MEMORIAL          SQUARES

PVT Harry M Himelfarb Memorial Square


PVT Harry M Himelfarb Memorial Square is located at the corner
of Himelfarb St and Village St.




Harry Melvin "Happy" Himelfarb was born in London, England. He came to Millis as a very young boy and lived here on the family farm, known as the Himelfarb Farm, which was on the corner of what was Green Street and Village Street. Harry was attached to Headquarters Battalion, First Army, as a truck driver, and died as a truck driver on the twenty-eighth of January 1919, in a truck accident, in Chaumont, France. He was buried in France. Later, his family chose to have his body re-interred here, in the United States. On Memorial Day, 1935, this square was renamed Harry Himelfarb Street, in honor of Harry "Happy" Himelfarb. The story does not end here. For the past two years we have been looking for his gravesite because his Army records said his remains lie in Beth Israel Cemetery, West Roxbury. We searched Beth Israel Cemetery, looking at every monument there and every cemetery near it. Until, finally one day, Vincent Gannon and I, Julius Rosen, went to the Worcester Armory where the Army Records are kept. There is where we found that the W.P.A. had made records of World War One gravesites. And they have it recorded that he was buried at Beth Abraham Cemetery, in West Roxbury. There, at last, Clifford Thatcher spotted the beautiful stone monument with his name inscribed on it. We dedicate this monument in the memory of Harry Melvin "Happy" Himelfarb. May this fitting monument remind us of him now and in the future, as long as this stone shall last. Let us remember him as long as we can.

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