Invasive Notes: Mt Rainier, Maryland, Faces Wickedly Inconvenient Invasive Problem

Invasive Notes: Mt Rainier, Maryland, Faces Wickedly Inconvenient Invasive Problem

Peace Cross Monument, Bladensburg & Upper Marlboro Memorial to Veterans of World War I from Prince George's County

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  News and Notes 

The PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

November 1973 

Vol – 1, No – 9

 CONCERNING VETERAN’S DAY

               Early in the years of the Great Depression, as a first grader, the real meaning of November 11th was impressed upon this writer. At 11 AM the school bell was rung and the children of all grades stood beside their desks for a minute of silence in commemoration of the Armistice which brought the Great War of 1914-1918 to an end.

               Since 1918 the United States has been engaged in three other major conflicts and Armistice Day has been changed to Veterans’ Day in honor of all those who have served. This change is understandable. It is difficult to accept, however, the latest tampering with Veterans’ Day. We refer to placing it on a Monday in October in order to provide a three-day holiday which is also becoming a gigantic sale day, in competition with the birthday of George Washington. Hopefully, without sounding too old-fashioned or sentimental, it is our feeling that it would be better to designate the October date as simply a “Business Holiday” and not designate the memory of those who served by calling it Veterans’ Day. Under the circumstances where the meaning of the holiday is almost completely lost, better no Veterans’ Day at all.

               Harking back to the Great War of 1914-1918, it is interesting to note that there are two memorials in Prince George’s County which were erected to the memory of all of the citizens of the County who lost their lives in that conflict. In 1919, just one year after the Armistice, the County erected a monument (fountain) on the Court House lawn, bordering Main Street in Upper Marlboro. In recent years the location of the monument was changed to the far left side of the lawn, set back from the street.

               The Upper Marlboro bears the following inscription:

THE RIGHT WILL PREVAIL

This monument perpetuates the memory of the sons and daughters of Prince George’s County who true to the tradition of their County To the spirit of that service, tribute is here paid by a grateful people. J. M. Miller, Sc.(ulptor) W. G. Bucher, Arch.(itect) J. Arthur Emerick Co., Founders, Baltimore A.D. 1919

               On the opposite side of the monument is the following inscription:

ERECTED 1919 These men from Prince George’s County made the supreme sacrifice defending the liberty of mankind.

(The list of names follows.)

Bladensburg, Prince George's County, Maryland,
Peace Cross Monument
World War  I Memorial
picture by
John Peter Thompson,
Chair
Pri. Geo.'s Historic Preservation Commission 2012

               The most well known of the two memorials in Prince George’s, primarily because of its imposing size and its location, is the Peace Cross Monument in Bladensburg. Situated in the center of the intersection of two major arteries, Bladensburg Road (Rt. 1) and Defense Highway (Rt. 240, old Rt. 40), it has achieved landmark status over the years.

 (Until recent years it was the point of reference for the famous Bladensburg floods.)

               

The fund drive for the famous Peace Cross was begun early in 1919 by Mr. John Riggles of Lanham and Mrs. J.H. Norman of Hyattsville. Individual contributions ranged from 50¢ to $100, and the three local newspapers (The Washington Star, The Times and the Washington Post) as well as three department stores (Woodward & Lothrop, S. Kann & Sons and Lansburg Bros.) each contributed $100.

               Numerous benefits were held and a total of $1,523.16 was collected, but the drive began to wind down by late 1920. At this point the Snyder-Farmer Post of the American Legion agreed to assume responsibility for the completion of the Peace Cross. Snyder-Farmer Post No. 3 of the American Legion was officially recognized on July 8, 1919, the third in the State of Maryland.

               Most of the Legionnaires had been members of Hyattsville’s old Company F, Maryland National Guard, which became part of the 115th Infantry when they were mustered into federal service andsent to France. (A charter member from another part of the County was the late Rep. Lansdale G. Sasscer of Upper Marlboro.) The Post was named for Maurice B. Snyder and George W. Farmer, both of Hyattsville, who lost their lives on October 8, 1918 in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The Peace cross was dedicated on July 12, 1925. The total cost, including the wall around the mound to protect it from the floods, was approximately $25,000. Of this amount, about $23,000 was raised and donated by Post No. 3.

