Many residents pass by the familiar site of the Graniteville War Monument, located near the fire station on Putnam Pike, but few are aware of its history. For the remaining veterans in Graniteville, however, the story is one they know well.

Donald Catley, who was last year installed as a member on the board of trustees of the Graniteville World War II Veterans Association, grew up in the village and has lived there his whole life with the exception of his two years of service.

Decades later, he and Bob Jackson, who also grew up in the Graniteville village, have recorded the history behind the memorial for future generations. Calling upon their research and oral accounts, Catley read some of his findings at a ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 15 held to commemorate Victory Day, or “VJ Day,” as he remembers it.

Jackson, along with the late Del Riley, created a newsletter called “Hot Sketches” during WWII, which was sent to service members overseas, to tell them news from home – home in Graniteville.

The area had a particularly high volume of young men in the service, receiving countless medals and commendations. Of 182 men and women from the village who served, 11 did not come home.

That is a part of the history that, according to Catley and Jackson, starts with the monument’s creation at the end of World War I in 1919.

The “Graniteville Memorial Association” was incorporated in September of that year. The founders looked for a piece of land to erect the memorial. A site at the corner of Serrel Sweet Road and Putnam Pike opposite Angell Avenue was considered, but was thought to be too small.

“The current land was purchased from George and Sarah Sted – two house lots, on Sept. 24, 1919, for $400,” said Catley.

The granite stone used was purchased from the Woodlawn Granite and Marble Works of Washington, R.I., for just $350. Tilden Thurber Corporation provided the bronze Honor Roll that month as well.

The history goes on to describe how, during World War II, a group of women united to support those called to duty by sending care packages. They created a large wooden memorial, listing all those serving their country. After the war, the wooden sign was taken down, but working from photographs, a list was created of those who had served.

“That’s who we want to thank for starting this in the first place,” said Catley.

As a Boy Scout, Catley marched in annual Memorial Day parades from the war monument on Fruit Hill Avenue in North Providence to another in Centredale, to the monument in Graniteville and finally to the monument in nearby Greystone.

“A short service was held at each monument, it was a privilege to be able to participate in this Memorial Service,” he recalled for the audience.

The history of the monument continues, when in the 1960s a group called the “Graniteville Improvement Association” was formed. During the 1970s, Pastor Robert Carlson of the nearby Graniteville Baptist Church started holding short memorial services at the monument. That practice continues to this day.

“During the 1990s, the current World War II Veterans Association was formed,” Catley said. “Through fundraising efforts, two granite stones were installed at the site of the WWI monument, listing 180 names of men and women from Graniteville who served in the Second World War.”

Many from the list, or members of their family, were contacted, and their biographic material was recorded. From the collected information, a book was created called “Graniteville Went to War,” with additional chapters reproducing pages from “Hot Sketches.”

Each veteran or a representative of his or her family was presented with a copy of the book. Copies of the book are also located in the Mohr Library.

The veterans shared stories of the memorial last week.

Catley recalled a time, during the early 1990s, when the bronze Honor Roll plaque was stolen from the monument.

“Police were contacted, and calls were made to notify local scrap yards,” he said.

The plaque was later located at a scrap yard in East Providence, cut into four pieces. Volunteers were able to get the plaque repaired and it was reinstalled in time for the Memorial Day service held that year.

Ralph Charnley, a veteran of WWII and Korea, remembered the monument’s early history from his childhood. He fondly thought back to Mrs. Jackson – Bob’s mother – whose home was behind the monument and the many tomatoes she grew; some of which ended up as ammo for him.

“In those days, cars only went 20 to 25 miles per hour – we pretty much hit all the cars – we thought it was pretty good training for throwing grenades,” he said.

Charnley learned his lesson when he hit a sedan that chased the group of boys around the neighborhood and across the railroad tracks.

“That pretty much ended our tomato-throwing days,” he said, laughing.

He and fellow veteran George Sutcliffe, a pilot during WWII, are active in the “Honor Flight Program,” which endeavors to transport veterans from all over the country – free of charge – to see the World War II monument in Washington, D.C. Jackson thinks back on the role of women.

The co-editor of “Hot Sketches,” he said troops training in Glocester would wait for an army truck that collected young women from Graniteville to attend dances on the site. He also recalled the roll of the “Graniteville Mothers’ Club.”

“Every time a guy went into the service, my mother would get up on a ladder, having had the name painted on a plaque, and add it to the sign,” he said, adding that mothers sent regular care packages and his mother sent an air mattress to his brother.

Sylvia M. Forrest, wife of WWII veteran Fred Forrest and co-author of “Graniteville Went to War,” said that the village of Graniteville “seemed to empty of its young men after the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941.”

The numbers included four sons of Barbara Paterson.

“The boys who survived came home one by one as they had left,” she wrote in the book. “There had been no total group marching off one day in 1941 and they didn’t come marching into town up Putnam Avenue in 1945. They were quiet leaving and quiet returning.”

According to Paterson, one member of her Graniteville Junior High School graduating class of 1941 – “a tall, handsome boy named Bill Hickey” – was killed in a jeep accident in occupied Germany after the war had already ended. His name is included on the Honor Roll.

With the numbers of World War II veterans dwindling each year, the current foundation members appointed several trustees to take over the organization in 2008, several of which are family members of the veterans.

The organization continues to make sure those “boys from Graniteville” are not forgotten.