Friday, August 14, 2009

First watch ...


Not the greatest of photos admittedly, but I'm fond of the war memorial in the southwest corner of the Wayne County Courthouse lawn in Corydon and the folks sitting on its base looking west along with the soldier atop it caught my eye Saturday morning as the second day of Old Settlers began.

The combination of heat and the long stretch of time between breakfast and the big parade after lunch convinced me to head home to Chariton and air conditioning by mid-morning, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves in a low-key kind of way as the second and final day of Old Settlers commenced.

There are many memorials of this type around southern Iowa and I intend to start visiting and revisiting them when I get around to it here. This memorial, although its principal emphasis is the Civil War, also honors those who served in the Spanish American and First World wars.

Some of the memorials were erected immediately after the Civil War and commemoriate its dead only, but many more went up as Civil War veterans, many of them grouped in posts of the Grand Army of the Republic, began to realize that their days were numbered.

One of my favorites, Civil War only, is located in a small and remote country cemetery near where Monroe, Appanoose, Wayne and Lucas counties join. But that's a story for another day.

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