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Looking Back

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Emmitsburg supports troops in the War to End All Wars

by James Rada, Jr.

The United States became involved in World War I when Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917. At that point, the war had already been fought in Europe and Africa for nearly three years.

The Weekly Chronicle ran editorials supporting the U.S.’s involvement and also began running articles that summarized the war events of the week.

The June 8, 1917, Chronicle ran a front-page display of the first area residents to join the military to fight in the war. Francis Elder, Joseph Felix, Joseph Adelsberger, Benjamin Topper, George Wagerman, Louis Stoner, Clarence Myers, Charles Sharrer, Carroll McCleaf, and Earl Weikert enlisted in Company A, First Regiment of the Maryland National Guard. Frank Bouey, Quinn Topper, and William Bowling enlisted in the Army, and Simon Klosky enlisted in the Aviation Corp.

Men began joining and being drafted into the military. The first batch of soldiers to ship out from the Emmitsburg area were Clarence Frailey, Daniel Brown, Clarence Baumgardner, Maurice Moser, Robert Hahn, John McMorris, Joseph Kreitz, Thomas Frailey, George Smith, Joseph Turner, Elmer Bailey, Clay Shuff, Edward Worthington, Morris Whetzel, and Charles Ohler. They were part of a group of 179 men who left Frederick County on September 16, 1917, as part of “Uncle Sam’s big new national army, to fight the Germans and Kaiserism and Hohenzollern intrigue,” according to the Chronicle.

To get the Emmitsburg men to the departure point, the Frederick County Exemption Board arranged for rail cars of the Hagerstown and Frederick Railway to convey all of the men from Frederick City to Thurmont to meet the Western Maryland Railroad train to Baltimore and eventually to Fort Meade.

“There was no fuss and feathers, there were no public ‘sad farewells’—at least on the part of Emmitsburgians—when these boys started on the first lap of their journey. They received their orders and, like the soldiers they are, obeyed them without a murmur, without a word of criticism. We feel assured that all of Frederick County’s assignment will be up to the standard; we know that the squad from here will give a good account of itself; for the personnel of that squad ranks A1. Each man in it has a clear conception of the responsibility that rests upon him, each man is much in earnest—determined to do his full share. These selectmen—that’s the name, and an honorable one—and also those from Emmitsburg who heretofore volunteered their services to their government, will not be forgotten by those who they have left behind,” the Chronicle reported.

On the home front, towns around the country help Liberty Loan drives to encourage people to buy war bonds to ensure the government had enough money to fight the war. During the third Liberty Loan drive, the Federal Reserve in Richmond asked Emmitsburg to raise $43,100. By the time the quota was received at the Emmitsburg Savings Bank, $47,000 had already been pledged.

Here’s how The Weekly Chronicle described a Liberty Loan rally in Emmitsburg on June 13, 1917, to encourage the purchase of war bonds to support the war effort.

“The big and very successful patriotic meeting held in the Square Wednesday night leaves no doubt as to the interest of the people of Emmitsburg in the effort of the Government ‘to make good’ the sale of Liberty Loan Bonds. More than five hundred people listened intently to the practical presentation of the bond question by C. T. Williams and George P. Bagby, Esq., of Baltimore, and the earnest forceful and patriotic appeal of Rev. J. O. Hayden, pastor of St. Joseph’s Church. It was an enthusiastic crowd that listened to the speakers, each of whom was time and again interrupted by rounds of applause.

“Through the courtesy of Mr. J. B. Elder the commodious porch of the Hotel Spangler was placed at the disposal of the Committee and before the introduction of the speakers by Mr. J. Stewart Annan, Burgess of Emmitsburg and between and after each speech the Emmit Cornet Band played enlivening patriotic airs. The porch of the hotel was appropriately decorated and on either side of the speakers a soldier in khaki held aloft the Stars and Stripes and the flag of Maryland. These ‘Boys’ representing the recruits from the district, the little band of true soldiers of which Emmitsburg is justly proud, were Louis Stoner and Frank Elder.

