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World War I Memorial Dedication – November 12, 1928

By Randy Harter

Fort Wayne Reader

2018-11-15

During WW I over 117,000 Americans lost their lives. Here in Indiana 135,000 Hoosiers served in the military and over 100 from Allen County gave the ultimate sacrifice. Both nationally and locally, patriotic fever ran high by the time Armistice took place on November 11, 1918, and rightfully so. A large temporary “Liberty Memorial Arch,” designed by architect Marshall Mahurin, was constructed on the sidewalk at the southwest corner of the courthouse square in September of 1918 that included the names of the local war dead. When this was later removed in 1921 it was promised to the Gold Star parents that a permanent memorial listing the deceased would later be erected.

After the war, Lebanon, Indiana sculptor E. M. Viquesney designed a commemorative statue called “The Spirit of the American Doughboy,” an Army infantryman holding a rifle, of which over 140 copies were made and erected in public spaces throughout the United States, generally on a plinth with a plaque below the statue listing those locally lost. Later, Viquesney sculpted a second figure, a sailor called “The Spirit of the American Navy.” Only seven of these were ever made. In 1927, nine years after the end of World War I a committee formed of members of the American Legion Post No. 47, Fort Wayne City Council, and the Allen County Commissioners determined that these two statues would be the focal points gracing the long awaited war memorial. Chosen to hold the two sculptures and four bronze plaques was a design for a large triple- arched white marble structure conceived by Captain John K. Shawvan. The parks department
then let a contract to the Muldoon Monument Company of Louisville, Kentucky to fabricate and erect the memorial.

On November 12, 1928, ten years after the war’s end, a dedication was made of the completed memorial that had been placed in Memorial Park on Glasgow Avenue just north of Maumee. A mammoth parade that took 35 minutes to pass formed on Clinton Street between Wayne and Berry. It then marched to Washington Boulevard and continued east completing the route to the park. The parade included policemen on motorcycles, firemen, floats and cars full of officials, the General Electric Band, Concordia College Band, News-Sentinel Boys Band, American Legion Buglers, a drum
corps, active military and veterans, Boy Scouts, families of the deceased, nurses from Methodist (Parkview), Lutheran and St. Joseph hospitals, community service and patriotic organizations, hundreds of school children and thousands of everyday citizens. Many stores closed and factories in town allowed military veterans off to participate in the parade and dedication.

At Memorial Park an estimated 12,000 assembled for a program that in part included the unveiling of the memorial, music and singing of patriotic songs, firing of a military salute, flowers dropped from a plane flown from the municipal airport (Baer/Smith Field), and as its keynote speaker, Colonel David N. Foster. The ceremony at the park was broadcast live over radio station WOWO.

Now, 90 years later, the WWI Memorial is in need of repair and the replacement of some pieces. The City of Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation department has recently completed an extensive accounting of the required work and is committed to having it performed as funds become available.

(Image Courtesy 1929 Parks Department Annual Report/ACPL)

Randy Harter is a Fort Wayne historian and co-author along with photographer Dan Baker of the newly released book “Fort Wayne Through Time”.