Remembering Glenn Jones

Lots of changes came to America after the conclusion of World War I.  Even though the United States was only involved in “The Great War” for a short time at the conclusion of the conflict, the effects on the country were great.

            When the German leaders signed the armistice on November 11, 1918, the actual fighting ceased, but it also ushered in a contentious time of “making peace” after the war.  American President Woodrow Wilson had laid out a plan for the post-war world in his “Fourteen Points” speech to Congress in January 1918.  Wilson sought to do away with practices that could lead countries into war – such as abolishing secret diplomacy and having treaties be “open covenants openly arrived at”.  President Wilson also advocated for the creation of a “League of Nations” to preserve peace and insure justice for all.

            When the Paris Peace Conference began after the war ended, Wilson was an active participant and became the first American President to travel to Europe.  Although the leaders of the victorious Allies (Great Britain, France and Italy most notably) sought retribution from and punishment for Germany and the other Central Powers, Wilson petitioned at the Paris conference for justice and lasting world peace.  To this end, the formation of a “League of Nations” became a part of the Versailles Treaty.

            In America, the country had to realign the nation’s economy and social order from a wartime footing back to what it was before the 1917 entrance into the war.  Often, it is hard to go back to where you were before – especially on a national scale.  Indeed, some of the American troops stationed in France and the Western Front did not return to their homeland.  Instead, several thousand American soldiers joined with British, French and Japanese forces in fighting in Russia’s Great Civil War from 1918-1920.  The military invasion that invaded Russia was supposed to stop the Communists from taking control there, but the venture proved unsuccessful.

            Back in America, the Russian venture stoked fears that Communists might come after the United States next and fostered a time of mass hysteria known as the “Red Scare”.  Government agencies were created to look everywhere for “Commies” and any disruption were blamed on the “Reds”.  And there were plenty of disruptions in the United States after World War I.

            Labor strife was rampant in America as the country shifted back to a peacetime economy after the war.  During the war, higher wages and benefits had kept the workers of American factories working long and hard to support military and other wartime needs.  Workers did not want to loose what they had which led to strikes across the country.  The police went on strike in Boston and the National Guard was called out to maintain order.  A failed strike against U.S. Steel left 18 workers dead in bloody confrontations.

Racial friction also intensified after the war ended.  During the year after the Armistice, 70 African-Americans were lynched in the United States, including 10 Black soldiers in uniform.  A six-day race riot in Chicago in the summer of 1919 left 38 dead.

  A reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan appeared in America in the 1920s.  The newer KKK was anti-black, anti-foreigner, and anti-Catholic in philosophy and was no longer just an organization of the American South.  The new Klan spread into the Midwest and even the Kickapoo Valley.  (Check my earlier two writings of the “Local History Notebook” published in September 2016 where the KKK in La Farge is discussed.  These can also be found on my history blog.)  

The observance of Memorial Day also changed after World War I.  In 1868, General John Logan had issued an order that May 30^th should be set aside as a day of remembrance for those soldiers who had died in America’s Civil War.  The order by General Logan specifically called “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades”.  Forty years later, America was still celebrating “Decoration Day” at the end of May, but now had a new group of fallen soldiers to remember.  New names were added to the honor roll of fallen warriors that were read in the cemeteries of La Farge.

Soon after the war ended, young men in the military began to return to their hometowns.  Most of the earliest to return were still stationed in training camps in the United States awaiting ships for the crossing to Europe.  By early 1919, some of the men who had been on the Western Front were also returning to the Kickapoo Valley.  One of the boys from La Farge never came back.

Glenn Jones was the son of Reverend D. G. Jones and his wife.  Reverend Jones was the minister for the church at Potts Corners and the family lived on Weister Creek.  Glenn attended high school in La Farge as a “boarding” student (rural students at that time were not part of the school district in La Farge and had to pay tuition to attend.  Many of them boarded in the village while attending school.), beginning in 1912.  He can be seen in the front row of that iconic photograph of the 1912 LHS Football Team, staring with wide eyes from beneath his leather helmet.  Glenn also participated in other sports while attending school in La Farge.  He was an active and well-liked student.

In his Senior year at LHS, Glenn Jones participated in the local LHS oratory contest and was a member of the cast of the LHS Senior Class Play performed for the community at the Opera House on Main Street of La Farge.  A month later, at the end of May 1916, Glenn joined fifteen of his Senior classmates for the La Farge High School graduation ceremonies, also held at the Opera House.

