Although not officially declared a national holiday until 1971, Memorial Day has long reigned as a day to honor our fellow Mansfieldians who made the ultimate sacrifice by dying in combat for their country.

Since the aftermath of the Civil War, citizens of Mansfield and surrounding communities have trekked to local cemeteries to tend the graves of fallen loved ones.  in late May they remember their sacrifice in the annual day of reflection, then known as Decoration Day.

Our local cemeteries contain the graves of hundreds who have served in combat during many of the wars in our history, but the most numerous by far are the graves of those who served during World War II.

According to accounts in the Mansfield Advertiser, a dozen or so area young men lost their life in the service of our country during World War II.

Robert “Bob” Fowler was the first from Mansfield to die in combat as reported by the Advertiser. Born in Mansfield on August 9, 1926, Bob was the oldest of three children born to Henry Fowler and his wife, Laura Davis. He lived on the family farm on Hollow Road in Richmond Township until his parents sold the farm and moved to Elmira Street before the start of the war.

Bob, a strapping young man with brown hair and eyes, was farmer-strong and a sure shot as a member of the school rifle club. He took a job working for George Myers at the Mansfield Bottling Works and also volunteered as an air raid warden searching the early morning sky in Mansfield for suspicious aircraft.

He left Mansfield after enlisting in the U.S. Army shortly after his 18^th birthday, volunteering to join the famed 82^nd Airborne as a paratrooper. One of the most dangerous assignments available in the Army, earning your boots and wings as a paratrooper, almost guaranteed a combat assignment.

After completing his training at Ft. Benning in Georgia, Bob proudly spent his leave with his family in Mansfield in the spring of 1944. It would be the last time his parents saw him alive. Bob arrived in England on the cusp of D-Day. Six weeks after his 19^th birthday, Bob and his unit, the 505^th Parachute Infantry Regiment, got the word to gather their gear and report to the airfield. They were ordered to parachute into Nazi-occupied Holland as one of the lead units in Operation Market Garden.

Market Garden was the largest airborne assault in history involving more that 34,000 American and British troops dropping behind German lines to secure the bridges over the lower Rhine and open the road to Berlin in hopes to end the war by the conclusion of 1944. Think of the movie A Bridge Too Far.

On September 17, Bob’s lightly-armed unit flew from its base in England to the drop-zone in Holland. The 505^th was assigned to capture and hold the traffic bridge at Nijmegan guarded by the SS. The courage displayed by the 82^nd Airborne, including the 505th during that mission earned the unit the Presidential Unit Citation – the equivalency of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In early October, Bob’s parents were notified their son was injured in combat in Holland. While they must have been extremely anxious about his injuries, they were also, no-doubt, relieved to believe he was alive. Before the month ended, a vehicle containing two Army officers drew everyone’s attention on East Elmira Street when it stopped at the Fowler resident.

With great regret, they reported, it was their duty to inform them Pvt. Robert Fowler had died from wounds suffered in combat in Nijmegan, Holland on September 19, 1944.

The Mansfield community joined the Fowler family in mourning the unimaginable suddenness of the death of their son along with the inexplicable sense of loss of an outstanding young man. A little less than four years later, with the war seemingly long over, the Fowler family relived the unhealable pain of his death when just before Christmas of 1948 they were informed that the body of their son Bob would be returned from Holland to Mansfield for burial.

Pvt. Robert Henry Fowler was finally home to stay when he was buried with full military honors on January 25, 1949 in Prospect Cemetery. He was warmly welcomed home by a loving family and grateful community. Mansfield would decide to name its new pool that opened that year as the Memorial pool to honor the memory of Bob and his fellow war dead.

You can find the location and read the obituary of many of Mansfield’s war dead this Memorial Day on the tri-county site of the History Center.

A school yearbook is a time capsule of the school, its students and faculty, and the community in which it is located. Yearbooks became popular in the early 1900s as printing became easier and more affordable. Prior to that, in the case of Mansfield State Normal School, students exchanged individual photos with classmates and also posted them on a class board in Alumni Hall. The first yearbook was published in 1918 and named The Carontawan.

In the case of Mansfield High School, the first graduating class, 1913, produced a small annual with faculty and club photos, We have several copies of the 1913 issue and one from 1918. I suspect it was published more than that, but copies have not found their way to us. The first yearbook, The Manscript, was published in 1926. The 1938 issue included class group photos from 1913 through 1925, the years where no yearbook existed. The yearbook was not produced in 1939 and 1940, because of the new school construction that disrupted normal activities. The Manscript has been published, otherwise uninterrupted, to the present day with Volume 94 underway as we write.

Published annually from 1918 until 1990, Mansfield University's yearbook, The Carontawan, has been absent for thirty years. Also missing are the thirty years of college history that would have been represented and recorded. The school newspaper, The Flashlight, has been produced all that time, so the activity record loss is not total. This year, junior, Carl Helrich and five of his fellow students, produced a new Carontawan edition. They hope to make it an annual once again. Editor Carl Helrich, tells the story of how and why in an interview at The Museum of Us in Mansfield, May 2021. Congratulations on this massive revival.

Volume Three - Issue One of Voices From the Archives is at the printer now and will be ready for mailing very soon. If you are a current member, you will receive this by mailed hard copy or pdf format email as you prefer. If you are not a member, you can become one by linking below on this page.

We are able to present a display such as this because so many families have been willing to share their family photos with us, making them part of the community archives and a permanent part of Mansfield's history. When we select individuals to commemorate, we are more likely to select if we have a photo to go along with the text. If you have photos of our local families, businesses or events, we hope you will share them with us so that your family members can be represented by face in the Museum of Us.

·        Blossburg/North Penn High School Yearbooks

·        Liberty High School and Williamson Yearbooks

·        Old Phone Books (1920s to 1990s)

·        Local House Photos past or present (High resolution digital, or bring printed originals in, and we will scan them. Identify photos by street and number address)

Businesses, individuals, and events leave behind items and mementos that remind us of their existence and which record our town's history. We will include items from our collection in each issue of the newsletter.

This month we'll show some of the hats in our collection that represent businesses, people or events in our town. Every hat tells a story about Mansfield and its people I.O.O.F. (Odd Fellows) insignia that had belonged to Lisle Smith of Mainesburg. Originally in the Mainesburg Lodge, Lisle transferred to the Arbon Lodge when Mainesburg closed its chapter.

On the back of the museum is a small addition of four rooms that has been used as an apartment as far back as the 1870s, possibly originally intended as housing for the church's minister, but that's a guess.

We have been able to update this as space for our library and archival storage.

Consider a gift membership. Members will receive our 40 page printed journal by mail 4 to 6 times a year with new articles that have never been researched before and outstanding photos to illustrate. Share your love of the Mansfield area with your friends and family.

It's the only way we can continue offering our important services to the community.

Family $50

Individual $35

Senior (Over 65) $25

Business Level $100

Lifetime $500

MHS Class Memorial $200

Checks to

The History Center

83 N. Main Street

Mansfield PA 16933

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