Memorial Day, 2021

 

Memorial Day, previously known as Decoration Day, is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.

It is not to be confused with Veterans Day, a day that honors all of those who have served the country in war or peace, dead or alive. It was originally called Armistice Day as it commemorated the end of World War I. 

Both holidays hold a high place in our country’s memory, but unfortunately not everyone takes them seriously. Instead they enjoy a day off from work while giving little or no thought to the reason.

I’ve found mention of a few men who wore the uniform in World War One who I’ve found of interest. We’ll have to go astray with the theme of Memorial Day since none of them were killed in the war, but they were in the midst of the battlefield carnage where so many did die. And we’ll restrict the remarks to the 91st Division, the Wild West Division, the division whose battle cry was “Powder River, Let ‘er buck!” 

The name of Corporal George J. Enderlin might raise an eyebrow. In a past article we pointed to the fact of the Enderlin surname not being particularly uncommon. Whether or not it should quell the rumored “end-of-the-line” catchphrase for the city name is not important to consider here. 

Corporal Enderlin was trained to fire artillery pieces, but his unit in the 91st Division, the 347 Field Artillery, stood in reserve for much of the U. S. involvement. A member of his family  researched his service and said not much could be found, but he wrote, “The influenza epidemic was a great concern at the time, and George recalled being fed raw onions to ward off infection!”

The following three members of the 91st belonged to the 362nd Regiment and left behind brief comments of their experiences. Peter Thompson was a rifleman that David Laskin told of in his book “The Long Way Home.” Thompson’s diary entries state on “Sept. 30 One more long night spend in a trench seem like a year. All of us are tired and sick. No sleep, no eats, no water for 84 hours.” We skip a few days to “Oct. 5 Had my shoe off first time in two weeks. Poor feet of mine are certainly sore. Had a hot meal, first time in two weeks but I can’t even eat that now.”

My grandfather, Andrew Sandvig, fought alongside Peter Thompson in the 362nd Regiment. He left memories of the time with pencilled remarks in the end pages in his government issued New Testament. Probably the most telling entry was his statement on September 26th saying the 362nd lost half their men. A bit of research bears out their losses when they charged toward the goal of a little town named Epinonville. While reaching it, they had to withdraw because the regiments on their flanks had not kept up, thereby exposing them. Some of the soldiers began calling it “Deadman’s Gulch.”

A Hollywood name, Farley Grainger, also served with the 362nd as a lieutenant and was one of the officers who ordered the retreat. As to that retreat, he said, “to be pulled back from the hard earned conquest as an angry bulldog is jerked back by his chain, seemed to be the fate of our regiment.”

These men went to war obligated to use the weapons and materials handed to them, and that can take us to the leader of U. S. forces, John J. Pershing. He possessed a somewhat outmoded philosophy of warfare. Disdaining the trench warfare model used up to the time of the U. S. entry, he said the way to win the war was not with machine guns and artillery used by the Germans but with the soldier, his rifle, and his bayonet. Tanks and machine guns existed only to support the infantrymen. Some of the units suffered terrible losses because of it.

Another cause of large casualties occurred on the last day of the war. Pershing had not approved of the Armistice. Therefore orders to cease firing were not yet issued to our forces and 11,000 casualties resulted on the last day.

He did receive positive marks on his organizational ability of the American Expeditionary Force which had arisen from an almost nonexistent army.. He succeeded in being held in high esteem and was even granted the privilege of wearing six stars on his uniform but died before doing so. The only other general in our history who could wear six stars was George Washington.

The origin of Memorial Day goes back before World War One. On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide; he was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois.

Researchers have traced the earliest annual commemoration to women who laid flowers on soldiers’ graves in the Civil War hospital town of Columbus, Mississippi, in April 1866. But some historians state freed slaves decorated soldiers’ graves a year earlier, to make sure their story gets told too. 

While Memorial Day will arrive and be celebrated as a day of remembrance by some, it will pass without much fanfare by the majority of people. I for one will try to spend some time thinking about the reason for the day. As the refrain of a popular song once went, “All gave some, some gave all.”

