Salem During World War I
Reading the stories collected for this initiative has reinforced for me the resilient nature of the human spirit. Never is this more apparent than when reflecting upon the City’s experiences during the second decade of the 20th century. While the city faced the devastation caused by the fire of 1914, residents were also facing the fear and uncertainty of a war beginning in Europe. Just three years later as rebuilding continued in the burned area, the United States declared war on Germany and entered into the global conflict known as the The Great War or The World War. Approximately 2,100 men from Salem ultimately served in the war and 77 lost their lives. To support the men and the war effort, residents came together to undertake fundraising campaigns, even as many homes and businesses were still in the process of being rebuilt after the fire. Fundraising included Salem’s participation in the “Community Chest” initiative in which 300 American cities raised charitable funds for the war effort. Salem even erected an elaborate “War Chest” on Washington Street (see image at the bottom of this page) to signify this effort. For more information on those who served in the war and community efforts in Salem see the posts in the sidebar.
Today, the memory of the war is evident in a series of squares named in honor of World War I soldiers and a beautiful collection of monuments in the city. (For more information on the veterans’ squares, see the City’s Veterans Agent webpage here.) Soon after the war ended, residents turned their fundraising efforts towards commemorating those who fought and those who lost their lives during the World War. Artists were commissioned to design several memorials, including:
The Ward 3 World War I Memorial was erected in the center island of Dalton Parkway in 1920. This honor roll monument was fabricated by the T.F McGann and Sons, Co. foundry of Boston and consists of a seven foot tall rock-faced granite tablet with a rectangular bronze plaque that lists the 286 names of Ward 3 men and women who served with the inscription “It is Sweet and Noble to Serve One’s Country in Her Hour of Need 1917-1918”. In addition to the names, the plaque is decorated by a garland along the top edge with the seal of the City of Salem in the upper right-hand comer and the seal of the United States of America in the upper left. Two bas relief figures of soldiers in profile stand along the left and right edges of the tablet.
The Immaculate Conception World War I Memorial located in the center island of Hawthorne Boulevard opposite the Immaculate Conception Church was erected in 1920. Rectangular in plan, the monument is constructed of pink granite and consists of a stepped pedestal with a reeded molding at the base. Designed by sculptor Raymond Averill Porter, the memorial includes a bronze bas relief of a female figure in classical dress holding a cluster of leafs and an oak wreath in her raised left hand and a shield inscribed "For God, Country and Humanity" in her right hand. Laurel leaves frame the sides of the figure. The memorial was erected by the people of the Immaculate Conception Church in honor of those from the Church who served in World War I and was donated to the City of Salem Parks Commission at its unveiling in 1920.
In Greenlawn Cemetery stands a striking memorial to an individual soldier who died in the war. The Pvt. Robert James Cooney Monument commemorates the loss of a soldier in the First World War. Cooney, who served in the Royal Canadian Regiment of the Canadian Infantry, died in France in 1916. His family erected a headstone in the shape of a tree-stump to represent a life cut short. At the top of the stump is a bronze memorial medallion, which was given to families of fallen soldiers as an official token of gratitude by the British government. The medallion, called “Pyranus” (nicknamed ‘Dead Man’s Penny’), was designed by sculptor and medalist Edward Carter Preston. Production of the bronze medallions, twelve centimeters in diameter, began in 1919, and more than a million were issued. Pvt. Cooney’s medallion bearing his name was given to his mother, Bessie Cooney DeMings of Beverly, who had it mounted on his gravestone.
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