“There is an old adage to the effect that the only time a serviceman is popular is during a war. ” Some may remember Abraham Lincoln’s speaking at Gettysburg saying “we can never forget what they did here.” Since 2007 when the Ticonderoga Historical Society and members of the Town of Ticonderoga Cemetery Board held their first “On Hallowed Ground” cemetery memorial walk at Mount Hope Cemetery – an American Revoluntinary historical site and an active burial ground –, we have made it our purpose that we will remember those that have served our country.
We invite the public to join us for our seventh annual “On Hallowed Ground” veterans’ memorial presentation on Sunday, November 10th at 1 PM at the Valley View Cemetery – Pine Grove Section. Society researchers and family members of some of the veterans buried in the area contributed information so we may remember a few of those who fought during the War of 1812, Civil War, World Wars I & II and later conflicts.
Ruth L. Wood, Chief Warrant Officer, U.S. Marine Corps.
One of those veterans’ we will be honoring is ~~ Ruth L. Wood (1916-1986). Ruth was the first woman to achieve the rank of Chief Warrant Officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. A 1934 graduate of the Ticonderoga School System and from Mount Holyoke College. She enlisted in the Marines in 1943. When the war was over, she re-enlisted and as the service de-mobilized she was one of few hundred women to remain in the Women’s Corps. She retired in 1970 and returned home to Ticonderoga and was very active in the community serving her church, an active member of the DAR and a trustee of the Ticonderoga Historical Society to name a few affiliations.
The Hancock House Library is well known as a regional research library. Our military record archives are substanially and we would welcome additional veterans and military related items for both its library and museum collections. Veterans’ family and service records, photographs and military artificats are some of the material we are interested in.
A special thank you to all those families that have shared their veterans’ information in the past and for this year’s “Cemetery Memory Walk.”