World War I was one of the bloodiest in history — an estimated eight to 10 million troops were killed, including over 112,000 Americans. Nearly as many civilians died from disease, starvation, and other causes. World War I is known for the use of trench warfare. Trench warfare takes place when opposed armed forces attack, counterattack, and defend from relatively permanent systems of trenches dug into ground. It reached its highest development on the Western Front when armies of millions of men faced each other in a line of trenches extending from the Belgian coast through northeastern France to Switzerland.

The Armistice was signed between the Allied Forces and the Central Powers on Nov. 11, 1918. The signing ended the fighting, but the war officially ended six months later with the Treaty of Versailles. The Armistice took effect at eleven o’clock in the morning — the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. President Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day the following year on November 11, 1919, with these words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

Between 1920 and 1922, the remains of 46,000 WWI servicemen were removed from cemeteries in France and shipped home, including a few Lyon County veterans. The photograph featured this week from the Lyon County Museum collection shows the funeral procession on Main Street in Marshall of Luther Irl Snapp and Earl Jackson. The News-Messenger of Lyon County on August 12, 1921 reported:

“With the most impressive demonstration of honor and respect this community united Sunday afternoon in the ceremonies attending the consigning of the remains of Luther Irl Snapp and Earl Jackson, the first and second of Marshall’s boys who fell in battle in the World War, to their final resting place in their native soil. Having been notified that the cemeteries in which the bodies of these two boys were to be consolidated with the larger central cemetery for deceased American soldiers in France, the parents signified their willingness that they be returned home. The ship bearing several hundred of the nation’s dead heroes reached port the latter part of July, and with seventy-seven other bodies, those of the two Marshall boys reached St. Paul Thursday and from that point were brought to this city on the early morning train Saturday under military escort.”

The Lyon County Museum is closed on Monday, Nov. 11 for Veterans Day. The Lyon County Historical Society (LCHS) is a non-profit, member-supported organization. LCHS operates the Lyon County Museum at 301 W Lyon St in Marshall. The Lyon County Museum is open year-round to visitors. To contact us, visit our website: www.lyoncomuseum.org, call: 507-537-6580, email: director@lyoncomuseum.org, or on our Facebook page.