Why History Matters
[Editor's Note: the following is a speech I gave at the "Beacons of History" fundraiser for the Beacon Historical Society at The Roundhouse on November 8.]
One of my favorite authors is Mark Twain and for years I have been searching through old local newspapers hoping to find some clue that he once visited here in Beacon. The closest I could ever come was the time the famous author passed through the village of Matteawan as a passenger on the New England Railroad riding on the tracks just a hundred feet or so from this building as he journeyed from his home in Hartford to West Point. I would hope the views of our Main Street and Creek left a pleasing impression on him, as he gazed out of the car’s window. The opening scene of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn has been popping into my head as I pondered what to say tonight. In the book, Huck is being “civilized” by the widow Douglas as she reads to him from the Bible, and Huck has this to say: “After supper the widow got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushes; and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by-and-by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn’t care no more about him; because I don’t take stock in dead people.”
But that is exactly what we in historical societies do!—we take stock in dead people and seek out the truth of times gone past. To be effective as an historical society, our job is to face the Huck Finns of the world and have a good answer ready as to WHY HISTORY MATTERS.
My Grandmother--Elizabeth Haramach at age 15
My position on this matter is a lifelong one that only grows stronger in time—the study of History DOES matter. And the corollary to this argument is that the well-being of, and the support for, our “Memory Keepers” that is, dedicated groups of people like a Beacon Historical Society--matters equally. This is the message I hope to convey this evening to you, the generous donors to our cause, and to the friends of our
honorees--this remarkable lady, Ronnie Beth Sauers, and this exemplary fraternal organization, the Beacon Elks Club.
History Matters— where to begin? Go to the Internet!--as any ten-year old knows! Typing in the question: “Why study history?” brings a myriad of responses. The answer I found most intriguing was one a history teacher tells to his doubting students: “Because it is in your DNA.” The teacher meant, of course, that it is in our genes to be curious, to want to know about our past, or in the words of historian David McCullough: “History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”
For me, I’ve long known the love of history is in my DNA, planted there by my maternal grandmother, who regaled me as a young boy with her stories of growing up in her native Austria-Hungary and the exciting tale of her life-changing journey: her emigration to America as a young girl. She left Austria at the tender age of 14, traveling alone, to the port city of Hamburg where she boarded a German steamer, a ship with the very unteutonic-sounding name of President Lincoln, bound for America. Grandma arrived at Ellis Island in December of 1911, with nine dollars in her pocket and a trunk full of adventures about to be unlatched. But the real kicker to her story was when she told me that her ship of passage, the President Lincoln, would, at the outbreak of our country’s entry into World War I, be commandeered by America and be used as one of our own troopships, and was ultimately to be sunk in May of 1918, by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-boat 90. Well, for a young boy, exciting twists of fate like this fills the imagination. And suddenly, through the magic of storytelling, horizons are expanded and world events and stupendous happenings and Grandmothers lives all coalesce and a child becomes spellbound by the possibilities of history.
But how do we Make History Matter for everyone? Rudyard Kipling once said: “If History were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” For us at Beacon Historical, this saying rings true and Kipling’s advice is faithfully put into practice in our monthly newsletters, our Ghost Tours, our monthly meeting programs on local history, and the exhibits in our house at 17 South Avenue. Telling the stories of Beacon is our mission. And far too often we have been dismayed when the stuff of our history gets lost in the fog of distant memory or misplaced or discarded by an uncaring generation. Our guiding principle is to
be steadfast in our resolve to remember our history.
In three days, on November 11th, America will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Here in Beacon, this summer we celebrated our own 100th anniversary, the 100th anniversary of the death of Private William B. Wilson, the first soldier from Beacon to die in World War I. In honor of his sacrifice our local organization of the Veterans of Foreign Wars has been named after this hero, Wilson Post 666. By our vigilance, the Telling of his story need never be forgotten. Billy Wilson died on a battlefield in Belgium, on August 19, 1918, while on a mission to retrieve the body of his best friend, Private Herbert Miller of Newburgh. Wilson was killed by a German shell while carrying Miller’s body on a stretcher out of No Man’s Land. Greater Love has no man than this--to lay down his life for another. When word reached home
about a month later that Billy Wilson had died, all of Beacon mourned his loss. A Memorial Mass for Wilson was quickly organized. And when Father Alyward, pastor of St. Joachim’s Church, gave the eulogy, tears were seen to stream down his face such was the emotion over the loss of this soldier.
History matters--it's in our DNA! And at its simplest and most successful Good History ultimately is a function of Telling Stories. Beacon Historical has been doing so for the last 42 years, and with the support of good people such as yourselves, our Society’s future as our city’s Memory Keeper and Storyteller now reads like a Happy Ending!
