1929 "Pilgrimage Band Will Begin Tour Wednesday" Newspaper Clipping

This document is a newspaper clipping discussing the pilgrimage band which was going to Europe to revisit sights of the first World War and the battle monuments which were built there in commemoration. The document is dated September 8th, 1929, and is found in the Frank Gerlach file.

Transcription

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Pilgrimage Band Will Begin Tour Wednesday Cooper to Present Silver Baton to Leader When Musicians Prepare to Leave for Dedication of Monuments in France and Belgium.

Columbus will get a glimpse, Wednesday, of the 50-piece, 37th Division Pilgrimage band which will head the delegation of 300 Buckeyes that will leave Union station at 11 p.m. that night for Montreal, Canada, to embark on a six-month tour of the 37th Division’s European battle grounds.

The band will assemble at Memorial hall, Wednesday noon, and at 1:45 p.m. will move to the statehouse where Gov. Myers Y. Cooper will bid the delegation an official bon voyage on behalf of the state and will present a silver baton to Capt. Claude W. Phodes, drum major of the band, in behalf of Otto B. Heaton, music dealer.

The band will serenade the various Columbus newspapers, and then move to the city hall where a concert will be played for the mayor and city officials, after which the party will go to the F. J. Here Printing Co., where Lieut. Col. John Edwards, secretary of the 37th Division Veterans’ association, will receive the two de luxe editions of the 37th Division history to be presented to King Albert of Belgium and former Premier Raymond Poincare of France, during the pilgrimage tour of these countries. At 9 p.m., the band will play a concert on the statehouse steps, and at 9:45 p.m. will move to the Union station via High street, where the pilgrimage party will take a special New York Central train for Montreal. Stopping at Toronto, en route, the party will be welcomed by Canadian officials and the garrison the Toronto Royal Northwest mounted police will turn out in force. At Montreal, the mayor of the city and officials of the Chamber of Commerce will head a delegation to receive the party and the Royal Canadian Highlanders, a crack Canadian infantry regiment, will turn out as an escort of honor to march with the Buckeye veterans from the train to the pier, where the party embarks on the S. S. Montrose, for Antwerp. Another stop will be made by the party at Quebec.

Sailing from Montreal Sept. 13, the pilgrimage group will land at Antwerp, Sept. 22, and proceed to Brussels, where King Albert of Belgium will receive them. Touring the battlefields of the Ypres-Lys and Lys-Escaut offensives, the last two drives made by the 37th Division before the armistice, the party will dedicate the memorial bridge across the Scheldt river at Eyne, erected by the state of Ohio. Col. Ralph D. Cole of Findlay,

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Pilgrimage Band Will Begin Trip Wednesday (Continued from Page One) division historian, will deliver the dedication address and King Albert, American Ambassador Hugh Gibson and Belgium military commanders under whom the Buckeyes fought will participate. From Belgium the party moves down into France along the western front battle line, stopping at Montfaucon, where the hospice, erected by the state of Ohio, will be dedicated by Capt. John McSweeney, former congressman. Ex-Premier Poincare, General John J. Pershing, commander-in-chief of the A. E. F., Marshals Joffre and Petain and other French dignitaries will have a part in this ceremony. A similar exercise will be held at Hattonchatel in the St. Mihiel sector, where a memorial park will be dedicated.

NORTON HEADS DELEGATION

After visiting the scenes of the first Buckeye battles at Baccarat in the Luneville sector of the Vosges mountains, the party will return to Paris, via Bourmont, where preliminary training was given early in 1918, returning via Cherborg on the S. S. America, and arriving in New York Oct. 20

Capt. Laurence H. Norton of Cleveland will head the official state delegation composed of 10 members of the 88th General Assembly, all [of] whom say service overseas during [the] war and many of whom were members of the 37th Division during [the] war. Adjutant General Arthur Reynolds will also be a member of the party.

The dedication pilgrimage is the culmination of four years of eff[ort] on the part of the 37th Division Veterans’ association, during which th[ey] obtained an appropriation of $150,000 from the state of Ohio to build th[e] three memorials to the memory of the men of the 37th who died on [the] three major battlefields of the division. An appropriation of $30,000 was granted by the last general assembly to pay the expenses of the band and the official dedicatory party of state officials.

Extraneous Article

3467 GIVEN JOBS IN A WEEK

Of a total of 6744 applicants for work at the state-city free employment agencies in the state during this week, 3467 were reported as having been placed in positions.

The Columbus office placed 132 of the 224 female applicants, and 210 of the 415 men who registered for work. Demand for farm help showed a slight increase, but the registrations were more than enough to supply this demand. Out of 85 applicants for farm work 59 were referred to positions.