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Look Back: Honoring the Stars and Stripes on Flag day
Jun. 8—For more than 130 years, the Wilkes-Barre Benevolent & Protective Order Elks Lodge 109 has hosted annual Flag Day ceremonies honoring Old Glory.
One of the biggest ceremonies was held in 1925 that included a parade that began at the lodge's home on South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, and ended with a massive event with the raising of the American flag at the 109th Field Artillery Stadium.
"Before the exercises there was a parade of Elks, war veterans and Boy Scouts through the central city to the baseball park, where the participants disbanded and filed into the grandstand for the services which were held directly in front of the grandstand in plain view of the 1,000 spectators," the Wilkes-Barre Record reported June 15, 1925.
Principal speaker was U.S. Department of War Judge James Francis Ryan with Wilkes-Barre Mayor Daniel Hart summarizing Wyoming Valley's participation in wars and conflicts from the Revolutionary War through World War I.
June 14 every year is Flag day in remembrance of the Continental Congress' adoption of the Stars and Stripes in 1777.
During the 1925 exercises by the Elks B.P.O. Lodge 109, a miniature floral replica of the Liberty Bell was created and led the parade across the Market Street Bridge to the baseball stadium behind the 109th Armory.
Members of the Elks drill team placed the floral Liberty Bell at second base as the Elks honor guard marched to the pitcher's mound with the American flag. Once in position, the Alexander Band played patriotic music at the same time a man dressed as Yankee Doodle Dandy and a woman dressed as Betsy Ross appeared next to the honor guard.
One of the earliest Flag day ceremonies found from Times Leader, Record, Evening News and Daily News-Dealer archives took place in 1894 by students at the Union Street Grammar School on Union Street, Wilkes-Barre.
"The closing exercises of the Grammar grades were held yesterday afternoon in the assembly room, 200 people being present and thoroughly enjoying the program," reported the Daily News-Dealer newspaper June 15, 1894.
In the ensuing years after the Union Street Grammar School held what was believed to be the first school hosted Flag day ceremony, other schools in the Wyoming Valley began their own Flag day exercises, which usually concluded the school year.
In 1898, Flag day exercises was held next to the iron deer in the courthouse yard adjacent to the courthouse that once stood on Public Square.
The following year, 1899, members of the Wyoming Valley Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution celebrated Flag day by marking the sites of Fort Durkee and Fort Wyoming on the river common with American flags.
