‘Greatest demonstration’ in Sheboygan’s history came in 1918 at the end of World War I

SHEBOYGAN — Brave young men and women from Sheboygan County served in World War I, with 94 soldiers giving their fullest measure in battle. Thousands of young women served as nurses, seeing death from war nearly every day.

An assassination on June 28, 1914, sparked World War I. A young Serbian patriot shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Austria), in the city of Sarajevo. The assassin was a supporter of the Kingdom of Serbia, and within a month the Austrian army invaded Serbia.

The war hit home in Sheboygan when the city's first young man to die in World War I was Company C's Herman Frank Doering. He died as a result of wounds from battle.

Doering, 27, who volunteered for service in July 1917, had worked with his father in the cement business before joining Company C. He was the oldest of 11 children. His younger brother William was, at the time of his brother's death, in the 340th Infantry stationed in New York.

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The word of his death reached his mother in the form of a telegram, according to a Sheboygan Press clipping. It was dated July 20, 1918. It read as follows:

Mrs. Lena Doering,

Deeply regret to inform you that it is officially reported that Private Herman Frank Doering, Infantry, died July 2 from wounds received in action. McCAIN, Adjutant General.

According to a Press clipping provided by the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, the telegram was the result of a War Department inquiry by his parents. At the time he was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Doering; six brothers, William (also in the service), Charles, Walter, Arno, Otto and Frank; and four sisters, Ella, Anna, Frieda and Milda.

When the United States entered the war in 1917, soldiers were greeted with a war-torn French landscape that had the appearance of the crater-pocked moon. Many soldiers died on their first day in battle from sniper fire, according to a Press story by Beth Dippel.

In 1918, the war came to a close and the city held a celebration of the war that was said to "end all wars" was over.

The city celebrated with gusto.

Armistice Day began on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour in the year 1918, when fighting ceased between Germany and the Allies.

A Nov. 12, 1918, Press clipping reported: "Yesterday's peace celebration was the greatest demonstration in the city's history. Wholly impromptu, the parade assumed a shape and number as if by magic. From stores and factories, homes and offices they came. The surrounding villages also sent marchers. There was music galore. Eighth Street has never before seen the likes of this."

Wisconsin was considered a hot spot of disloyalty and pro-Germanism. At first, Bach and Beethoven were taken out of concert programs. Later, German-produced items like beer and sausage were boycotted. Sauerkraut became "liberty cabbage."

Sheboygan Press Editor Charles E. Broughton wrote an editorial on Armistice which is fundamentally true today. It said, in part:

"PEACE. The world has been upside down. Mankind has been killing off its best lives instead of conserving them. It has been shooting its wealth away in the roar of guns and bombs. Its hands have been devoted to destruction. Its wheels of progress have been stopped. Its attitude towards almost everything in this life has undergone tremendous changes. Even its thoughts have been twisted and warped.

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"Peace finds the world in chaos. Before us is a new beginning, with revolution, in large or small degree, probably in every one of our economic, industrial and social relations, and Solomon himself would fail successfully to predict where and how far we will go.

"But the great war efforts in common have brought us closer together and we will settle every one of our problems right if we hold fast to the fundamental principle that all men are equal, equally entitled to consideration and opportunity."

In all, 94 men from Sheboygan County gave their lives in the war, according to the Sheboygan County War Veterans Memorial website. Unfortunately, as much as it was hoped, it was not the last time that Sheboygan County would be called upon to fight a distant war.

Today, we continue to remember all the men who died for the United States at the Sheboygan County Veterans Memorial.

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan marked end of World War I in 1918 with impromptu parade