COLUMN: Owen County's other 'Doughboy'

By Dixie Kline Richardson
Guest Columnist

On Oct. 13, 1918 in Saint Germain, France, a young Owen County man died of pneumonia, just one statistic among the many world-wide deaths from influenza and pneumonia. The son of a German immigrant, he was a member of Company D, 309 Engineers in the war that was meant to end all wars.

Carl Kaiser was 27-years-old and unmarried. He was born in Patricksburg, Aug. 26, 1891, a son of George Kaiser of Wurttemburg who came to America in 1866. His mother was Mary Hoot or Haute. Like many Americans with German roots, he may have been in battle facing cousins.

From my childhood, I heard the story of Carl Kaiser and his statue on guard at Patricksburg Lutheran Cemetery. My father, who was a boy at the time of the reinterment of Kaiser's remains, told me Kaiser's family wanted a statue that was lifelike; an original work didn't please them. The figure that has stood at the grave since 1921 so resembled the soldier that Patricksburg residents were amazed.

The statue in recent years has shown some damage. There is a nick in the helmet which may have come from hail or a thrown stone, or (we'd like to think not) a BB gun.

Kaiser, who did not die from an enemy bullet or suffer from gas poisoning, nonetheless gave his life in service of his country. Other Owen countians in his regiment were J. W. Egnor Jr., Clarence Hendershot, Robert Hendershot, Larry Crouse, Freal McBride and an Arney.

Fred Kaiser, a brother, wrote, "Carl left us in the best of spirit and his letters always seemed as though he was happy...May our service flag be draped as a memorial of love and eternal gain, of the one blue star whose threads have been changed to gold."

The funeral was held at the Lutheran church where Carl had been baptized at two months. The Reverends L. E. Minneman and H. L. Ridenour officiated at the service. Surviving him were his parents, and siblings Fred, Emma, Mary and Charlot. A sister, Elizabeth, was deceased.

While the Doughboy on the square in Spencer, and its clones all over the country are visible almost to the point of not being noticed, and plainly on the attack, our "other Doughboy" stands silent and vigilant. I always think he's waiting for the time the guns can be put away.