A few weeks after that commencement ceremony in 1916, there was this item in the “Local News” section of the La Farge Enterprise newspaper, “Glen Jones, Floyd Rittenhouse and Layton Perkins were Yuba callers Saturday.”  It is supposed that some young ladies of Yuba may have been the impetus for the visit.

Later, Reverend Jones and his family left the La Farge area where he preached at other churches in Wisconsin.  Glenn probably went with his family when they moved, but he may have remained in La Farge.  When America entered the war in the Spring of 1918, Glenn Jones joined the military.  He trained at Camp Grant, a huge American military training facility located near Rockford, Illinois.  Glenn Jones was a member of the 47^th Infantry, Company E, which was formed in May 1917 and organized in June at Syracuse, New York.  The unit was fighting on the front lines of the Western Front in France by July 1918.  In the six months of his time in the service, Glenn Jones attained the rank of corporal.

In the October 10, 1918 issue of the Enterprise, mention of the La Farge lad was made in the “Local News” column, “A report has been circulated that Glenn Jones had been killed in France.  At this writing confirmation of this report has not been received.”  Several months went by, including the Armistice signing to end the war, before La Farge’s newspaper could get the confirmation about Glenn Jones.

“Mr and Mrs Geo. Burnard received a card Wednesday from Rev. D. G. Jones of Pardeeville, which stated that their son Glenn was killed in France sometime between the 3^rd and 13^th of August.  The report had reached them sometime ago that he was missing but nothing definite was learned until this time.  The sad news of Glenn’s death is a severe blow to his parents and relatives and they have the deepest sympathy of their many friends in this village.” – from the La Farge Enterprise, “Local News” section, January 2, 1919 issue.

The United States lost 50,280 men in World War I including La Farge’s Glenn Jones.  Glenn Jones was killed in action on August 7, 1918 while cleaning out a nest of machine gunners with hand grenades in the Argonne Forest region.  He was wounded with a shot to the leg and died before he could be evacuated.  The body of Glenn Jones was buried in a military cemetery in France alongside his fallen American comrades.

The body of Glenn Jones was later returned to the United States on August 4, 1921 and was buried with full military honors at the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia.  The La Farge V.F.W. Post 9075 was named after Corporal David Glenn Jones to honor La Farge’s only World War I veteran killed in action. 

La Grippe

Last week it was reported that this winter’s version of the influenza had claimed its first life in Wisconsin – a twelve-year old girl from Milwaukee.  That is truly tragic news to hear.  Wisconsin seems to be one of the states in the country that has the influenza breaking out in epidemic proportion and the Kickapoo Valley has not been spared from that outbreak.  The medical clinic in La Farge has been jammed for several weeks with people seeking relief and remedies from the dreaded influenza.  In olden days, they called the disease “La Grippe”.

            One of the downsides of researching through the history of La Farge has been to chronicle the effects of disease, disaster and destruction of various sorts in the community.  Great floods of the Kickapoo River stand like signposts when navigating through the history of this little river town.  Those disasters of Mother Nature provide dividing points in telling the story of this town.  (Think how the village has changed since the great flood of 2008 as the most recent example of this.)

            As one leafs through the pages of old newspapers that help to tell the story of La Farge, the mentions of the winter sicknesses like influenza are all too common.  At its very beginning, the village endured the ravages of the illness.  In the January 20, 1899 issue of the La Farge Enterprise, it is noted that, “everyone has la grippe”.  The use of that term, “la grippe” is interesting in itself.  Its use is probably derived from the earlier lumber camps that were located in the northern part of the Kickapoo Valley.  The derivation of the word is French-Canadian, which again would possibly tie it to the men who were populating those early lumber camps.

            The men in those lumber camps were housed in barracks of a kind that could foster the spread of a disease like influenza or la grippe.  Virtually stacked on top of each other for sleeping arrangements and usually eating from a common serving vessel, the spread of disease and illness was almost guaranteed.  The sound of the morning cough of the men in the camp was legendary and was a signal for other, more healthier sorts to stay away.

            In the first decade of the village of La Farge (1899-1909) mention is made nearly every year of an outbreak of la grippe or some other influenza type illness.  “La Grippe is back in town” led the local observation of the March 11, 1909 issue of the Enterprise.  Of course in those days there were no flu shots to help mitigate the ravages of the flu.  (Although I can personally attest that the 2014-15 version of that flu inoculation did not mitigate the effects of a certain strain of this season’s influenza.  My constant cough of several weeks has become a factor of recognition, as in, “Oh there’s that awful hacking cough, that must be Brad!)