               At the base of the huge cross these four words appear on each side:

VALOR, ENDURANCE, COURAGE, DEVOTION

On the face of the cross at the junction of the two arms is a gold star bearing the letters “U.S.” in red in the center. Encircling the Star is a blue wreath. The inscription on the bronze tablet is as follows:

1917 This Memorial Cross 1918 dedicated to the heroes of Prince George’s County, Maryland, who lost their lives in the Great War for the Liberty of the World.

Albert N. Baden                     H. Irvin Dennison                       Ernest O. Gardner

Henry H. Boswell                   Wilmer A. Disney                      Milton E. Hartmen

Herman E. Burgess                 Joseph B. Edelen                      Thomas E. Hawkins

Clarence Butler                       George W. Farmer                   Frank Holmes

Vincent G. Cooley                  Thomas N. Fenwick                 Henry Lewis Hulbert

James Cooper                        Edward H. Fletcher                  Charles E. Huntemann

Matthew Curtin                      Joseph Henry Ford                   William Lee

E. Pendleton Magruder          William Redmond                      Edward Shoults

E. Monshuer Maxwell            Frank Richmond                       Albert Smith

Clarence McCausland            Henry P. Robinson                    Maurice B. Snyder

Lee Earle Merson                   Theodore Rochester                 John A. Sprigg

Howard H. Morrow               Frank C. Rorabaugh                Pierre C. Stevens

Isaac Parker                           Robert C. Rusk                       Kenneth P. Strawn

James F. Quisenberry             John H. Seaburn                      William A. Tayman

Elmer Thomas                        Elzie Ellis Turner                      Walter E. Wilson

Benjamin E. Thompson          Herbert J. White                       Herman Winter

On Being 'Too Arlington'

               Councilman Eric Olsen was denied a chance at being Chair of the Prince George's County Council.

               And why, one might ask? Because he is too 'Arlington' is the answer we are given.[1] To be 'too Arlington' would mean attracting investments and professional workforce  such as  DRS Technologies, Inc., a Finmeccanica Company, and relocating its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to Arlington County.[2]

               To be 'too-Arlington' would be to be number 3 on a list of highest-income counties in the United States.[3] To be' too Arlington' would be a county that defense contractors, financial institutions and subject-matter-expert businesses find inviting and locate.

               To be 'too Arlington' would be to showcase a great school system such as a top rated school district as found in Arlington where communities comes together county-wide in public/private initiatives to support the greater good.

               To be 'too Arlington' would be to have a county with no murders in 2011.[4]  Why on earth would someone think that trying to have a great school system, no murders, a low crime rate, and a attractive business climate that consists of more than 'milling' one's way to prosperity' for a few is a bad thing? Let's take a look at what being 'Arlington' means.

People QuickFacts[5]	Arlington County	Prince George's County
Population, 2011 estimate	216,004	871,233
White persons, percent, 2011 (a)	77.3%	26.6%
Black persons, percent, 2011 (a)	9.1%	65.4%
American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2011 (a)	0.8%	1.0%
Asian persons, percent, 2011 (a)	9.7%	4.3%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander persons, percent, 2011 (a)	0.1%	0.2%
Persons reporting two or more races, percent, 2011	2.9%	2.5%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino Origin, percent, 2011 (b)	15.2%	15.2%
White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2011	64.0%	15.2%
High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+, 2006-2010	92.5%	85.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+, 2006-2010	70.1%	29.6%
Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2006-2010	$571,700	$327,600
Per capita money income in past 12 months (2010 dollars) 2006-2010	$57,724	$31,215
Median household income 2006-2010	$94,880	$71,260
Business QuickFacts	Arlington County	Prince George's County
Private nonfarm establishments, 2010	6,019	14,250
Private nonfarm employment, 2010	126,195	237,908
Private nonfarm employment, percent change, 2000-2010	10	-5.1
Nonemployer establishments, 2010	16,524	62,171
Total number of firms, 2007	19,422	72,759
Black-owned firms, percent, 2007	6.0%	54.5%
American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned firms, percent, 2007	0.6%	0.9%
Asian-owned firms, percent, 2007	9.5%	6.2%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms, percent, 2007	F	0.1%
Hispanic-owned firms, percent, 2007	8.0%	8.8%
Women-owned firms, percent, 2007	32.0%	37.8%
Merchant wholesaler sales, 2007 ($1000)	453,168	10,449,816
Retail sales, 2007 ($1000)	2,482,916	9,209,683
Retail sales per capita, 2007	$12,176	$11,060
Accommodation and food services sales, 2007 ($1000)	1,164,025	1,205,022
Building permits, 2011	1,945	1,227
Geography QuickFacts	Arlington County	Prince George's County
Land area in square miles, 2010	25.97	482.69
Persons per square mile, 2010	7,993.6	1,788.8
FIPS Code	13	33

