SARATOGA SPRINGS — A commemoration of the 125th Anniversary of the Spanish-American War was held Oct. 18 at The Hiker Monument at Greenridge Cemetery.
The event included commemorations of the 125th Anniversary of the DAR Nurses Corp and the 125th Anniversary of the death of Reubena Hyde Walworth, daughter of DAR founder Ellen Hardin Walworth and a nurse who died in service in the Spanish-American War.
The Spanish-American War was from April to August of 1898 and expanded territories for Americans in the Caribbean and Pacific. Over 4,000 Americans died with about 460 being New Yorkers. Events of the war included the Sinking of The Maine Battleship in the Havana Harbor, the taking of San Juan Hill by the Rough Riders, Hawaii becoming a US territory and the Treaty of Paris to end the war with Spain.
With a shortage of nurses, the DAR Nurses Corp was created to train over 1,000 nurses. This corps was the start of the Army Nurses Corp. Reubena Hyde Walworth trained at Saratoga Hospital and was the first female nurse to arrive at Camp Wykoff in Montauk, NY. During the last week of the camp, she succumbed to Typhoid Fever and died on Oct. 18, 1898 at 31 years old. Many of her patients wrote letters of sympathy to her mother telling her what a compassionate and caring nurse she was.
Following the ceremony, wreaths were laid at Reubena Hyde Walworth grave in Greenridge Cemetery.