Ed Pierce

 Sheldonites have heard of Ed Pierce but what about him, what did

he look like? Here’s his obituary. Following it an article from an old history book gives us some background. I’ve edited the article for some brevity. - 

This obituary showed in the Enderlin Independent newspaper - December 8, 1927

EDMUND PIERCE MEMORIAL SERVICE HELD TUES.

Many Prominent Men From Different Parts of the State Take Part

Memorial services in honor of Edmund Pierce, who died Nov. 24 while en route to Florida were held in Sheldon Tuesday in the St. Mary's church and the Sheldon community hall.

Despite the hard wind and snow, which made travel difficult, three hundred people gathered, some coming many miles to take part in the ceremony which honored the memory of the late community leader.

The services opened at 10:30 a. m. when requiem high mass was said in the church. Father J. H. Mulvuney, local priest, was in charge of this service.

At 1 p. m. all stores, business houses and schools in the city closed so that everyone might be able to attend the services in the Community hall which began at 1:30 p. m.

O. M. Johnson, president of the Sheldon Commercial club, which arranged the memorial services, presided at the afternoon ceremony.

Judge George M. McKenna, district judge in this judicial area, was the first speaker at the service. He was followed by J. C. Harper, Enderlin, Ransom county business man, Dr. James P. Aylen, Fargo, and L. B. Hanna, former governor of North Dakota, each of whom eulogized Mr. Pierce.

Judge McKenna paid particular attention to the work of Mr. Pierce as a lawyer and a friend. The judge knew Mr. Pierce for many years, he declared, and had an intimate acquaintanceship with the late lawyer.

Mr. Harper discussed characteristics which made Mr. Pierce one of the outstanding businessmen of the state. He paid a tribute to the memory of the dead man from the residents of Enderlin and Ransom county.

The service was opened with "Processional" by Mrs. P. W. Froemke. Invocation was given by Rev. B. A. Burns, pastor of the Sheldon Methodist church.

Sheldon school children look a part in the memorial program with the singing of the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee."

A violin solo, "In the Garden," was played by Marian Boyle and "Crossing the Bar" was sung by the Sheldon Ladies quartet.

Dr. Aylen, a friend of the late "leader of Sheldon," dwelth briefly on the qualities of Mr. Pierce which made him a leader of men and which earned for him his position in the eyes of his multitude of friends.

Mr. Hanna dealt particularly with traits of character which Mr. Pierce exhibited in numerous trying situations. His recounting of incidents in the life of the Sheldon banker-lawyer, summed up in the closing of his talk, showed in an outstanding manner "that Ed Pierce, as I knew him, was a kind husband, a splendid neighbor, wise counsellor, a business man of integrity, and a loyal, true friend."

…

“Edmund Pierce was born July 6, 1863, in Huron County, Ontario. He was only thirteen years of age when the family moved to the West, locating at Barnesville, later at St. Vincent, Minn., and he came into Dakota in 1879. He entered the office of S. N. Sanford of Sheldon, in 1885, and began the study of law. While he was yet a student he identified himself with the development that was going on around the country and when he was admitted in 1888 he was fairly entered on his life work. Before he was admitted he was interested in banking, as one of the organizers of the Citizens Bank of Sheldon and he has always been identified with finances, first incidentally, but later in a large way. He is president of the First National Bank, of Sheldon, president of the Enderlin State Bank, of Enderlin, and, for some years, was president of the Northern Trust Company, of Fargo.

The great work of his life in inducing immigration was undertaken in the early years of the last decade of the nineteenth century. In 1892 he bought the townsite of Enderlin and developed it. That lead him to the general field of immigration and he showed real genius in convincing residents in other states that there was assurance of prosperity in Ransom County. The movement he started he carried on for years, latterly through the Ransom County Immigration Association, now one of the strongest real estate and financial concerns of the state.

