The armistice that ended World War I was just one week

old when William Edwin Lee of Long Prairie, Minnesota, a respected banker and county and state political figure, submitted a proposal to the Todd County Board of Commission-ers. Lee was requesting approval to erect, at his own expense, “an endur-ing monument” on the courthouse grounds to be “presented to the people as a lasting tablet” inscribed with the names of the 64 Todd County men who “gave their lives in the great war for the cause of humanity.” The article in the Long Prairie Leader about Lee’s proposal concluded that the memorial “will be a worthy one . . . and a reminder to generations for all time” of those who sacrificed their lives so the “world might be safe for governments that stand for liberty and freedom.”1

William Lee’s proposal to the Todd County board represented an early effort to memorialize the World War I dead. Lee, who had a strong sense of history and a deep affection for his community, clearly wanted to build a public memorial that would have a dual purpose: to honor the county’s war dead and to remember why they had died. He also wished to share

The monument’s south side.

those sentiments with the people of Todd County. For Lee, then, the monu-ment would serve an important public purpose by helping to shape the pub-lic’s memory of the war, reminding county residents of the cause for which the 64 men had sacrificed their

lives. A century later, historian Lisa M. Budreau acknowledged the efforts of Lee and others like him in the after-math of World War I: “On a personal level the sacrifice of life needed to be fully justified and then mourned and remembered in an honorable way.”2

To Honorthe Soldier Dead

The Todd County World War I Monument

Edward Pluth

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Recent scholarship on memorials emphasizes that “memorials exist at the intersection of memory and history and bond us to our past,” and “all memorials remain artifacts of their time and place.” They are therefore subject to politicization and can become the focus of contentious

local and national debate, as witness the controversy over Confederate monuments that emerged in 2017. Many were erected decades after the Civil War ended with the intention to commemorate the “Lost Cause” and southern “redemption” from Recon-struction. Questions have been raised

of what the monuments actually convey and whether they should be destroyed or relocated to museums or other more appropriate sites. The stark, conceptual design of the Viet-nam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC, generated much contention when it was dedicated in the early 1980s. (A figurative statue was added to the site to appease critics.) The Todd County memorial illustrates a less contentious mani-festation of this dynamic: in the two short years between when the Todd County memorial was conceived (1918) and dedicated (1920), the polit-ical context of the meaning of World War I had already shifted.3

In the Midwest, interest in estab-lishing permanent memorials to honor soldiers and sailors who died in World War I began some months before the November 11, 1918, armi-stice, going back at least to March 1918 when the towns of Virginia, Minnesota, and Atlantic, Iowa, were listed in a stone trade magazine among communities planning to erect soldiers’ monuments. A marble monument in Minot, North Dakota, dedicated on May 30, 1918, to local soldiers who had died in the war, is considered the first actualized memorial. Activity intensified from early November through December 1918, as individuals and communities in Minnesota and across the nation proposed and discussed plans to erect memorials to their war dead. Local women’s clubs and veterans, patriotic, civic, and ethnic organiza-tions were becoming “increasingly involved in the business of memory” and initiated what historian Jennifer Wingate concludes was “a grassroots affair” to memorialize local heroes. By 1919, a nationwide movement had emerged. Over the next two decades, according to historian Steven Trout,

The Todd County monument is most likely the first erected by a Minnesota county to honor World War I casualties.

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more than 140 communities bought and placed in public sites a popular mass- produced statue titled Spirit of the American Doughboy, a figura-tive sculpture of a US infantryman designed by Ernest Moore Viquesney.4

But building World War I war memorials also generated deep concern, especially within the arts community, that the perceived “sculptural atrocities” of Civil War memorials would be replicated in

the new memorials. This apprehen-sion fostered a serious discussion about the form and character of such memorials and the desire that they express “feelings of honor, sacrifice and patriotism” and have “artistic merit.” Such monuments, according to John R. Van Derlip, president of the board of directors of the Minne-apolis Society of Fine Arts, should be “refined, simple, idealistic and . . . free from over- elaboration and vul-garity.” The Minnesota History Bulletin of February 1919, noting the statewide discussion of “numerous plans . . . for the establishment of state and local memorials,” reflected the concern over appropriate war memorials. The article praised the “commendable desire” among a number of memorial planners “to proceed with deliber-ation, knowing that the results of their choice will be permanent and a constant source, either of pride or of regret to their communities.” In May 1919, the bulletin observed, “The general trend of opinion appears to favor the community building type of memorial” and listed four publica-tions that included information on planning war memorials.5

In its 1919 session, the Minnesota Legislature approved issuing county bonds up to $50,000 to facilitate building local memorials. The fund-ing could be used to buy property and to construct “thereon a monument or memorial in honor of the soldiers and sailors” who fought in the armed services “during the recent war.” Such bonds had to be approved by the county board and by a majority of the voting public. By November 1925, the St. Paul Pioneer Press estimated that Minnesotans had spent more than $2 million to “perpetuate the memory” of their World War I dead. That effort, Minnesota historian Franklin Hol-brook noted in 1932, resulted in “the erection of numerous shafts, tablets, buildings, parks, tree- lined drives and other memorials, all dedicated with appropriate ceremonies.” These memorials could be found across the state from Virginia to Albert Lea, from Browns Valley to Lindstrom.6

William Lee was moved to spon-sor a war memorial in Long Prairie because of his deep connection to the city and to Todd County. As a young boy he had moved with his family to Minnesota the year before Aerial view, Long Prairie, 1910.

William E. Lee

it became a state, and he went on to play a significant role in the economic development of Todd County. Long Prairie, the county seat, comprised a variety of businesses, many linked to the county’s rural economy, which in 1917 centered on small- scale grain and livestock agriculture. The county’s ethnic mix was primarily old- stock Yankee, German, and Scan-dinavian, along with small numbers of Finnish and Eastern European peoples. Native- born residents of foreign or mixed parentage made up more than 44 percent of the popula-tion, according to the 1910 census.7

The son of English immigrants, Lee was born in 1852 in Alton, Illinois. In 1857 his parents moved first to Little Falls, then to Swan River, a nearby settle ment, and Long Prairie before settling back in Little Falls in 1862. After the Civil War, Lee worked with his father, a millwright, and clerked at a store in Long Prairie. In 1875 Lee opened a general store in Todd County’s Burnhamville Township, which was a local gathering place to discuss political and economic issues.

