Tools of the Trade: Newspaper Clips - Duty, Honor, and Liberty

Baron von Steuben

Writing historical fiction takes a love for history. As an author, I find the lives of people from the past fascinating. Perhaps because they lived so differently than today.

I found the wording from this clip from 101 years ago in my local newspaper interesting.

101 years ago - A congregational meeting was held at the Evangelical Lutheran church last night. The resignation of the pastor, Rev. Dr. Charles F. Steck, to

Publish Post

take effect January 31, 1910, was read and accepted. “Our beloved pastor, Rev. Charles F. Steck, D. D., having received a call to labor in another portion of the Master’s vineyard, and having announced his desire to accept that call and tendered his resignation as pastor of this congregation, to take effect on the last on January, 1910.”

I am always curious as to the history of such people. When I read these clips, I often wonder about their lives. So, I did a bit of research on Rev. Steck and this is what I found. Apparently he went on to labor at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Epithany in Washington, DC and was the minister that gave in invocation to the unveiling of the statue in memorial of Baron von Steuben who served Washington during the Revolution.

There is a congressional book about the unveiling that is interesting. Here is what is printed within its yellowed pages.

BRONZE STATUE OF WASHINGTON'S GREAT DRILLMASTER UNVEILED IN LAFAYETTE PARK

German societies take part in big parade — Chorus of 1,000 voices is heard in patriotic songs — Miss Helen Taft draws cord — Addresses by the President, the German Ambassador, and Representative Bartholdt, of Missouri.

Delegations from New York in weather perhaps as bleak as that which enfolded the cheerless camp of the great commander in chief at Valley Forge, when barefoot Colonials tracked their course in blood over the pitiless snow, the United States of America, 133 years later, this afternoon, at the Capital of the Nation, unveiled the statue of Frederick William Augustus Henry Ferdinand, Baron von Steuben, the adjutant general of the armies of Frederick the Great, the friend of Washington, and the great inspector of the Colonial Army that wrested its independence from the British Crown.

Surrounding the tribute of bronze were thousands of Von Steuben's countrymen, proud of heart and exultant at the honor conferred upon their great representative, who, in his time, conferred honor upon their adopted country and gave to it all the force of his military wisdom and skill in its fight for liberty. Not the barefoot and disorganized stragglers of the patriotic Army of long ago, but officers and troops of an Army and Navy second to none in Christendom, were gathered with them, while on all sides Americans to the manner born joined with all in the tribute to the memory of the great man who yet lives in the proudest annals of their native land. After a ringing chorus by nearly a thousand voices of the Northeastern Singers' Association and the invocation by Rev. Dr. Charles F. Steck

By: Rita Gerlach
Homepage: http://ritagerlach.blogspot.com/
Blog: InSpire: http://inspire-writer.blogspot.com/
The Daughters of the Potomac Series coming to bookstores in 2012.