In 1902 Senator Pierce was induced to enter the political life and was elected to the senate. With his knowledge of the state and its people he proved a valuable member of that body, was re-elected in 1906.

In Sheldon, where Senator Pierce has a beautiful home, he has large interests and some fine property, and his large concerns in the field of finance make him an important figure in the larger affairs of the state. Senator Pierce was married to Margaret Doran at Fargo, January 25, 1903.”

The beautiful home mentioned still stands, and when I was in Sheldon recently I saw carpenters working on the exterior. Who owns the property now?

Black Hills Wedding

 We headed to the Black Hills to attend a wedding at the State Game Lodge in Custer State Park. Cold, windy, and wet marked the day, but the couple married and things went well. Here are some pictures. By the way, the rooms in the lodge looked like they must have when the lodge was built in the 1920s, not fancy.

Top to bottom: The happy couple - Mary and her niece-in-law, the mother of the groom, had some catching up to do - Mary and her sister Sharon at Mt. Rushmore which we couldn't see because of thick fog - Our room for the evening was beside the two presidential suites, Eisenhower's and Coolidge's. Even though the room cost plenty it was not fancy. It was as though we walked into a 1920s design because it looked to all be original.

Tipperary Statue

 We passed through Buffalo SD yesterday where I wanted to stop to take a picture of this statue of Tipperary, the famed bucking horse. Rejected in WW1 for being too wild he was used and abused in the rodeo arena. I’m reminded of Sheila Shafer who gave me a nice hard copy book of Tipperary’s life.

Tipperary Statue

A Push Button World

 

Sometimes I have to stop and consider the kind of world we live in. We recently traded cars for a new rig that is loaded with more electronic gadgetry than I knew existed. With its “Continually Variable Transmission” I never feel when it shifts; with its “Lane Departure Warning” it starts chirping at me if I cross a painted highway line; with its “Adaptive Cruise Control” it never lets me get too close to the car ahead. All I have to do is stay awake, but I think some models even have “Snooze Recognition.” 

     There’s more, such as the automatic engine shut off whenever the car stops at a light. I guess it’s an environmental thing, but thank goodness there is a switch to shut-off the shut-off; even though, it must be reactivated each time we get in the car. The heated seats will probably be appreciated, as will the defrosting mirrors.

     Have we gone too far? We used to get along pretty well with three gears, a clutch pedal, a stick shift, and a scraper to take the frost off our windows. Of course, I must be careful saying such things around the wife who might take a well-aimed swing at me with her purse. But, oh, those  ’57 Chevies! Speaking of them, they have a tale to tell, too.

     Couple the Bel Air trim level with a 283 V-8 engine and you had a car many a high school senior dreamed about driving to escort the girls with around town. But something strange occurred that year. Sales reports showed that Chevy lost sales to Ford for the first time since 1935. It’s hard to believe the reason for it - the ’57 Chevy had tubeless tires, the first car to have them. There was buyers’ resistance. That, plus the all-new body styling by Ford helped Ford’s sales. The funny thing about it is that the Chevy is more popular today as a classic.

     I never had the opportunity of owning a ’57 Chevy. School kept getting in the way, but a car I was ready to jump behind the wheel and buy on time after I graduated from college was a 1964 Mustang. Something about a strike as I remember prevented the dealers from having any on their lot, and when I went to buy, I settled for a ’62 sedan which always left me yearning for my first choice. 

     I learned to drive in a ’49 Ford, a dull, dusty, rattletrap of a car that wouldn’t start in cold weather. Dad called it a “lemon.” The only other interesting cars that stand out are Model “A” Fords. In my growing years there were still a number of them running about. An old gentleman in town drove a green pickup model that ran like a top. I don’t know if it was his only vehicle, but it could have served as a good road car. It made such an impression on me that I keep a 1931 model on my shelf that looks just like it.

     Another gentleman, a bachelor who lived in the sandhill area southeast of Sheldon, drove Model A sedans. If memory serves, he went through several of them. He never went to town often, but when he did, it was in one of them, and they got him there and back. My friend Ralph from school days had a Model A he always tinkered with, but I don’t think he ever got it running well.

