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Show Springville Soldiers Memorial Unveiled ' ill ' m Saks-, ry- . iaiiB SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL BY CYRUS E DAT.t.tv The history of the soldiers' monument, monu-ment, unveiled today in the Springville Spring-ville City park, dates back to Mav, i 1920, when he War Mothers of Springville and Mapleton, who later, took the name of the Service Star Legion, planted seven Norway maple trees in a circle on the north side of the City park, in memory of the five Springville and two Mapleton boys -who paid the supreme su-preme sacrifice in the great world wa r. The trees which were contributed by Springville city while Dr. Fred Dunn was mayor were held by the mother or the nearest relative of the boy in Avhose memory it was planted, while all rhe members of the AVar Mothers aided in the planting. plant-ing. After the trees were planted the idea of a. monument in the center was conceived in the minds of these War Mothers. But an idea that meant thousands of dollars, in expense, ex-pense, seemed almost out of the question, hence all that was done was to think about it and talk about it for a period of nearly two yea rs. In the early part of 1922, Mrs. Julia A. Packard, who was president presi-dent of the Service Star Legion (War Mothers) at the time of the tree planting together with Mrs. ; Drucilla Clark, president of the Service Star Legion at that time, with the first vice president, Mrs. Viola Roylance, were appointed a committee to see if the Springville Kiwanis club would help to mate-, mate-, rialixe the monument idea. J. F. Smith, president of the Kiwanis club at tha time, sent two of their members, Mayor John S. Boyer Jr. and W. H. Kearns, to aid ! the mothers in working out their 1 plan. At the same time Wayne Johnson, teacher of art in the high school, was called in and this committee com-mittee of six wrote a letter 1 to Cyrus E. Dallin of Boston in regard to the proposed idea, with the thought that Mr. Dallin might be interested in doing something for his home town in this regard. Mr. Dallin immediately became 1 interested, encouraged the move and continued to keep up a correspondence corre-spondence with the committee for nearly a year before anything definite defi-nite was reached. During the time of correspondence correspond-ence the committee was enlarged by taking in the following additional members : Elmo Coffman of the M. I. A., Wm. N. Grooms of the American Legion, Mrs. Hilda M. Groesbeck, M. E. Crandall, Jr., and Thorn C. Miner, and through the efforts of the Service Star Legion a fund had ..grown to over $300. It was not until in the fall .of 193 that a blue print of the monument was sent by Mr. Dallin with a definite proposition. A part of the proposition was that the committee would have to erect the base for the monument, so immediately imme-diately a number of letters were written to contractors throughout the western states, for bids on the construction of the base. Bids on this work came in from Salt Lake City and as far east as Kansas City and Omaha, the lowest being $20oo and the highest going over the $4000 mark. It seemed that a real problem had been met. However, a conference confer-ence was held with Springville's architect. Lewis J. Whitneyin regard re-gard to the matter and Mr. Whitney Whit-ney volunteered to construct this wonderful piece of work as a con-! tribution, providing the committee would raise sufficient money to pay for the materials and the extra labor. At once every organization in the city was given the privilege of making mak-ing contributions in the name of the organization and a ready response re-sponse came back with the following follow-ing contributions: Springville central cen-tral committee of the Mutual Improvement Im-provement association, $100; Springville Spring-ville city council, $100; Washington school with C. H. Childs, principal, $27.59; Springville First ward Primary, Pri-mary, $5; Mapleton Y. L, M. I. A., $5; Springville Third ward Relief society, $25; Alpha Beta club, $12; American Legion, $0.55 ; Sous and Daughters of the Indian War Veterans Vet-erans and Pioneers. $50; the S. T. club, $15; Daughters of the Pioneers, Pio-neers, $38; Home Culture club, $25; Kiwanis club of Ogden, $13.33; Third ward Primary, $5 ; Service Star Legion, $50; Mother's Study club, $10; First ward Relief society, $10; Springvill Kiwanis club, $100. and J. M. Westwood, Springville veteran of the G. A. R. $5.00. A popularity contest being carried on between the Springville and Mapleton wards under the direction of the M. I. A. will it is anticipated make the fund ample to cover the expenses. The members of the memorial committee at present' are Mayor George R. Maycock, Wayne Johnson, John-son, John S. Boyer, Jr., Wm. II. Kearns, Julia A. Packard, Drucilla. Clark, Hila M. Groesbeck, Viola Roylance, W. Elmo Coffman, Wm. N. Grooms, Myron E. Crandall, Jr., Thorn C. Miner, Lewis J. Whitney. E. M. Snow of Mapleton and Mrs. Mary L. Metcalf, president of the Service Star Legion. |