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Greenwood, Wisconsin's Peace Memorial
Transcribed by Stan & Janet Schwarze.
THE PARADE
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Dr. R. L. Barnes, postmaster and president of the Commercial Club at Greenwood,
was master of ceremonies. John Wuethrich presided at the banquet in the evening
attended by 250 people.
Senator Walter J. Rush in his speech brought greetings from Gov. Phil LaFollette,
Assemblyman Victor W. Nehs, Mayor Fred Stelloh, Attorney A. L. Devoes, James
Fradette, Joe Krause, T. F. McDonald, Hugh McGwin, George E. Rude and Elmer
Anderson also spoke. Other speakers were Col. Fred T. Cruse of the U. S. Army,
Mayor Ed Buker of Greenwood and others. On the musical program were Myron
Duncan, Rosemarie Durig, Mrs. Herbert Schwarze, Lloyd Smith and Allen Wuethrich.
Rep. Merlin Hull of Black River Falls, who spoke both afternoon and evening
said, probably nothing has happened in Clark County since the World War to bring
so many together in honor of such a cause.
A rough statue and foundation was built at its present site by a Greenwood cement contractor, George Caliebe who placed a nine foot cube of solid concrete made of standard gray cement beneath the surface of ground. In this base was a cavity. An elderly carpenter constructed a box and the book Greenwood, Hub of Clark County, Wisconsin 1844 to 1934 was placed in it before it was stored inside the foundation. The statue is monolithic in design as all appendages were pre-constructed to leave the least amount of sculpturing for Prof. Durig. The complete statue above ground was then covered with white cement. At no place could the cement be less than three inches in depth as any less could have resulted in exposure of the gray cement underneath when the carving took place. The white composition was shipped to Clark County from Illinois.
A DEDICATION MEDITATION ON THE DURIG WAR-MOTHER MEMORIAL OF GREENWOOD, WI
Psalm 121: I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains. From whence shall my
help come My help cometh from Jehovah who made Heaven and Earth.
All the mistakes in human history may be traced to one source failure to look
unto God. Likewise all progress can be summed up in those beautiful words: Psalm
123: 1-2, Unto Thee do I lift up mine eyes, Oh Thou that sittest in the Heavens.
Behold as the eyes of the servant look unto the hand of the master as the eyes
of the maid look unto the hand of her mistress so our eyes look unto Jehovah our
God.
When the sins and failures of a nation have reached a climax, then like the
flood-tides of spring freshets sweep over the valleys, the life of the entire
nation becomes overwhelmed and entangled in the death-tentacles of war and
destruction.
There has been war after war from the earliest dawn-days of humanity to the
present. History is mostly the story of war and battles with a few interludes of
peace and quiet, a lull between storms and tempest and then another out-break of
the spirit of hate, and the nations are again engaged in the murderous bloody
fray of the battlefield.
Humanity has promised itself repeatedly: There shall be no more wars. But these
promises were in vain. We have followed the easy course of glorifying the
soldier-dead, but we have not had the courage to attack and conquer that spirit
of selfishness and greed in the human heart, that sinfulness which is the real
root and cause of all war. We have lacked the wisdom and the courage to conquer,
with the help of God, our own sinfulness, our own self-love.
Having given relief to our feelings and emotions by saying a few words which
trip so lightly from our lips, to tears that are silent in death, to hearts
whose pulse beats no longer throb, we lull ourselves and our consciences to
sleep for the time being. We busy ourselves with heaping up treasures for
ourselves, which satisfy only our pride and ambition, to lord it over our
fellowmen we grasp with greedy hands everything the present may offer, never
asking, what price will the future have to pay for our greed and neglect. And
then we go on again in the same life of self-love.
We sometimes even try to make ourselves, and especially others, believe that we
desire peace. But in reality most of our efforts are only more or less cleverly
disguised attempts to cover up our pride and satisfaction in our success in
discovering with remarkable skill the sins and mistakes of other people. We
entrust the work of building the temple of peace to the same minds and hands
which in the past have been the tools of the God of War. Sometimes even applying
the unholy gains of the war profiteers for erecting Peace palaces and the
financing of Peace organizations.
But the hands trained to slaughter their fellowmen, hands red with the blood and
gore of battle, can never become the white hands which in innocence can build
the temple of peace. And the hand that gloated over war profits is far more
guilty in the sight of God and real lovers of humanity, than the hand that was
deceived and misled and forced against its will to pull the trigger and wield
the sword.
