""Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of rememberance for those who have died in service to the United States of America. Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor the dead. It was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11. "The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land," he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn't the anniversary of any particular battle. 
      On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.
      That same year, Mary Bostwick Shellman, daughter of the first mayor of Westminster, gathered elementary school students and had them cut flowers from their gardens. They then marched up to the cemetery and placed the freshly cut flowers on the graves of Civil War soldiers at Westminster Cemetery. This gracious act has carried on for 154 consecutive years; this year marking the 155the anniversary of this event which for more than 90 years, Carroll Post 31 The American Legion, Westminster, has been caretaker."