A Wilkes-Barre Record headline on Aug. 28, 1899.
File Photo
Anyone know what happened to the Spanish cannon?
Not long after the Spanish cannon was captured from Morro Castle in Cuba during the Spanish-American War of 1898, then Pennsylvania Gov. William Alexis Stone donated the military piece upon a request from the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, known today as the Luzerne County Historical Society.
And true to fashion of Luzerne County, there was debate on who would receive the Spanish cannon. Would it be the City of Wilkes-Barre, the Historical Society, or the Grand Army of the Republic Conyngham Post 97?
“The Spanish cannon awarded by the Governor to this city, arrived at the Delaware & Hudson freight yard Saturday afternoon at 3 o’clock and attracted considerable attention. The cannon will be properly inscribed and mounted on the river common or some other public site not yet decided upon,” the Wilkes-Barre Evening News reported on Aug. 28, 1899.
The cannon was of brass, 64 inches long, with a 3 1/2 inch bore. It was old fashioned, with the arms and crown of Spain in a mold on its side.
“It was formerly in the famous Morro Castle, one of the defenses of Santiago, Cuba. It is mounted on a truck and weighs 704 pounds,” the Evening News reported.
When the freight train pulled into the staging yard off East Market Street, then Wilkes-Barre Mayor Francis M. Nichols and his staff inspected the cannon still on the train car. For a short time, the Spanish cannon was kept outside Wilkes-Barre’s City Hall.
Committees were formed to debate what organization would receive, care and display the Spanish cannon. For the time being, the Spanish cannon was placed outside Memorial Hall, GAR Conyngham Post 97, which was located on South Main Street, where today a parking garage stands.
A large parade took place in Center City, Wilkes-Barre, with the Spanish cannon being the main feature to parade-watchers as the parade route started at City Hall to Public Square and North Main Street, to Union and Franklin streets, Market Street and back to Public Square, and onto South Main Street to GAR Memorial Hall.
With a national celebration scheduled to honor then U.S. Navy Admiral George Dewey for his victory of the Spanish-American War, the Spanish cannon was removed from GAR Memorial Hall to the river common across from today’s Wilkes University’s Dorothy Dickson Darte Center, where the former Fort Durkee once stood, on Sept. 26, 1899.
As a ticket-tape parade in New York City, N.Y., began to honor Admiral Dewey, the Spanish cannon on the river common was fired on Sept. 28, 1899.
“The salute was fired from in front of the stone marking the site of Fort Durkee. The old cannon was dragged from its resting place in front of Memorial Hall, and the salute was fired by Spanish-American War veterans of this city,” the Wilkes-Barre Times newspaper reported Sept. 29, 1899.
A Wilkes-Barre Record story published Dec. 13, 1926, reports the Spanish cannon was given to the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society and “now standing before the society’s building.”
A search of newspaper archives produced the last report of the Spanish cannon being fired to celebrate July 4th in 1933 along the river common. The last mention of the Spanish cannon was a letter-to-the editor published in the Wilkes-Barre Record on Dec. 1, 1942, when it was said to be on the grounds of the Historical Society and should be melted to help with the war effort of World War II.
So, what happened to the Spanish cannon? Has this piece of history disappeared much like the mystery of Kankakee, the American Indian maiden statue that stood in the middle of Public Square from 1910 to 1936?
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