     If I keep traveling back in time, I will end up on main street where a large number of horses and wagons stand parked.  But in an old 1915 issue of the Sheldon Progress we can read where the city council voted to remove the hitching posts from main street. The wooden boardwalks remained, but they would be removed sometime in the future. To a teenager that seems so ancient. To an 80 year old, it wasn’t so long ago.

     It’s time to return to the new car and start learning more about all the goodies it features. I think I know what “Steering Responsive LED Headlights” means. When my wife drove it, I noticed the headlights swiveled to follow the turn of the steering wheel. The “Lineartronic CVT w/ X-Mode” has me stumped for now, but a little study should ease the way into fully operational mode on that space age feature.

     Under the section of optional equipment, there was one feature included that was readily understood: “Full Tank of Gas.”

Sheldon Shadows - 1985-86

 Here's a picture of the Sheldon Shadow basketball team - 1985-86.

Sheldon BB Team - 1924

 A Golden Oldie - The Sheldon basketball team from 1924: The players on the photo I have are identified only by last name - 1. Jones, 2. McConnell, 3. Shaw, 4. Boyle, 5. Burton, 6. Akre, 7. Newton. The two coaches are unidentified.

Rumors Run Amuck

We wage a constant battle centering on deciding right from wrong, truth from rumor, fact from fiction. Even with due diligence we get sucked into believing rumors from time to time. If we’re lucky we might discover the error of our ways and make course corrections.

       The State Historical Society of North Dakota publishes a great magazine “North Dakota History.”   The recent issue carries a thought-provoking article, “Free Speech on Trial” which discusses the Espionage Act of 1917. Now that seems like ancient history but it will fit into a larger framework we’ll try to build here. 

     The act was passed when the United States entered World War I to fight with her European allies against Germany and her allies. Prior to this, the U.S. had been the destination for large numbers of German immigrants and now we were fighting their old home country. Could those immigrants be trusted to behave themselves in our borders or were they a threat? To deal with the potential threats, Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917.

     To quote the recent article, “Although vital to national security, the Espionage Act severely threatened citizens’ right to free speech due to its vague and sweeping language.” Judge C. F. Amidon was kept busy during this time adjudicating cases brought to him. A familiar name of John H. Wishek suffered through accusations and a trial for being in violation of the espionage act. One of the charges against him was that he opposed the sale of Liberty Loan bonds used to support the military effort. Rumors made him out to be a German sympathizer, but in reality the banks he controlled had purchased over $70,000 worth of bonds. Wishek’s case was just one of many during this period. People were quick to make accusations.

     This paper, The Enderlin Independent, printed  an article in 1918 headlined “Pro-German Hanged.” The story came from New England, ND alleging that a businessman of the. city refused to hang a picture of an enlisted man of the U.S. army and that he stated that no soldier’s picture would be hung in his place. Rumors must have swirled and grown because “a mob of angry citizens escorted Arnold to the railroad bridge, placed a rope about his neck and hanged him until he was black in the face. The man was then lowered to the ground and made to retract his statement.” 

     My wife recently bought a novel titled “Red Letter Days,” by Sarah-Jane Stratford which has me chomping at the bit to read myself. The story evokes memories of the witch-hunts and the Hollywood blacklists conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s.  She states, “It is staggering to think that the United States, emerging victorious and a superpower at the end of World War II, should have been so afraid of the spread of Communism that it would start persecuting its own citizens.”

     The HUAC subpoenaed Tom McGrath, the poet raised and schooled in Sheldon, to testify. He favored left-wing politics, and even signed up to fight with the International Brigade for Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Because that war ended, he never made it over there, but soon joined the U.S. Army during WWII and was stationed in the Aleutian Islands. Next he attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, after which taking employment as a college teacher in California. 