“The visiting speakers expressed themselves as being more than delighted by and impressed with the patriotic spirit shown here. They paid a high tribute to Frederick County’s response to the call and left with the assurance, gained by their own observation that Emmitsburg as it always does will more than do its ‘bit.’”

Besides supporting their soldiers by buying war bonds, the people of Emmitsburg remembered their husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers who were fighting for America. The Doughboy statue that stands at the intersection of Frailey Road and Route 140 lists 135 Emmitsburgians who served in the war, of whom nine died.

Veteran Spotlight

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Pvt. Francis Xavier Elder

First to Enlist, First to Fall

by Richard D. L. Fulton

“I am about to enter the fight for democracy…”   ~Francis X. Elder, 1918

In 1917, as the United States entered World War I, the soldiers of the 1st, 4th, and 5th Maryland (state national guard) regiments found themselves on their way to France, and in the process, those units were combined to form the 115th Infantry.

Among them was 21-year-old Emmitsburg resident, Francis X. Elder. 

Elder was born on June 30, 1893, to Emmitsburg residents Doctor James B. and Sarah B. Elder.

He enlisted in the service of his country on May 9, 1917, the first Emmitsburg resident to do so.  Based on a sole, last letter written home in 1918, Elder was full of vim, vigor, and patriotism and was prepared to face an impending storm of battle as the Germans prepared to unleash a massive attack in order to capture Paris. 

Between the Germans and their Paris objective, a line of French and American units had been assembled in order to resist the onslaught, Elder amongst them.

The allied resistance effort would become known as the Meuse–Argonne campaign, a counter offensive launch by the allied troops on September 28, 1918 in the hopes of stalling the German advance, if not driving the German forces back completely from their objective of taking Paris.

Elder and his fellow soldiers were deployed within the area of the Belleau Wood, which had been cleared of German occupation in June, a battle so violent that, when the allied forces had prevailed, General John Pershing, commanding the American Expeditionary Forces, said, “The Gettysburg of the war has been fought.”

The troops that Elder was among found themselves in the area of the Belleau Wood as the Meuse–Argonne campaign was launched.  Apparently as they moved out on October 11, Elder was fatally injured and listed among those “killed in action.”  The place of his death is stated on a memorial dedicated to his memory as having occurred at Belleau Woods, Alcaise Argonne Forest.

Private Francis X. Elder was the first Emmitsburg volunteer to die in the war.  One month after his death, on November 11 the guns fell silent across the entirety of the Western Front.  The “war to end all wars” was over.  The war had cost the United States 116,708 deaths, and had helped spread the deadly Spanish Flu as an aside.

What is likely Elder’s final letter home appeared in the January 9, 1919, edition of The (Allentown, Pennsylvania) Morning Call, which stated his step-brother. Robert G. Smith,  “had just received…” almost three months following Elder’s death.  It seems fitting in this tribute to print this letter in full:

“As I am about to enter the fight for democracy it is my desire now, whilst I have the opportunity to pencil a few lines briefly, and bid you all a sincere farewell. And may our dear and most precious God always protect you in this life, and knowing this I will die cheerfully and in a good cause, if it be His holy will; otherwise it will be the happiest moment of my life when I once more kiss mother’s lips. If the worst happens to me, take the news courageously and be brave, as I am going into it cheerfully and resigned to whatever my fate may be.  If I come through O.K. I will write at once and let you know.  Hoping for the best and trusting that I may see you all on earth, or that we will meet in Heaven. I am yours affectionately, farewell, Private Francis  X. Elder.”

In 1920, the first American Legion Post in Emmitsburg was organized and named the Francis X. Elder Post No. 75 (later Post No. 121).

Elder’s original headstone was replaced , and the original headstone now stands in front of the American Legion post that bears his name.

Looking Back

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by James Rada, Jr.

1922 – The marines Conquer Thurmont

The U.S. Marines fought valiantly in World War I in places like the Battle of Belleau Wood in France. After the deadly fighting there to drive the entrenched German troops from Belleau Wood, Army General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, said, “The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle.”

