Last Thursday was the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I, and residents gathered at Mathews Memorial Library to honor the memory of the local men who perished during that “war to end all wars.”

The ceremony was organized by library director Bette Dillehay, who said that “few of us remember the sacrifice that was made,” and that a ceremony was appropriate, given the fact that the library itself was dedicated on Nov. 11, 1937 to the 11 Mathews men who died in the war.

Supervisors’ chair Jack White spoke emotionally about the war, which resulted in 11 million military deaths and seven million civilian deaths. While the U.S. lost 53,402 soldiers on the battlefield, he said, another 63,114 military personnel died of other causes, such as pneumonia. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, he said, millions of people had already died.

White told of General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, who delayed putting troops on the battlefield for a year, refusing to allow them to be in harm’s way until they were properly trained. He told of U.S. soldiers using their single-shot rifles to turn back the Germans only to be cut to ribbons later with machine guns, and he told of the final defeat of the Germans after six months.

White, his voice breaking, read the names of the 11 men from Mathews, all of whom died in 1918. They were Thomas Rufus Smith, Oct. 9, France; Linwood Earl Dixon, Oct. 2, Fort Belvoir; Charlie Richardson, June 9, France; Elbert Morgan, Dec. 30, France; Glenn Rayne, October, Camp Meade, Maryland; Howard J. Hudgins, Jan. 30, Camp Lee; Frank Rossor Hudgins, Oct. 12, New York; Raymond Collins, Oct. 5, Argonne Forest, France; Stanley E. Brownley, Oct. 2, Brest, France; Harold F. Hatch, Oct. 6, Romagne, France; and Herbert Swann Butts, Oct. 22.

Capt. Will Story (USN-ret.) spoke on the meaning of the word “great,” saying it could be applied to something that is large and important, such as the Great War, or to the young men who went to war. He described those men as Great Americans, saying that “some came back covered in glory, some with flags.”

He said that the original idea of dedicating the library to the men was “a great idea,” and that the board and staff of the library have dedicated themselves to “making this a great and good library.”

Others who participated in the ceremony were Col. Steve Wilson (USA-ret.), who led the Pledge of Allegiance; the Rev. Gary J. Barker of Kingston Parish Episcopal Church, who gave the invocation; and the honor guard of Mathews American Legion Post 83.