Into the temple of peace dare go only that marble which has been hewn and
prayerfully placed by hands and hearts which through confession of sin, and
prayer and plea for pardon have the assurance of the Word of God, that they now
are holy hands in the sight of God because their sin is forgiven, their
transgression is covered. Willfully sinful hands of unbelief can not build the
temple of peace. The stains of sin and blood will penetrate the purest marble,
and all our efforts to cover them will never hide them, our efforts to whitewash
them will never wash them white.
As long as we build in unbelief with sin-cursed and burdened hands and hearts,
on the treacherous quicksands of human self-sufficiency, human wisdom, hopes and
ideals, all our efforts are in vain and only hollow mockery.
We follow false promises of peace like the wanderer lost in the swamp is lured
deeper and deeper into its death-grasp by the Will of the Wisp lights of human
reason, promises, hope and powers.
The past and the present have often long bemoaned their soldier-dead and sung
their praises, but have never faced the real tragedies of war, which may be as
much our fault as the fault of others. The heart grows weary in the struggle
against sin, the mind grows listless and before long we are again making the
same mistakes as the ages and the generations of the past.
Depending upon man to do what only God can do for humanity is never going to
help humanity or bring peace. And humanity will go on piling up its slain on the
fields of battle, sacrificing its life and souls upon the altars of greed and
false national pride and ambition.
The lifeless clay of those slain on the battlefields bears not the curse of foes
nor the anguish and lament of friends and dear ones. The soul once it has taken
its flight from the tabernacle of clay to its eternal habitation, oft in the
bloom of young manhood, can no more be recalled. Tenderly we lay away the house
of clay, wrecked and blasted through the sin and pride of human will in its
rebellion against God. Tenderly Mother Earth carpets with the same grass and
flowers, the bodies of friends and foes alike, and the stream of humanity flows
on, no wiser than before, in the same course that has led it to disaster so
often.
But shall we go on in this way of human pride and self-sufficiency forever?
That path, that course leads only to bigger wars and more terrible destruction.
If we have no other course then we might as well pray that the sable mantles and
curtains of eternal night may as well envelope and enshroud the human mind and
reason in the darkness of never ending night forever.
But there is another way. We hear it from the silent lips of stone, we see it in
the eyes that look up to heaven, we feel a responsive chord in our hearts, we
see it in the challenge of the hand that holds high the flag of hope, while the
other holds with grim yet loving determination the broken body of her son. We
see, we hear, we feel, in all this, the eternal challenge of the mother-heart of
the human race. I will look unto the mountains from whence alone my help can
come.
Out of the depths of the deepest sorrow that human heart can know, out of the
depth of the mother-heart of the human race, there is a cry which shall not fall
in vain upon the ears of the Eternal, the Almighty, Out of the depths I cry unto
Thee , hear yet the eternal Father of all mankind, who hears the cry of the
widow and the orphan, shall hear the cry of this mother-heart, torn and wounded
by sorrow. A sorrow which only a mother-heart can know which shared its heart
throb with her child before it saw the light of day, whose soul shared every
thought of joy and sorrow and received them into its tender budding life as an
eternal impression .
Out of the depths of sorrow and gloom the courageous, gallant mother of her
beloved soldier-dead looks upward to the mountains of God from whence alone help
can come in the hour of sadness and courage and hope for the future.
To the eternal God of truth and mercy and righteousness and justice who by the
might of His Word has called all the worlds and universe into being who has
placed in them powers and forces which shall endure forever, that all the
children of men might find room and shelter and the necessities of earthly life,
if only they will be guided by His Spirit and obey His Word.
We cannot dedicate this monument, it is only stone wrought and carved by a
skillful master-artist's hand, to impress upon our souls the challenge, the
necessity to dedicate ourselves and all humanity to the eternal search and
service for truth and righteousness.
Let us then lift up our eyes to Calvary's Hill and its Cross on which the Son of
God and Son of Man showed and made the way back to God for all the children of
men. The Way, the Truth, and the Life , who cried out from the deepest despair
which human heart ever knew My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me Who also
could say after His victory over sin, Into Thy Hands I commend my Spirit , who
could also say, It is finished . Only when we give our life into His complete
care and guidance, only when we can learn to say at all times, Thy Will Be Done,
can we worthily appreciate the tribute to the struggle for human freedom and
liberty.
We dedicate this symbol of stone, to remind us to dedicate our hearts and lives
to the service of truth.
Rev. Erwin G. Pfeiffer, B. D.
Pastor of the German Reformed Church,
Greenwood, Clark County, WI
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Part of the crowd gathered around the band
ATTENDING UNVEILING HERE
The following is the list of some of those who registered the day of the
dedication of the Peace Memorial. Willard and Greenwood names have been omitted.