Several years later he moved the store to Long Prairie and in 1881 founded the Bank of Long Prairie.8

Lee’s political career began with his election as Todd County register of deeds in 1877. He was elected to the Minnesota Legislature in 1885, 1887, and 1893, serving as speaker of the house during his last term in 1893. Governor Samuel R. Van Sant would later appoint him to the state Board of Control. Lee was the Republican Party candidate for governor in 1914 follow-ing his defeat of then- governor A. O. Eberhart in the Republican primary, but Lee lost the election, after a bit-ter campaign, to Democrat Winfield Scott Hammond. During World War I, Lee played a significant role in the Todd County Liberty Loan campaigns. Widely respected, Lee was described as “an admirable type of the self- made man and citizen,” a man of principle with “the utmost integrity [who] gave unsparingly of his time and energies to serve the people,” both in elected and appointed political positions and through his financial contributions to various public works and charities.9

A MONUMENT HIGH ON A HILL

Lee’s proposed monument on the courthouse grounds would be clearly visible to all courthouse visitors, as it would stand only a short dis-tance from the main north entrance. It also would be visible from the nearby streets of Long Prairie since the courthouse sat upon a hill, the highest point in town. Lee’s intent for the World War I monument in Long Prairie is clear in his proposal letter to the Todd County board, but it is not known whether he also originated the idea. Obviously, he felt strongly enough about it that he was willing to bear the not inconsiderable expense it would require.

Before making his offer to the board, Lee, being a prudent business-man, would have researched the costs and other issues involved in the proj-ect. For assistance with this effort, he contacted the state architect, Clar-ence H. Johnston Sr., and prominent St. Paul sculptor John K. Daniels. Lee likely was familiar with Johnston and

Todd County Courthouse in 1915, five years before the monument was dedicated.

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Daniels from his service in the state legislature in the 1880s and ’90s. In addition to designs, Johnston and Daniels could have provided Lee with information about the types of gran-ite available, the quarry sources for that granite, and the costs for cutting, preparing, finishing, and shipping granite pieces. How much these two men ultimately charged Lee for their work is unknown. Whether Lee dis-cussed his idea with others before he contacted Johnston and Daniels or wrote his letter to the Todd County board is unknown.10

Lee included with his proposal letter a model of the monument he had in mind and indicated he would have “plans and specifications” pre-pared by Johnston and Daniels. Johnston’s architectural designs were already extensive at the time, includ-ing numerous buildings on the University of Minnesota campus, the state fair grandstand, and the Glen-sheen mansion in Duluth. Daniels’s work included various statues at the state capitol; a Spanish- American war monument in Grafton, North Dakota; and bronze statues memori-alizing Minnesotans killed in the Civil War who were buried in southern national cemeteries. Lee’s consul-tation with Johnston and Daniels reflected the newly emerging desire of the arts community to involve such individuals in planning aestheti-cally appropriate war memorials. As a result, the Todd County monument would certainly express “in a perma-nently satisfactory manner feelings of honor, sacrifice and patriotism.”11

The Todd County Board of Com-missioners took up Lee’s request at its meeting on December 2, 1918, nearly two weeks after Lee’s November 18 letter. Daniels attended the meet-ing along with Lee and submitted a “drawing of a proposed granite mon-ument” for the board’s consideration. Lee indicated he would pay the esti-

mated $10,000 cost of the monument and flagpole, but requested the board pay for construction of a foundation, sidewalk, and landscaping to pro-vide a suitable site for the monument so all his funds could be used for the monument itself. Lee recognized that the board “would necessarily have charge of the monument and exercise authority over its care and protection.” The commission-ers adopted a resolution accepting Lee’s offer and agreed to pay for con-struction of the foundation and site preparation. The board authorized its chair and the county auditor to secure a construction contract in a timely manner.12

With winter underway, work to prepare the monument site could not begin until spring. In the meantime, Lee probably selected a granite com-pany and placed his order, though the date for this transaction is not known, and the county Board of Commissioners took several steps to carry out their responsibility for the monument. At the March 1919 board meeting they adopted a resolution approving the list of Todd County “soldiers and sailors who lost their lives during the World War” and for-warded the list to the state architect for inscription on the monument. At this point the list included 58 names, but six more would be added before they were inscribed on the bronze plaque. In his proposal Lee had requested that all names appear in the same style and letter size and that “no official designation or insignia”

be used for any one individual. His request was honored. At the April 1919 meeting the board appointed two commissioners, C. A. Remillard and Charles J. Spieker, and the county auditor, E. M. Berg, to oversee the construction of the monument and to attend to the planting of “proper shrubs” on the courthouse grounds.13

Preparations for constructing the raised cement foundation for the soldiers’ memorial began in early May. Word from the architect that the granite monument pieces had been shipped from Vermont led planners to speculate that the work could be completed by Memorial Day or early June. However, a Vermont granite workers strike, increasing demand for monumental granite, labor shortages, and rail transportation clogs caused a shipping delay and postponed expected completion of the structure until late summer. Why Lee had cho-sen Vermont over Minnesota granite is unknown, but it may have been related to the color and character of the granite he (or Daniels or John-ston) wanted to use. The August and September 1918 issues of American Stone Trade carried ads for soldiers’ monuments and published a set of 16 “standard soldiers’ monument” designs complete with measurement specifications designated the Great Soldier Monument Set. This trade publication printed ads from numer-ous granite companies, including several in St. Cloud. It is not known whether Johnston saw or was influ-enced by any of those designs.14

Lee’s consultation with Johnston and Daniels reflected the newly emerging desire of the arts community to involve such individuals in planning aesthetically appropriate war memorials.

