1929: FATHER FRANCIS DUFFY, THE FIGHTING 69TH, THE CROTON CONNECTION, LABOR DAY & HOLY NAME OF MARY TOO

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We were finally able to nail down an old Croton story we had been hearing about for years...and purely by accident.

A fascinating article about Labor Day in Croton 1929, Holy Name of Mary Church, and Father Francis Patrick Duffy of the Fighting 69th. The new school is mentioned, the Rotary, the American Legion and more. We've pumped up the volume on the images below for easier reading. Click on the photos. With many thanks to an Everything Croton elve who was researching something else--and came across this instead.

For those who don't know, Duffy served as chaplain for the 69th Infantry Regiment (known as the "Fighting 69th"), a unit of the New York Army National Guard largely drawn from the city's Irish-American and immigrant population. Father Duffy served in the Spanish American War, but it was his service on the Western Front in France during World War 1 (1917-1918) for which he is best known. Duffy, who typically was involved in combat and accompanied litter bearers into the thick of battle to recover wounded soldiers, became the most highly decorated cleric in the history of the United States Army. You can read more about him here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_P._Duffy 
  
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