WINCHESTER, Va. (AP) - On Nov. 11, 1924, there was a ceremony near Handley High School commemorating nearly 50 Winchester and Frederick County soldiers who fought and died during or immediately after World War I.
Bronze markers were installed beneath about 50 red oak trees standing along what is currently Handley Boulevard, but at the time was dedicated as Memorial Avenue, according to a past article in The Winchester Star.
Just seven of the 49 bronze plaques that were mounted during the Women’s Auxiliary of the American Legion ceremony are still known to exist, Gene Schultz, a Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society board member, said Thursday at the organization’s office on South Pleasant Valley Road.
Schultz, who stumbled upon the story of the bronze markers by accident while researching his family’s history, is working with the city and Shenandoah University students and staff, to learn more about the plaques’ history.
“We want to research to find out who these guys were … and are there any more of these plaques around,” he said.
World War I began in the summer of 1914 and ended Nov. 11, 1918. The U.S. did not become involved until April 1917, Schultz said, and Winchester and Frederick County troops did not deploy until June 1918.
Schultz isn’t sure how many local men went overseas to serve, but he estimates it was several hundred. There are about 1,200 names on the draft roster, he said, but not all of them were necessarily drafted. The list does not include those who enlisted.
So far, Schultz, along with students in a Virginia history class at SU, have researched about half of the 49 soldiers who died. The majority were in the Army, he said. Just one was in the Navy, and none were in the Marines.
Most of the soldiers died of disease, Schultz said. Of those who died in battle, almost all perished within a two week period during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which started at the end of September 1918 and continued until the end of the war in November.
During the war, troops were segregated. Solomon Johnson, a drafted black soldier, could have been the first local soldier to die in the war, Schultz said. Johnson died Oct. 2, 1918.
Johnson served in the U.S. 369th Infantry Regiment, but since blacks were not allowed to go into combat under U.S. command, he fought under the French, Schultz said.
Three of the soldiers who died were from Mount Williams, a small community in Frederick County. Losing three men in battle had a large impact on the community, he said.
“These are the kinds of stories we want to find,” Schultz said, who hopes that expanding the project to include who the soldiers were, and not just the markers, will draw more people in.
“You talk about history, you lose people’s attention,” he said. “You talk about the people, that’s what makes it interesting. You’ve got to bring it down to who were these individuals.”
Schultz compiled a list of names of those who died and received markers based off old articles in The Star. An old list printed by former Handley Regional Library librarian C. Vernon Eddy had just 24 names, Schultz said, although Eddy had acknowledged his list was incomplete.
Although Eddy listed fewer overall soldiers, he did identify four black soldiers who had died. Schultz’s list identifies just two black soldiers, meaning that at least two soldiers potentially did not receive markers.
The historical society currently has three of the seven remaining markers - those of Russell Brill, Edward V. Willie and Clifton A. Nelson, a black soldier. The markers are in various states - Nelson’s was covered with yellow paint at some point, and the others and are either chipped or bent. All three markers were donated to the historical society by private citizens within the last year, Schultz said.
Handley Boulevard is currently under renovation, including replacing the sidewalks where some of the markers are located. The four markers still located along the boulevard are being removed by city workers and given to the historical society until it is determined what to do with them. Ideas include returning them to family members or putting them on display.
Schultz said he has spoken with city officials, including City Manager Eden Freeman, Planning Director Tim Youmans and Public Services Director Perry Eisenach, about how to memorialize the soldiers after the boulevard is renovated.
The current plan is to replace all 49 original markers with replicas during a ceremony that will coincide with either the date the U.S. entered the war or the war’s end date, Schultz said.
The city agrees with the tentative plans as long as the historical society funds the markers, Schultz said. His preliminary research shows reproducing them would cost about $100 apiece.
City officials and Schultz have only spoken once about the future of the markers and a potential ceremony, Youmans said in a phone interview, but “the city wouldn’t be opposed to recognizing World War I veterans in an appropriate way.”
“The thing we had to do quickly was decide if we were going to put the damaged markers into the curb or give ourselves more time,” he added. “We chose the latter rather than trying to rush through.”
The historical society is also seeking photographs of the soldiers and the 1924 dedication ceremony.
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Information from: The Winchester Star, https://www.winchesterstar.com
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