The end of “the greatest war in history,” 100 years ago

One hundred years ago, November of 1918, the armistice ending what would be the first World War took effect.

Three months before the armistice, Sgt. Roy Vingers became the first La Crosse County soldier to die in the war. The local American Legion post was named after Vingers, and in 1921, he was brought home for burial in Oak Grove Cemetery.  Newspapers included ads for Wrigley’s and Adams chewing gum…with one suggesting “put 5 packages of Adams gum in your soldier boy’s Christmas box.” Adams brands included Black Jack, Sensen, and Chiclets.

La Crosse High School hosted Eau Claire High School for a Thanksgiving football game, played on a field covered with four inches of snow. The game ended in a 6-6 tie. In another holiday football game, the Wisconsin Badgers beat the Aggies of Michigan State, 7 to 6.

The Associated Press reported that a La Crosse man had finally located his runaway daughter, a year after she left Wisconsin. With help from a detective, Laura Sanford was discovered in Montana. She told her father, Irving Sanford, that she had gone west to answer an ad from a rancher named Hill who was looking for a wife. Laura married Mr. Hill, and it turned out he died the day that the detective found her. She inherited the ranch. Mr. Sanford was afraid that, as the newspaper story put it, Laura “had been lured into the movies.” Sanford and daughter, 1918, yesterday in La Crosse.