Tragically, death from disease was often the final chronicle for some in those early years of research.  The report of a death from the influenza, or whooping cough, or croup was almost a weekly occurrence in those newspapers from that time.  In a 1905 issue of the La Farge newspaper, mention is made of a six-month old baby succumbing to membranous croup, a childhood upper respiratory illness associated with diphtheria.  Whooping cough was another deadly disease for the young during that time.  The whooping cough could become so virulent that quarantines and other isolating measures would be used to thwart the spread of the deadly disease.  Doctors in the village would post warning signs on the front doors of houses where the disease was rampant, warning others to avoid contact with the inhabitants.  The local school in La Farge was shut down for a week or two at a time on more than one occasion during this era to stem the effects of these winter illnesses.

In one year during this early decade of La Farge, the village president, acting in concert with the local doctors, cancelled a much-anticipated dance, which was to be held at the Opera House.  The members of the band that was to play for the grand winter ball were from Viola, which was apparently rife with whooping cough at the time.  So to avoid the threat of infection from the downriver community, the dance was called off.  Of course, this action did not sit well with the people of Viola, so in that town’s newspaper a scathing article was published the following week that rebuked the La Farge officials for impugning their fair town (Viola) as a center of disease and pestilence.

Of course, back in those days, there was a train chugging into town every day.  The old “Kickapoo Stump Dodger” delivered all sorts of goods and products to the businesses and farms of the community.  There were also usually some passengers on the daily train – often salesmen coming to La Farge to peddle their wares.  One can imagine of the various ills and maladies also accompanying those traveling salesmen when they came to town.  Spreading la grippe, the Kickapoo Croup and other winter illnesses would have been part of the convenience of La Farge being connected to the outside world via its rail line.

One of the saddest findings in my research dealt with the death of the teenage daughter of Henry Millard.  I believe she was only thirteen-years old when she succumbed to one of the winter influenzas of that time.  She was a very popular girl in the village.  Her Dad owned a general store and operated La Farge’s post office out of the same building and she often helped people with their purchases and picking up their mail.  She was a daughter of La Farge’s Main Street and her sudden passing shocked the community and devastated her parents.  It was said that Henry Millard and his wife never got over their lovely daughter’s passing.  Eventually, the store was sold and the Millard’s left the community that they had called home for so many years.  They left to escape the painful memories of the loss of their beautiful little girl.

Stay healthy during this winter flu season my friends.

La Farge's Christmas Tree History

YULETIDE HISTORY

            As I was driving down La Farge’s Main Street the other night admiring the holiday lights in the neighborhoods, I noticed how nice the village Christmas tree looks.  The pine tree, located in the side yard of the old shoe shop on south State Street, has grown into a handsome representation of what a town’s “O Tannenbaum” should be.  As I was awed by the wonder of the beauty of the lighted tree, my mind began to wonder about other trees that served in that capacity for La Farge.

            The first village Christmas trees were indoor versions.  Around the time the village was being established at the end of the 19^th century, La Farge had a Christmas tree in the Opera House.  The Opera House was a large public hall located above what now is Phil & Deb’s Town Tap.  That building was constructed by La Farge’s local chapter of the Modern Woodman of America, when that organization outgrew their previous building located a few doors to the east.  The Woodmen were a combination fraternal order/insurance company and the La Farge chapter numbered over one hundred members around 1900. 

When the Woodmen built their new structure, the idea was to rent out the first floor as a place of business (something in high demand in La Farge at the time) and use the huge second floor as a meeting room for Woodmen activities.  Unfortunately, the Woodmen soon found that they couldn’t make the payments on the money borrowed for the construction of the hall.  Some of the officers of the bank enlisted others in the area to form a stock company to take over the payments and the upstairs hall became a public Opera House.

            At Christmas time, the merchants and other leaders of the community would arrange for a large tree to be put in the hall and decorated for the season.  One Yuletide night each year, usually the Saturday before Christmas, the candles on the tree would be lit, a program of music and recitations would be given by the talented of the village and gifts would be distributed to the children in attendance by a surprise visit from a stranger from the North Pole.  The event would draw hundreds to the hall for the lighting of the village’s Christmas tree.

