The first South Dakota newspaper that was digitized containing a story recognizing those men who had served their country as a soldier was The Mitchell Capital in 1886. Seven different issues of that paper contained stories commemorating their military service. No other South Dakota paper had reported on the sacrifices made by these men for our freedoms today.
On Friday, May 21, 1886, The Mitchell Capital, in the “Dakota News” section reported on two communities, Woonsocket and Plankinton, which celebrated what was already a national holiday. In Woonsocket, the celebration was scheduled to be observed by the G. A. R. Post. The Wessington Springs, Diana, and Alpena Posts were invited to be a part of the festivities.
At White Lake, their G. A. R. Post was planning on joining the Plankinton Post in observing Decoration Day on the 30th of May. Chaplain Bell of the Department of Dakota delivered the address.
It is interesting to note that both of these stories appeared in the same column of the Mitchell paper; however, in Woonsocket it was a Memorial Day event and in Plankinton it was a Decoration Day celebration. For one-hundred and fifty-seven years we have been referring to the same event, but a different name.
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is one of the federal holidays in the United States for honoring and mourning the U. S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It is also considered the unofficial beginning of our summer.
The Thursday evening, May 30, 1878, issue of The Daily Press and Dakotaian contained an editorial entitled “Decoration Day” which declared: “It is the only tribute that can be paid to the departed to remember their virtues, and as reminders of what they were in life . . . the polished marble is reared above their tombs and flowers are planted by the hand of love and affection upon the little mounds which denote ‘the last of earth’ of those who slumber beneath.”
The custom of going at least once a year to the graves of the nation’s heroic dead and decorating them with fragrant flowers is an excellent one that should be preserved and done regularly. It should be perpetuated as long as liberty exists or patriotism is one of the exalted virtues of a free people. In Yankton, at that time, no soldiers lie buried in the cemetery, except for those whose life has ended since the close of the Civil War.
Today, in all our cemeteries, where the “unreturning brave” are slumbering in bloody shrouds, awaiting the last great roll call of God, beautiful flowers will be strewn upon their graves in commemoration of the great sacrifices they made in laying down their lives that freedom might continue in America. Again we say, let those who fell in the front lines of the battle, where only the brave dared go, be remembered forever. May the grass that covers their graves never wither, nor “the star of their glory grow dim.”
The first national observance of Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868. Then known as Decoration Day and observed on May 30, the holiday was proclaimed by Commander in Chief John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic to honor the Union soldiers who had died in the American Civil War.
This national observance followed many local observances which were inaugurated between the end of the Civil War and Logan’s declaration. Many cities and people have claimed to be the first to observe it. Mary Ann Williams is recognized by some as originating the “idea of strewing the graves of Civil War soldiers – Confederate and Union” with flowers.
On April 25, 1866, in Columbus, Mississippi, a women’s group, the Ladies Memorial Association, went to decorate the graves of soldiers who had died in the Battle of Shiloh. When they arrived, they found the Confederate graves well cared-for, in stark contrast to the nearby graves of Union soldiers, which were bare and unkempt because they were the enemy. Saddened, the mothers placed flowers on all the graves in the cemetery.
That scene of only Confederate graves being decorated troubled them. Their first thought was of those devoted mothers of the Union soldiers up north. It just didn’t seem right. They decided to decorate every grave in the cemetery with flowers.
We were a nation trying to find a way to move on after the Civil War. It had split the country, states, communities, and even families and this was a welcome gesture. It was a way to lay the past to rest while honoring those who had fought on either side.
As time went on, “Memorial Day” began to replace “Decoration Day” as the name of the holiday, and it soon became a day to honor all fallen American troops, not just those from the Civil War. After two World Wars, Memorial Day was the term in more common usage, and the act of remembering all of the fallen took on a renewed importance.
During the late 1800s, the South Dakota G. A. R. posts took an active part in the decoration of graves. Memorial Day was observed by fifty-five posts in 1892 and by the same number in 1893. In 1892, four-hundred and one graves of comrades were decorated. In 1893, four-hundred ninety-one were decorated.
Author Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on May 28, 2025