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Todd County’s symbolic memorial is typical of many World War I monuments in that it is an upright piece of stone construction, but beyond that the comparison breaks down. The Todd County monument is atypical in that it is not a freestanding sculpted figure of a doughboy; it is not ready made or of stock design; and it has several original, unique motifs.1

The Smithsonian Inventory of American Sculpture describes the memorial as follows:

A granite monument with bronze relief plaques on the front and back and two granite eagles on the top of the two sides. On the front is a rectangular bronze relief of a soldier stand-ing in front of a female figure representing Victory. Victory holds a laurel branch in her raised proper right hand. Above this relief is a small circular, bronze relief depicting a kneel-ing woman with a nude child standing in front of her. The child reaches for her with its proper right hand. The bronze inscription plaque on the back of the monument is adorned with an eagle holding a flagpole and flag. The monument is mounted on a rectangular base and placed next to a flag-pole and a cannon.2

This description does not reference a small circular bronze relief (far right), located above the inscription plaque, depicting a seated seminude woman holding what appears to be a shroud or blanket over the top of her head. She likely represents sor-row or death. The four corners of the inscribed bronze plaque (p. 128) contain what appears to resemble heraldic coats of arms, each one different from the other. Most likely Clarence Johnston, the monument’s designer, either created or chose those designs as symbols of traditional values associated with war and soldiers. Two of the four symbols also bear some resemblance to the coats of arms of the Allied Powers of England and France, and another is similar to that of Belgium. Johnston may have sought to honor those nations or the fields of combat on which Todd County soldiers fought. In any case, among the symbols represented in the designs are rampant (upright) lions, a unicorn, crowns, spears, Greek and Maltese crosses, a battle- ax, shields, and laurel wreaths. These symbols respectively represent valor, virtue, courage, authority, hon-orable warriors, faith, military service, peace, and victory. All these virtues are applicable to honoring the soldiers to whom the monument was dedicated.3

In 1985 the Todd County Courthouse and Jail was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. At the time, National Register nominations did not include adjacent contributing components of a property, but if the nomination were done today, the memorial would be considered a contributing ele-ment of the Todd County Courthouse listing. 

The front of the monument contains a rectangular bronze relief of a soldier standing in front of a female figure representing Victory.

An Atypical World War I Monument

Notes1. Sixty- five percent of World War I memorials dedicated before

1940 are “freestanding sculptures of soldiers and allegories,” according to Jennifer Wingate, Sculpting Doughboys: Memory, Gender, and Taste in America’s World War I Memorials (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013), 9.

2. Description of the Todd County monument, Smithsonian Inventory of American Sculpture, “World War I Memorial, (sculpture),” https://siris - artinventories.si.edu (search for World War I memorial, (Sculpture). Daniels).

3. For descriptions of heraldic symbols, see www.fleurdelis.com.

above: detail of small, circular bronze relief located above the rectangular bronze relief of soldier and Victory (top). right: detail of small bronze relief located above the inscription plaque (p. 128).

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In the meantime, another signifi-cant development was taking shape. Someone, possibly Lee, decided to seal a time capsule comprising a cylindrical copper casket measur-ing 11 inches wide by 13 inches long in the base of the monument. Who described what items to place in the capsule and who identified or approved the persons who would write or collect the various docu-ments and photos is unknown, but again, Lee’s strong interest in history suggests that he may have been the person responsible. The capsule, expected to last “for hundreds, if not thousands, of years,” provided a source of information about World War I and Todd County’s participation in the conflict for future generations. The Long Prairie Leader expressed pride in the thought that a thousand years hence the time capsule contents would be just as interesting to people as the current interest in “exploring the ancient ruins of Italy, Egypt and the Holy Land.”15

The capsule would contain a treasure trove of items from the era, including 12 brief histories of different facets of Todd County’s par-ticipation in the war written by the men and women largely responsible for or involved with those aspects during the war. In addition, the cap-sule would hold 14 other documents, including the Bible, the Versailles Treaty, the June 1919 issue of every Todd County newspaper, and photo-graphs of 46 of the world’s political and military leaders of that era. Other brief accounts were to describe Todd County’s role in the Civil War, the soldiers who helped establish white settlements in the county, and a history of the county’s role in the Spanish- American War. The 12 his-tories included accounts of the Todd County draft board, the role of Todd County women in World War I, and the five Liberty Loan drives. These

first- person narratives would be invaluable today, but no copies have been located outside of the capsule. Research could not ascertain when the contents of the capsule were compiled and collected, but likely not much before May. The time frame would have been short had construc-tion of the monument begun in early June as first anticipated. As it turned out, the time capsule collectors had until the end of July.16

Sometime in June 1919, monu-ment organizers received word that the delayed granite shipment would be on its way by August. That action prompted the county board in July to initiate planning for an official dedication ceremony, appointing a committee of eight people to organize the event. The committee members

represented various areas of the county and included several World War I veterans and one Civil War vet-eran. The board also voted to invite ex- governor Van Sant, a close friend of Lee’s, to attend the ceremony and present the dedication speech. Lee probably made this suggestion, since he and Van Sant had served together in the legislature and Van Sant had been invited by Lee to Long Prairie on various occasions during the war.17

The Vermont granite pieces for the monument arrived in Long Prairie in mid- August 1919, and construction probably began the last week of the month, though references to actual construction are contradictory. The July 17 issue of the Long Prairie Leader and the county board minutes from July note the monument was “now being erected” or was “now under process of erection,” yet the August 28 issue of the newspaper stated that work had only started that week. The six sections of granite, which together weighed more than 42,000 pounds (21 tons), first had to be unloaded from the railcar, loaded onto a truck

or wagon, hauled to the courthouse site, and then set in place. Given the size and weight of the sections, a crane or other piece of equipment would have been necessary for this effort, a task the newspaper deemed “by no means a small one.” For example, the largest granite piece, the die (the main part of the monu-

Samuel R. Van Sant, 1917.

