Skip to main content

Newspaper Articles

Church of Our Father Service Flag

The Oregonian, 4 Feb 1918, page 14

A fellowship meeting, a patriotic and religious gathering, was the morning service at the Church of Our Father yesterday when the service flag, representing the fifty-three men in the Army or Navy, was unfurled in the presence of a large congregation. The pastor, the Rev. W. G. Eliot, Jr., in beginning his sermon, said: “In complying with a good custom, we of this house this day unfurl and dedicate a service flag—a mark of our remembrance of those, in any way connected with this congregation—who are connected with the service.

“This congregation would honor those for whom the stars on this flag stand. But in so doing, we honor ourselves; and indeed, having dedicated this flag, of what avail is our outward act unless we re-dedicate ourselves?

“By carrying on our part of the war until sufficient victory is won and by insisting upon just victory terms, we may help along the great underlying purpose in life and history. I believe the war is already drawing the world closer together, and that this war will continue to draw men together until the total catastrophe shall bless us with some total good.”

The flag was unfurled by Mrs. J. C. Smith. Her son, Reginald, enlisted early in the war with the Canadian forces. He was wounded at Vimy Ridge, and, after several months in the hospital in England, is again in the trenches on the western front. A second son of Mrs. Smith, Claude R. Smith, enlisted in the Signal Corps, and a daughter, Edith M. Smith, is in Base Hospital No. 46, and so to the mother of these was given the distinction of unfurling the beautiful banner that hangs behind the pulpit of the old church as an inspiration to all who attend the services.

The prayer for the dedication was offered by the Rev. Thomas L. Eliot, D. D., pastor emeritus of the church. The congregation then joined in singing “America.”

Fifty-one names were read from the pulpit, to which have since been added two more, making 53 in all:

  • John Alexander
  • Alfred D. Brooke
  • Vivian Z. Brown
  • Frank S. Buckley
  • Austin Cary
  • Leo E. Chaffin
  • Fred D. Chambers
  • Cecil Cobb
  • Albert Colson
  • Webster C. E. Corliss
  • Ernest W. Crichton
  • Frank De Lin
  • William G. Dunlap
  • Thomas D. Eliot
  • William T. Foster
  • Stuart Freeman
  • Winthrop Hastings
  • W. G. Hathaway
  • Oliver B. Huston
  • Samuel C. Huston
  • Carl O. Isakson
  • Arthur Isakson
  • Edwin W. Jackson
  • Charles H. Jackway
  • Arthur Kelsey
  • I. M. Lupton
  • Howard Maguire
  • Thomas H. Maguire
  • Walter MacAdoo
  • Edward O. Mears
  • Horace Miller
  • Robert Winn Nicholas
  • Elliott Oades
  • Charles J. Osten
  • H. F. Parsons
  • Dennis C. Pillsbury
  • Edgar E. Piper
  • Martin H. Schade
  • Frank Scott
  • Dean B. Seabrook
  • Robert Sears
  • Rolfe W. Skulason
  • Reginald V. Smith
  • Claude R. Smith
  • Edith M. Smith
  • Owen Summers, Jr.
  • Don Tarpley
  • Lawrence Trowbridge
  • Harland Tucker
  • Gordon Voorhies
  • Sinclair Wilson
  • Everett Wortman
  • Donald Young