               A first quick glance at Arlington would suggest a richer and more affluent place to live and work. With a quarter of the population of Prince George's county it brings in nearly the same revenue in the food service industry.... could this be more restaurants perhaps? Arlington's population has a higher education and earns more money...is this so bad a thing as to not want an Arlington type Council Chair?

               The 2007 GRC score indicates the level of math or reading achievement by the average student in a public school district.  Prince George's County ranks 28% in math and 39% in reading; Arlington however has a 46% rank in math and 53% in reading.[6] For some reason we are to take this as a bad thing that Arlington out performs us and therefore we would not want a chair who might enable us to compete across the river. In fact there is no economic reason to disparage Arlington. While I am the first to think that this county should lead not follow, I have to wonder about the new found tendency to lead towards the basement of economic accomplishments.  We are not going to get anywhere repeating the small minded parochial sectional practices of the past. Just because one group many years ago practices the politics of exclusion does not mean that exclusion is the best practice for moving the most upwards and forwards today. We must be better than the past; we must move forward beyond the good of the few today at the expense of the needs of the many tomorrow.

              

              

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[1] Miranda S. Spivack. December 4, 2012. Environmentalist Eric Olson loses bid to head Prince George’s County Council. Washington Post. [accessed December 5, 2012] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/environmentalist-eric-olson-loses-bid-to-head-prince-georges-county-council/2012/12/04/541d75ca-3e40-11e2-a2d9-822f58ac9fd5_story.html

[2] The company, recognized as one of the leading defense technology companies in the world, will be expanding its regional office to accommodate over 100 employees. The relocation and expansion costs will bring in excess of $10 million of capital investment to the region.  http://www.governor.virginia.gov/news/viewRelease.cfm?id=1232

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-income_counties_in_the_United_States

[4] http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Arlington-County-Finishes-2011-With-No-Murders-136548603.html

[5] United States Census  http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html

[6] The GRC score indicates the level of math or reading achievement by the average student in a public school district compared to student achievement in a set of 25 developed countries. The score represents the percentage of students in the international group who would have a lower level of achievement. For example, a percentile of 60 means the average student in a school district would perform better than 60% of the students in the international group. http://globalreportcard.org/map.html#bottom-results

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Small Thought in a Smaller County

Mr. Olsen and the Third District of Prince George's County were denied a chance once again to chair the County Council, something it has not done for twenty years or more. It sure looks like the 3rd District is taken advantage of in the politics of the petty. Someday if the politics of sectionalism continues we should not be surprised to see District 3 seek to remove itself to a more accepting county taking the university with it. And if District 1 decided to join a succession movement it would result in a major removal of federal presence mostly ignored in the present squabbling milieu of our power elites. Who knows, District 4 might want to leave also taking the second largest city in Maryland with it, allowing the remaining cliques full play with their diminished resources.  With National Harbor already marketing itself as part of Old Town Alexandria and Northern Virginia, how long before other sections throw in the towel and give up on the small centers of smaller vision?

Somethings Never Change in Old Prince George's

 THE OCTOBER FAIR IN PRINCE GEORGE'S[1].

It was truly gratifying to see, in the reliable "Marlbro' Gazette," such a good account of the late exhibition. It says:

"Those who visited the Prince George's Agricultural Society in former years, must have noticed the gradual improvement in the various departments—and in every thing exhibited at its late meeting there was displayed more perfection than on any previous occasion. The contributions of the ladies were both useful and beautiful. The display of fruits, flowers and vegetables, excelled the rich collections of former years. The stock yard was well filled with superior animals, affording ample proof that the attention bestowed on raising improved animals has more than compensated for the care and expense. We cannot do justice to the fine cattle exhibited—and must content ourselves with referring to the reports of the various committees which will be published next week. A most interesting feature of this branch was the competition for the 'Calvert Premium.' It will be recollected that the liberal and zealous friend of agriculture, C. B. Calvert, last year offered, through the columns of the Gazette, to give the male calves of his celebrated Durham stock, free of charge, to such gentlemen as would oblige themselves to exhibit them for the premium of die Society, annually for three years. Eleven gentlemen availed themselves of the offer, and the committee who passed upon the calves, speak in the highest terms of their appearance. They have made an interesting report on the subject"