However, that didn’t stop Pershing and others from wanting to disband the Marine Corps after the war had been won.

Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune understood that his Marine Corps needed to fight for survival in the political arena just as hard as they fought on the battlefield. After WWI, as the politicians began speaking about disbanding the Marines, Lejeune devised a campaign to raise public awareness about the Marine Corps.

One of the ways he did this was that instead of going to obscure places to conduct war games and train, he went to iconic places and put the Marines out in front of the public. At the time, the national military parks, such as Gettysburg, were still under control of the U.S. War Department, which meant the Marines could use the parks as a training ground. Lejeune chose to do just that with a series of annual training exercises, which commenced in 1921 with a re-enactment of the Battle of the Wilderness.

Early in the morning of Monday, June 19, 1922, more than 5,000 Marines at the Marine Camp Quantico—more than a quarter of the Corps—marched onto waiting barges supplied by the U.S. Navy. At 4:00 a.m., four Navy tug boats towed eight large barges up the Potomac River toward Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, tanks and artillery pieces towed by trucks rolled out along the Richmond Road, headed for the same destination. Unlike a typical invasion, the Marines gave consideration to any possible damage they might cause to the roads. They removed the steel cleats and spikes from the tractor and tank treads. Only the smooth steel under-surface of the belts would be in contact with the road.

The march involved the entire Fifth and Sixth Regiments, a squadron of the First Marine Air Wing and elements of the Tenth Marine Artillery. The (Baltimore) Sun noted that these Marines were ready for anything and had pretty much cleaned out Quantico of anything that could be moved. “The 5,000 men are carrying the equipment of a complete division of nearly 20,000. In the machine-gun outfits especially the personnel is skeletonized, while the material is complete. Companies of 88 men are carrying ammunition, range finders and other technical gear for companies of about 140,” the newspaper reported.

The Marines spent their first night at East Potomac Park, south of the Washington Monument. Once they had fully set up camp, they marched past the White House and were reviewed by President Warren G. Harding and other dignitaries.

“Observers declared that this is the first time that troops have passed in review through the White House grounds since the Civil War,” the Marine Corps Gazette reported.

It took half an hour for the Marines to pass, as the 134-piece combined Marine bands played music.

On June 20, the Marines marched to Bethesda. The following day, they marched to Gaithersburg, where they spent two nights. On June 23, they marched to Ridgeville. Then the next day, it was Frederick.

From Frederick, the Marines marched 18 miles to Thurmont. It was the longest hike of the entire march. Besides being the longest hike of the week, June 25 occurred on the hottest day of the march. The heat rippled above the macadam road, reflecting, and seemingly baking, the Marines.

A near accident at the camp in Thurmont was an omen for the problems the Marines would soon face. Lt. Goodyear Kirkman flew up to the Thurmont campsite early in the morning in one of the Marine airplanes. He experienced a hard landing on the field and sustained a broken tail skid and air-line to the plane, ruining the carburetor. He needed to return to Frederick, but he had no means of getting there if he didn’t fly. He quickly came up with a daring idea.

 “He took off from Thurmont, controlling his ship with one hand and pumping air with the other, using hand apparatus in place of the broken mechanism. He had to keep pumping furiously all the way. But he made Frederick, landed safely and collapsed from exhaustion,” The Sun reported.

The Marines sang when they left Frederick to say goodbye to the city, and they were singing as they entered Thurmont and the last mile of the hike around 1:45 p.m. It announced their arrival into the town, which was obvious since there were nearly five times as many Marines as there were town residents.

“Everyone from the small boy to the aged veteran was up and out to await and see the soldiers. Sunday School and church attendance suffered severely, and no doubt the few who did attend wished they were out on the street. Many persons remained in town preferring to miss their dinners rather than miss seeing this great military outfit arrive. Every porch along the State Road was crowded with people watching the passing trucks,” the Catoctin Clarion reported.

The Marines had arrived.

Marines arriving at Camp Haines in Thurmont, June 25, 1922.

Marine Troop movement through town.

