Pilgrimage Newspaper Clippings

This document is a compilation of three newspaper cutouts which give details regarding the pilgrimage to Europe and Col. Gerlach's involvement in choosing memorial sites. Two of the newspaper articles have been dated with the month and year, however, none have the year. The document is found in the Frank Gerlach file.

Transcription

King Albert Is Guest at Ohio Vets' Banquet

Confers Decorations on Several; 37th Division Delegation Dedicates Memorial Bridge

GHENT, Belgium, Sept. 26. — (AP) — The delegation of Ohio veterans of the 37th Division, who today participated in the dedication of a war bridge memorial at Eyne, tonight gave a brilliant banquet here with King Albert as chief guest.

The king proposed the toast to President Hoover and also conferred decorations on several of the Ohioans, including Gen. Jackson, Adj. Reynolds and Capt. Norton. He will receive the entire delegation at the palace in Brussels tomorrow morning.

Prior to the dinner the Ohio pilgrimage band gave a concert in the central market place. The municipal authorities presented them with flowers and a commemorative medal.

The ceremony at Eyne was in commemoration of the crossing by Ohio troops under fire over the River Scheldt in November, 1918. It was held in the presence of Gen. Maton, representing the Belgian minister of national defense, other prominent officials and a large crowd.

The Americans, followed by Belgian veterans and Belgian troops, marched across after Msgr. Coppieters, Bishop of Ghent, had blessed the bridge.

The burgomaster of Eyne who accepted the gift from the state of Ohio for the Belgian government, crossed it and recrossed it to the strains of Belgian martial music. The American flag was hoisted at the four pillars of the bridge.

Gerlach Will Help to Pick France Sites

Is Named Member of Commission by Governor to Select Places for Memorials

Columbus, April 6.— Sites for monuments commemorating the service of the 37th Division, Ohio national guard, in France, Belgium, and two other places to be selected, will be chosen by a state commission of seven division veterans provided for in the Boton-Sullivan bill, which was signed today by Governor Donahey.

The Govrnor [sic] announced the appointment of the following members of the commission, recommended by division veterans association:

John R. McQuigg, Otto Miller and Lawrence Norton, Cleveland; Senator Earl C. McCreary, S. B. Stanbery and Thomas H. Morrow, Cincinnati and F. C. Gerlach, Wooster. The commission is expected to go to France and Belgium next summer to select the sites, one of which must be in the Meuse-Argonne sector held by the division during the war.

The bill carries an appropriation of $10,000 for expenses of the commission, including the preparation of plans.

Vets Leave for Europe Tonight

300 Members of the 37th Division Will Visit Battlefields And Dedicate Memorials.

An Ohio expeditionary force will leave Union Station at 11 p.m. Wednesday, bound for Belgium, France and the battlefields of the World War.

About 300 veterans of the 37th Division and members of their families will be in the party, which will dedicate war memorials, financed by the state.

Before leaving they assembled in the downtown section during the afternoon, to be greeted by Governor Cooper at the State House.

A band, composed of men selected from the various bands of the division, which will accompany the veterans back to France and Belgium, serenaded the governor and newspaper offices.

Sail From Montreal.

At 9 p.m. the band will play again at the State House, moving from there to the station.

The party will sail from Montreal Friday, stopping at Toronto, en route, to be welcomed by Canadian officials.

They will land in Antwerp, Belgium, Sept. 22, and will proceed to Brussels, where King Albert will receive them.

To Tour Battlefields.

From there they will tour the battlefields of the Ypres-Lys and Lys-Escaut offensives, the last two drives in which the division engaged before the armistice and will dedicate memorials the memorial bridge over the Scheldt River at Eyne.

Then the party will move into France, to Montfaucon where the memorial hospice, erected by the state of Ohio, will be dedicated, ad to Hattonchatel, where a memorial park will be dedicated.

They will sail from Cherbourg on the return trip, arriving in New York Oct 20.