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One hundred years ago on Nov. 11, at 11 a.m., World War I officially ended with the signing of the armistice.
The brutality of the war — including 14 million dead — continued until the moment the truce was signed. One Union County soldier died hours before the fighting ceased, according to local historian Dan Bower.
The armistice marked a victory for the Allies, a defeat for Germany and the eventual return home for Valley soldiers, like Regimental Sgt. Maj. Clarence A. Deppen. Deppen, of the 103rd Ammunition Train, a unit attached to Pennsylvania’s 28th infantry division, returned home to Sunbury after fighting overseas in warfare on an unprecedented scale.
Others weren’t so lucky. Eighteen soldiers from Sunbury died in the war.
The war claimed the lives of 14 million people, including 9 million soldiers, sailors and airmen from 28 countries. France alone lost 1.4 million troops. A single battle, like the Somme in France, could claim as many as 1 million soldiers’ lives.
At 11 a.m. Paris time on the 11th of November, the Allies — Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the United States — and German leaders signed the armistice, an agreement to end what was called “The Great War.” Germany’s allies, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria had signed previous treaties.
Returning home
Upon returning home, Deppen found success. He started a family and a career: Clarence had one son, Robert, and he had a son, John Deppen, who today is well known in the Valley for his civic activism in Northumberland Borough and surrounding areas.
“I never knew my grandfather,” said Deppen on Thursday. “He died in 1938, which was almost 30 years before I was born. I do know that Clarence Deppen went on to create a distinguished life in Sunbury as the city controller for several years during the Great Depression.”
Because he was a non-commissioned officer, “Clarence had all these administrative skills and he thought he could put them to good use in a public position. He ran for office and was elected and then re-elected two or three times,” John Deppen said.
Eighteen soldiers from Sunbury weren’t so lucky.
On Nov. 11, 1921, three years after the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting in Europe, members of the Sunbury Civic Club dedicated a stone memorial with a bronze tablet featuring the names of those Sunbury men who died during the war. The monument was placed in Cameron Park on Market Street. The last names include Barnasconi, Foulkrod, Lupold, LaFaver, Musser, Mullner, Strouse and Steele.
“They died in the ways that all men die in war,” said John Deppen, whose own interest in history and research brought out their stories: Pvt. Barnasconi died from disease; Pvt. LaFaver was killed in action; and Strouse, a wagoner, died from wounds.
There were a number of Union County boys that did not see the end of the war either. The date the armistice was signed — Nov. 11, 1918, came a day after Union County’s last World War I death, said Dan Bower, of the Union County Historical Society. “George Zimmerman, of Millmont, was killed on Nov. 10. Zimmerman was a member of Company F, 314th Infantry Regiment, 79th Division.
“The 314th Infantry Regiment was comprised of local men, including Bower’s great uncle, he said, “as well as many others from Northumberland and Union Counties. Zimmerman was killed near Hill 328, near Buisson Chaumont, France.”
A number of American soldiers were killed on Nov. 11, Bower said, because their orders were to attack continuously until the very last minute before the Armistice was signed at 11 a.m. Nov. 11.
Local response
Spirits in the Valley ran high through most of the war, Bower said. “There were a couple of ambulance military units that came out of Bucknell, that were made up completely of Bucknell students, faculty. They took medical training in Allentown before being shipped overseas. Those were the first units from Union County to go over to assist in the war.”
But they weren’t the first to see fighting from the area. “There were Lewisburgers who went over to fight before America officially entered the war in 1916,” Bower said. “A Lewisburg man with the last name Wolf joined the Canadian military in 1914 because he felt a sense of duty and wanted to fight the Germans. He made it through the war, although according to newspapers of the time, he was wounded seven times. Kathryn Baker, of Vicksburg, went and joined the French army as a nurse in 1917.”
Bower’s interest in World War I started with a list of names of soldiers who served in Union County’s local Cavalry Unit, Troop M, which was based in Lewisburg. But the individuals in the Unit were from all over the Valley — Union, Snyder and Northumberland counties.
Bower has compiled a list of more than 630 names, which include men and women who served in World War I. “A number of them were killed in action,” Bowers said. “We had one general officer, General Tasker Bliss, a U.S. Army Chief of Staff in 1917. He was born on Water Street in Lewisburg.”
Nationalism ran high in Valley towns during the war years, 1917-18, Bower said. But there was a darker side to it, too.
“At this time there was a widespread animosity against German-Americans, the largest ethnic group in the entire region,” Bower said. “One of the first things that came up after the U.S. declared war happened in Watsontown. Some members of Troop M heard that there was a possible German sympathizer in Watsontown, so a small group of men from the troop plus about 100 citizens went up and hung the stars and stripes on this gentleman’s barn, dragged him out of his home and made sure he pledged allegiance to the United States.”
There was an article in the Lewisburg Saturday News about a huge book burning that happened in Susquehanna University in April 1918, Bower explained. “All German books, music … anything written by Germans was thrown on a big bonfire and at the pinnacle was an effigy of Kaiser Wilhelm on top of the bonfire.”
In New Berlin, there were suggestions to change the name of the town to Verdun, but the war ended before they could make that major decision.
One other thing that surprised Bower while researching old newspapers. In 1917, the U.S. had war savings stamps, similar to war bonds, but they were more flexible. You could use them as regular stamps for letters. Union County had the highest per capita sales of those stamps than any other county in the state. Back then, it was $2.73 a person and the next highest county was in Philadelphia, less than a dollar per person.
People were so thrilled that this rural county was doing so well as compared to all these major cities, Bower said. “From Lewisburg to Mifflinburg folks made signs like ‘We did our part, are you doing yours?”
Parades that drew 8,000 people to Lewisburg celebrated the end of the war.
Not all guns and roses
Some veterans had a hard time adjusting to post war life, explained Bruce Teeple, also a historian with the Union County Historical Society.
“There were shell-shocked veterans,” Teeple said. “Guys that were hermits and lived in tiny cabins in the mountains in Union, Centre and Clinton counties. One woman in particular I know had a father who was a Lutheran minister. He would go up into the mountains and administer to the needs of these guys.”
People were made to be ashamed that they were ethnic Germans, Teeple said.
“And so people were discouraged from using their dutch German dialect, the language of their parents and grandparents. Another woman told me that federal agents had confiscated their family’s guns. Even though they were naturalized citizens they were born in Germany,” Teeple said. “Generations of children born after 1917 were discouraged from speaking any German.”
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