Remembering Ransom County's Veterans

    I remember the time one of my grandfathers took me fishing at Lake Tewaukon. I was too young to appreciate it and didn’t know the first thing about catching a fish. He helped me bait the hook, probably with an earthworm, and throw it in the water. Impatience ruled my six or seven year old sensibilities as I was having no luck at all. He was given to periods of introspection and probably didn’t want to be bothered because he told me to sit still, watch that bobber, and don’t take your eyes from it.

     I don’t know how much time passed before he finally decided it was time to head for home, something for which I was very glad. I could finally take my eyes from the bobber. When we arrived home, my parents were in the barn milking, and of course my mother came to ask how we’d done. I still remember looking up at the moon and seeing that darn bobber bouncing up and down in there. That episode with Grandpa came to mind again with the approach of Veterans Day. 

     We mark another Veterans Day on November 11th in remembrance of the fighting that ended in World War One on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Ransom County did its share in contributing to the war effort. Undoubtedly, the best evidence of that can be found in the book one-time Lisbon residents Ann and Michael Knudson wrote titled Ransom County’s Loyal Defenders. The book published in 1910 accumulates the information they rounded up from various sources.

     They reported over 600 of the county’s men and at least five women served in various branches of service. Their names appear in an index and many of their brief biographies fill the pages. It is easy to guess while reading it that on a per capita basis, Ransom County did its share, maybe more. 

     We don’t often think about World War One anymore. The last survivor died in 2011. He was one of about five million men and women from the United States who wore the uniform. In the short time we were overseas 53,402 of them were killed.

     That war had been grinding on since the time a young Serbian patriot shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914. An amazing entanglement of treaties drew in participants from all over Europe. Soon all of Europe was involved.

     At first the remembrance of it was called Armistice Day and declared a legal holiday 20 years later. It was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 when President Eisenhower signed it into a law to honor American veterans of all wars for their patriotism and willingness to serve and sacrifice.

       Several reasons why this country entered the war can be given, one being the fact of a German submarine sinking the SS Lusitania which killed 1195 people, 128 of them Americans. Others included Germany’s invasion of Belgium, US bank loans to Europe could be lost if Germany won, German submarines were sinking ships at sea, and the decoding of the Zimmerman Telegram. It was a coded message to Mexico from Germany promising them a piece of U. S. territory if they’d help. Our citizens became stirred up and the United States entered the war in April of 1917.

     Unfortunately,Veterans Day, one of eleven federal holidays, gets little notice except for the fact that banks close and there is no mail delivery.  For many that’s an inconvenience. Personally, I try to remember it each year by writing something about it. 

     Back to my grandpa and his introspection while fishing, someone in the family asked if he’d talk about the war. He said, “You wouldn’t want to know.” He was keeping his thoughts to himself and that was that. To learn something of what he experienced I needed to dig up the history and read it for myself.

     He was a private in the 362nd Regiment of the 91st Division. History of this regiment and division is readily available and I put a picture together. Space won’t allow much detail, but one episode of their attack on a German position stands out. His regiment gained their objective but were forced to withdraw because regiments on either side could not keep pace and protect their flanks. He pencilled a brief remark of their retreat in a little pocket Bible, “We lost half our men.”

     Ransom County service members served in a wide variety of units and battle situations. According to the Knudson book, a total of 31 men and women died in service, seven of them were killed in action, two from accidents, and the others from illness, most likely from the flu epidemic that raged among them.

     We heartily celebrate Christmas and 4th of July, but a once popular Thanksgiving has mostly landed in the midst of Christmas shopping.  About as much enthusiasm is shown for Veterans Day as is Columbus Day. All of them claim solid reasons for commemoration but few care. I intend to recall Veterans Day by way of this reflection.