thedrifter
10-26-08, 07:25 AM
chicagotribune.com
A site for resting in peace
By Raymond M. Lane
Special to the Tribune
October 26, 2008
Special to the Tribune
At the Arch Street Quaker Meeting in Philadelphia, one of the most unusual veterans ceremonies unfolds at first light every Nov. 10 at what has to be one of the most obscure of tourist sites.
A handful of U.S. Marines and Marine Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets from the nearby University of Pennsylvania assemble before an unmarked marble slab rising out of the grass, according to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Andrew J. McNiven. In silence, as they have for nearly 20 years, the young Marines place a wreath before the stone, salute and walk off as quietly as they came.
"Samuel Nicholas is buried here," explained Helen J. File, for 28 years the facilities director at the world's largest Quaker meeting house. "He was the Quaker who organized the Marines."
Nicholas was a wealthy Quaker when president Alexander Hamilton of the Continental Congress commissioned him on Nov. 28 in 1775 as the first Marine officer and, by extension, the first commandant of the Marines, said his great-great-great-great-granddaughter Diana Spies Pope, a medical researcher at a Veterans Hospital in Washington state.
The problem then was that his desire to support independence from England conflicted with the Quaker "peace testimony" against all wars, File said. "They threw Nicholas out when he went to lead the Marines," she said. And when the college ROTC Marines in 1991 asked for permission to hold public ceremonies on Nov. 10, which the corps regards as its founding day, the Quakers refused because there "were strong feelings" against soldiers on the grounds, File said.
"So I told [the Marines] to come early and do it quietly," she said, acknowledging that her husband, John, was a 20-year Marine, and both were concerned that there is no recognition of Nicholas in Philadelphia, no statue or guided tours of his home site just around the corner from Independence Hall.
"What's the harm in letting the youngsters come, as long as they're quiet and don't bring guns?" she asked. "When Nicholas died, the Quakers took him back and buried him here. So the truth is that he built the Marines, even if that makes people uncomfortable."
For more on Arch Street Meeting, see www.archstreetfriends.org.
The Samuel Nicholas "stone" lies unmarked in the grass near the far northeastern gate across from the Betsy Ross House.
Ellie
A site for resting in peace
By Raymond M. Lane
Special to the Tribune
October 26, 2008
Special to the Tribune
At the Arch Street Quaker Meeting in Philadelphia, one of the most unusual veterans ceremonies unfolds at first light every Nov. 10 at what has to be one of the most obscure of tourist sites.
A handful of U.S. Marines and Marine Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets from the nearby University of Pennsylvania assemble before an unmarked marble slab rising out of the grass, according to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Andrew J. McNiven. In silence, as they have for nearly 20 years, the young Marines place a wreath before the stone, salute and walk off as quietly as they came.
"Samuel Nicholas is buried here," explained Helen J. File, for 28 years the facilities director at the world's largest Quaker meeting house. "He was the Quaker who organized the Marines."
Nicholas was a wealthy Quaker when president Alexander Hamilton of the Continental Congress commissioned him on Nov. 28 in 1775 as the first Marine officer and, by extension, the first commandant of the Marines, said his great-great-great-great-granddaughter Diana Spies Pope, a medical researcher at a Veterans Hospital in Washington state.
The problem then was that his desire to support independence from England conflicted with the Quaker "peace testimony" against all wars, File said. "They threw Nicholas out when he went to lead the Marines," she said. And when the college ROTC Marines in 1991 asked for permission to hold public ceremonies on Nov. 10, which the corps regards as its founding day, the Quakers refused because there "were strong feelings" against soldiers on the grounds, File said.
"So I told [the Marines] to come early and do it quietly," she said, acknowledging that her husband, John, was a 20-year Marine, and both were concerned that there is no recognition of Nicholas in Philadelphia, no statue or guided tours of his home site just around the corner from Independence Hall.
"What's the harm in letting the youngsters come, as long as they're quiet and don't bring guns?" she asked. "When Nicholas died, the Quakers took him back and buried him here. So the truth is that he built the Marines, even if that makes people uncomfortable."
For more on Arch Street Meeting, see www.archstreetfriends.org.
The Samuel Nicholas "stone" lies unmarked in the grass near the far northeastern gate across from the Betsy Ross House.
Ellie