Our Gold Star Memorial in Bronze: Pompeo Coppini, Sr.

Coppini's Bronze

In 1923, the American War Mothers of Marshall County began fundraising for a monument dedicated to the 29 individuals who died during World War I.  Their plans were announced in May of 1923, but included just 26 names.  An additional three names were added to the roster by the time it was inscribed and dedicated in 1925.  It was announced that ground was broken for the monument on September 11, 1924.  The site, at the east entry to Oakhill Cemetery off Oakhill Drive, was donated by Harrie Buck and A. B. Wickizer.  This part of the cemetery was originally called Buck Cemetery.

Marshall County's "Gold Star Memorial" 1925

Five names stand out among those 29, at least for historical reasons.  Hannah Burden was a nurse who died from Spanish Influenza while treating soldiers at a military camp, and is the only woman counted among the war dead.  Charles Reeve of Plymouth, Otho Place of Bremen, William Fleet of Culver, and James Corey of Argos each had their hometowns honor them with naming their respective American Legion Posts after them.

Dedication inscription on back of the monument

The  monument was officially called the "Gold Star Memorial" when it was dedicated on May 25, 1925.  It was described as tall piece of light marble (actually granite) surmounted by a cross bearing suitable inscription and a bronze tablet.  The 16' tall monument is surrounded by small marble crosses bearing the names of the dead, each fitted with a flag, and is flanked by drives splitting off the main drive on axis with the memorial.

The woman depicted represents the Motherland laying a laurel wreath

The man depicted represents a young American offering himself for the protection of the Motherland

After several years of attending Memorial Day services at the monument, I became more and more intrigued with the bronze tablet recessed into the face of the monument.  The bas-relief is an extraordinary cast, heavy in Art Deco influence, and is one of very few pieces of sculpture in the county.  The other day I examined the tablet closely and found the artist's signature in the bottom right corner:  P. Coppini Sr.

I'm not well-versed in sculptors of this period, or any period.  So I googled Mr. (Pompeo) Coppini (1870-1957), and found that he had an extraordinary career.  The Italian-born American immigrated in 1896 with just $40.  He lived in Texas most of his life where his greatest works are located.  His depictions of George Washington also gained fame and were placed in cities even outside of the United States.  A foundation and museum is named for him and it occupies his former studio in San Antonio.  Maybe his most famous work is "Spirit of Sacrifice" or the Alamo Cenotaph, a work commemorating the defenders of the Alamo.  He was also commissioned to design the Texas Centennial Half Dollar in 1934.  His work is also displayed on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol, Texas A & M, and the University of Texas.

"Spirit of Sacrifice" Alamo Cenotaph by Coppini

But Plymouth, Indiana?  How did the American War Mothers chapter find Coppini and commission him to create this impressive bronze?  This aspect of the story remains a mystery.  Coppini was in Chicago for a few years where he was a member of a Rotary Club.  He traveled to Fort Wayne and Decatur, Indiana in 1920 promoting the idea of public sculpture, particularly related to Fort Wayne's pioneers.  He spoke at Rotary clubs in both of these cities.  Could Plymouth have also been a stop for Coppini?  It is believed that we are home to the only Coppini sculpture in Indiana.  The Plymouth Republican carried an announcement a few days prior to Memorial Day that the memorial would be dedicated and gave this description of the bronze:  "...representing a young American offering himself for the protection of the motherland from whom he is receiving a wreath of laurel.  This is a reproduction of the work of Pompeo Coppini, a noted sculptor of Chicago."  The description of the bronze sounds like the words of the sculptor describing his work.  If there is an official name to the sculpture, it is not part of the newspaper's account.  Also noted is that the paper calls this a reproduction.

I reached out to the Coppini Museum in Texas, and did my own on-line searches.  And I came up with a twin (the only one I could find) to our memorial located in  Jones Park, a downtown square in the middle of Canton, Illinois (southwest of Peoria).  It was dedicated on Veterans Day 1922.  Mr. and Mrs. Ulysses Grant Orendorff presented the monument to the citizens of Canton in Fulton County, Illinois to commemorate those who died in World War I.  I believe that the couple commissioned Coppini for this work given this description provided "the bronze figure represents a young man, an American citizen, shielding with his own body the motherland, America, and she is bestowing upon him a wreath of laurel.  The young man is not in the uniform of a soldier as that would typify militarism which the donors of the gift especially desire not to do."  Fulton County, Illinois lost 110 men in the war.  The monument appears to still be at their park.

This photo is dated 1926, but it would accurately depict the scene of the Plymouth dedication a year prior, with Scouts and Vets standing side-by-side

The dedication of our monument had much fanfare on Memorial Day, May 25, 1925.  The unveiling was witnessed by a large crowd from all over Marshall County.  General Gignilliat, superintendent of Culver Military Academy, provided the main address.  The Academy's Black Horse Troop, military band, and a detachment of cadets with full presentation of colors and flags of the allies were present in a march that led to the monument.  Also in the convoy to the monument were the American War Mothers, in automobiles, Civil War Veterans (most in their 80s), Boy Scouts, and Camp Fire Girls.  This must have been quite a scene.  The ceremony was concluded with firing a salute and playing of taps.

Marshall County's Battle with Spanish Influenza 1918-1920

While some have succumbed to hyper-fear of the coronavirus, nothing could reach the fervor of the fever feared most: Spanish Influenza in 1918-1920.  While the worldwide epidemic reached its most aggressive spread in 1918, strains remained into 1920 and in some local communities claimed more victims during the later period of the virus.  For example, Clinton County suffered twice the deaths from the flu in 1920 than in 1918.  The height of the flu's toll reached our local communities about September and October 1918.  By October 17, 1918, there were over 23,000 cases reported in Indiana.   Remarkably, Marshall County accounted for more than 10% of Indiana's cases with 2,453 people reported that same week.  The flu hit young people into their early 30s particularly hard which seemed to contradict normal understanding of viruses.  It was estimated a quarter of the world's population was affected.

