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Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Salisbury's 4th of July Celebration Features War Heroes, Famous Speakers, a Parade, Big Dinner and an Aeroplane, 1919

From The Carolina Watchman, Salisbury, N.C., Wednesday, July 9, 1919

Salisbury Had a Big Fourth. . . Fine Parade, Big Dinner, Aeroplane, Speech by Overman and Rowan’s Hero

W. Thomas Bost, Rowan’s entertaining writer, came over to represent the Greensboro News and furnished it with the following, almost verbatim, statement of our big event of Friday.

Salisbury took this grand day of prize fighting and the incident of patriotism and made them serve the Rowan soldiers who have returned from wandering on a foreign strand as Mr. Scott once called it.

And Salisbury turned up an individual hero whom Rowan offers as the equal of Sergeant York. Private William B. Lyerly, who dragged in with another companion, 100 Germans, came down from his home in upper Rowan with John J. Pershing’s decorations on him and credentials signed by Black Jack. The historical imagination had been previously turned on Soldier York, otherwise the startling achievement of Soldier Lyerly would have Gotham yallers clamoring for his picture.

Without this the Rowan celebration might have been one of the thousand this day being executed the country over. Rowan had its most distinguished man in public life. Senator Lee S. Overman, four bands giving the music and one aeroplane doing high atmospheric stunts. It had 5,000 fried chickens on the tables, a fair ground full of soft drink bottles, had the prettiest woman population, to its inches, anywhere this side of the other side.

Senator Overman’s speech was the oratorical feature and the junior member from North Carolina gave his homefolks his best. He did not let himself out on the great issues, but he showed himself much more sensible by talking the language of Zion to his people. Never did one get it behind him in better style.

Mayor W.B. Strachan who dotes on the fact that he has never talked; presided today and did as good a job introducing as Salisbury ever heard.

Mayor Frank McNinch of Charlotte, who had promised to come, had to break the engagement over a desk telephone while the Charlotte magistrate lay in bed. Senator Overman, surrounded by people who have been voting for him since the early sixties was there dressed as dapper as ever he caparisoned himself in the senate. Everybody stood in the big fair building and wondered how long the Senator’s clean collar would stand up.

The sun on the outside was jumping. In Rowan old Sol always jumps on hot days. The big building at the fair grounds was flung open and the air welcomed, but Senator Overman was up against a temperature of 98 and 1,000 people surrounding him.

Senator Overman declared that the fires of patriotism burn today on the natal day of the republic as ever before. Mayor Strachan a minute before had given a reason. The boys of ’67 fought for ideals which the soldiers of the world had established over the world.

And Rowan men anticipated the turn of things Revolutionary, he intimated. Long before the declaration of independence, Rowan citizens had met, resolved in almost exactly the language of the Philadelphia convention which moved directly toward independence. Senator Overman raised no controversy as to dates. He claimed for North Carolina a general assembly.

For that reason he thought it reasonable to call America the greatest country in the world, North Carolina greatest of the states, Rowan greatest of the counties. And he set the audience on edge by telling them that there was a soldier in the audience whose exploit matched Sergeant York’s.

Senator Overman had a sprinkling of Confederate soldiers before him. The soldiery of the boys whose return inspired the celebration today was the equal of the men who represented the south in 1861, he said. “When our men were called to France, the Germans were near Paris.” The German and French soldiers always had an objective, and when they had reached it, they quit. Not so with our boys. When the Germans ran the Americans ran after them just as you followed the Yankees with the rebel yell after you had made them run. The old fellows liked to have their memories jogged.

“An Tennessee has her York” he exclaimed, “but we have here a Rowan county boy who with eight other boys captured 242 Germans,” the senator said, while the crowd, soaked in perspiration, forgot its good clothes and began to drum up its rousements.

But while they equaled the soldiery of the Confederacy, Senator Overman told the fighters they must travel to make the citizenship of today as fine as that of their fathers. You have come back to the greatest country in the world, he continued, “have come back with victory and the applause of all mankind. But your fathers returned not with victory, they came back to a country as desolate as devastated as Belgium. Our fields were wasted, there was blood on every doorstep.

