They never came home: Big Horn County’s lost soldiers of World War I

Something deeply sad struck me as I studied the stories of the men from Big Horn County who paid the ultimate price in World War I. It’s hard to imagine that more than a century has passed since that global conflict, long enough that no one alive still remembers them personally.

Today, they exist mostly as names etched in stone on weathered memorials and brief mentions in history books. Hopefully, by sharing a bit of their stories here, we can renew our appreciation for their service and sacrifice.

World War I went by many names. At the time, it was called The Great War, reflecting its unprecedented scale. Others optimistically referred to it as The War to End All Wars, a phrase popularized by H. G. Wells. Still others called it The Kaiser’s War, placing the blame squarely on Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, set in motion the events that sparked the war. The United States, however, remained on the sidelines until April 1917. Though the conflict ended only 19 months later, America lost 116,000 men, about 53,000 to combat and another 63,000 to the influenza pandemic.

By my best estimate, 15 Big Horn County men died while in service out of nearly 200 who either volunteered or were drafted. Seven are buried in France, six were brought home and two were lost at sea.

Kaiser Wilhelm II once urged his troops to “fight like the ancient Huns under Attila,” known for their savagery. The Allied press seized on that image, calling German soldiers “Huns” to symbolize the empire’s brutality. That stigma reached even to rural Wyoming. The town of Germania, settled in the 1890s by German Lutherans, felt the sting of anti-German sentiment so sharply that its residents changed the name to Emblem in 1918, “an emblem of American pride.”

As Europe burned and names like “Hun” filled the headlines, small Wyoming towns sent their own young men to that fight. They left behind farms, families and familiar hills. Here are a few of their stories, ordinary men caught in an extraordinary war.

Some stories behind the 

names of the dead

Arnold Johnson of Lovell was a top student at Lovell High School and a graduate of BYU who returned home to teach. Known for his love of beekeeping and animals, he eagerly volunteered for service when World War I began but was initially rejected due to a defect in his left eye. Despite marrying in 1918, his determination to serve never wavered. He eventually joined the Veterinary Hospital Corps and was sent to France. In his final letter to his wife, he described with wonder the sights of Paris. Tragically, he contracted influenza and died in February 1919. His only child, a son named Arnold Johnson Jr., was born just 24 days after his death. His body was returned to the U.S. for burial.

Leonard Purkey of Greybull was just 22 when he arrived in Europe. A member of the Sheridan National Guard, he had already served on the Mexican border against Pancho Villa and re-enlisted when the war began. Promoted to corporal and later sergeant, he died of wounds near the front in 1917.

“He made the supreme sacrifice,” the Greybull Standard wrote, urging readers “never to forget him.” He is buried in France.

Grant Barber of Greybull served with the 148th Field Artillery, one of the first U.S. heavy artillery units in combat. After training in France, his unit fought in nearly every major American offensive on the Western Front. Barber was killed during the Champagne battle in July 1918 and rests in the American Cemetery at Belleau, France.

Lafayette Blackburn of Byron trained with the same 148th. Poisoned by German mustard gas at the front, he survived to see the Armistice but succumbed to infection at Coblenz in January 1919, one of many whose deaths came after the war was technically over. His body is buried in the American War Cemetery in Coblenz, Germany.

George Ketchum of Cowley and Robert Stewart were both serving aboard the USS Cyclops, carrying coal and manganese ore to support the war effort, when the ship vanished somewhere between Barbados and Baltimore in March 1918. They were among 306 men lost in what remains the U.S. Navy’s greatest non-combat disaster. The Cyclops was never found, and for months their families held out hope that somehow a miracle would bring them home. Lovell’s American Legion Post, the Robert Boyd Stewart Post 11, bears his name in remembrance. The Lovell Chronicle wrote that they were “resting in the ocean’s blue.”

Louis Lourand of Cloverly died in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive during the final phase of the war, just days before the November 11 Armistice and is buried in France. Because Cloverly was merely a rail stop between Greybull and Lovell without its own newspaper, little could be found about him. He is listed as having “died of wounds,” meaning he reached a field hospital but succumbed shortly after. He is buried in Romagne, France.

William Emrich of Shell was anxious to serve and traveled to Billings in January 1918 to enlist but was turned away for being “too short.” Disappointed, he returned to his family and his postal route job. Whether he grew or the rules changed, by October 15 he was fighting, and dying, on a battlefield in France, where he now lies buried.

Clyde Tobey of Greybull served with the Wyoming Field Artillery. After months at the front, he succumbed to the Spanish Flu at Coblenz, Germany, in early 1919 while serving with the Army of Occupation. He was first buried in an American cemetery in Germany and later brought home by his family to Wyoming for interment.

Everett Maxwell of Cowley was one of the first Big Horn Basin men to volunteer. He fought alongside his brother Alvin, and they were only 100 yards apart when he was hit. While dying he said, “Well, boys tell them I died fighting: I have done my best; I am going to meet my mother. Goodbye.” He died “with his face to the foe,” as the Cowley Progress put it, earning for his regiment “an immortal name among the nations of the world.” He is buried in the Cowley Cemetery.

Delbert Hopkins of Burlington fell victim to influenza on November 5, 1918, at Camp Kearney, California, before he ever left for Europe. His body was returned to Wyoming, where Basin held a military funeral that filled the town’s Main Street. Because of quarantine restrictions, the service was held outdoors. He now rests in Burlington Cemetery.

John Watts of Byron served an LDS mission to the Eastern States in 1914, returning home just in time to enlist in the Great War. He was killed in action during the brutal trench fighting of eastern France in October 1918, as Allied forces prepared to enter Germany, only a month before the Armistice. He is buried in a U.S. Cemetery in France.

Marion Tanner of Burlington died during his training in November 1917 at Camp Greene in North Carolina. He was a well-liked farmer before enlisting immediately after the country’s call for soldiers. The cause of death is listed as pneumonia, which nearly always turned out to be caused by influenza. He is buried in the Burlington Cemetery. 

Grover McCarthy of Basin attended the University of Notre Dame from 1907 to 1909 and served as a private in the 331st Infantry during World War I. He died of pneumonia in France in December 1918 and was first buried in the American section of the Grand Cemetery at Le Mans. At his family’s request, his remains were later returned to the United States and reinterred with family in South Dakota.

Joseph Johnson of Manderson was killed in action in France on October 2, 1918, just 40 days before the end of World War I. Born in Nebraska, he moved to Manderson in 1910 to take up farming. He attended college in McMinnville, Oregon, for two years before returning to continue his work on the land. When the war began, he enlisted at the first opportunity. He is buried in the Manderson Cemetery.

A note about the “Spanish Flu.” It is estimated that about 800 Wyoming residents died of influenza between 1918 and 1919, including more than 100 soldiers who were serving at the time. It was called the Spanish Flu because Spain was the first country to report it publicly. The United States, France, England and Germany had already seen hundreds of deaths but kept the news quiet to avoid revealing any “troop weakness.” The pandemic ultimately killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide and was especially tragic because it struck many healthy young adults, including those in military service.

Veterans Day is a time to honor all those throughout our nation’s history who have served in both war and peace. Let us take a few moments on Tuesday to reflect on the blessing of living in a nation at peace and to express gratitude for the honorable men and women who have served to protect us, the Constitution of the United States and the values it upholds.