Many Knox alumni gave their lives in service to their country during World War I. The College honored their memories by erecting a monument in front of Old Main that is still on Knox's campus to this day.
Memorial to those who served and lost their lives in the First World War. The memorial is near the north entrance to Old Main.
Plaque listing soldiers from Knox College killed in the War. This plaque is affixed to the west side of the memorial.
World War I flagpole
World War I service flag
These soldiers' sacrifices were commemorated and lauded by their peers in Knox College's yearbook, The Gale. The lives lost during the war had a profound impact on Knox's tight-knit community.
(Click on an image for a larger view.)
Memories of the Knox men killed during the war
'He lives in Fame that died in Virtue's cause'
Knox College honor roll
"Lest We Forget"
Dedication page in the 1920 'Gale'
Foreword for the 1920 'Gale'
"At the Front"
Knox College Memorial Service program
Memorial service for servicemen
Other men from Galesburg who gave their lives as a result of the war include:
John D. Bartlett, a Galesburg doctor who went to war to help wounded soldiers. He suffered a nervous breakdown during Meuse-Argonne offensive and never fully recovered. He died in a hospital in East Moline on January 12, 1920.
Chauncey Depew Hawkinson, who never made it to the war but died of the Spanish influenza at Camp Zachary Taylor. He is buried next to his father in Hope Cemetery.
Sven Tornquist, a 24-year old Swedish immigrant who was killed in a freak accident on his way to a military base in Texas.
Jesse Q. Callendar, who was horrifically wounded in the battle of Chateau-Thierry after surviving several other intense battles in which he was exposed to gas warfare. Callendar suffered for the rest of his life from shell-shock (PTSD) and depression. He lived for twenty-six years in veterans' hospitals and died in a soldiers' hospital in Danville.
-- In Fisher Talbot's "The Monuments Men: Soldiers of the Great War more than names carved in stone." In The Register Mail (Galesburg, IL), May 29, 2016.
