Henry C. Welles

[2] Henry’s father died when he was young and his mother moved the family to Waterloo, New York, where her brother Gardner Welles worked as a physician.

[2]President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed Waterloo the birthplace of the holiday following the passage of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 587 in 1966.

In 2014, almost fifty years after the Presidential proclamation, Bellware and Gardiner published The Genesis of the Memorial Day Holiday in America, which refutes the claim.

[9] Bellware and Gardiner credit Mary Ann Williams and the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus, Georgia, as the true originators of the holiday as abundant contemporaneous evidence from across the nation exists to substantiate the claim.

In 2016, VFW Magazine featured an article by Doris Wolf in recognition of the 150th anniversary of Waterloo's Memorial Day observance.