“First, in welcoming you back to peace, I would advise you to get homes. Whether you farm or whatever you do, get your home. It will prove the greatest cure for this widespread unrest that we have. The agitation against our government does not come from home-loving and home owning Americans. That is why in Congress we have thought so much of legislation looking to the encouragement of men making their homes.”

He declared there is no room in this country for men who assail American institutions, then seek protection of American courts and institutions when brought to account. Deportation of aliens who have refused to become citizens and swear allegiance to America is going on hereafter as never before, he declared.

“Who will stand up or lift his hand to indicate his opposition to the league of nations,” he asked, defending the President’s course in France, and nobody desired to debate it. He declared the league simply the extension of that larger intelligence which settles rights by court and disinterested persons rather than by personal violence.

He defended the draft made the “conscript” several degrees higher than the “convict.” The senator did not appear to be alluding to Champ Clark. The contention of Mr. Overman was that the draft honored every man and that no man selected by it was in any sense a conscript.

Here one of the Red Cross workers slipped up behind Senator Overman and began to minister to him with the fan. The senator’s face was indicative of great physical draft on him, but he gave no other sign of distress. And he finished as strong as he began.

Mayor Strachan introduced the women relatives of the Leazer boys, both of whom died in the service at the front. One was gassed and the other died of influenza and pneumonia.

Major Max Barker said that the one thing which won the war was the spirit of the boys who went over there. He told the best war stories that Salisburians had ever heard.

Private Roy Fisher, who lost an arm in the Argonne forest, did not pretend to love his German enemies. He was sorry that he had not killed more than he did, and he saw several fall as the result of his men’s marksmanship and his own.

William B. Lyerly, of Company D, 120th Infantry, a nice looking youngster, then presented his record as furnished by the war department, which is as follows:

The nine boys got displaced or misplaced in some way. They stumbled into a nest of Germans. Some of the Boch surrendered. One of the boys could speak German and a captive told him where the other Germans were. “Another soldier and myself went down and captured 100 of them,” Lyerly said. That was all the speech he would make.

The band gave a tap and in a jiffy there were 300 fellows marching to the table. Here 65 canteen workers organized by Mrs. Earnest Alexander for the colossal job, had pulled up the greatest exhibition of chicken cookery ever seen in this state.

How the ministry is ever to win back its laurels nobody knows for these fighters pounced upon these chickens and soon the pile which had bourne the appearance of a county wide raid on the chicken population evaporated. The civilians stood back while the soldiers were served, then everybody was invited up. And all Rowan failed to make way with the dinner.

These canteen workers maintaining their service station prepared that dinner and sent besides to Azalea more than 100 layer cakes. Yesterday 1,596 soldiers were served at the station and every day the organization has gone at top speed. To do on such grand scale what was done today looked unbelievable in the light of the limited number. But the exhibition shows for itself.

The canteen workers had chicken, pickles, bred, ham, cake, cold drinks, ice cream and cigarettes. Fifteen thousand people did their best to dissolve it.

While the crowd was waiting on the features, the government airplane was flitting between Salisbury and Statesville. In the morning as the parade organized, the machine flew for half an hour over Salisbury, doing all sorts of amazing stunts. One minute it would be down sweeping the dust off the Grubb building, the next it would scoot halfway to heaven, then as a girl winds herself in a swing, roll over and over.

The machine dived, rocketed, sideswiped and kicked up. It landed at the fairgrounds and let the parade out there. It rested half an hour, then rose at 11:45. As the pilot left the earth he told the ground to be off the field at a certain time an hour later. The army buzzard flapped her wings, then sailed to Statesville. Iredell’s capital watched the exhibition and in a few minutes the machine was back in Salisbury, the aviators doing their best to remove the chicken at the dinner.

It was the best flying Salisbury has seen. The celebration was the biggest Rowan ever engineered.

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