CUTLINE: The once vandalized World War I Doughboy monument recently had it's rifle re-attached. The Doughboy stands adjacent to the new mural painted by

Rifle restored to Doughboy Monument

Marilee Davis

The Pyramid

MT. PLEASANT-- The Doughboy Monument which stands in front of the armory on the corner of Main Street and State Street in Mt. Pleasant, recently had it's missing rifle re-mounted.

Mt. Pleasant Mayor Chesley Christensen wanted the repairs to the statue made for quite a while, but with so much vandalism in the community, had decided against it until now.

"We are putting our best foot forward for Senator Bennett, who will be

touring Mt. Pleasant this week in conjunction with the Mormon National

Pioneer Heritage Highway designation," said Mayor Christensen, "The rifle

should be in place."

The bayonet was broken off the end of the rifle in 1995. In 1997, vandals

tried to remove the rest of the rifle cracking the hand that holds it.

Since that time, Mayor Christensen had to locate another bayonet which was given to Danny Oldroyd to use as a model to construct a new bayonet for the rifle.

Oldroyd made a replica of the bayonet, rebuilt the barrel and finally returned the weapon to the hand of the World War I Doughboy by welding it in

place.

"I didn't want to replace the rifle until I had received a guarantee that it would not be vandalized again," said Oldroyd. "but no one can make that

guarantee."

World War I officially ended Nov. 11, 1918, known as Armistice Day. Most Americans wanted to remember the war and the sacrifice of the men who had fought in it. This spirit of remembrance led to Armistice Day being recognized as a new national holiday.

The tragic sinking of the HMS Otranto had stunned many communities in the

state of Georgia, perhaps none more than the small town of Nashville in Berrien County. Nashville lost 20 residents in the Otranto sinking and another 27 young men to combat or disease. At the war's end, the citizens of Nashville decided to construct a monument honoring the community's fallen heroes.

Sculptor Ernest M. Viquesney (1876 - 1946), an Indiana native living in nearby Americus, GA, designed a statue of an American doughboy in combat.

The seven-foot-tall bronze soldier stands in bronze mud amid broken stumps and tangles of barbed wire. The town of Nashville paid $5,000 for the public sculpture, which was first unveiled in Americus, GA, in November 1921.

As word of Viquesney's statue spread, representatives from other towns visited Americus to see the monument. New orders poured in, and Viquesney went into business, making the statues he called the Spirit of the American Doughboy.

The sculptor would go on to produce more than 150 statues between 1921 and 1943 and deliver them to towns all across the nation.

Some of the sculptures don't have the stumps included as a minor change to the statue.

The statue was originally erected in 1926, by the Service Star Legion, in the intersection of Main Street and State Street, but with the growing community and automobiles becoming more commonplace, the statue was moved to its current site.