Service flag to be returned to First United Methodist Church

By Patti Coppedge for Dalton First United Methodist Church

During the eleven o’clock worship service at Dalton First United Methodist Church on Sunday, a World War I Service Flag will be returned to the congregation.

“This priceless historic relic of our church (will be) presented to Blake King, chair of  the trustees, for permanent display in our building,” said Robin Lindsey, senior pastor at Dalton First.

The timing of the return of the flag will come just days before the 91st anniversary on Wednesday of the signing of the Armistice agreement ending World War I. The Armistice went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918.

After having been missing for decades, the Service Flag was found last spring in the walk-in vault of Crown Gardens and Archives. It was rolled up in an old piece of cloth and had a tag tied to it on which someone had written “First Methodist Church Service Flag.”

Joanne Lewis, Jean Manly and other members of the Whitfield-Murray Historical Society were working at the Blount House last June while members of Dalton First were working next door in the Westcott House in preparation for the arrival of a new senior pastor. Lewis talked with Trammell Scott about the discovery. Scott referred her to Gertrude “Tut” McFarland, who has worked on the history of the church.

On Jan. 24, 1918, The Daily Citizen carried a story with the headline “First Methodist Church dedicates a service flag with a star for each church member in service.” A later story reported on Memorial Services at First Methodist Church honoring three members who had died in the service of their country during the war. It stated, “Memorial trees have been placed in front of the church and these will be dedicated to the memory of those whose stars of blue have turned to gold. The three from our church who died in service were Hugh Gregory, Lewis Hopkins and Guy Felker.”

At the time, the Methodist Church was on the corner of King and Cleveland streets. Cleveland Street was later renamed Selvidge Street. Years later the church moved to its current location on Thornton Avenue.

No one knows what happened to the flag after these events. Fast forward to February 2009 when Erik Gallman, the new executive secretary of the Historical Society and the executive director of Crown Garden and Archives, came upon something wrapped in a dirty white cloth and in terrible condition. He checked the Accession Records of the Historical Society from the years when both Marcelle White (1994-2008) and Polly Boggess (1977-1993) had been its directors and found nothing recorded during those years. The flag was eventually given to Tut McFarland who had it cleaned and preserved and framed. It will be presented to the church for rededication Sunday morning.

If anyone reading this story has any information as to how the flag came to be in the Historical Society’s vault they are asked to call Dalton First United Methodist Church at (706) 278-8494.

 A second historic item will also be presented on Sunday. Mary Manly Ryman was going through things in the home of her aunt Fannie McLellan after McLellan’s death. McLellan’s brother John was one of the church members who had served in the war. (He was also Bitsy McLellan McFarland’s father.) Ryman discovered a quite large piece of cardboard on which had been written the names of the men and one woman (Ella Margaret Brown, who went overseas as a nurse) from Dalton First who had served in World War I. Judson Manly was one of the names on the list. He was the father of Mary Manly Ryman, Frank Manly and Judson Manly Jr. 

“I was thrilled when I found my daddy’s name, James A. ‘Jim’ McFarland, as the second one on the list,” said Tut McFarland, “because I had heard that he was one of the first to sign up when the war started.” Jim McFarland was also the father of Stuart McFarland of Dalton. Three of the men were listed as “Students in Uniform” because of their young age at the time they enlisted. They were Swift Maddox, John McLellan and Dewey Wright.

As you read the list, you will be familiar with the surnames of many of those honored. Their  families have continued to serve Dalton and North Georgia in religion, business, medicine, law, education, politics and other areas of service: Guy Albertson, Ed Anderson, Clayton Ault, Emmett Baker, Will Barkston, Willis Barrow, Sam Berry, Edgar Brown, Ella Margaret Brown, R.N. Locke, Wood Carter, Robert Deakins, Fletcher Felker, Fort Felker, Guy Felker, Quillian Felker, Walter Foote, Phillip Frazier, Howard Gilbert, Sam Gilbert, Hugh Gregory, Chess Hopkins, Lewis Hopkins, Charles Kriescher, Starr Maddox, Judson Manly, Edwin McCamey, John McLellan, Ed McFarland, Jim McFarland, John Mitchell, Wright Mitchell, Milton Oxford, Vernon Robertson, Aborn Smith Jr., Zirkle Speck, John Steed, McAfee Trammell,  Warren Vickery, Barrett White, Dewey Wright and Thomas Wyatt.