Looking Back – 1918

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Clifford Stitely Died Helping Others 100 Years Ago

by James Rada, Jr.

On November 6, 1918, the peace talks between the Allies and Germans had been completed. Men who had fought so hard for years looked forward to the peace that would take place on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive had started on the Western Front on September 26, and it continued as peace fast approached. It was the largest in United States military history, involving 1.2 million American soldiers. It was the largest and bloodiest operation of World War I. The men were worn down and tired. Over the forty-seven days of the battle, more than 55,000 soldiers lost their lives, including 26,277 Americans.

Clifford Stitely of Thurmont was a young private in the Army. He had been inducted into the 79th Division at Camp Meade just four months earlier.

“The departure of 110 Sammies for Camp Meade on Saturday wrung tears from many women and men alike,” the Frederick Post reported. “They tried bravely to put up a cheerful front to their sons, brothers and sweethearts, but many eyes were red and many cheeks wet before the final goodbyes had been said.”

The newspaper reported that a crowd of 3,000 showed up to see the draftees off at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad depot.

With less than a month of training at Camp Meade, Private Stitely boarded a ship in Hoboken, New Jersey, and headed overseas to France as part of Company B, 312th Machine Gun Battalion.

In France, he fought in the Avocourt Sector and Troyon Sector of the Meuse-Argonne. His great-nephew Bill Bollinger said that on November 3, 1918, “He was on a detail picking up the wounded, and he was killed by artillery fire.”

Records show that Stitely didn’t die right away. He was taken to a field hospital where he died three days later, with less than a week to go before peace was declared.

His parents, Jacob and Mary, must have wondered why they hadn’t heard from their son, especially after peace was declared. As the days turned to weeks, they might have suspected the worst, but luckily confirmation did not arrive until after Christmas. A telegram arrived on December 28 with the news that Clifford had died “under honorable conditions,” trying to help others.

Clifford is one of eleven men that Thurmont lost during World War I. His name is inscribed on the WWI Monument in Memorial Park.

 

Roll of Honor

Thurmont’s lost heroes of WWI:

  • Louis R. Adams
  • Murry S. Baker
  • Benjamin E. Cline
  • Edgar J. Eyler
  • William T. Fraley
  • Roy O. Kelbaugh
  • Jesse M. Pryor
  • Clifford M. Stitely
  • Raymond L. Stull
  • Stanley M. Toms
  • James Somerset Waters

Photo Courtesy of Bill Bollinger

WWI Era Heroes Memorial Dedicated

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James Rada, Jr.

Marines marched through Emmitsburg in 1922 on their way to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They were fully outfitted in preparation for a historical reenactment and training maneuvers on the battlefield. The event turned tragic for two of the Marines when their plane crashed on the battlefield, killing both men on board.

On June 26, 2018, a memorial wayside, erected in Gettysburg to honor Marine Captain George W. Hamilton, a highly-decorated World War I Marine officer, and Gunnery Sergeant George R. Martin, was dedicated before a small crowd.

Marine Captain Hamilton, of World War I fame, survived the bloody Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918 (also known as the “Germans’ Gettysburg”), with honors, only to perish in a dive bomber crash on the Gettysburg Battlefield during Marine maneuvers held in 1922, along with Gunnery Sergeant Martin, a veteran of the Santo Domingo campaign.

On June 26, 1922, Captain Hamilton was piloting a de Havilland dive bomber over Gettysburg battlefield, with Martin, at the head of the column of 5,500 Marines arriving for training maneuvers and Civil War reenactments, when their airplane crashed while attempting to land on the Culp Farm, killing both aviators.

The deaths of the aviators were declared as line-of-duty deaths, resulting in their being the last such deaths to have occurred on the historic battlefield since the 1863 battle itself.

As part of the event, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has issued a proclamation declaring June 26, 2018, as Captain George W. Hamilton and Gunnery Sergeant George R. Martin Remembrance Day “in grateful recognition of their military service.”