The Long Prairie Leader expressed pride in the thought that a thousand years hence the time capsule contents would be just as interesting to people as the current interest in “exploring the ancient ruins of Italy, Egypt and the Holy Land.”

124 M I N N E S OTA H I S TO RY

ment) at 74 cubic feet, weighed nearly 13,000 pounds (6.5 tons). Workers from the Twin Cities with experience constructing granite monuments were hired for the project, a process expected to take at least a month.18

On August 27, soon after con-struction started, the time capsule containing the various World War I records was covered with quarter- inch- thick lead sheeting to protect the copper casket from corrosion. Next, it was placed in a larger receptacle, the exact location of which is uncer-tain. One newspaper article mentions both the “base of the monument” and “within the foundation,” which could refer to the cement foundation upon which the monument stands. Another article indicates the casket would rest within the monument itself. If that is correct, then given the size of the casket it likely lies within the granite base upon which the actual monument stands. Whatever space the time capsule was placed in was then “completely filled and packed with paraffin wax.” Once the wax had set, workers continued with erecting the main sections of the monument. The last step was to attach the two large bronze relief plaques and the two smaller circular bronze relief plaques.19

With construction of the mon-ument underway, the dedication committee met to formulate plans for the event. Despite uncertainty about the actual completion date, the committee drew up a tentative dedication program with several speakers, music performances that included a band and a community sing, and unspecified “exercises of a military character.” Family and near-est relatives of those honored by the monument would receive written invitations. The planning, however, was soon placed on hold. The Octo-ber 30, 1919, issue of the Long Prairie Leader reported that although the

“soldiers and sailors monument” would be finished by week’s end with the placement of the “life size figures” (a reference to the bronze plaques) on the monument, the “consider-able delay” over the summer due to granite industry strikes and to “other [unnamed] unavoidable reasons” meant that the dedication probably would not take place until spring of the next year.20

A SOLEMN CEREMONY

No further public reference to the monument is made until April 1920, when the dedication committee met to finalize plans and to set the date for the event. Fittingly, the committee chose May 31, Decoration (Memorial) Day, and scheduled the dedication ceremony for 2 pm. At the request of the committee, nearby local com-munities that had planned afternoon events for Memorial Day either can-celed or rescheduled them to enable their veterans and other residents to travel to Long Prairie to attend the dedication. Local posts of the newly formed American Legion (authorized by Congress in 1919) gave their sup-port to the dedication in memory of their fallen comrades and in honor

of their state commander, Harrison Fuller, who would be speaking.21

As part of the day’s events, the committee organized a parade to take place prior to the dedication ceremony. The committee wanted it to be “one of the most imposing and interesting parades ever held in the village.” Charles H. Taylor, adjutant of the Long Prairie post of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR; an orga-nization for Union veterans of the Civil War), arranged to have every Todd County Civil War veteran march or ride in the parade. The Long Prairie Leader noted that this might be the last time county residents would have the opportunity to see all the surviv-ing Civil War veterans together. The committee planned to “appropriately” decorate the town and in other ways try to ensure the successful comple-tion of the dedication ceremonies. In a related development, US Represen-tative Harold Knutson of Minnesota’s sixth congressional district prevailed on the War Department to donate two eight- inch mounted cannon to be placed near the monument. The cannon were shipped by train from Seattle May 14. The Great Northern Railroad indicated it would make every effort to ensure the cannon

A view from sometime before 1937, when a street entrance tunnel was created under the monument.

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The Todd County memorial, though rare in being sponsored and financed by one individual, follows a tradition of erecting war memorials and monuments for significant individuals and events. In the United States, this tradition dates to a 1793 pro-posal to build a memorial to George Washington. According to one study, “the first significant American memorial” to actually be completed was a Baltimore memorial dedicated in 1825 to honor those killed in the 1814 British attack on the city.1

The Civil War gave an even greater impetus to erect mon-uments and memorials honoring battlefields, generals, and war dead— some completed in the war’s aftermath and others established years later. For example, Marshall and Red Wing were among the first Minnesota cities to do so, dedicating Civil War monuments in 1911 and in 1913, respectively. The Minnesota Legislature established the Minnesota Monument Commission in 1913 to recommend the building of memorials to honor Minnesota soldiers killed in the Civil War and buried in national cemeteries in the South. In December 1918 Governor J. A. A. Burnquist established the State Memorial Commission to build a memorial for Civil War and World War I soldiers. The proposed site was the University of Minnesota. In February 1919, the commission asked state residents to offer suggestions for “the general character” of a state war memorial for “Minne-sota men and women who have served during the great war.” The university regents had made no budget allocations for such an undertaking, however, and the commission was dissolved in March 1919 after university president Marion L. Burton pointed out the oversight.2

Given the significant impact of World War I, it is not sur-prising that in the two decades following the war thousands of public war memorials and monuments were constructed and dedicated as Americans memorialized their war dead. The most noted of these is the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, dedicated in 1926 and now part of the National World War I Museum and National Memorial. The end of World War II stimulated another brief period of war memorial dedications, but, rather than the symbolic monuments more characteristic of World War I memorials, these were more commonly living memorials such as bridges, buildings, highways, and parks.

