revolution, lets join together to honor those
who paid the ultimate price for our Freedom and help
put the “memorial” back in Memorial Day.”
In May 1868, Major General John Logan, head of the
Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) union veteran’s
organization, established May 30 as “Decoration
Day”, a time for the nation to honor the graves of the
nation’s civil war dead with flowers and flags.
Don Lanman
Vice President, Palm Beach Chapter SAR
ANOTHER REASON TO ADMIRE HIS
EXCELLENCY
It’s believed that May was selected because flowers
would be in bloom across the country and the first
large Decoration Day observance was held that same
year at Arlington National Cemetery.
If there were not enough reason to admire “His
Excellency” General/President George Washington, I
will offer you one more. We all know the many
accomplishments of “His Excellency” from a young
adventurous surveyor to a Virginia Militia
Commander and eventually the Commander-Chief of
the Continental Army. We also hold dear to our
hearts his tenure as the first President of the United
States and his restraint in involving our young nation
in another war shortly after beginning his term as
Chief Executive. However, few of us really know the
extent of his physical and emotional pain, endured on
a daily basis from the premature loss of teeth.
By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day
ceremonies were being held on May 30 across the
nation. State legislatures also passed proclamations
designating Memorial Day, and the Army and Navy
adopted regulations for proper observance at military
facilities.
It was not until after World War I, however, that the
day was expanded to honor those who have died in all
American wars.
4.
During his first inaugural address on 30 April, 1789,
President Washington took the oath of office in a mere
whisper, barely heard by those standing next to the
new President. He smiled sheepishly at the admiring
crowd of well-wishers guarding his personal secret
from the crowd.
Few knew that this very
accomplished man had only one natural tooth left in
mouth at the time of his inauguration. He desperately
tried not to smile or speak loud enough to reveal his
secret and an apparent disfigurement resulting from
the loss of teeth.
After the war, he settled in New York and opened a
shop making nautical and mathematical equipment.
Even there, he couldn’t escape his legacy. His
technical skills impressed a physician friend who
asked Greenwood to extract a tooth for one of his
patients. This request and subsequent act launched
Greenwood in the field of dentistry with no formal
training. In fact, the first American dental school
wouldn’t open for about 50 years. Greenwood’s first
extraction was a success and by 1786, he was running
ads for his own dental practice.
Much has been said or speculated on his dentures later
in life. It has always been folk lore that he had
wooden teeth. That story is completely false as he
never had any teeth made of wood. However, he did
have several denture plates made for him of various
human and animal teeth and anchored in animal bone,
and rhinoceros horn held together with wire and
springs.
His mechanical skill and ingenuity as an instrument
maker soon made Greenwood the preeminent denture
crafter, and when Washington grinned on his second
Inauguration Day, it was with Greenwood’s help.
Until Washington’s death in 1799, the dentist made
the president four sets of dentures, using lead, gold,
rhinoceros tusk, and real teeth, (horse, cow, and
human). Contrary to popular myth, Washington’s
dentures were never made of wood.
By the age of 26, Washington had survived smallpox,
malaria, pleurisy, and dysentery. Bloodletting and
ingestion of mercury chloride were common
treatments, and the latter led to significant tooth
decay. Washington sought dentist after dentist but did
not regard their work acceptable until he met John
Greenwood (1760 – 1819).
When Washington lost his last natural tooth, he gave
it to Greenwood, who cherished it in a special case
until his death in 1819.
Ray Wess
Editor, The Patriot
Palm Beach Chapter SAR
Greenwood’s father, Isaac, was the first American –
born dentist, and three of John’s brother followed suit.
But John signed up to serve in the Revolutionary War
at the age of 15, as a fifer.
5.