From 1913--Memorial Exercises Will Be Private

So begins a rather sad article taken from the 22 May 1913 Fremont Times Indicator. I felt I had to post it today. No further comment is necessary from me.
MEMORIAL EXERCISES WILL BE PRIVATE Lack of Public Interest IN Most Sacred of Holidays Forces Veterans to Adopt New Course. The Decoration Day exercises which will be held Friday, May 30, will, for the first time in the history of Fremont, be of a private nature. Desecration of this most sacred of secular days has forced the local veterans of the Civil War to adopt this new course.
At a recent meeting of the Henry Dobson Post and the Women's Relief Corps the question of public exercise was discussed but the above course was decided upon. In recent years the public interest in the Memorial Day exercises has waned to a deplorable degree and, under the circumstances, the veterans believe they have adopted the only logical course. The annual Memorial sermon will be delivered by Rev. R. W. Paul at the Congregational church next Sunday. The members of the Post and Corps will meet at their hall ato 10 o'clock and will attend the services in a body. All old soldiers and their wives are urged to be present. The comrads are requested to wear their badges.
On Friday, May 30, the members of these two orders will meet at the G.A. A. hall at 9 o'clock. During the forenoon committees will decorate the graves in Evans, Jewell, Clark ad East Cemeteries. (That would be East Hesperia cemetery, located in Newaygo County.) Dinner will be served in the hall at 12 o'clock.
In the afternoon a short program will be rendered in the hall. These exercises will not be public. The Post and Corps will then go to Maple Grove cemetery where the ritual of the order will be used and the graves decorated.
All the comrades and their families are invited to attend all the exercises.