Truly, there is a great difference between giving away improved shorthorn calves, and selling them, as in England for the last forty years, at from fifty to one hundred guineas. It is well that something can prompt gentlemen of ample means to take measures for the improvement of their stock; but after all, the question arises, how far is it expedient, with a view even to general improvement, to give away the means of accomplishing it, unless it be to men of spirit unable to buy t

In the general way, that is not most valued which may be had, even without the trouble of asking; and when those who are able to buy wait to have a thing given to them, to whom can they expect to sell? Will not the next generation wait not only to have the best things given them, but sent them in the bargain, with a polite note entreating them to accept? By-the-by, though we have read with lively pleasure the account of the show, we have looked in vain for any indication of a desire to inquire into the laws of the State that bear upon agriculture. Whether, for instance, something might not be done to enable the planters and farmers of Prince George's, to avail themselves of their unemployed means of raising as many more sheep as would add fifty thousand dollars to the income of the county, without an additional outlay on that amount of one per cent.? Are there not streams enough in Prince George's to manufacture all the cloth that is used in the county, and might not the county supply the wool fine enough for all purposes, and the vegetables and corn, and fruit and meat for the operatives employed in its manufacture, without intrenching on their present income from other sources? Why forever persist in putting their trust so exclusively in tobacco? Suppose even that the duty was to be reduced in England, and the consumption quadrupled or quintupled: have we not in the west land enough and labor enough that can in no way be o profitably employed as in producing tobacco at four dollars a hundred? And is it not, therefore, morally certain, that the supply will forever tread closely on the heels of demand, and so keep down the price? Let, then, the planter and farmer of Maryland and Virginia study how—by what action of the government—those who manufacture iron and cloth for us abroad shall find it their interest, and be tempted to come, and, while they are manufacturing for us here, eat the cabbages, and the turnips, and potatoes, and apples, and milk, and butter, and veal, and mutton, that might be made in Prince George's, with half the labor and cost that they are made in New England. Then he would sell tons, where now he sells pounds weight of wheat and tobacco.

We see in these proceedings at Marlbro', conducted by gentlemen of acknowledged and superior intelligence, no attempt to agitate the question of the fence laws, and the inspection laws of the state—though the fencing in that very county has cost more than the land would sell for. When farmers meet, one would suppose it would be to inquire and discuss, as merchants and manufacturers do, the bearing of the laws, and policy of the government on their particular pursuits; but, alas! for instruction in all that, they surrender the privilege of thought and inquiry to old field partyleaders, whose orders they implicitly obey. The whole country may be compared to a great pyramid, the base of which, broad and strong enough to hold all the rotten materials above, is composed of the substantial farmers and planters of the country. The next tier above consists of the seekers after numerous small offices, for which they rely on the influence of the next tier above them again, composed of a smaller number, who aspire to something a little higher—state legislators, &c, who, in their turn, are the creatures of lawyers without briefs, and doctors without patients, looking for seats in Congress, rising up at last to an individual sitting in a great palace, who holds the purse-strings—who constitutes the apex of the political pyramid, and who saves, to all below him, the trouble of thinking for themselves; and in regard to whom it sometimes happens that still the wonder grows that one small head should carry all he knows. Such is the system under which the farmer and the planter allows himself to' be governed, without any attempt at individual inquiry and independent action. Societies seem to be organized, not to inquire into the political economy and condition of the landed interest, but to giveaway, for large calves and fat sheep as much money as they can collect—while those in whose names and for whose benefit they associate, continue to pay $15,000,000 a year for military establishments and  schools.

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[1]  American Farmers' Magazine, Volume 1  J Nash. (1848) p. 365 http://books.google.com/books?id=31hTAAAAYAAJ&dq=farmer%20pyramis%20prince%20george's&pg=PA365#v=onepage&q=farmer%20pyramis%20prince%20george's&f=false