Mrs. Margaret Walter, Mr. and Mrs. L.D. Varney, Wausau; Mrs. Gertrude Prellwitz,
Lawton; Mrs. Irene Walter Weyker, Lucille A. Boehme, Raymond F. Erz, James C.
Neuenfeldt, George Humke, Milwaukee; Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Fordyce and son John,
Vera Fairbanks, Mr. and Mrs. A.H. Gauger and son Bob, Mrs. Eva Andrews,
Marshfield; Mrs. O. A. Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Morris Anderson, A.M. Sanford,
Stevens Point; Mrs. P.H. McCann, Detroit, Mich.; Mr. and Mrs. Theo. Erickson,
Cashton; Mrs. Ray Dinger, Melvina; Dr. and Mrs. Hugh R. Schofield, Mrs. Roberta
Schofield Watters, Miss Frances Schiller, Loretta Hanlon, Anna Kokaly, Chicago,
Ill.; Mrs. Allie M. Pierrelee, Mrs. Sammous, Kansas City, Mo.; W. A. Porter,
Chippewa Falls; Elizabeth Hauser, St. Paul, Minn.; Mr. and Mrs. A.H. Voss, Nancy
Hauser, Minneapolis, Minn.; Mr. and Mrs. Lee A. Reesman, Arlyn D. Reesman, Black
River Falls; Mr. and Mrs. Francis Schweinler, Mosinee; Geo. J. Stauss, Galena,
Ill; A. X. Stievater, Manitowoc; Mr. and Mrs. Henry Erdman, Augusta; Misses
Rosetta Hiller and Harriet O’Connell, Fox Lake; Mr. and Mrs. Marner Cook,
Jamestown, N.D.; Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Williams, Portland, Oregon; Mr. and Mrs.
Irvin Barnes, New Lisbon; Ella Rud, Osseo; Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Redwine, Mr. and
Mrs. Chas. Garrett, Ladysmith; Francis J. Bryalski, Staff St. E.M. Shaw, Master
Sgt. Clarence Quananem, 1st Sgt. H.G Thorson, Stanley; Mr. and Mrs. Bernard
Ramsey, Vernon Ramsey, May Berg, Harvey Patterson, Melrose; Elizabeth Miles, J.R.
McQuillan, Antigo; May Hansen, Dora Milholm, Julia Hansen, Albert Hansen, Alfred
Hansen, Denver, Colo.; Mr. and Mrs. Henry Puttkransee, Williams, Iowa; Mrs. E.
Moldenhauer, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Lezotle, Lida Peaslee, Kittie M. Kountz, Mrs. G. H.
Lowe, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Timmler, Mr. and Mrs. V. C. Woelffe, Mr. and Mrs. A. C.
Covell, Rev. G. Longenecker, Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Hemp, Neillsville; Mr. and Mrs.
Will Bopp, Richard Bopp, Mr. and Mrs. Verne Bopp, Alma Center; Mr. and Mrs. A.
G. Flaatten, Withee; Mr. and Ralph Philpott, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Lydiksen, Loyal;
Mrs. John F. Harms, Alden, Iowa; Oscar Bunders, Prairie du Chien; Ed Jackson,
Ellsworth; Mr. and Mrs. Thor Johnson, Dwaine Johnson, Arvid Johnson, Wis.
Rapids; Lorraine Stuber, Alois C. Stuber, Strum; Gertrude Gosse, Owen; Emory
Voie, Vivian Voie, Oline Voie, Conrad C. Olson, Eau Claire; Mr. and Mrs. Carl
Chandler, Carter Chandler, Mr. and Mrs. Vern Marshall, Mrs. Brussy, Allen
Marshall, Blanchardville; Dr. and Mrs. Ketchpaw, Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Lockerby,
Bloomer; Mr. and Mrs. Archie Clayton, Elko, Nev.; Mr. and Mrs. Louis Schoerer,
Mr. and Mrs. Phil Christie, Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Clint
Bates, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Merwin, Mrs. Francis Prosser, Abbotsford; Mr. and Mrs.
Lorenz Keitz, Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. Mike Schnettlee, St. Na.; Mrs. Andrew Weilmas, Valders; Mr. and Mrs. Ray Knutson, Appleton; Mrs. Martin Zickert, Mrs.
E. P. Stone, Neillsville.
SOURCES: Greenwood City Library Historical Clippings, Lorraine (Schwarze) Ernst Album, Greenwood Gleaner