James Rada, Jr.
In 1926, people in and around Emmitsburg raised funds to erect a statue dedicated to those residents who had served in The Great War. Whether the funds came in pennies from soda bottle deposits or dollars from concerts, the money was raised and the statue “Spirit of the American Doughboy” was dedicated in 1927.
The statue looked east along Main Street for nearly ninety years, until a driver damaged the pedestal last summer. Following months of negotiations with the driver’s insurance company and navigating through the red tape, the Emmitsburg Doughboy was rededicated on May 28, 2016, eighty-nine years after the original dedication.
The rededication ceremony was a trip down memory lane for ninety-nine-year-old Eugene Zacharias, who attended the original dedication ceremony as a young boy. He spoke to the gathered crowd about his remembrances of that day.
Emmitsburg Commissioner Glenn Blanchard organized the event to honor area Veterans and give current citizens a connection to their past history.
The statue, designed by E. M. Viquesney, is said to make up or inspire at least ten percent of the World War I memorial statues in the U.S. “While he wanted to depict an American soldier in battle, he didn’t want to depict excessive might or power by portraying a soldier charging or running forward. Instead, he wanted to depict the “spirit” of the American Doughboy’s determination to preserve freedom for their country and mankind. So he portrayed a Doughboy striding firmly forward in an erect posture through ‘no man’s land,’” Earl Goldsmith wrote in an article on The E. M. Viquesney Doughboy Database.
The version of the statue that Emmitsburg has is the first of three versions that Viquesney created. It is made from more than seventy-five die-stamped bronze-alloy pieces that were welded over a metal frame.
Around one hundred forty-five Doughboy statues are known to exist. The next-closest one to Emmitsburg is in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and the only other Maryland city with one is Crisfield. In recent years, a number of these statues have been re-dedicated for various reasons.
Photos by Grace Wormley
Rededication Ceremony on May 28, 2016.
Ninety-nine-year-old Eugene Zacharias, who attended the original dedication ceremony in 1927 as a young boy, spoke about his remembrances of that day.
