Copyright Shaw Local Enewspapers
Every year, when crowds descend on downtown Sycamore for the annual Pumpkin Festival, visitors are greeted not only by all the festivities but also by the sight of the DeKalb County Courthouse. In front, where hundreds of decorated pumpkins are displayed, stands the DeKalb County Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a memorial dedicated in ode to Civil War veterans. Erected in November 1896, the monument has a long history, once complicated by theft. In remarks as part of a recent presentation, Dennis Maher, a Sycamore resident and historian, said it meant a lot to him personally to dive into the history behind the monument. He’s also a member of the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War. Maher said some original records on the memorial’s history were recently discovered. “This was real big business, by the way,” Maher said. The Civil War, which went from 1861 to 1865, saw many men throughout the country enlist, including thousands from DeKalb County. The 105th and Illinois regiment had the greatest number of men from DeKalb County, according to the now defunct True Republican newspaper. A few local men also enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Around that time, many a soldier was confronted by physical and emotional challenges, as is the case with any war. It prompted some of them to turn to the church for assistance, according to the True Republican newspaper. Others found support through the Grand Army Republic, which Maher said was essentially the first veterans organization to incorporate, since neither the Veterans of Foreign Wars nor the American Legion existed at the time. Not all Union soldiers were part GAR, however. “It was an opportunity for them to come together and share stories, help each other out as any veterans would do to this very day,” Maher said. “It became a very powerful, political organization, as well. They’re involved in local and national politics all the way through the 1920s.” In recognition of those who served in the Civil War, many monuments have since been built across the country. Some monuments are large, and others are small. “What we then have in the late 1800s is a wave of building monuments,” Maher said. “The Civil War soldiers, the veterans would often return to the battlefield and reunite with their brothers there.” Standing at 51 feet high and 6 feet wide, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Sycamore is taller than the one in Mount Carroll. According to the True Republican, the construction of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument was overseen by Jerry Singer, a local mason. “He did a lot of the buildings in Sycamore on Main Street,” Maher said. Along the side of the monument are listed all 2,391 names of soldiers from DeKalb County. And despite extensive planning, the monument has what Maher said is a birthmark, or an error, inscribed on it. “It’s quite obvious they mispelled [the Battle of] Antietam,” Maher said. That error remains on the monument to this day. “That’s not an easy fix,” Maher said. “It’s chiseled granite. I can’t imagine how expensive that would be.” The Board of Supervisors, which oversaw GAR’s budget, had appropriated $5,000 for the monument’s initial construction, according to the True Republican. “The mission was set forth at this time,” Maher said. “It was decided that since it’s going to be a county monument, Elmwood Cemetery is out. It needs to be placed probably and most likely as it was in front of the courthouse.” A county celebration of the monument was staged in June 1897. The event consisted of several speakers and a parade, according to the True Republican. In 1903, the nearby courthouse was torn down and replaced with a new one. At some point, canons were placed in front of the monument, according to the True Republican. “The carriage of the cannons were in bad shape,” Maher said. “They weren’t original. There was controversy. People thought these cannons were imitations.” The 1920s were a period of isolationism for many. Around that time, a common sentiment shared was that people didn’t want to get involved in conflict. “We didn’t even join the League of Nations,” Maher said. “It was like, ‘We’re out of here. What is this?’ There was this sentiment that ‘We don’t want to be reminded of war.’ So, there was this push to remove the cannon. They remained in the 1920s.” But in 1956, trouble ensued. “Some high school kids decided to climb the monument and steal the rifle,” Maher said. “The rifle went missing for some time. And the town was in an uproar.” The suspects in the monument’s theft were later found and escorted ceremoniously by the chief and his deputy – one of them at gunpoint – to return the rifle. GAR has since become a defunct organization. Taking its place in 1881 would be the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War. “We basically pick up where the GAR left off,” Maher said. Maher said the idea behind the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War is simple. “The idea was for the sons, daughters, wives, members of the community to place flowers on the graves of those soldiers that served in the Civil War or were killed,” Maher said. “And this tradition continued all the way to this very day.” Maher said the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War remains active in the community. They’re in the middle of embarking on a project to clean headstones and place special markers on the graves of Civil War veterans who belonged to GAR. “Our organization is continuously trying to do research of who was in and who wasn’t,” Maher said. In 2005, about $15,000 was allocated toward cleaning up the monument, the first time that had occurred since it was erected. More recently, in 2015, another $10,000 in improvements to the memorial were undertaken to replace certain items. Those included the rifle and the saber on the monument. Maher said the monument has never in its history fallen victim to vandalism, to his knowledge.
