In October 1864, three local women—Miss Emma Hunter, Miss Sophie Keller, and Mrs. Elizabeth Myers—decorated the graves of two local men who had died in service during the American Civil War, an act presented as the birth of a national tradition of remembrance. One was Dr. Reuben Hunter, Emma's father, a surgeon of the 54th PVI, who died of typhoid on 19 September 1864 at Annapolis, Md. The other was Pvt. Amos Myers, son of Elizabeth Myers and a member of the 148th PVI, who was killed on 3 July 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg. The monument honoring these events and the three women owed its existence to the vision and persistent efforts of Col. James V. and Margaret C. Dearing, was dedicated on Memorial Day 29 May 2000 A.D., and was called only the second monument dedicated to a national holiday in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.