It came to pass that electricity came to town and the village’s tree could be moved outside for all to admire.  Since so much of the activity of the early village centered on the intersection of Main and State Streets, the village Christmas tree was placed right in the middle of the intersection.  Decorated with brightly colored lights and festoons of sparkly garland, La Farge’s Christmas tree, located in the middle of that busy intersection, became a focal point for Yuletide activities.  Christmas carolers and the La Farge Cornet Band would regale audiences with performances from the nearby bandstand on those busy nights of shopping in the village.

The placement of the village Christmas tree in that busy crossroads eventually was put to a stop by state highway department rules and regulations, so a new location was needed.  Fortunately, a nice pine tree was growing in the east yard of the Belcher building, located on the northeast corner of that same intersection.  (For you younger folks, that’s the big pine that was next to Eston Major’s barbershop.) So that tree was decorated with lights each Yuletide season and became the village’s Christmas tree.  It was still decorated during the time of World War II in the 1940s and La Farge lads serving in the armed forces and strewn across the world in Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific dreamed of seeing that home-town Christmas tree again.

As is want to happen in these parts of the Kickapoo Valley, that pine tree soon grew so large that it became dangerous to decorate, so for many years the village did not really have a tree decorated on Main Street.  When I was growing up in La Farge during the 1950s and ‘60s, I don’t seem to remember a village Christmas tree, official or unofficial, anywhere.  Perhaps looking for that special outdoor Christmas tree, I do remember a yearly Yuletide car trip up to Buckeye Ridge to see the brightly lit Christmas tree on top of the tallest silo at the Thelen farm, a Yuletide tradition started by Al Thelen back in the 1940s.

 However, at that same time, there was a scrawny little pine tree growing behind the old firehouse (I’m going back a ways here to the fire house that was located with access to the alley by the present motel.) in the vacant lot where Mac Marshall’s hotel had been (present site of the post office).  That little conifer faced Main Street and as is want to happen in these parts, the tree rapidly grew to be nice sized and took its place as the village’s Christmas tree, decorated with lights each Yuletide season.

Alas, that tree found itself in the way of progress and when the new post office was built in 1980, the tree had to come down as part of the construction.  Much chagrin was shown by many village residents and even a few letters-to-the-editor were written to show support for the tree, but soon, with a swipe or two with a chain saw, it was gone.  Quickly, the present tree, much shorter then, was offered as a replacement for its departed conifer brethren a block away.  La Farge grade school students made ornaments to decorate the rookie tree and make it more Christmassy, a tradition continued from earlier years.  And so our present village Christmas tree took its place in the history of La Farge.

Merry Christmas everyone!  May you all make it home for Christmas.

The Village Christmas Tree

As the Christmas Season rushes at us once again, the nostalgia of Christmas Past in La Farge draws me to remember back. Over the years, La Farge has had a tradition of a special tree decorated for the holiday season.

In the early days of the village, the season was celebrated with a tree lighted with candles for all to enjoy at the Opera House on Main Street. A program was held on the evening when the tree's candles would be lit that included music by the La Farge Concert Band. Readings were offered in the program, as well as treats and presents were given to the children.

When electricity came along and illuminating the Yule Tree became safer and more convenient, the village decorated a tree erected in the main intersection at "The Corners"(today where Highway 131 joins Main Street from the south). The tree offered holiday cheer in the busy street. As Christmas shoppers poured into the village to do their shopping, the "Band Boys" would play Christmas carols in the nearby bandstand. Eventually, Wisconsin's highway department nixed the village's tree in the middle of two state highways, so La Farge's Christmas tree was moved a few yards north to the large white pine that stood next to the Belcher's building, later the barber shop, on Main Street. During World War II, La Farge sons and daughters in the service would long for a sight of that tree in their hometown. That tree grew too large to decorate over time and in the 1950's a tree was decorated with lights in the vacant lot where Mac's Hotel was once located (across the street and west of the bank building). That young pine served as the village tree for several decades until it had to be removed for the construction of the new post office building.

Today, the village's tree has returned to near its earlier locations. Now the tree with its lights glowing and limbs loaded with decorations made by students in La Farge's elementary classes, stands in the yard north of the former shoe & harness shop, located just off Main Street on south State. Christmas through the years in the village has seen the decorated tree celebrate the season for the community.

Merry Christmas to all! Enjoy the season and I hope you can all make it home for the holidays!