Tammy Myers, president of the Gettysburg Heritage Center, said that the project to erect the memorial “was initiated and brought to us by our neighbors.” She said that the Heritage Center supported the project because it “tells a story beyond the typical Civil War story.”

The memorial is on property near the crash site and donated by the Gettysburg Heritage Center. The project began when Richard D. L. Fulton, co-author of The Last to Fall: The 1922 March, Battles, & Deaths of U.S. Marines at Gettysburg, happened to run into his neighbor, Ronald Frenette, who became the project manager of the memorial wayside. Both men live near the crash and talked about it. “Rick said we really should have a memorial for them, and the project was born,” said Frenette.

The memorial’s creation is the result of the efforts of Frenette, Fulton, Mike Tallent, Marine Corps League Gettysburg Battlefield Detachment #705, and the Gettysburg Heritage Center.

The memorial wayside is located at the corner of Culp Street and Johns Avenue, near the 1922 crash site.

Photo taken of Memorial Wayside near the 1922 crash site in Gettysburg, Courtesy of James Rada, Jr.

Our Neighborhood Veterans

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by Jim Houck, Jr.

Veterans Day

November 11

Veterans Day is a celebrated holiday that honors all persons that served or are serving in the United States Armed Forces. It dates back to World War I and when the Armistice with Germany ended the hostilities on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson expressed what he felt that day meant to all Americans. Exactly one year later, Wilson’s Address to Fellow Countrymen on November 11, 1919, from the White House read as follows:

A year ago today, our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and juster set of international relations. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggression of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half. With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people, to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought. Out of this victory, there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert. The war showed us the strength of great nations acting together for high purposes, and the victory of arms foretells the enduring conquests which can be made in peace when nations act justly and in furtherance of the common interest of men. To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the council of nations.

On June 4, 1926, the United States Congress adopted a resolution requesting then President Calvin Coolidge to issue an annual proclamation calling for the observance of November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. Approved May 13, 1938, by a congressional act, November 11 would be a day dedicated each year as a legal holiday and, thereafter, known as Armistice Day.

Raymond Weeks, from Birmingham, Alabama, a World War II Veteran, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all Veterans, those alive as well as those who died in World War I. In 1945, Weeks led a delegation to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who supported the idea. Weeks led the first national celebration in 1947 in Alabama, and led it annually until his death in 1985. President Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982, as the driving force for the national holiday.

I know a lot of people get confused trying to figure out the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day. Memorial Day is held in May and honors those who have died while in military service. Veterans Day is held on the eleventh day of the eleventh month and celebrates both those who died while in service and those who have served and are still living.

Sons of AMVETS Squadron 7 Thurmont will be holding a breakfast for Veterans and their families on Sunday, November 12, 2017. The breakfast is buffet-style and will be held from 7:00-11:00 a.m. All Veterans eat free. The breakfast is open to the public; non-veterans pay $5.00. November 11 falls on a Saturday this year, so National observance will be November 10.

God Bless the United States of America, God Bless the American Veteran, and God Bless You.

Looking Back – 1918

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The First Emmitsburgian to fall in WWI

by James Rada, Jr.

The United States entered World War I when Congress declared war against Germany in April 1917. At that point, the fighting in Europe had been going on for nearly three years.

The Weekly Chronicle ran editorials supporting the U.S.’s involvement, and also began running articles that summarized the war events of the week.

The June 8, 1917, Chronicle ran a front-page display of the first area residents to join. Francis Elder, Joseph Felix, Joseph Adelsberger, Benjamin Topper, George Wagerman, Louis Stoner, Clarence Myers, Charles Sharrer, Carroll McCleaf, and Earl Weikert enlisted in Company A, First Regiment of the Maryland National Guard. Frank Bouey, Quinn Topper, and William Bowling enlisted in the army, and Simon Klosky enlisted in the Aviation Corp.

To get the Emmitsburg men to the departure point, the Frederick County Exemption Board arranged for rail cars of the Hagerstown and Frederick Railway to convey all of the men from Frederick City to Thurmont to meet the Western Maryland Railroad train to Baltimore and eventually to Fort Meade.

