March 28, 2024

Rehoboth Ramblings

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Raising a Special Flag at Goff Hall

As we celebrated the 100th anniversary of Goff Hall during 2015, the year concluded with preparing a time capsule at the library on Dec. 12 and with raising a large new (to us) flag in a ceremony on Dec. 5. This flag has an interesting history. It belonged to the family of Blanding staff member Wayne Taylor, who donated it to the library.
Among those attending the flag-raising ceremony were members of American Legion Post 302 in Rehoboth and State Representative Steve Howitt. Wayne said that he was pleased to learn that three of the men from the American Legion were Goff family descendants: Doug Viall, Roger Bennett, and Ken Abrams. Tree Warden Rob Johnson offered the services of the town’s Forestry Department to give the flagpole a much-needed paint job and other repairs. Painters were Armand Coutu and Greg Abrams. Paint and other materials were donated by an anonymous benefactor.
This flag was originally given to Wayne’s family after the funeral of his maternal grandfather, Col. Carroll T. Hutchins, at Arlington National Cemetery. After a very distinguished military career, Col. Hutchins died in 1985 at the age of 98. Col. Hutchins was born in Biddeford, Maine and later lived in Chautauqua, NY. Both of Wayne’s maternal grandparents are buried at Arlington.
“It was a military funeral with a casket on a caisson and quite a spectacle,” said Wayne. “The flag was folded and given to my grandfather’s wife.” (The Colonel’s first wife, Wayne’s grandmother Dora, had been deceased for many years.) After the funeral Mrs. Hutchins gave it to Wayne’s mother, Marjorie Hutchins Taylor.
Col. Hutchins himself had been in charge of Gen. George Patton’s funeral in the Luxembourg American Cemetery when Patton died in a Jeep accident at the end of 1945. Col. Hutchins once said that it was the biggest funeral he had ever seen and that his biggest challenge was finding accommodations for everyone who wanted to attend. He had worked closely with Patton during World War II and had the greatest respect for him.
During the war, Col. Hutchins served Gen. Patton as the commander of the 57th Quartermaster Depot in Rheims, France. This depot supplied Gen. Patton’s Third Army with clothing, boots, shoes, gas and fuel oils, a vital part of the war effort in Europe. The Colonel was also one of the select few officers present at the conference at which D-Day was planned. It was at this conference that he Hutchins met Winston Churchill.
“My grandfather was a very modest man who lived a modest life, but he did a lot of extraordinary things,” Wayne said. Col. Hutchins was a graduate of the Quartermaster Corps School and of the Navy Supply School, both in Philadelphia. He was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in 1937 and a colonel in 1941. Among his other achievements, Col. Hutchins was put in charge of the Civilian Conservation Corps’ New England office in 1937, working out of Boston. In later years Hutchins told a reporter how impressed he was by what the young men learned in the CCC, the New Deal public works project of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
An unusual assignment during Hutchins’ years in Boston came in 1938, when his organization was put in charge of buying all the food for Admiral Richard Byrd’s third Antarctic expedition and supervising the training of the people who worked with the Husky dogs sent on the expedition.
Wayne said, “My grandfather had a big booming voice that scared me as a little kid. He loved to sing in the church choir with a big baritone voice.” In a brief speech at the flag ceremony at Goff Hall, Wayne noted that among his other medals and awards, Col. Hutchins received the prestigious Croix de Guerre from French President Charles de Gaulle, who presented the award in the usual French manner, with a ceremonial kiss on each cheek. Wayne said that this somewhat embarrassed the reserved American officer.
Since this historic flag from the Taylor family is made entirely of cotton, it would quickly wear out when exposed to the elements and so it will be used only for special occasions. Rehoboth Veterans’ Agent Dick Grenier presented another flag to the library for everyday use.
Wayne remarked at the ceremony that he considers himself an adopted son of Rehoboth. He and his wife Gayle Goddard-Taylor have lived on Fairview Avenue since 1987. Wayne said that other military memorabilia the family inherited from Col. Hutchins has been donated to The Wright Museum of World War II in Wolfeboro, NH, near the home of other family members. We are pleased to have his family’s historic flag at Goff Hall.

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