Jul 29, 2018 6 min read

WAYNESBURG – This year’s Rain Day celebration is no ordinary watch for precipitation. It’s also the centennial anniversary of the largest loss of Greene County soldiers in one day, and the community is making sure those Rain Day Boys are remembered.

Anyone who walks down High Street in Waynesburg will notice a new banner intermingled with the cheery yellow ones featuring the Rain Day festival’s mascot, Wayne Drop.

Along with more traditional promotions, banners with each of the 18 Rain Day Boys grace the light poles along the main drag in the borough. These 18 men lost their lives July 29, 1918, in France during World War I and the banners were created to honor them.

Athena Bowman, borough administrative assistant and Rain Day committee member, said she began last November talking with the co-authors of a book that commemorates the Rain Day Boys, Glenn Toothman and Candice Buchanan.

“We had a lot of community involvement with this,” she added.

Because of the anniversary, there’s a lot of pressure to do this right, Bowman said. Of all of the festival’s events this year, the Rain Day Boys remembrance ceremony at 10:30 a.m. today in front of Greene County Courthouse is the one she’s the most nervous for.

“We want it to be absolutely perfect,” she said. “This year being the 100th anniversary, we thought a special ceremony would be nice in remembrance of them. I think it’s going to be a very touching ceremony.”

The banners of the Rain Day Boys were hung around the week of the Fourth of July and will be permanent additions for subsequent festivals. The Rain Day Boys will also be hung again this November around Veterans Day, Bowman said. She said the banners were a group effort among the Rain Day Festival committee members, and they wanted them to feel patriotic and vintage.

“We thought the banners along the street, along with our Rain Day banners, would be a nice tribute to them,” Bowman said. “Those banners are not only to be used for this year, but for future Rain Day events. Every year, those soldier banners will be put up.”

This year’s festival shirts also remember these veterans. Designed by local artist and O-R contributor Colleen Nelson, the front features an umbrella with 18 raindrops underneath, one for each Rain Day Boy. The back displays a keystone design with a solder in front, along with banners that have the centennial years and “The Rain Day Boys.” The shirts can be purchased at the borough office after Rain Day while supplies last, or during the festivities. The Rain Day Boys are also featured on window displays along High Street for the window decorating contest, with winners to be announced today.

But the culmination of all this work and preparation will be the remembrance ceremony. Of course, most Greene County residents are familiar with the origins of Rain Day. Tracking of rainfall on July 29 dates to 1874, precipitated by one farmer’s passing comment it always seemed to rain on his birthday, July 29. The day slowly became an event: 1944 saw the formation of a club of watchmen that set to look out for drops. In the 1950s, it became a recognized festival and has been celebrated ever since.

Fewer people, though, know of the Rain Day Boys and their significance. Really, there were 17 Rain Day Boys, with an additional death the day before on July 28, 1918, in preparation for the following day’s battle. They were all part of Company K, based in Waynesburg. The Rain Day boys are part of a total of 58 Greene countians who eventually lost their lives in WWI.

Rain Day Boys

Pfc. Albert “Bert” Buchanan – 26

Pfc. Harold Thomas Carey – 22

Pfc. Hallie Jackson Closser – 33

Pfc. Harry Dunn – 23

Pfc. John Grimes Duvall – 21

Pvt. James Leo Farrell – 19

Pvt. Floyd Thomas Hickman – 22

Benjamin Arvid Manning – Mechanic – 25

Pfc. Frederick W. Marshall – 21

Pvt. George T. McNeely – 18

Pfc. Francis Benton Moore – 25

Cpl. Charles Edward Murphy – 21

Mess Sgt. John Milton Paden – 33

Lt. Walter Burtrum Riggle – 23

Pfc. Lawrence Leslie Staggers – 21

Pfc. William Webster Throckmorton – 21

Pvt. Russell Kenneth Yoders – 19

Pfc. Norman Montgomery Zahniser – 23

On the night of July 27, 1918, Company K was called to the frontline trenches to relieve the 156th French regiment. In the early hours of July 28, 1918, they, along with other companies in the 110th Infantry, crossed into German territory. Their mission was to get the Germans away from their nests, on top of a 700-yard slope.

It was a slow attack, and as it dawned on July 29, 1918, Company K initiated an attack on the Germans. They were met with fury and fire, due in part to the Germans’ tactical advantage. Within the next two hours, 17 fell dead or wounded, eventually succumbing to their injuries.

Veterans who survived that battle then had to come home to a community that celebrated a day that hurt to remember.

The remembrance ceremony follows a church service and will feature songs, a poem reading, echo taps, a 21-gun salute and a vintage plane flyover from SOAR of Greene County. The keynote address will be provided by historian Jack I. Hook III.

Bowman said the effort has been a collaboration with several organizations, including VFW Post 4793, 1st Batallion 110th Infantry and James Farrell Post 330 of the American Legion. A wreath-laying will accompany the reading of the soldiers’ names, with the commemorative wreaths to remain on the courthouse lawn for the remainder of the day. Descendants of the Rain Day Boys are also set to be in attendance for the event.

“If you read the names, these are such common names in Greene County,” Bowman said. “This 100th-anniversary remembrance of the Rain Day Boys has brought attention to the history of Greene County and made members aware in our community the story behind the Rain Day Boys, who fought for our country and sacrificed their lives for our country.”

For more on the Rain Day Boys and their stories, visit raindayboys.com.