Belmont, Oct. 10-- Hamilton Ward, statesman, attorney, former public servant and a dominant force in the affairs of his home city, will be laid to rest in the family plot of the village cemetery here Wednesday afternoon following a series of funeral services.
The main public rites will begin at Buffalo Wednesday morning at ten o'clock at the Church of the Ascension, North Street and Linwood Avenue. The body will lie in state from eight until ten o'clock and services will be preceded by brief private rites at nine-thirty o'clock at the family home, 307 Linwood Avenue, Buffalo
.At Belmont services will be held at the Episcopal Church, beginning at two-thirty o'clock. The funeral caravan will leave buffalo for Belmont immediately following the morning services.
The Rev. Charles D. Broughton, rector of the Church of the Ascension, who will officiate at the morning services, will accompany the procession to Belmont where he will assist the Rev. Harris H. Hall, local rector, in the last phase of the services.
Invitation to all friends who care to do so to join in the tour to Belmont was extended yesterday by the family.
Mr. Ward was a prominent figure in United Spanish-American War Veterans' affairs, and an impressive mobilization of comrades and high heads of the order was in prospect. Just one military touch will mark the funeral. As the final words of the ritual fade away at the grave, a bugler will sound taps.
Under the direction of Leonard S. Spire of Buffalo, long a friend of Mr. Ward and a past department commander of the Spanish War Veterans, arrangements for attendance of members of that organization were going forward yesterday. Mr. Spire dispatched telegrams to prominent members of the veterans' group throughout the country. Early response, signifying intention of being on hand for the services for the first national commander of the organization, were received by Mr. Spire from James J. Delaney of New York and Harry E. Smith of Richmond Hills, past department commanders.
Meanwhile, notices were being sent out yesterday by commanders of the three Buffalo camps of the veterans' organization, calling upon comrades to assemble at Church of Ascension at nine-thirty o'clock Wednesday morning. It is expected that a large number of the Spanish-American War veterans will accompany the body to Belmont.
The deluge of telegrams received yesterday by relatives included messages of sympathy from Lieutenant Governor Herbert H. Lehman, Col. William J. Donovan, Melvin C. Eaton, Justice Irving G. Hubbs, George R. Lunn of Schenectady, public service commissioner; Edward J. Flynn, secretary of state; John M. O'Hanlon of Albany, secretary of the New York State Federation of Labor; John Fitzpatrick of Albany and the Buffalo Newsboys House.
Personnel of the lists of active and honorary bearers for Wednesday's rites were in the process of formulation last night. Meanwhile, word came from Erie County Chairman William J. Hickey of the Republican organization that he would appoint a committee today to represent Erie County Republicanism at the services. designation of similar committees by the bar association and other groups at Buffalo is expected.
Source: Times Evening Herald, Olean, New York, October 10, 1932, p.3
Belmont, N.Y., Oct. 13-- The body of Hamilton Ward, former New York attorney general and former national commander of the United Spanish War Veterans, rested today in the family mausoleum alongside his parents in a cemetery here.
Mr. Ward, who died last Saturday at this Buffalo home at the age of sixty-one, was buried with military honors deserved from his Spanish-American war service. His brother, the Rt. Rev. John C. Ward, Episcopal Bishop of Erie, Pa., read the committal service while a group of townsmen who he knew as a boy stood with bowed heads about the tomb.
The funeral cortege of forty automobiles reached here from Buffalo at one-thirty o'clock Wednesday afternoon and the body rested in the vestibule of St. Philip's Episcopal Church, guarded by four Spanish War veterans, until the brief Episcopal burial office for the dead began an hour later. The church in which Mr. Ward was baptized May 28, 1871, was filled and scores stood outside. The simple service was conducted by the Rev. Charles D. Broughton and the local rector, the Rev. Harris T. Hall.