“There was no fuss and feathers, there were no public ‘sad farewells’ – at least on the part of Emmitsburgians – when these boys started on the first lap of their journey. They received their orders and, like the soldiers they are, obeyed them without a murmur, without a word of criticism. We feel assured that all of Frederick County’s assignment will be up to the standard; we know that the squad from here will give a good account of itself; for the personnel of that squad ranks A1. Each man in it has a clear conception of the responsibility that rests upon him, each man is much in earnest – determined to do his full share. These selectmen – that’s the name, and an honorable one – and also those from Emmitsburg who heretofore volunteered their services to their government, will not be forgotten by those who they have left behind,” the Chronicle reported.

The Emmitsburg doughboys went off to train and fight. Pvt. Francis X. Elder had been in France since June and had fought in several engagements since then.

Pvt. Elder wrote to his family and kept them up-to-date on what was happening with him. In October 1918, even as World War I was winding down, his company once again prepared for battle; he wrote to his mother:

Dearest Mama,

    As I am about to enter the big fight for Democracy it is my desire now, whilst I have the opportunity to pencil you a few lines briefly, and bid you, Papa and all, a sincere farewell and may our dear and most precious God always protect you in this life, and knowing this, I will die cheerfully for a good cause, if it to be His holy will, otherwise it will be the happiest moment of my life when I can once more kiss those motherly lips. If the worst happens to me, take the news, courageously be brave!, as I am going to try and be. If I come through O.K. I will write at once and let you know.

    Hoping for the best and trusting I will see you all on earth, or that we will meet in Heaven. I am your most affectionate and loving son.

 

The American Expeditionary Force, commanded by Gen. John J. Pershing engaged in the largest and bloodiest battle of the war. Germans and Americans fought along the Western Front from September 26 to the end of the war on November 11.

Even as Elder had written his mother, he had been engaged in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. During this battle, 28,000 Germans and 26,277 Americans would die.

Elder fell on October 11.

Not knowing this, his family continued to wait for word from their son and praying that he was safe. It wasn’t until November 18, a week after the war ended, that the Elders learned Francis had not survived.

A Western Union telegram arrived that read: “Deeply regret to inform you that Private Francis X. Elder Infantry is officially reported as killed in action October Eleventh.” He had been buried in the Cousevoye Woods by Father McLaughlin, who was his company chaplain.

He had been the first man from Emmitsburg to enlist in the War to End All Wars, and he was the first man from the town to die in the war.

Looking Back – 1922 Thurmont Dedicates the First Veterans Memorial Park in the County

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by James Rada, Jr.

When the men of the Thurmont District of Frederick County began returning home from World War I, they were feted with a parade through Thurmont. People lined the streets to see their returning heroes. They cheered, and they cried.

In that, Thurmont was not unusual. Just about every town in the country celebrated its returning soldiers from The War to End All Wars.

It wasn’t enough for Thurmont, though. Some citizens realized that those who had given the most weren’t there to march in the parade. Eleven men from the district had died in the fighting of World War I.

Rosa Waters, whose son James died from Spanish Flu while serving in the military during the war, led a community group that wanted to create a lasting memorial to the town’s servicemen.

The Grimes Estate donated a piece of land on East Main Street for a memorial park. Ground was broken in the spring of 1922, and “The work of transforming the meadow into Memorial Park was begun and there will be no let-up until it is finished,” reported the Catoctin Clarion.

Committee members began soliciting donations for the landscaping and construction work of the park. More than $3,000 was raised (around $44,000 in today’s dollars), which more than paid for the initial expenses of the park.

On Armistice Day 1922, a parade that included Veterans and students from Thurmont High School marched through Thurmont. “The town was in holiday attire for the occasion. Flags were displayed from every business place and private home, many of the private homes becoming elaborately decorated with the national colors,” the Frederick Daily News reported.

The parade passed under the stone arch that marked the entrance to the park. Hundreds of citizens watched the parade pass and then followed it to the park.

