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     General Pershing was commandant of the cadet battalion at the University of Nebraska in the years 1891-95. He graduated from the University of Nebraska, college of law, in 1893. A high degree of enthusiasm and efficiency marked the military department of the University during the years he was at its head. The "Pershing Rifles," an honorary organization open to students having the best records in military training, was instituted in his honor and has continued since he was commandant.

     General Pershing was born in Linn county, Missouri, September 13, 1860, and graduated from West Point in 1886. His military career includes service against the Apache Indians in Arizona, 1886, and in the Sioux War, 1890-1; in the Santiago campaign, Cuba, 1898; in the Philippines, 1899-1903; as military observer with the Japanese army in Manchuria, 1905; commander department of Mindanao in the Philippines from 1906 to 1913, and of U. S. troops in Mexico, 1916. His sisters, Mrs. David M. Butler and Miss May Pershing, live in Lincoln. His only son, Warren, seven years old, lives with them.

     The name Pershing was originally spelled Pfirsching. The family came from Alsace-Lorraine to America about a century ago. General Pershing is therefore fighting on the borders of his ancestral fatherland for America and the world in the present war.

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