Statue continues to honor Edwardsville soldier’s sacrifice

Q. In Buck Road Cemetery on Illinois 162 on the western outskirts of Maryville, there is a statue of a World War I soldier named Henry Ostendorf. He was killed in Europe during the war. What is the history of this soldier? Who put up the statue and when? The people of Buck Road have asked me often because I am the sexton there, but I have no answers other than it was there when I took over the cemetery years ago.

A. It was undoubtedly the largest, stateliest funeral most folks in Madison County had ever been part of.

On July 24, 1921, an estimated 2,000 residents packed your relatively tiny Buck Road Cemetery to honor Private Henry “Hank” Nicholas Ostendorf as he was laid to rest for the last time. It was nearly three years to the day since he had been killed in France just a week before Allied troops launched their Hundred Days Offensive that would decide the war to end all wars. Now, on this hot summer afternoon, family, friends and neighbors along with many who likely knew of him only by name turned out to make sure they did indeed remember the first Madison County resident who had made the ultimate sacrifice in World War I.

As a child, Henry was no stranger to loss himself. Born in 1894, he was the son of Henry Ostendorf Jr., who, according to church records, was born in Millstadt before his own family had made its way to the Glen Carbon area sometime after the Civil War. There, he met and married 18-year-old Anna Jedlicka, of Edwardsville, in 1879. They took up residence on Henry Jr.’s farm north of Glen Carbon, where they welcomed the birth of 12 children, two of whom died days after their birth.

But as Henry approached his teens, his family was rocked by three deaths in little more than a half year. It started with his 13-year-old sister, Elizabeth, who died in May 1905. Six months later, his 49-year-old father died of heart failure and uremia on the day after Christmas. Then, not two weeks later, his 21-year-old brother, Frank, passed away as well. Unable to keep up the farm, Anna moved to Edwardsville, where she died in 1911 to leave Henry parentless by the time he was 17.

Six years later, with the outcome of World War I still in doubt, Henry joined the Army on Sept. 19, 1917, five months after the United States had entered the fight. After training at Camp Taylor, Ky., and a brief assignment in Texas, he reportedly started his trek to France on his 24th birthday along with the rest of Company M’s 33rd Illinois Division. Just three months later, on Aug. 2, a piece of shell struck him on the right side of his head during a night operation, gravely wounding him. He died on Aug. 7 and was buried along the Somme River, which had witnessed a horrendous battle the year before that had left more than a million men wounded or killed.

Three years later, his remains were exhumed and sent home so he could be given a proper farewell by his seven surviving siblings — and what a heartfelt sendoff it was. The casket arrived on Thursday, July 21, 1921, as Commander Thomas Dooner, of the Edwardsville American Legion, finalized plans for a full military funeral. From Saturday afternoon until 10 a.m. Sunday, thousands of residents filed by the closed casket that was guarded by soldiers, sailors and Marines at the Madison County Courthouse.

“The scene ... was artistically arranged,” the Edwardsville Intelligencer reported on Monday, July 25, 1921. “The casket was placed near the center of the rotunda. As a background, the banner and flag of Edwardsville Post No. 199 was used. About the standards and casket were numerous potted plants. A life-sized enlargement of Private Ostendorf was in a frame of flowers and placed upon the casket. While it was impossible to see the face of the soldier, fond recollections were brought back through the likeness of the photograph.”

Afterward, the Edwardsville Concert Band played a solemn dirge as the casket, resting on a gun carriage, paid one last visit to the Ostendorf family home at 237 Clay St. before it was taken to St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Crowds jammed the streets leading to the church where Ostendorf had once served many years as an altar boy assisting the Rev. C. O’Reilly, who spoke of “God, Our Country and Our Fellow Man” before celebrating a requiem high Mass.

Pallbearers included fellow M Company soldiers, who also belonged to the what is now called the Henry Ostendorf chapter of the Granite City American Legion. Among them was Thomas Samuels, who had had the heart-wrenching task of writing the letter on Aug. 7, 1918, that had informed Ostendorf’s family of his death.

“Over 200 automobiles were needed to transport the party to Buck Road cemetery,” the paper reported. “And there were fully 200 other cars driven to the burial grounds ahead of the funeral procession.”

As the casket was lowered into the ground, the band played “Nearer My God to Thee” as the massive crowd stood silently with bowed heads. Finally, after nearly everyone else had made their way back home, the casket was opened briefly, allowing Henry’s five surviving brothers to make a positive identification of the remains through his hair and fractured skull from the impact of the shell fragment, according to the paper.

Later, the life-size statue of a soldier in uniform standing at attention was placed at his gravesite, but just who did it and when seems to be lost to time. Folks at the Edwardsville, Maryville and Glen Carbon libraries along with the Glen Carbon Heritage Museum and the Madison County Historical Society worked hard this week to solve this mystery but with no success. So, for now, the statue continues to stand in silent tribute while his name lives on through Granite City Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1300, which formed on May 24, 1932, in honor of Private Ostendorf.

Today’s trivia

When was the first minimum wage established in the United States — and how much was it?

Answer to Thursday’s trivia: He is best remembered for his roles in “Frankenstein” and other horror flicks, but Boris Karloff could turn in monster performances in straight dramatic roles as well. In 1956, Karloff earned a Tony Award nomination as best actor in French playwright Jean Anouilh’s “The Lark.” In it, he played Pierre Cauchon, a Roman Catholic bishop who had a key role in the downfall and subsequent trial of Joan of Arc in 1431. The play, which ran for 229 performances, earned Julie Harris a Tony as Joan. Although Karloff would lose the Tony race to Paul Muni for “Inherit the Wind,” he and Harris would reprise their roles for a 1957 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of the play on television. The Broadway cast also featured Theodore Bikel, who died Tuesday.

This story was originally published July 24, 2015 at 7:25 AM with the headline "Statue continues to honor Edwardsville soldier’s sacrifice."