The speakers and special guests sat on the rostrum, which had been built from native stone. Surrounding the rostrum were eleven scarlet oaks that had been planted in memory of the young men who had died in the war. They were: Louis R. Adams, Murry S. Baker, Benjamin E. Cline, Edgar J. Eyler, William T. Fraley, Roy O. Kelbaugh, Jesse M. Pryor, Clifford M. Stitely, Raymond L. Stull, Stanley M. Toms, and James S. Waters.

The park also featured four bronze tablets, three of which had names of Thurmont Veterans inscribed on them. The widow of Lt. Edgar Eyler, who had died in the war and for whom the Thurmont American Legion was named, unveiled the tablets.

The Frederick Daily News reported that “Frederick County’s first memorial to war heroes and the first in the state it is said, was dedicated with appropriate and interesting ceremonies at Thurmont Saturday morning.”

One of the speakers at the event was Folger McKinsey, the “Bentztown Bard.” He told the crowd, “You have paid more attention to Armistice Day than any other town in the state; you have great reason to be proud of yourselves.”

He also read a poem inspired by the event that was published in the Baltimore Sun a few days later. It read in part:

And they shall turn and read these carven names,

And they shall see again the battle-flames,

And tell again the story of the strife

And gaze again as if across the seas

To those old fields of Flanders and Argonne,

The poppied fields, the shattered Picardy,

Belleau and Meuse – and be so glad that we

In our own time of golden memory,

Looking beyond the tumult and the wave,

Have planted here this tribute to the brave,

The true, the fine, the noble and the fond!

 

George Wireman noted in his book, Gateway to the Mountains, “Although the memorial was a community project, it did not officially become a part of community property until November 11, 1928, when it was turned over to the Town Commissioners and accepted on behalf of the citizens, by Mayor Frank L. Cady.”

The park continues to serve Thurmont today as a memorial to its sons and daughters who serve in the Armed Forces.

The undated photo is believed to be from the end of WWI, but it may show the original arch entry for Memorial Park.

The History Behind the Doughboy

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This article includes excerpts from Karen Gardner’s article in a 1991 Frederick Post titled The History Behind the Doughboy and Joan Bittner Fry’s research in her compilation of local history titled, Did You Know? published in 2013.

A doughboy is the popular name for a World War I foot soldier. A statue commemorating the doughboy and called the Doughboy is located on West Main Street in Emmitsburg. One can’t help but feel pride and sorrow when noticing a statue that commemorates sacrifices in war. Emmitsburg’s Doughboy was created by E. M. Viquesney, a French sculptor who lived in Spencer, Indiana, to honor Veterans and casualties of World War I.  Visquesney was, perhaps, the most popular Doughboy designer. It is interesting to know that not only are there other Doughboy statues around the nation, but that Emmitsburg’s Doughboy statue has an identical twin.

In her book, Did You Know?, Joan Bittner Fry said, “…supposedly, there are seven Doughboys in Maryland. They are made of copper, bronze, granite, or marble. Emmitsburg’s Doughboy statue’s twin is located in Crisfield, Maryland. Other Doughboys in Maryland are located in Funkstown, Elkton, and Williamsport. After research, Joan could only account for five.

In her article, The History Behind the Doughboy that was published in the Frederick Post in 1991, Karen Gardner references the late T. Perry Wesley of Spencer, Indiana who set out to remind people of the importance of these doughboy statues and located 110 of them around the nation but also indicated that he believed that several hundred actually exist.

Joseph Boys, who published an article about the Emmitsburg Doughboy statue in 1981, said, ‘There’s one in practically every small town.’ The statue stands on the lawn of the Emmit House, once a hotel that frequently hosted Maryland governors, but is now an apartment house. It was erected in 1927. The Emmitsburg monument was in its heyday before World War II. Since then, other monuments at the town’s American Legion have gotten considerably more attention, Mr. Boyle said.

Emmitsburg’s Doughboy is walking between tree stumps, left boot firmly on the ground, right toe touching the ground, and the rest of the boot upraised in a marching pose. The right arm is raised, holding a hand grenade, and the left hand clutches a rifle with bayonet pointed horizontally.

