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August 28, ON THIS DAY in 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur leads landings in Japan

August 28, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Eagle file photo
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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The safety of Gen. Douglas MacArthur when he makes his first appearance in Japan is one of the chief worries for officers in charge of occupying the Nip homeland. But leave it to Pfc. Daniel B. Bartram, 20, of 1313 Bedford Ave., among the members of the guard of honor to accompany MacArthur to the conquered country. ‘He’ll do a good job,’ his mother said today when she heard Daniel was among those chosen to see that no harm comes to Gen. MacArthur during the occupation. Daniel’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel D. Bartram Sr., are happy about the honor bestowed upon their son, but to quote Mrs. Bartram, ‘I wish he were home.’ The news came as a surprise to the family. Then Mrs. Bartram remembered a recent letter Daniel wrote, in which he said, ‘We’re briefing for something special.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1860, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The third meeting of the members of the South Brooklyn League was held last evening at Union Hall, corner of Court and Sackett streets. Mr. Thomas Shankland, the president, occupied the chair. The room was fairly filled. The object of the league, the president stated, was to bring together all those opposed to the election of Abraham Lincoln.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1876, the Eagle reported, “Mr. John McNevin, the well-known artist of this city, has just finished a picture of grand size, representing the Pennsylvania and Maryland Militia, led by Gen. [John] Sullivan, in the Battle of Long Island, Aug. 27, 1776, surrounded by the Hessians and 42nd British Highlanders, in their desperate attempt to force a passage to the American lines at Fort Greene, near Freck’s Pond, Gowanus Creek. Mr. McNevin has lived in Brooklyn more than 20 years, and has made the topography of the battlefield a subject of earnest thought and study. The readers of Revolutionary history will remember that Gen. Sullivan and his command were stationed at what was known as the Flatbush Pass, and that when his position was cannonaded by [Gen. Leopold] de Heister and the Hessians, he perceived his peril and ordered a retreat to the American lines at Brooklyn.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1901, the Eagle reported, “A scolding match between Col. Michael Murphy, the commanding officer of the police force of New York, and Mrs. Carrie Nation, ‘joint smasher’ and general terror of the Western liquor interests, was one of the funniest and most entertaining events that has transpired at Police Headquarters in New York City even in these days of sensational police episodes … ‘I’ve come to ask you to give an account of your stewardship,’ said Mrs. Nation, in a preparatory way. ‘I want to ask you if you don’t think New York is an awful bad place?’ ‘No, I don’t think anything of the kind,’ said the Commissioner, rather testily. ‘Oh, yes it is,’ replied Mrs. Nation, cheerfully, and smoothing out her duster. ‘It is a bad place. It is full of hell holes and murder shops.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1903, the Eagle reported, “Frederick L. Olmsted, the famous landscape architect, died today at Waverly, Mass., aged 81 years. He was the designer of Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Central Park in Manhattan … In 1857 work on Central Park … was begun, and the designing and planning of the scheme by which a wild waste of rock and barren land was transformed into one of the most delightful of metropolitan pleasure grounds were put wholly in Mr. Olmsted’s hands … When Prospect Park was planned, Mr. Olmsted showed that the construction of an ideally natural park or the most complete approximation that could be attained within city boundaries to such a park, was as easily possible with him as the more artificial establishment which had been the foundation of his fame.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1917, the Eagle reported, “News of the first casualty in Gen. Pershing’s Expeditionary Force in France — the death of 2nd Lt. Frederick Wahlstrom, U.S.M.C., a man well known in Brooklyn — was received here today in a brief cablegram from Col. Doyen, commander of the Marine Corps with the Pershing expedition. No explanation of Lt. Wahlstrom’s death, other than that he died from a fractured skull as the result of a motorcycle accident, was given in the brief message, addressed to the Marine Corps headquarters in Manhattan … Lt. Wahlstrom was 39 years old and was born in Sweden. He came to this country when 15 years old and enlisted in the Marine Corps as a private in 1903 … In 1915 [he] was assigned to the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn … During his two years’ residence here, Lt. Wahlstrom made many friends among Brooklynites, by whom he was held in high regard.”

 

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