One-hundred years can seem like a long time, especially when you think of all the events that end up crammed into those years. I’ve always thought it was remarkable, for example, that a man walked on the moon only 66 years after the Wright brothers made their first flight on the Outer Banks.
One-hundred and three years ago, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were visiting the city of Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their motorcade was attacked with a hand grenade, which badly damaged the car behind them.
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Later, while driving to visit the victims at the hospital, one of the cars stalled. By chance, a young ideologue named Gavrilo Princip, who was a member of a unification society, was sitting in a cafe across the street. He shot the archduke and his wife, springing the trap that became World War I.
America stayed out of the war for two years. However, unrestricted submarine warfare on American shipping, and an intercepted communication in which Germany promised Mexico it would get its American territories back if it joined the war, changed President Wilson’s mind.
Congress declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. Three days later, 100 years ago this weekend, Naperville men, reportedly 16 of the first 90 to enlist, entered the war. You can find a list of all of the Napervillians who eventually served in WWI at the DuPage County Genealogical Society, http://dcgs.org/cpage.php?pt=33.
Illinois gave more than 351,000 men to the Army and the Navy during that war. By the time it ended, more than 5,000 of them had given their lives. You can find a list of the seven local men who were killed on a plaque attached to a memorial rock in Burlington Square Park, just south of the downtown Metra station.
The inscription on that plaque reads: “TO HONOR THE MEMORY OF THE NAPERVILLE BOYS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE WAR OF 1914-1918.” Next to it is a statue, The Spirit of the American Doughboy, to perpetuate the memory of the veterans of that war.
The pressed copper statue was created in 1920 by Spencer, Ind., native Ernest Moore “Dick” Viquesney, a sculptor who, like his father Alfred, was also a stonecutter. Viquesney designed the sculpture while working for a monument company in Americus, Ga.
Dedicated locally May 31, 1926, and rededicated May 25, 2003, after extensive restoration, the statue is probably one of the most widely viewed in the nation, being situated in more than 135 parks across the nation. Viquesney called the Doughboy his greatest and most sincere effort.
Five years later, Viquesney created a tribute to the Navy, also of stamped copper, entitled The Spirit of the American Navy. Unfortunately by that time memories of the war were fading, and the cheerful, less heroic-looking sailor sold poorly. Only eight statues of the sailor are known to exist.
On Nov. 18, 2012, an expert in Oxnard, Calif., received a Google alert that one of the sailor statues had been seen in the Brass Anchor Ship Store in Pentwater, Mich., on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
Since he had known of Naperville’s “Save Our Doughboy” restoration project a decade earlier, he emailed a local historian, who is on the Century Walk committee. Century Walk purchased the statue in April, 2013, for $15,500, beating representatives from Spencer, Ind., by less than a month.
It was dedicated Oct. 13, 2013, the 238th birthday of the U. S. Navy, and resides in Burlington Square, across from the Doughboy statue. This weekend would seem to be a good time to visit the park and remind ourselves of all the things that have happened in those 100 years.