Beginning in the 1980s, Americans exhibited a renewed interest in the past and in remembrance, expressed in part through a variety of commemorative efforts, including the construction of new monuments and memorials in Washing-ton, DC, and nationwide. Scholars associate this trend with Maya Lin’s mold- breaking 1982 Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the nation’s capital. The Korean War Veterans Memorial (1995), the African American Civil War Memorial (1998), the National World War II Memorial (2004), and the proposed

National World War I and National Native American Veterans Memorials are examples at the national level of the interest in remembrance.3

Veterans, politicians, and various organizations and individ-uals in Minnesota promoted state- and local- level endeavors. The state of Minnesota dedicated memorials on the state cap-itol grounds to war veterans of Vietnam (1992), Korea (1998), and World War II (2007). In 2012, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs listed 150 memorials, monuments, and statues in communities across the state that had been dedicated to veterans of various wars. Although many had been constructed between 1900 and 1950, the renewed interest in creating memorials in recent decades led to an increase in dedications of veterans’ memorials in cities and towns statewide. Between 2000 and 2015 the following Minnesota communities, among others, dedicated veterans’ memorials: Rochester (2000), Long Prairie (2002), Crookston (2002), Stillwater (2004), North-field (2005), Albert Lea (2007), Luverne (2007), Dent (2009), Freeport (2009), Woodbury (2009), Grey Eagle (2011), Delano (2012), Minneapolis (2014), and Lonsdale (2015). Sponsored locally by citizens and organizations using locally raised funds, these memorials vary from one another in their form, design, and cost. Most are dedicated to local veterans of all wars.4

Notes1. Mona Doreen Greenberg and Robert P. Watson, “Public Memorials

in American Life,” American Studies Today Online, Mar. 2, 2011, http://www .Americansc.org.uk/Online/Public_Memorials.htm.

2. Agency History Record, Minnesota State Memorial Commission, MNHS Library Catalog, https://mnhs.mnpals.net/; “Suggestions for Memo-rial,” Duluth Herald, Feb. 6, 1919, 7. After the commission was dissolved, newspaper editors around the state urged action by the legislature to pro-vide for a state memorial for veterans of the Civil War, Spanish- American War, and world war just concluded: “Sentiment Said to Favor War Memo-rial,” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, Apr. 6, 1919, 16.

3. Jennifer Wingate, Sculpting Doughboys: Memory, Gender, and Taste in America’s World War I Memorials (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013), 83; Win-gate notes that some 452 living memorials had been proposed or built in the years after World War I. National World War I Museum and Memorial, https://www.theworldwar.org/.

Selected sources on public memorials include: Barry Schwartz, “Memorials, War,” in The Oxford Companion to American Military History, ed. John Whiteclay Chambers II (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000); Greenberg and Watson, “Public Memorials”; David Glassberg, Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life (Boston: University of Massa-chusetts Press, 2001); John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992); Greg Dickinson, Carole Blair, and Brian L. Ott, eds., Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010).

4. Memorials on state capitol grounds: https://mn.gov/mdva/. Minne-sota cities and town with memorials: https://www.Americanmemorials directory.com/Minnesota.html.

A Long Tradition of

War Memorials

126 M I N N E S OTA H I S TO RY

arrived in time for the dedication. Later, one was returned to the gov-ernment to be melted down during World War II and the second was sent to Camp Ripley, outside Little Falls.22

As planned earlier, the committee expressly invited to the ceremony the family and relatives of the World War I dead memorialized by the mon-ument, as well as returned World War I veterans, many of whom had joined the newly organized American Legion, and members of the GAR and the Woman’s Relief Corps. In addi-tion, the committee published notices in county newspapers to encourage the public to attend. Seats around the monument were reserved for the honored families and for the surviv-ing war veterans, while the public was asked to gather on the street below the monument. All then was in place for the May 31 dedication. Officials anticipated a huge crowd of six to eight thousand people, but a heavy rain in the morning, a continued threat of showers during the day, and muddy rural roads cut the attendance down to about 3,000 people. None-theless, as the Long Prairie Leader headlined, the “soldiers’ and sailors’

monument was dedicated with impressive ceremonies.”23

The events began with the 1:30 pm parade led by “marshal of the day” Sergeant William Bauer. Other parade participants included the Boy Scouts; the Long Prairie Band; the dedication speakers and GAR members, who all rode in cars; Company I, Sixth Reg-iment, Minnesota National Guard; the Woman’s Relief Corps; Spanish- American and World War I veterans; the Staples Fife and Drum Corps;

the Long Prairie Fire Department; and other civic organizations. It was indeed an “imposing” parade and likely met the planning committee’s expectations.24

Not surprisingly, given the solemn and memorial nature of the day, a religious tone characterized the ded-ication ceremony, with area clergy of different denominations playing

important roles. Arthur B. Church, chair of the dedication committee, presided at the ceremony and local bands played between the various parts of the program. Father John S. Guzdek of the Browerville Polish Catholic church gave the opening invocation, followed by a flag- raising ceremony in which Mrs. W. M. Barber of the Woman’s Relief Corps elo-quently presented the county with a flag for the monument flagstaff. With the raising of the flag the Long Prairie Band played the national anthem and a bugler sounded “To the Colors.” Arthur Church then briefly reviewed the county’s role in the war and introduced the monument as “a reminder . . . of what the boys had done and to what the war had com-mitted the country.” The most solemn ceremony of the dedication followed with the calling of the “roll of the dead.” The Reverend W. H. Johnson of Staples read each name inscribed on the monument and noted that individual’s parents, birthplace, army department, and manner of death. After the last name, the Company I firing squad presented a rifle salute, a bugler sounded “Taps,” and the Lib-erty Girls Glee Club sang “America” (My Country ’Tis of Thee).25

The program then continued with speeches by Civil War veteran and former governor Samuel R. Van Sant and by Harrison Fuller, com-mander of the Minnesota American Legion. Both speakers expressed not only the intended purpose and meaning of the monument, but also condemnation of the postwar polit-ical, economic, and social unrest

Dedication ceremony, May 31, 1920.

Both speakers expressed not only the monument’s purpose but also condemnation of postwar political, economic, and social unrest.

