CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- The plaques around the red sandstone base of the Civil War fountain on Memorial Square list how many servicemen and servicewomen from Franklin County took part in this nation's wars, but only one is mentioned by name.
Friday marked the beginning of ChambersFest, and Mayor Peter Lagiovane devoted part of his speech marking the fountain's 130th anniversary to Walter Sellers. Like many residents, Lagiovane said he had not until recently taken the time to look at the plaques that surround the monument.
Sellers was born and raised in Chambersburg and graduated from the Philadelphia Academy of Pharmacy, Lagiovane said. He joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 24 and was serving on the battleship USS Maine when it exploded in Havana Harbor on Feb. 15, 1898, with Sellers among the 274 sailors killed, he said.
"The sinking of the Maine was to the people of 1898 what Pearl Harbor was to our parents' and grandparents' generation and what 9/11 is to us today," Lagiovane said.