HONORING VETERANS

This week our volunteers assembled books, pamphlets, posters, photos, and medals to include in a display case outside the Bullis Room. Here is one of the posters included:

(Lower caption reads: "Supplement to Engineering News Record, November 19, 1917."

As we worked on the display, we wondered about the history of this holiday, so we consulted Wikipedia's Veterans Day article and learned that November 11 "...is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world...."  The article also reminded us that on November 11, 1919,  President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Armistice Day as a holiday. President Calvin Coolidge issued another proclamation in 1926 that called for November 11 to be observed with appropriate ceremonies, and in 1938 Congress proclaimed November 11 a legal holiday, "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'." Finally, 

in 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe repair shop owner "had the idea to expand Armistice Day into 'All' Veterans Day...." With the help of U.S. Representative Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. "President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954. Congres amended the act on June 1, 1954, replacing 'Armistice" with 'Veterans,' and it has been known as Veterans Day since."

On this November 11 as you celebrate in your own way, whatever that might be, we suggest you also stop by the library and look at our display. The case's contents are only a small part of similar items in the collection. If you'd like to see more, please feel free to stop by.

HONORING VETERANS

Again, we remember Bullis family members who have served their country through military service.

Philip Bullis, born circa 1630 in England. Philip was a mariner who immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts. He served in Major Savage's Company under Lieut. Gillam from 1675 to 1676 on the Connecticut River during King Philip's War.

Son of John Bullis, born circa 1695 in Dutchess County, New York. John married and had eight sons who grew up on the Bullis Homestead in Dutchess County. One of these sons was a general in the French and Indian War.

Charles Bullis, born 1723 in Greenwich, Connecticut. He later moved to Manchester, Vermont. He served in the Revolutionary War in Captain Gideon Brownson's Company, Warner Regiment, Vermont Militia.

John Lapham Bullis, born 1841 in Macedon, New York. In 1862, he enlisted in the Volunteer Army and was commissioned in 1864, seeing extensive service during the Civil War. He continued his military service in Texas and Mexico with the Buffalo Soldiers, served in the Phillipines and Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and ended his career after President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him Brigadier General in 1904.

Charles R. Bullis, born 1891 in Macedon, New York. He enlisted in the Army on September 26, 1917 and was discharged on December 11, 1918. He served as a Private in the 20^th Company, 157 Depot Brigade during World War I. He was stationed at Camp McClellan, Alabama, for part of that time.

To these Bullis men and to all the men and women who have served and are serving in our Armed Forces, we say as sincere "Thank You."

THE PRESIDENT'S FLAG DAY ADDRESS

In honor of Flag Day, we share with you the first two and last paragraphs of The President's Flag Day Address With Evidence of Germany's Plans, delivered by President Woodrow Wilson on June 14, 1917, in Washington, D.C.

"My Fellow Citizens:

We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag which we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us--speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. We celebrate the day of its birth; and from its birth until now it has witnessed a great history, has floated on high the symbol of great events, of a great plan of life worked out by a great people. We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will draw the fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds of thousands, it may be millions, of our men, the young, the strong, the capable men of the Nation, to go forth and die beneath it on fields of blood far away--for what? For some unaccustomed thing? For something for which it has never sought the fire before? American armies were never before sent across the seas. Why are they sent now? For some new purpose, for which this great flag has never been carried before, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for which it has seen men, its own men, die on every battle field upon which Americans have borne arms since the Revolution?

... We are Americans. We in our turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. We must use her flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at the bar of history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it is we seek to serve."

If you would like to read the entire speech, ask a Bullis Room volunteer to access Document 2634 from our archives.