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confronting the United States in the form of labor activism, widespread strikes, anti- alien sentiment, polit-ical radicalism, and racial tension. Both speakers reminded citizens of the need to continue the struggle for which the soldiers had fought. The violence that was accompanying this internal unrest, along with the use of government force— especially against the perceived internal threats from communists, socialists, the Indus-trial Workers of the World (IWW), and other radical political elements, generally denoted as the Red Scare— added to the fear and uncertainty then prevalent among many Americans. For example, graphic representation of these reactions appeared on an August 1919 cover of the American

Legion Weekly, featuring a larger- than- life- sized figure of a World War I veteran, with the words “American Legion” on his chest, standing beside the Statue of Liberty with his right hand on her shoulder. Running from the soldier were small figures of men and rats labeled Bolshevist, IWW, Propagandist, and Alien Slacker. The phrase “Her big brother” is printed below the veteran’s feet. Both Van Sant’s and Fuller’s comments reflected the patriotic and antiradical senti-ments of that cover.26

Van Sant was the main speaker of the dedication ceremony, and, according to the Long Prairie Leader, he gave “a stirring patriotic speech.” He claimed the best monument for the soldiers was not one of stone but

“America itself which they helped to build strong and stable.” For Van Sant, “the boys were not dead— their deeds had made them deathless . . . and they would live forever in the memory of a grateful country.” He supported the government’s participation in World War I, asserting that both the United States and the soldiers had “acted from the highest and most unselfish motives.” They fought not “for gain or for conquest but simply to make the world a safer place in which to live.” Van Sant also credited women for their great contribution, especially in saving food, to help win the war.27

He then called attention to the postwar unrest confronting the United States, attributing political radicalism to the “senseless and

William T. Lewis of Long Prairie, one of Todd County’s 64 World War I casualties; column two, fifth name from the top.

Detail, war memorial bronze plaque with names of war dead inscribed.

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wicked agitation by men who are entirely unworthy of attention, much less leadership . . . [and who] were false prophets.” Concerned that sol-diers had not fought and died in vain, he urged Americans to focus on a spirit of conciliation and respect for the rights of others, and to exhibit a “generous and unselfish spirit which the soldier boys had shown.” That spirit, he believed, was needed to bring an end to the discord facing the country, agitation caused by “pessi-mists [who] . . . have magnified and exaggerated and kept alive the sore spots,” as well as by “leaders who complain the loudest” and thereby keep “the troubles alive.” Van Sant appealed for optimism to counter the promoters of unrest, believing the nation had a great future and would “establish more firmly to all, the guar-antees of freedom and liberty.” Van Sant recognized the new American Legion as a vehicle for confronting the nation’s problems and an organiza-tion that would provide “the needed bulwark for things American.” Van Sant closed his address by praising the American flag “as a beacon light to the downtrodden and oppressed everywhere,” and, in a clear reference to radical political and labor groups blamed for the unrest, he asserted, “While we live at least, no red flag or any other banner shall ever supplant the stars and stripes.”28

Following Van Sant’s address, Har-rison Fuller praised the men honored by the monument and believed that their memory should remind people of their “obligations as citizens.” Like Van Sant, Fuller touched on post-war problems and advised citizens to join with the veterans and “fight shoulder to shoulder with them in protecting things American.” To a burst of applause, Fuller avowed there was “not room in America for the American Legion and the communist party.” He concluded his brief speech

with a reminder that in France, on this Memorial Day, the graves of all American soldiers buried there were “decorated and beautified.”29

The dedication program ended with the singing of “America” and a benediction by Reverend C. H. Blake, the local Methodist minis-ter. Although the weather that day was gloomy and the survivors who attended the event likely felt a mix-ture of pride and sorrow, they also may well have found some comfort in knowing that the county had hon-ored the memory of the 64 soldiers with a permanent public monument to their sacrifice.

SHAPING PUBLIC MEMORY

The Todd County monument is most likely the first erected by a Minnesota county to honor World War I casual-ties. It still stands on the north side of the courthouse as of fall 2018, but it has not remained undisturbed since its 1920 dedication. In 1937–38, when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a street entrance tunnel under the monument site to

the lower level of the courthouse, the monument had to be moved before the project could begin. The monu-ment’s disassembly was a difficult task that had to be “carefully done so that no stones [were] chipped or cracked.” No mention is made of hav-ing located the time capsule during the disassembly. Upon completion of the tunnel, reinforcing support beams had to be positioned over the tunnel’s roof to support the weight of the monument, which was then reassem-bled in its original location. At the same time, workers also constructed a new concrete square around and under the monument to replace the deteriorating brick original.30

As part of the nation’s 1976 bicen-tennial, two granite plaques inscribed with the names of servicemen killed in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam were placed on opposite sides of the monument. More recently, in 2011–12, the contracting company undertaking a renovation of the 1883 courthouse building took an interest in locating the adjacent monument’s time capsule but decided against this after determining that the effort could weaken or crack the monument.

Todd County Courthouse, Long Prairie, 1938, the year new street entrance was completed.

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Thus, the monument and its time capsule remain for future genera-tions as a lasting memorial to Todd County’s World War I war dead.31

In the years since the monument’s dedication, the interest shown by states and local communities in establishing veterans’ memorials has fluctuated, with a renewed surge in recent decades. These fluctuations seem to illustrate the blurry intersec-tion between historical consciousness and collective, or public, memory and therefore can provide insight into how Americans understand, use, and shape memory of the past. The Todd County monument is sig-nificant because it was created at the end of World War I when William Lee’s and other county residents’ understanding of the war was based on their just- concluded experience of the event. Given their varied ethnic backgrounds and political and socio- economic situations, they likely held mixed perceptions and interpreta-tions of what they and the nation had just gone through, but the passage of time had not yet influenced their memory of the war or allowed for much reflection upon the meaning of that experience.

Nonetheless, the incorporation of a time capsule within the monument indicates that residents understood the war was a historically signifi-cant event. As originally conceived in 1918, the granite monument and time capsule, intended to last for ages, manifested both Lee’s and Todd County’s patriotism, sense of history, and desire to remember and honor the sacrifice of the 64 Todd County young men who gave their lives toward winning the war. By 1920, when the monument was dedicated, however, the nation had entered into an uneasy postwar era that informed the speeches of Governor Van Sant and Commander Fuller. They placed the meaning of the monument into

a new and larger political context— a reminder not only of the wartime sac-rifice of the soldiers and sailors, but also of the responsibility of citizens to carry on the challenge of preserving the American way of life from per-ceived internal threats, to ensure that the soldiers who died had not sacri-ficed their lives in vain.

