PHILIPSBURG — Following a one-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the traditional Sunday memorial service, with military honors for all veterans, will be held in the yard of the Mud Church, near the Founders’ Oak, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 30.
Participants will include an honor guard composed of members of veterans’ groups, plus the 148th Regiment of Civil War re-enactors led by Lynn Herman and Philipsburg Mayor John Streno.
The service will be outside the church, in deference to COVID guidelines, and it will be smaller than in past years.
“Smaller in size, but not in scope, and full of honor and remembrance,” said Streno. “We particularly want to honor our Revolutionary War veterans in this anniversary year of the decisive Battle of Yorktown that ended the War for American Independence with victory in 1781. These veterans include John Gearhart, who is buried at the Union Cemetery, and John Henry Simler, who participated in the charge of Alexander Hamilton’s regiment on a British redoubt that carried the day at Yorktown.”
“John Henry Simler came as a volunteer from France with Col. Charles Armand’s regiment to assist the Americans in their struggle at Yorktown,” said Philipsburg Historical Foundation Vice-President Mark Seinfelt, a great-great-great-great grandson of Simler. “He was wounded in hand-to-hand combat with a British officer, who slashed his face with a sword, but Simler then succeeded in killing the officer with his dagger. Members of my family have treasured the sword and the dagger to this day.”
The Rev. Dr. Katy Hopper of the First Presbyterian Church will sing a touching solo titled, “Blades of Grass and Pure White Stones,” concerning memorial remembrances, and Seinfelt will give a short talk on his ancestor’s exploits on that fateful day of October 14, 1781.
There will be special honors for James Washburn, president of the Moshannon Valley Veterans Memorial Committee, and for Allen Webster, past president of the John Ashley Dennis Jr. Post of the American Legion, who was instrumental in reviving memorial services at the Mud Church a few years ago.
No part of the service will be inside the Mud Church, but the church will be open for reflection and prayer, and its bell will ring in remembrance.
John Henry Simler’s house, built in 1807 at the corner of Second and Laurel streets, will be open for tours from 4 to 6 p.m., following commemorations at the churchyard.
“We urge everyone to attend this service,” said Streno.
“It will be a good omen for our liberation from the restrictions of the recent pandemic, and an occasion to remember its victims and those who have cared for them. We can also look forward to celebrating the 225th anniversary of Philipsburg’s founding, coming up next year.”
The Mud Church and the John Henry Simler House will also be open for tours from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 29 and on Memorial Day, May 31. Additional summer hours will be announced during the week of May 31.
