A church is like a family that has lived in one house for a long time. We have objects in cupboards that have lost their stories. We have stories about objects that we can no longer find. As time passes our shared history gets lost as the people that remember it are no longer there to tell the stories. The church flags are a perfect example of that problem.
The first children’s chapel at St. Mark’s had an altar, a children’s processional cross, an altar cross, vases for the altar, candlesticks, a banner, a United Nations flag, and an American flag. We know all of this because we have a picture of the chapel and each object is listed in the Book of Remembrance. Each object was given in memory of someone by someone who loved them. But we don’t have any of these objects anymore. They have vanished. It’s still possible, though, to find out the stories behind the people that gave them to the church.
A good example of lost objects with interesting stories are four flags that the church had been gifted by 1950. The Chapel had an American Flag and a Church Flag. The Children’s Chapel had a Children’s American Flag and a UN Flag.
The Children’s American Flag was given to St. Mark’s by Vera Bedell Barber and her daughter, Elsie Barber, in memory of son and brother David Morris Barber. David’s father, Herbert Barber, was a famous entomologist and his mother, Vera Barber worked as a lab assistant for Dr. Albert Mann at the Carnegie Institute. Mann collaborated closely with David Start Jordan at Stanford in ichthyology studies and so the Barbers visited Palo Alto. When daughter Elsie decided to attend Stanford University in the 1930’s (Palo Alto Times), Vera and her two children moved permanently to Palo Alto. David was involved in Boy Scouts and was superintendent of the First Methodist Church Sunday School. He later became a pre-med student at University of Reno, was an active member of the Baptist church, and became a scoutmaster and commissioner of the Nevada area scout council (Reno Gazette-Journal). In the fall of 1940, David left school and enlisted in the Navy. He was transferred to sea duty on June 18, 1943 aboard the USS Hazelwood (Palo Alto Times).
On April 25th, 1945, Yeoman David Barber was killed instantly when a Japanese suicide bomber hit the Hazelwood. David’s commanding officer wrote Vera a letter about her son:
“Dave was a man who could be depended on to do his job well…often I would drop by his office for some information, get the fact, and then spend a couple of hours discussing Nevada, religion, the Scouts, or similar subject…he voluntarily assisted many of the men in legal work…ALL the men knew and loved Dave.” (Palo Alto Times)
Mrs. Barber shared the last letter she received from Dave (dated a few days before his death) with the paper. He wrote:
“We’ve been together for the last 19 months on this ship and have a closeness now to each other’s thinking which may never again be attained. It’s 15 of those months since we’ve seen sidewalks. Can you picture yourself cooped up on a little ship for 15 months without a let-up? In time, we will once again be civilians with civilian ideas and civilian aspirations. Many of us will want to take a more active part in the governmental affairs of our community. God help the man who tries to get away with an injustice to the people of our community!” (Palo Alto Times)
Vera and Elsie Barber were early members of St. Marks and in November of 1950 gave the Children’s Flag in David’s memory (St. Mark’s Archive).
We also no longer have the Children’s UN flag, but we do have a little card that explains this gift. Given by Florence K. Reynolds and Marth Jane Pond, a note to Rev. Tanner Brown explains: “My daughter, Mrs. Pond and I, are sending the UN flag to the Sunday School children of St. Mark’s so that it wil keep in their hearts and minds what it stands for – the never ceasing effort to bring peace to the peoples of the world.” (St. Mark’s Archive)
The Reynolds Pond family also gave an American and Church flag to St. Mark’s for the original Church. In 1949, Florence Krag Reynolds wrote to Rev. Tanner Brown and explained the story behind the gift of these flags:
“The American flag was presented to the Park Military Academy by my grandson when he graduated after six years in the school. On Major Park’s death, the school was closed and the flag was given to John by Mrs. Park as a token of scholarship and high standing. His mother bought the standard to match that of the Church flag and with her son presented it to St. Mark’s. I would say they were given as ‘thank offerings’ by Mrs. Reyolds Pond and John Chamberlain Pond. Jr. I have chosen as my thank offering the Church flag because it symbolized all that St. Mark’s stands for.” (St. Mark’s Archives)
Flags are fragile things…made of fabric, they deteriorate over time. The only one of these four flags we still have is the American flag…and we don’t really know if this is the original flag from 1949. Best case, all but one of our flags are gone, but we can keep the stories behind all of these lost objects alive as part of the living hisotry of the church.