Lee did not live to witness much of this postwar unrest. He died in November 1920, five months after the dedication of the memorial he had championed. But William Lee’s legacy lives on as the monument continues to remind viewers of the sentiment and patriotism of the Todd County cit-izens who endured World War I.

View of courthouse and monument, 2012.

Notes1. Commissioners’ Record, Todd County

Board Meeting Minutes, Dec. 2, 1918, Bk. 5, Office of County Board of Commissioners, Todd County Courthouse (hereafter, Commissioners’ Record); “Memorial to Soldier Dead,” Long Prairie Leader, Dec. 5, 1917, 1; “County Board Proceedings,” Long Prairie Leader, Dec. 12, 1918, 4. Several counties (e.g., Ottertail, Goodhue, and Polk) had a higher death count than Todd, but 64 is still higher than most other counties. See MnMilitaryMuseum.org for access to select county war histories. Lee served several terms (1902–12) on the MNHS Executive Council.

2. Lisa M. Budreau, Bodies of War: World War I and the Politics of Commemoration in America, 1919–1933 (New York: New York University Press, 2010), 3.

3. Mona Doreen Greenberg and Robert P. Watson, “Public Memorials in American Life,”

American Studies Today Online, Mar. 2, 2011, http://www.Americansc.org.uk/Online/Public _Memorials.htm; “AHA Statement on Confeder-ate Monuments,” Perspectives on History 55, no. 7 (Oct. 2017): 52–53.

4. “Soldiers’ Monuments” and “Proposed Monuments,” American Stone Trade 17, no. 9 (Apr. 1, 1918): 15. For examples of coverage of memorials planned during 1917–18 in Minnesota: “Armory Dedicated to Virginia Sailors and Sol-diers Asked by Mayor Johnson; Meet Friday,” Virginia Daily Enterprise, Aug. 21, 1918, 1; Minot statues: Mark Levitch to author, Oct. 27, 2017; Jill Schramm, “Monumental Memorial,” Minot Daily News, Feb. 24, 2017; “Monument for Minot Heroes,” Ward County (ND) Independent, May 23, 1918, 9; “A War Memorial Building Proposed,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Nov. 19, 1918, 8; “A War Memorial Building,” Minneapolis Morning

130 M I N N E S OTA H I S TO RY

Tribune, Nov. 29, 1918, 14; “Museum Proposed,” St. Paul Dispatch, Nov. 21, 1918, 1; “To Honor Sol-diers,” St. Paul Dispatch, Dec. 13, 1918, 11; “For State Memorial,” St. Paul Dispatch, Dec. 4, 1918, 1; “County Memorial Being Considered,” Wendell (MN) Tribune, Jan. 10, 1919, 1; “Memorial Fountain and Shaft Secured,” Madison (MN) Independent Press, Jan. 10, 1919, 1. Jennifer Wingate, Sculpting Doughboys: Memory, Gender, and Taste in Ameri-ca’s World War I Memorials (Burlington, VT: Ash-gate, 2013), 4, 10; Steven Trout, On the Battlefield of Memory: The First World War and American Remembrance, 1919–1941 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010), 9; Charles Moore, “Memorials of the Great War,” American Maga-zine of Art (May 1919): 233.

See American Magazine of Art (Feb., Mar., May, and Sept. 1919) for various articles on war memo-rials. For a brief guide to outdoor sculptures in Minnesota, including the Long Prairie monu-ment, see Moira F. Harris, Monumental Minnesota: A Guide to Outdoor Sculptures (St. Paul, MN: Pogo Press, 1992).

5. “War Memorials,” American Magazine of Art (Mar. 1919): 180; “Fine Arts Board Issues Warning on War Memorials,” West Virginian, Dec. 26, 1918, 1; “What Kind of Memorial?” Liter-ary Digest, Mar. 1, 1919, 30; “Artists Here to Help Guard Against Ugly War Memorials,” Minneapo-lis Sunday Tribune, Apr. 13, 1919, 16; Bulletin of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Apr. 1919): 27–28; “News and Comment,” Minnesota History Bulletin 3, no. 2 (Feb. 1919): 54; “War History Activities,” Minnesota History Bulletin 3, no. 2 (May 1919): 111, 112. The April 1919 Minneapolis Institute of Arts bulletin provided a summary of the American Federation of Arts’ guidelines for war memorials, by John R. Van Derlip. The Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts was a chapter of the AFA, whose advisory committee included Cass Gilbert, designer of the Minnesota State Capitol.

6. Session Laws of Minnesota for 1919, Ch. 438; “Minnesota Has Spent $2,231,700 in Memorials to World War Heroes,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, Nov. 12, 1925, 9; Franklin F. Holbrook and Livia Appel, Minnesota in the War with Germany (St. Paul: MNHS, 1932), 2:245.

7. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Census, Population, Minnesota, Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1913), 2:1010.

8. Frank B. Simmons, “Wm. E. Lee, An Appre-ciation,” Long Prairie Leader, Nov. 25, 1920, 1, 5; O. B. DeLaurier, “Township History: Burnhamville and Bruce,” Long Prairie Leader, Sept. 18, 1941; “History of the American Heritage National Bank,” Todd County Historical Society Museum, Long Prairie, MN.

9. “William E. Lee, Once Speaker of the House, Dies,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Nov. 17, 1920, 1; “Legislators Past and Present,” Minne-sota Legislative Reference Library, https://www .leg.state.mn.us/legdb/; Clara K. Fuller, History of Morrison and Todd Counties, Minnesota, Their People, Industries and Institutions (Indianapolis:

B. F. Bowen and Co., 1915), 2:469; “Wm. E. Lee,”  Princeton (MN) Union, Nov. 18, 1920.

10. Commissioners’ Record; “Memorial to Soldier Dead.”

11. Commissioners’ Record, Todd County Board Minutes, Dec. 2, 1918; “Memorial to Sol-dier Dead”; “County Board Proceedings,” Long Prairie Leader, Dec. 12, 1918, 4.

