Iowans made world safe for democracy

By David Wendell

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The second week of November marks the 95th anniversary of the end of World War I. At the eleventh hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the Armistice signed by French Marshal Foch and the German peace envoy, Matthias Erzberger, proclaimed a cessation of hostilities, concluding what was then simply known as “The Great War.”

Between June 28, 1914, when Austria's Archduke Ferdinand was killed, beginning the conflict, to November 1918, a total of 2,925,000 soldiers and sailors of the German Axis and 4,650,000 of the French/English/U.S. Allies lost their lives. Four million men from the United States had been mobilized for service, of them, 114,224 were from Iowa, along with 611 women who volunteered for duty in the Army Nurses Corps.

America officially entered the war in the spring of 1917, but did not engage enemy forces on the ground until that winter. Iowa's contributions to ending the war to end all wars began with the nation's first burst of gunfire. On Nov. 3, 1917, Company F of the 16th A.E.F. Infantry was attacked by German forces outside Artois, France. The German commander had ordered his troops to charge forward and ambush the American emplacement by stabbing each enemy soldier to death with bayonet. The melee quickly devolved into a vicious battle of hand-to-hand combat.

FIRST TO DIE IN WWI

Three buddies stood side by side, one defending the other, until all three had fallen. One of these brave young men, who would stop the enemy from capturing his regiment at all costs, was Merle David Hay, of Glidden, Iowa. He and his two closest friends in the unit were found dead with pistol gunshot wounds to the head. Hay was acknowledged and mourned across the nation as the first American soldier to die in combat in the war. His body was buried in France with honors and, in 1921, was disinterred and permanently laid to rest on the family lot at West Lawn Cemetery in Glidden.

At the entrance to the burial ground along Highway 30 west of Glidden is a long gray slab of granite etched with an image of the valiant soldier whose name was known by every patriotic American nearly a century ago. Other than as a shopping mall in Des Moines, few of his fellow Iowans today recognize his name.

ARTIST'S CONTRIBUTIONS

Another Iowan who the whole nation would recognize served in the Army during the war. He had just given up studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and returned to Cedar Rapids to care for his family a year before. Struggling to provide financially for his mother, he was exempted from draft in the Army, but insisted upon joining. Unfortunately, shortly after reporting to basic training, he contracted what many thought to be a mild case of tuberculosis.

Still weak, but ready for action, the budding artist was assigned to the Army's artillery testing grounds outside Washington, D.C., and spent the balance of the war designing camouflage for cannon. As a side business, he would sketch portraits of his comrades for 25 cents per drawing. A set of these, one of which included a caricature of renowned Capt. Arnold Pyle, was purchased by the University of Nebraska Art Museum and traveled the country. In this way, the name Grant Wood was seen by hundreds of thousands of art connoisseurs throughout the nation.

Eight years after the war concluded, Wood would be contracted by the city of Cedar Rapids to create a monumental stained glass window as a war memorial in City Hall on May's Island. It would stand 24 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and be composed of 58 separate sections. Across the lower quarter of the window would be soldiers dressed in uniforms of one of each war in which our nation had fought. Soaring above them rose the Goddess, “Republic,” holding a laurel wreath and palm frond in her hands as a symbol of peace.

Ironically, the thousands of individual shards of glass were hand colored and assembled in Germany. Wood personally supervised the project and painted the figures of the soldiers' faces himself. The window was dedicated in 1928 and became the nucleus of Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

For many, it was their first introduction to Wood's talent and skill. It would not be their last, nevertheless, for in 1930, Wood debuted the most famous of his paintings, American Gothic, which has ensconced his name as one of the great artists in the 20th century. The window was damaged in the Flood of 2008, but restored and is available again for public viewing at the Coliseum.

SECOND ONLY TO PERSHING

Of all these names, however, perhaps the most acclaimed of its time was that of a businessman from Mason City who would go on to ascend to the rank of general and serve as U.S. Secretary of War. Hanford MacNider joined the ranks of the first world war as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th Infantry of the famed 2nd Division. He was severely wounded at St. Michiel in France, but recovered, and participated in more than five major battles. When the Armistice was signed, MacNider was accorded so many medals for valor that it was said only Gen. John Pershing himself had more of them.

In 1921, MacNider was appointed National Commander of the American Legion. He was asked to run for U.S. Senate, as well as serve as Republican candidate for President, but declined. In 1926, President Calvin Coolidge named him Secretary of War, which he held through to the Hoover administration. MacNider returned to the field as a 53-year-old commanding officer, leading the legendary “Bushmasters” in World War II across the Pacific.

Today, his collections of memorabilia, art, and other artifacts are housed at the MacNider Museum in Mason City.

This Veterans Day, think of their names. Each sacrificed, and in some cases, lost their life, to assure another name knows the freedom and liberty of democracy: yours.

David Wendell is a historian from Marion. Comments: davidv99@hotmail.com