A great group of people joined together last week and cleaned the clutter out of the Rossville Church, and under the guidance of the sign guru, Kim Scotto, of Apple Valley Signs, erected the restored Rossville Church sign. Kim graciously donated her time and energy to help make this happen. We are blessed with great community support like this! We took two photos of the group with the sign, so I could be in one. The distinguished author of Las Villas of Plattekill and Ulster County insisted. Here are the rosters for both photos:

During the cleanup, the team discovered two significant items. One was a box of old, weekly newspapers, circa 1904, titled the Christian Advocate, with vintage post office labels noting the recipient was Willis O. Polhamus. Back then mail delivery was a tad bit different. I’ll need to begin reading through these and write a future article about this Methodist Episcopal Church publication which began in 1826.

The second significant find, and the crux of this article, was a photo of Company “L” 109th Infantry (Rifle) Camp Livingston Louisiana, dated May 1942. I’m intrigued with how this great photo found its way into a closet in the church. Fortunately, it was protected from UV light preventing it from being yellowed. The most amazing thing is all the men are listed with their rank, in order, in each row! Many times we find these group photos, but there are no names and we cannot identify the individuals. This is quite different.

I’m not quite sure the history of this group and am presently beginning to research it which will take time. So, with Memorial Day almost upon us, I want to keep the words short and the photos many. I’ve enlarged the names so everyone can read them. I’m hoping there may be family still in the area who will recognize a name or two and enlighten us. If anyone wishes a copy, I’ll do my best to make it happen.

Since it is a great photo of our servicemen during World War II, I hope to provide copies to those who have a family member proudly smiling in the group, and then return it to where it should be displayed, perhaps with our local American Legion or the 109th Infantry. Time will tell. Thank you one and all for your service.