Lee County, Illinois - Chapter 39, 1920

The town of South Dixon looked upon the beginning of the great wai- wilii many niis- Kix'injis and many doubts. Being a fanning and dairy community with a scarcity of labor, and one-half of its citizens Cievman, or of direct German decent, made a \('ry bad combination to draw on for soldiers, or to laisc moiie>- to carr>- on the lireat cause for democracy and human rights. But she came ihrotigh with flying colors, willi lo>-al citizens wiio stand for but one counti'v and one flag.

Rai.i'u O. Will, son of Chailcs I. and Marietta Mo.ssholdcr Will, was born Aug. o, ISSli, in South Dixon township. He was induct('(l into service Septenibei- lOfS. at ('amp Grant. He was in camp, but tliree weeks, when lie was taken sick with influenza and died of pneumonia Sept. 27, lUlN. He was buried at Heckman cemetery, South Dixon.

In the Second Liberty Loan drive a greater etforl was put foith, and the committees soon foimd who the delinquents were. Some of oui- prominent citizens actually refused to buy bonds, saying that they had no money to throw awa>-. I heard one >oung man say: "I have a good crop of wheat and I won't sell it until the Kaiser comes over here, and then I will give it to him." Since then his attitude has changed but I (|Uestion if his heart has.

In the Third Liberty Loan drive oiu' township was thoroughly canvassed, but from lack of organization we were over 18,000 behind our (|uota. However, by the efforts of one patriotic citizen, and the cooperation of oni- lownsnieiL South Dixon was nearly $1000 over our quota the day the loan drive closeil.

The I-'diiilli LilicHy Loan (|iiota was gained aftci- a liai'd struggle. We had to our credit Diie-hall' (iT the deliii(|ueiits names which were puhhshed on the Council of Defense lilack-lxiai'd, liul of these names all liut one was finally erased. This man never bought a lion,!.

In the W. S. S. dri\-e we had lieconie hetter organized and the citizens better acquainted with the wiiik. ]'>y hguring out our iiuota we could more nearly place our amounts and were sure of getting results. At the clo.se of this di'ive we reached our ciuota.

In the fall of 1017. the Y. M. ('. A. war di-i\e was not very strong in South Dixon. Our citizens coulil not see any use of taking care of our soldiers' souls, or looking after their physical welfai'e. otherwise than tin- wa>- Uncle Sam was treating them, and in our solicitation for mi ml ers and money we received but a small peireiitage of what we should have.

In the Red Cross drive for membersliip in the wintei' of 1917, a great effort was made to rank first in Lee county, and for awhile it looked as though we might win. Palmyra township, in the meantime, was making strenuous efforts for first place; and a few patriotic citizens came lorwaid and took memberships, and in this manner covered the shortage of those who would not, and those who could not. Palmyra was the first 100 percent township, and South Dixon had to take second place.

In the Red Cross tlrive in Jmie, after a hard fought campaign, we found we were short about $50. This shortage was due to some of our head committeemen being afraid to iDid good-bye to their dollars, and not because some of our poorer citizens failed in their duty.

One case deserves particular mention. An old mother, who was very poor, doing a man's work, in the fiekl most of the time, and her son, were assessed, and when the mother came she paid the full amount assessed against both. A receipt was written, covering the amount of both her son and herself. She objected when she read it, and said "No sir, that is my amount; he will pay his." He did.