     During testimony he quoted Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, “This system of spying and surveillance with its accompanying reports and trials cannot go hand in hand with academic freedom. It produces standardized thought, not the pursuit of truth.” McGrath then went on to invoke the 5th Amendment, but was blacklisted and lost his job at the college. Even so, he kept on writing his poetry and did teach again, including NDSU and Moorhead State.

     The U. S. Senate had their version of investigation. Remember the U. S. senator Joe McCarthy. He saw himself as a watchdog and rose to national fame in 1950 after asserting that he had a list of members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring. He created quite a stir, and finally because of his bullying, recklessness, and dishonesty, the Senate saw fit to censure him for his behavior.  

     Rumors come and go, and I recently heard of this one. President Biden’s environmental policies will eliminate beef in our diets. Some commentators glommed onto that rumor for the shock value to stir their body of readers and listeners.  I thought something was amiss when I heard it. A huge economy surrounds the cattle industry and any changes made will come very slowly, if at all. It even caused me to write a limerick:

Here's a rumor to repeat.

It's almost set in concrete.

It's about Biden

And how he'll widen

The road to banning meat.

The rumor was traced to a British scandal magazine called The Daily Mail. 

 

Rumors

 Our daily lives are full of rumors and misinformation. We also need to beware of drawing broad lessons of history from isolated incidents. Let’s illustrate with the “fact” of a lone survivor at Little Big Horn - the horse named Comanche. That’s what the history books taught me when I was younger, but already by 1884 one man saw it a fallacy. Here’s how. The book I republished by William V. Wade gives witness to this scenario.

     “Many people think that Captain Keogh’s claybank horse,

Comanche, was the only horse that escaped the massacre at the Little Big Horn fight in 1876. I saw evidence to the contrary. I was up in Canada during the summer of 1884 in the capacity of Deputy U.S. Marshal and while looking over an Indian camp near a river that ran by the city of Brandon, I met a young half  breed boy about 19 or 20. …

    I saw a large horse picketed near where I met the young man. The horse attracted my attention so much that I walked over to take a look at him. He had much better conformation than the ordinary Indian horse and I soon discovered he was branded on the left shoulder with “7th USC” meaning he had once belonged to the U.S. Cavalry. The young man who could speak quite a bit of English said, ‘Do you think you ever seen him?’ I told him I knew the horse had been with the 7th Cavalry to which he replied, ‘There are more of them; they followed us up here from the Yellowstone River.’ He pointed in the direction of some other outstanding horses and said, ‘Do you want to look at them, too?’ I knew the Indians would resent my looking them over so I just let well enough alone but I positively saw the brand on the one and suspected the rest of them carried the U. S. brand, too. Comanche was just wounded too bad or he would have arrived in Canada with the rest of those 7th Cavalry horses that followed the Indians on their last flight across the border into Canada.”

     The misinformed story of his being the lone survivor lived on and when he died his body was sent to the University of Kansas to be stuffed and put on display, where he resides today in the university's Natural History Museum. Today most historians agree with William Wade’s version, but unfortunately nobody seems to care.

Something Unusual...

 

 Something unusual for your viewing pleasure. The chuck wagon and team are one of my woodcarving creations that was placed on a drawing in Sisseton a few years back. Now Gary Russeth, who won the carving, has used it as background for his love of all things Laurel and Hardy.

The old steam locomotive, real as it looks, is a half-scale model he has crafted. He's done some outstanding things with wood with constructing realistic cars. He tells me it has been put in for consideration by Guinness Records. Check out more of his work by googling "Gary Russeth, wood models."

A Little Miscellaneous

I ran into some pictures and placed them here for the fun of it. On top see Mary standing beside the grave marker of my great-grandmother in the Pioneer Cemetery in the sandhills. It is overgrown with weeds and trees. To the left is the way the grounds look now. The tiptop on the marker above has been knocked off in the left picture. Weather, cows, vandals, who knows?

 

Above are a couple of owl hoots who I went with to check out Pigeon Point. I always get a kick out of Larry Strand jumping into a cellar hole. It made for a good picture.