Troy honors Uncle Sam

This article by Tom Caprood at the Troy Record gives some of the history on the importance of Uncle Sam to Troy and the City's annual celebration:

September 13, 2009 TROY — Today is Uncle Sam’s 243rd birthday.

A small crowd of local officials and area veterans gathered at Oakwood Cemetery Saturday for the 51st annual memorial celebration in honor of Sam Wilson, the local man who a national symbol of American pride was based on.

Former City Councilwoman Marjorie Mahar DerGurhian led the ceremony, which discussed how city officials and local supporters of Uncle Sam were able to convince government officials in Washington to have Troy recognized as the official home of Uncle Sam.

Marty Mahar, DerGurhian's father, who passed away in 2007, had emceed the event nearly every year since its inception in 1959.

DerGurhian noted that the city was beginning another 50 years of honoring Uncle Sam and his legacy.

“Uncle Sam became our nation’s symbol because he was industrious, kind, generous, and he was very involved in his community,” said DerGurhian. “Certainly in that spirit that led a committee of veteran’s in 1959 to petition Congress to recognize Samuel Wilson of Troy, N.Y. as the original Uncle Sam.”

She went on to describe how a group known as the Veterans for Uncle Sam organized to have Sam Wilson’s gravesite commemorated as a national shrine in 1958 and how they continued on various trips to Washington to have the city recognized as the home the national symbol and war hero.

While the official public ceremony did not begin until 1959, the group of veterans began laying a wreath on the gravesite in 1958 before the area became a shrine, a practice that individuals from the Korean War Veterans Association and the New York Society of Sons of the War of 1812 carried on during the memorial ceremony.

A resolution recognized Troy as the home of Uncle Sam passed on Sept. 15, 1961.

“We became the home of Uncle Sam even though there were a number a number of other cities throughout the country vying for the same title,” said DerGurhian. “Because of these people, we — Troy, N.Y. — got that designation.”

Read more here.