Veteran’s Day in the United States began with Armistice Day, the day World War I ended. Millions of people had been killed in the conflict that was once called “The War to End All Wars.” Peace officially came at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.
In Orange that day, all citizens celebrated peace. The Orange Daily Leader had a bold headline “Peace Comes to Earth After Years of War.” Another headline underneath had “Orange Celebrates As Never Before in the History of the City.”
The paper reported the armistice was signed at 5 a.m. local time. It was marked “with the blowing of whistles, firing of every known weapon and some that were not know to exist up to that time.” The jubilation continued through the morning with “the noise of joyful demonstration.”
Orange was booming with shipbuilding and lumber mills along the Sabine River at the time. The mills were providing the material for the wooden ships.
The early morning workers on their way to the mills and shipyards “turned back with news of a holiday and in a few minutes it seemed that the very streets were clogged with marching men, automobiles, flying flags and bunting,” the paper wrote.
One “sober man” paraded all by himself on Fifth Street “enjoying it as much as if he had been accompanied by Sousa’s full band in regimental uniform.”
Neighbors came out and started partying in their front and back yards. Many waved flags.
The German Kaiser had been the focal point of the enemy and he was hung in effigy in several places across town. In one instance, demonstrators carried an effigy of the Kaiser down the street on a stretcher.
By 7:30 a.m., Mayor Sholars and civic leaders began to focus on an organized parade and celebration.
But spontaneous celebrations continued. Labor unions met at the labor hall and went to the courthouse square. They were joined by school children and organizations and began to march. Thousands of the workers from the shipyards plus the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company, and the Miller-Link Lumber Company participated.
“Automobiles were decorated in every imaginable way, flags, bunting, signs, some of which were works of art,” the paper reported.
Some of those thousands of workers may have been living at The Industrial Home at the corner of Division and Border streets. The business had an advertisement that a room was $3 a week and $1.50 each for two in a room. Transients paid 50 cents a night. The boarding house offered hot and cold water along with “free showers and tub baths for guests.”
The Alamo Cafe (no address listed) was open night and day and advertised oysters. “Take Home an Oyster Loaf,” the ad told people. An oyster loaf consisted of fried oysters on French-style bread. The term po-boy sandwich had not come into the language.
Griggs Bookstore on Fifth Street sold Conklin Fountain Pens for $2.50, the equivalent of $39.97 in 2016.
The Orange Chamber of Commerce was quick to think of ways to increase business in town. The secretary-manager of the group sent telegrams to officials in Washington, D.C., saying that “Orange will be glad to help Texas soldiers now in France” come home through the Port of Orange. “A glorious welcome will be given them.”
However one bit of reporting proved to be a wrong forecast for the future. A writer said all celebrants were “happy in the thought that at last the greatest war in the history of the world was over and that human carnage had ceased for all time to come.”
No one knew then the “War to End All Wars” would become known as World War I.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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