Village President Larry Levin delivered a simple message this week about the costs of war.
“The price of liberty is never cheap, not even for quiet little Glencoe,” he said at the village’s Memorial Day ceremony.
Levin spoke to a crowd of about 100 at Veterans’ Memorial Park on the holiday morning. The names of 35 Glencoe men who, according to the Glencoe Historical Society, died in one of four wars were read aloud.
But with 2017 marking the 100th anniversary of U.S. entry into World War I, this year’s observance centered on the lives of five men with Glencoe ties that the Historical Society believes died during World War I or shortly thereafter.
According to Historical Society President Peter Van Vechten, Glencoe had a population of roughly 2,500 in 1917 and 247 local men were either drafted, enlisted or volunteered to go into the military. Five did not return, he said.
“Today, we remain grateful for their service,” Van Vechten said.
Members of the Village Board, the Park District and the Historical Society provided snapshots of the lives and wartime efforts of Leon Bullard, George Brandenburg, Marinus Christensen, Kenneth MacLeish and Norman Hillock, who all died in Europe in World War I’s final days or shortly thereafter.
A letter from Hillock to his sister, Mabel, obtained by the Historical Society was read aloud.
“Yesterday, I…flew over and around London at about 5,000 feet, and it gave me a quite a good view and idea as to the size of the city,” Hillock wrote. “Mabel, it sure is enormous….As for the city itself, I wouldn’t give South Avenue Glencoe for the whole of it, but I suppose it is a wonderful place in peace time.”
In a letter to his family, MacLeish described his time in aerial combat.
“Just a word…will shatter all your illusions about this flying game,” MacLeish wrote. “It may be great sport some of the time, but when it isn’t sport, it’s positively torture.”
The approximately 30-minute ceremony also included a local Boy Scout troop raising an American flag, two members of the troop playing taps, and Girls Scouts laying a wreath.
The audience heard the names of the 30 men the Historical Society believes had ties to Glencoe and died in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam.
“The First World War was called at the time, the ‘War to End All Wars,'” Levin said. “As we know all too well, that has not happened, and on this Memorial Day, we again gather to honor our many Glencoe residents who participated in defending our liberty and all too often gave their lives that we might live in freedom today.”
Attendee Len Birnbaum, who said he served in Europe in World War II, was joined by other veterans who live at a Highland Park retirement home.
“I feel a sense of poignancy,” Birnbaum said. “The ceremony was absolutely beautiful.”
Glencoe resident Bob Wolfberg said the ceremony was “incredibly moving and touching.”
“It brings our country’s history and soldiers’ sacrifice very close to home,” he said.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
