World War Where?
Few people are aware that 10 town squares in Woonsocket are named for World War I vets; a local history buff thinks that should change
rolivo@woonsocketcall.com
As the nation marks the centennial of its entry into World War I this month, history buff Roger Beaudry and the American French Genealogical Society are on a mission to jog the city’s collective memory of its painful losses in the Great War.
Nearly a century ago, the city dedicated some of its busiest travel junctions in honor of native sons who died on the battlefields of the World War I, says Beaudry. Signs were erected in what was intended to be a lasting tribute to the fallen heroes.
“There are ten squares in Woonsocket named for World War I veterans,” he says. “You’d be hard-pressed to tell me where they are.”
Now the AFGS and the city have teamed up on plan to rededicate the squares with new signs in honor of the dead from a nearly forgotten war. If all goes according to script, the ceremony will take place on Armistice Day later this year – Nov. 11 – the day that commemorates the end of the war in 1918.
None of the signs erected during the original dedication still exists. “Not a one,” according to Beaudry. A member of the AFGS, Beaudry says his passion for military history is wrapped up with his interest in personal ancestry. The city native says he learned that three of his great uncles and his wife’s grandfather all served in World War I in France – so for him World War I feels alive. But he understands why the city’s tribute squares have faded into the past, much like the “war to end all wars,” as President Woodrow Wilson called it.
“Nobody’s alive that even remembers it,” says Beaudry.
According to the avid AFGS researcher, most of the newspaper accounts of the day held that 30 people from Woonsocket died in World War I –
WOONSOCKET
figures that went largely unquestioned back in the day. But Beaudry says his exhaustive study of the subject reveals that the figure is wildly inaccurate – it’s actually much higher.
Beaudry says he spent “hundreds and hundreds of hours” researching newspaper records, mostly from the Woonsocket Call and the Providence Journal, to develop as thorough a list as possible of World War I casualties involving city residents. Poring through microfilm at Woonsocket Harris Public Library, Beaudry says he has developed a list of 76 individuals, including two enlisted nurses who died of illness stateside, who should be listed as active-duty war casualties.
World War I began in Europe on Aug. 1, 1914, a few days after a Serbian national assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the neighboring Austro-Hungarian empire. America didn’t join the battle until nearly three years later – on April 6, 2017.
By most accounts, the United States sent about 4 million soldiers to fight on various European battlefronts. Before the war ended, about 126,000 Americans would die – about 53,000 of them as a result of being killed in action. Most of the other casualties were the result of illnesses, especially influenza, and warrelated accidents.
Beaudry says Rhode Island sent about 23,000 soldiers into the battle and suffered about 585 casualties.
Beaudry says he suspected that the public record about the scale of the losses from Woonsocket was wrong as a result of his genealogical and other research. He says there are public places in the city, including the Museum of Work and Culture, where the names of World War I casualties are displayed in what many visitors might assume to be a comprehensive inventory. But Beaudry says he kept coming across names in his newspaper research that weren’t included.
Generally, Beaudry says he examined newspapers published from the very first day of the war until mid-1925 – some seven years after the Armistice was signed. He says he didn’t stop when the war ended because he kept finding mention of previously undocumented war casualties in newspapers that he hadn’t read about before.
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Some Woonsocket residents got involved in the
most incredible ways, says Beaudry. Not all of them fought as American soldiers. Some city residents returned to their ancestral homelands to fight with Canadian forces.
One Turkish national who ran a store in Woonsocket was visiting family members in Turkey when the conflict erupted. The government found out he was in town and conscripted him into its armed forces against his will. He spent most of his time trying to escape back home but he never made it – he died of exposure while on the run from his unit.
One man named George DeSauvages fought for France, leaving a wife and son back in the city. He still has a granddaughter living in Smithfield and Beaudry says arrangements are planned to have her attend the rededication of the squares on Armistice Day. He’s still looking for other possible relatives of the other war casualties.
And what about those squares?
Today, many of them are known by other names, like Market Square and Depot Square.
According to an article published in the Woonsocket Call, the city held a cerermony to dedicate those squares, plus eight others in the city, in one fell swoop, on Independence Day in 1921. Market Square, where Main, Bernon and South Main streets merge, was named Youngs Square in honor of Andrew F. Youngs, who may have been the first serviceman from the city to die in the war. Depot Square was dedicated to Lt. Harold F. Flynn.
The others are Normandin Square, at Court and Front streets, named for Sgt. Oscar Z. Normandin; Curtis Square, at Harris Avenue and Blackstone Street, for Pvt. Arthur Curtis; Jolicoeur Square, at Cumberland Street and Hamlet Avenue, for William Jolicoeur; Coutu Square, at Greene and Bernon Streets, for Joseph R. Coutu; Belhumeur Square, at Social and Cumberland streets, for Donatien Belhumeur; Felici Square, at Social Street and Diamond Hill Road, for Giovanni Felici; Roberge Square, at Knight, Cottage and Logee streets, for Lionel Roberge; and Riendeau Square, at Providence Street and Greenville Road in North Smithfield, for Alderic Riendeau.
Blake Collins, business liaison and public relations coordinator for the city, says the administration of Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt is looking forward to partnering with the AFGS on the rededication project.
“The city was very excited to be informed of the project and it’s fully committed to supporting the effort and rededicating the monuments,” he said.
Another big supporter is Glenn Dusablon, founder of the Veterans Memorial Museum, which occupies the top story of AFGS headquarters at 78 Earle St. The museum is chock full of memorabilia from nearly every war in which the nation has been involved, including World War I.
“It’s a fabulous idea because it’s how you preserve the history and honor the veterans,” says Dusablon.
As part of the effort to mark the hundredth anniversary of the nation’s entry into World War I, Beaudry says he is interested in collecting photographs or any other information associated with known casualties, including the soldiers for whom the squares were originally dedicated in 1921. Given the technology of the day, it was fairly typical for news from the war front to be published without photographs, so images of fallen soldiers from a century ago can be quite scarce.
Anyone who can help is encouraged to contact Beaudry at 401-651-9473. He can also be reached by email at rdbeaudry@afgs.org.