While Morris County veterans have been meeting for the observance of Memorial Day since 1919, it was not until 1922 that an official group was proposed. By 1923, with a Constitution and set of By-Laws, the Randolph Memorial Association (predecessor to the Dover Memorial Association) began commemorating our nation's fallen soldiers. The group first commemorated veterans from the Civil War, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American war and World War One. As the years have passed, veterans of World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War and the Gulf Wars have been honored. Among their many activities, the group has dedicated statues, placed bronze markers, planted trees, lain geraniums on soldier's graves and paraded through the town of Dover every May.
The records of this collection include: Memorial Day Programs and Rolls of Honor from the towns of Randolph, Dover and Rockaway, Treasurer's reports, correspondence, a few newspaper clippings and an historical file.
Due to the small size of this collection, the folders have not been arranged into series.
The Dover Memorial Association Records, 1921-1995, is open for research under the conditions of the North Jersey History Center archives access policy. Items may be copied for use in individual scholarly or personal research, however, as with all materials in the North Jersey History Center, researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use material from the collection.
Records donated by George Coulthard.
Dover Memorial Association Records, 1921-1995. North Jersey History Center, The Morristown and Morris Township Library.
Records processed and finding aid encoded by Mary McMahon Dawson, 2008.