During those two months, our local newspapers carried article after article of the grim reaper's harvest, including young soldiers who had enlisted from Marshall County to fight in WWI only to be stricken with the flu as they trained in military camps.  By mid-October, county health officials met with elected officials and school leaders and called for an outright quarantine across the county.  Schools, churches, theaters, and other areas of public gatherings were ordered closed.  This lasted for more than a week.  The quarantine occurred again in the early months of 1920 with deaths resulting from the virus well into the late part of that year.

Spanish influenza took the lives of a few of our enlisted men during the war, but it also took the life of Hannah Burden, the only woman counted among the county's war dead.  She enlisted as a nurse with the Red Cross and was infected with the virus at Camp Sheridan in Ohio while caring for infected soldiers and died on October 26, 1918.  The late bloom of the virus that occurred in 1920 also took the life of my grandmother's sister, Blanchie, who was just two years old, and her aunt who was in her 20s.  During the harsh winters when the virus raged, my great aunt told me that the small farming community around their home decided to use their barn as a make-shift morgue until the ground thawed and loved ones could be buried.  The bodies of the flu victims were wrapped tightly, fitted in pine boxes, and stacked in the barn in which I played as a little kid.  These relatives stricken by the flu were buried at Mt. Zion (County Line) Cemetery near LaVille Schools.

My Great Aunt Blanchie Crothers (1918-1920) late victim of the flu

Crothers Barn on Marshall/St. Joseph County Line Road, makeshift morgue during the pandemic

Not unlike what we've seen with other pandemics, there was misdirected fear and reprisal.  Many people, even newspaper editors, feared that it was germ warfare distributed by the Germans.  This only fueled anti-German sentiment during the war, which led to recent immigrants to the U.S. to halt using their native tongue-something that was reflected in the end of sermons given in German in Bremen area churches.  Men were encouraged not to spit (must've been a thing back then) and onions were pushed as a natural remedy to the flu.  And of course, there were plenty of other remedies promoted to protect against the bug.  After that outbreak, all other flu epidemics were measured by the Spanish flu for decades after, including a particularly severe one in 1932 which was "much less egregious to the general population's mortality."

Armed Robbers & Bootleggers in LaPaz

Garner's Truck Stop, under construction in 1958

When your little town is at the crossroads of coast-to-coast highways, there is likely to be some trouble with bootleggers and Bonnie & Clyde types.  During the 1930s, at the height of Prohibition and the Depression, our little corner of the world found its fair share of trouble.

In 1931, federal agents uncovered a massive alcohol distillery operated by individuals locally, of course, but connected back to others in Gary and Chicago.  The still, estimated to be contributing $20,000 worth of strong contraband, was discovered on the Dolph Farm between LaPaz and Tyner (I think they meant Teegarden, as the Dolph property was located north of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad).  The federal agents hurried off to Chicago after arriving on the scene in order to make further arrests of the crime boss and syndicate.  Seven were arrested in all, including one poor chap who drove up upon the scene to deliver a truck load of corn syrup.

A few years later, in December 1934, the Farmers State Bank of LaPaz was robbed of $3,549.00 by four bandits who fled south to Kokomo on State Road 31, which would have meant that they would have had to slow down to a crawl as they passed through Plymouth, Argos, Rochester, and Peru before arriving at their hideout in Kokomo.  Bank officials described the robbers as "young, dark and foreign looking."  Well heck, that would have described me.  Three of the four, one being a woman, were arrested in Kokomo.

And the third story was another of those that my grandfather would tell, but I wasn't sure to believe.  Garner's Truck Stop was robbed by gunpoint by four young men from Mishawaka in March 1961.  I can imagine it was an easy target on a road bordered by seemingly endless cornfields, a mile outside of town, and my grandpa the only one on duty.  When they were arrested, they were also charged with other robberies in the area.

Grandpa, cigar in mouth and money in hand, c. 1965

A Remarkable, potentially paranormal, Case Indeed!

A few weeks ago, I had mentioned that verifying some of these seemingly crazy family stories all of a sudden became much easier with access to a newspaper search program.  My mother, backed up by her sister, would tell of a tale that sounded too spooky to be true.  But, accordingly, it had been passed down in their family for a few generations and when I'd tell my kids, they just kind of thought "sure, whatever dad....how soon before we put you in a home?"

But, in fact, here it is.  A remarkable case, as published in the Culver Citizen in 1916.  My great grandmother's sister, Rosetta, suffered from straw or thorn-like expulsions from her hands that proved to be very painful during the course of a few weeks.  It left doctors dumbfounded, to be certain.  This side of the family always seemed to be given a little to the supernatural, and so it had been passed on to us that the family had thought it was a curse from a tenant farmer's wife who lived on the property.  That is not covered in the story.

Nonetheless, my great great grandfather, Frances Ervin, took her around the county displaying the straws (about 200 of them) to newspaper men like the one who published it in the Plymouth Democrat, which was also carried in the Citizen on August 31, 1916.  Hopefully, the article displays large enough to read.  Maybe read to young children as a bedtime story like it was told to us!

The Ervins had a large farm on Juniper Road in northern Marshall County.  From Frances and his wife, Jennie, descended three daughters and one son, and an infant daughter named Pearl, who died in 1913.  The children, whom have many descendants in the Bremen area today, are Bertha (Crothers), Dora (Thornton), Anthony Ervin, and little Rosetta (Booker), the subject of the thorn-phenomenon.  One of these descendants has proven themselves to be a bit of a thorn in my side too. 

So far, I haven't found a story that was told that hasn't had some truth to it.