Other doughboy statues are missing the tree stumps, and often have the right foot in the air, held aloft by a bar.

For more information, Joan Bittner Fry’s books of local and regional history are available by calling her at 301-241-3295 or emailing jofry241@yahoo.com.

An Honor Roll at the Emmitsburg Doughboy, * indicates killed in action:

Adelsberter, Joseph Dwen, Althoff, C. Raymond, Alvey, James McSherry, Annan, Louis L., Annan, Samuel McNair, *Bentzel, Arthur H., Barrick, Moffis, Baumgardner, Raymond, Baumgardner, Clarence, Beatty, Albert, Bishop, James Lloyd, Bowling, J. William, Brown, D. Irwin, Brown, Ward, Butler, Charles E., Byard, James A., Byard, Sidney C., Byers, Harry Bryan, Cadle, W. R., Click, Earl Norman, Cool, John, Coombs, C.C., Coyle, Edward J., Damuth, Lester, L., Coyle, Edward J., Damuth, Lester L.,  Dodd, Rev. Francis J., Duffy, William H., Eckenrode, Henry B., Jr., Eichelberger, Charles D., *Elder, Francis X., Eyler, Cleo M., Eyler, Roy, Felix, Joseph Webb, Ferguson, Russell David, Fitez, Robert Glenn, Florence, George, Florence, Vincent, Fox, Leslie, Frailey, Clarence G., Frailey, Thomas J., Frailey, William A., Galt, Sterling, Jr., Gelwicks, Albert, *Gelwicks, Charles, F., Gelwicks, Lillian, Gelwicks, Roy, Gelwicks, William R., Gillelan, Charles D., Gillelan, Rhoda H., Glacken, Joseph J., Glonneger, John R., Gruber, Charles, Hahn, Charles A., *Hahn , Martin Luther, Harbaugh, Charles E., Harbaugh, Charles L., Hartdagen, LeRoy, Harting, John Mark, Hays, James T., Hobbs, John, Hoke, Clarence, Houser, Jacob W., Kelley, Luther, Kerrigan, J. Ware, Kerrigan, Robert V., Knight, Harry, Kreitz, Allen A., Kreitz, John C., Kreitz, Joseph W., Kugler, Martin L., Kump, Charles Wm., Liday, Edgar R., Malloy Arthur, Marshall, Thomas, Martin, Maurice C., McCullough, Richard, McNair, Charles A., Miller, William, Moser, Allen E., Moser, Maurice H., Moser, Roy Jacob, Myers, Clarence, O’Donoghue, D. Allen, O’Donoghue, John A., O’Donoghue, Sidney E., Ohler, Charles F. Ohler, Glenn E., *Ohler, Vernon Ross, Ott, George L., Pittinger, Harvey, *Reifsnider, Robert B., Rauth, Carl M., Rauth, John W., Rosensteel, Allen C., Rosensteel, John H., Rowe, Charles J., *Rowe, Francis Edward, Ryder, Gerald N., *Schley, Reading J., Sanders, J. Basil, Saylor, Roy W., Schildt, Elvin R., Sebold, Felix B., Saffer, J. Albert, Sellers, Charles E., Sellers, Robert R., Seltzer, Earnest T., Seltzer, James E., Sharrer, Charles L., Sherff, William C., Shuff, Joseph, Staker, Arthur, Sterbinsky, William, Stinson, O.H., Stokes, Arthur M., Stokes, Charles K., Stokes, George H., Stone, David E., Stoner, Louis H., Topper, Benjamin M., Topper, Francis S., Topper, Joseph M., Troxell, Charles, Turner, Joseph M., Valentine, Harry E., Valentine, Robert, Wagerman, George, Walter, John W., Warthen, Henry W., Weant, Frank W., Wetzel, John S.

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Emmitsburg Doughboy Statue Postcard

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Elkton, MD Doughboy Statue Postcard

funkstown-doughboy

Funkstown, MD Doughboy Statue