12. Commissioners’ Record, Minutes of County Board Meeting, Dec. 2 and 3, 1918, Bk. 5; “County Board Proceedings,” Long Prairie Leader, Dec. 12, 1918, 4; “Fine Monument to Todd Heroes,” Staples (MN) World, Dec. 5, 1918, 1. Other than board minutes, any materials, letters, notes, etc., received by the commissioners prior to and ref-erenced at their meetings apparently have not been preserved.

13. Commissioners’ Record, Minutes of County Board Meeting, March 3, 1919, Bk. 5, 611–12; “County Board Proceedings,” Long Prairie Leader, Mar. 13, 1919, 7; Commissioners’ Record, Minutes of County Board Meeting, April 7, 1919, Bk. 6; “County Board Proceedings,” Long Prairie Leader, Apr. 17, 1919.

14. “Work to Begin Next Week,” Long Prairie Leader, May 1, 1919, 1; “Todd County’s War Monu-ment,” Long Prairie Leader, May 15, 1919, 1; “Full Speed Ahead in the Barre District,” American Stone Trade 18, no. 8 (Mar. 1918): 29; “Proposed Monuments,” American Stone Trade 18, no. 11 (June 1919): 41; “Advertisements,” American Stone Trade 18, no. 2 (Aug. 1918): 44; “Complete Sets of Standard Soldiers’ Designs,” American Stone Trade 18, no. 2 (Sept. 1918): 15–16, 27–30.

15. “Todd County’s War Monument.” 16. “Todd County’s War Monument”; “Begin

Work on Monument,” Long Prairie Leader, Aug. 28, 1919, 1.

17. Commissioners’ Record, Minutes of the County Board Meeting, July 14, 1919, Bk. 6, 11; “For Dedication Exercises,” Long Prairie Leader, July 17, 1919, l; “County Board Proceedings,” Long Prairie Leader, July 24, 1919, 3. Dedication ceremony committee members were Arthur B. Church, Joyce Lewis, M. S. Hillman, and Charles H. Taylor of Long Prairie; F. C. McGivern and the Reverend W. H. Johnson of Staples; William Bauer of Little Sauk; and J. C. Miller of Bertha.

18. “Begin Work on Monument”; “For Dedi-cation Exercises”; “County Board Proceedings,” Long Prairie Leader, July 24, 1919, 3; George Broth-ers Book of American Granite Estimates (Dixon, IL: George Bros. Co., 1919); phone interview with Travis Fuechtmann, Contegrity Group, Little Falls, MN, Oct. 31, 2012; phone interview with Todd Olson, Cold Spring Granite Co., Cold Spring, MN, Oct. 31, 2012.

19. “Todd County’s War Monument”; “Begin Work on Monument.”

20. “Dedication of Monument Late This Month,” Long Prairie Leader, Sept. 11, 1919, 1; “The Soldiers and Sailors Monument Is Completed,” Long Prairie Leader, Oct. 30, 1919, 1.

21. “Will Dedicate Monument,” Long Prairie Leader, Apr. 15, 1920, 1; “Monument Dedication to Be County Memorial Day Event,” Long Prairie

Leader, Apr. 29, 1920, 1; “Attendance Will Be Large,” Long Prairie Leader, May 20, 1920, 1; “Invi-tation to Dedication Ceremony,” Grey Eagle Gazette (Todd County, MN), May 27, 1920, 5.

22. “Parade Will Be a Feature,” Long Prairie Leader, May 13, 1920, 1; “Two Cannon Given by Government for Monument,” Long Prairie Leader, May 20, 1920, l; “Program for Dedication,” Long Prairie Leader, May 27, 1920, 1; author conversa-tions with Shirley Lundsford, Todd County Museum administrator, 2012.

23. “Dedication of Monument Late This Month”; “Attendance Will Be Large”; “Program For Dedication”; “Ceremonies Are Impressive,” Long Prairie Leader, June 3, 1920, 1; “Invitation to Dedication Ceremony”; “Pay Tribute to Nation’s Dead,” Todd County Tribune, May 27, 1920, 1; “Memorial Day Observed Monday,” Todd County Tribune, June 3, 1920, 1.

24. Ibid. 25. Ibid.26. American Legion Weekly, Aug. 15, 1919,

front cover. 27. Long Prairie Leader, June 3, 1920, 2.28. “Memorial Day Observed Monday,” 1–2.

For a discussion of the post–World War I years, see Robert H. Zieger, America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), Ch. 7.

29. “Ceremonies Are Impressive.”30. “Memorial To Soldier Dead,” Long Prairie

Leader, Dec. 5, 1918, 1; “Todd County First To Put Up Soldier’s Memorial,” Little Falls Herald, May 23, 1919, 7; “Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of County Commissioners of Todd County, Min-nesota, Held November 1st and 2nd, 1937”; “County Board Proceedings,” Long Prairie Leader, Nov. 24, 1937, 11; “New Court House Entrance Approved by County Board,” Long Prairie Leader, Nov. 4, 1937, 1; “Work on Entrance Will Begin Dec. 13,” Long Prairie Leader, Dec. 9, 1937, 1–2; “Work Is Started on New Entrance,” Long Prairie Leader, Dec. 16, 1937, 1; “War Memorial Is Being Moved Here,” Long Prairie Leader, Dec. 23, 1937, 1; “Mak-ing Progress on Tunnel Project,” Long Prairie Leader, July 7, 1938, 1; “Project at Court House Completed,” Long Prairie Leader, Sept. 28, 1938.

31. Commissioners’ Record, Minutes of the County Board Meeting, Nov. 23, 1976, Bk 13, 170; Minutes of the County Board Meeting, Dec. 3, 1976, Bk 13, 173. On the courthouse renovation, author’s phone interview with Travis Fuecht-mann.

Photos on p. 118, 119, 123, 128 (left), 130, Edward Pluth; p. 120, 121, 124, 128 (right), 129, MNHS collections; p. 125, 127, Todd County Museum.

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