The committal service at the family plot was said by the Rev. John C. Ward. A squad of eight Spanish American War veterans in charge of Louis P. Seufert, past commander of Hughes Camp, No. 17, fired three volleys over the burial lot and taps was blown by Bugler Oscar Haffa, Backey O'Neil Camp, No. 15, Buffalo. The casket was placed in the stone vault above that of his father, Hamilton Ward. Scores of beautiful floral offerings lined the pathway up which the casket was borne and almost hid the front of the stone burial vault.
Active bearers were William J. Flynn, Harold J. Tillou, Dr. Edwin A. Bowerman, Millard Burns, Henry W. Pottle, Leonard S. Spire, Fred A. Bradley, all of Buffalo, and Wendell P. Brown, Albany.
Distinguished members of the United-Spanish War veterans' organization were present, among them National Commander William Otjen, Enid, Okla., Past National Commander Rice W. Means, editor the National Tribune, Washington D.C.; Past National Commander John C. Herrick, Chicago; quartermaster General James J. Murphy, Washington; commander of the department of New York, Alfred J. Kennedy, Whitestone, L.I., Adjutant John J. Fitzpatrick, Albany; Past State Commanders James Delaney, New York, and Leonard S. Spire, Buffalo; the department chaplain, the Rev. Arthur O. Sykes, Rochester; Dr. C. C. Steigerwald, Seyburn - Liscum Camp, No. 12; Anthony Roeder, R. P. Hughes Camp, No. 17; Charles Wasmuth, Backy O'Neill Camp, No. 15, all commanders of Buffalo Spanish War camps.
Edward J. Clark represented Buffalo lawyers. Former Judge Fred W. Kruse, Olean; Judge William J. Hopper, Lockport; Frank Fitzpatrick, president, Buffalo Lawyers' Club, and other members of the legal fraternity were in attendance, as was Representative Edwin Cooke, 41st Congressional district.
Among others in Belmont for the service were Charles Ulrich, Benjamin J. Kaiser, Gordon Gannon, Mrs. C. W. Davis, Mrs. Harold J. Hillou, former Congressman Charles Bennett Smith, Andrew B. Gilfillan, Miss Florence Bradley, Mrs. Joseph Wallace, Col. William F. Schohl and Mrs. Leonard S. Spire of Buffalo.
Members of Allyn K. Capron Camp, United Spanish War Veterans of Olean, N.Y. who were represented at the services were H.C. Perkins, C.L.B. Ordway, Joseph F. Mindler, Charles C. Jennings, George T. Herdman, William J. Osterman and Raymond E. Olmstead. During the Spanish-American War, Mr. Ward served as captain of Company L, 102nd Regiment, New York Volunteers.
Buffalo paid its final homage to Mr. Ward at services conducted yesterday morning in the Church of the Ascension. Men and women, high in the legal, political and civic life, filled the church.
In the vestibule stood Col. William J. Donovan, Republican nominee for Governor, who dropped political activity to attend the funeral of his lifelong friend. With Col. Donovan was Mayor Charles E. Roesch of Buffalo.
Prayers were read by the Rev. Charles D. Broughton, rector. There was no eulogy. Mr. Ward's body rested in a casket draped with the American flag. On either side stood three uniformed veterans of the Spanish-American War, comrades of Mr. Ward, who was commissioned a captain during the war.
The service was over in twenty minutes. Then the funeral cortege began the journey to Belmont. As the coffin was carried from the church, the Spanish-American War veterans formed a guard of honor.
Prior to the public services in the Church of the Ascension, private services were conducted in the Ward home, 307 Linwood Avenue, by Bishop Ward. The body then was borne to the church, where it lay in state for an hour before the public services. Noted in attendance at the church were Chief Judge Cuthbert W. Pound of the state court of appeals, Comptroller William A. Eckert, Assemblymen William L. Marcy, Jr., Arthur L. Swartz and Howard W. Dickey; Corporation Counsel Charles L. Feldman and members of the supreme, city and county court benches.
Source: Times Evening Herald, Olean, New York, October 13, 1932, p.3
Created on ... August 03, 2006