The end of the World War I—the Great War—on November 11, 1918, was of considerable interest to the people of Franklin County. Local men had fought and the families they left behind had made sacrifices. It is not surprising, then, that The Franklin Times of Friday, November 15, devoted considerable space to coverage of the war and the armistice.

Many citizens of Franklin County had played active roles in the conflict. According to historian Edward Hill Davis, more than 350 white men and approximately 289 black men served as soldiers during the war. Some 59 men of both races saw service in the U. S. Navy. Casualties included 13 men killed in action or as a result of wounds, 15 who died of disease at home or abroad, and 27 wounded. Governor Thomas Walter Bickett, who had made his home in Louisburg prior to his election in 1916, led the state’s war effort, and his wife, Fannie Yarborough Bickett, urged citizens to cultivate home gardens. In 1918 she traveled to Europe to visit soldiers on behalf of the YMCA.

A large headline in The Franklin Times trumpeted the end of the war: “GERMANS SIGN ARMISTICE TERMS.” Much of the front page provided details concerning the fate of the German emperor and the actions of “revolutionists” who sought to form a new government, but three letters from Franklin County boys in Europe probably generated more interest. Writing from France on October 16, 1918, John Burt told his mother that “we are giving the Huns a safe and sane thrashing.” He looked forward to participating in the liberation of France, which deserved “all the sympathy we can possibly give her and then some.” Joseph W. Hale of Company F, No. 749, explained to his mother on October 7 how the “big battle” of September 29 had affected him: “It has brought me closer to God, although I have never been a bad fellow.” Hale noted that he had not slept well the night before, because the ground rats “knocked about a peck of dirt in my face.” Letters from home and the prospect of an end to the war kept him going. James B. King, who lived on Main Street in Louisburg, reported on October 18 that he had seen his old next-door neighbor, Mrs. Bickett, in France. The visit with someone from home did him a “world of good.”

A special section of the paper included an account of the celebration that took place in Louisburg on November 11. The ringing of bells and blowing of whistles awakened citizens that morning, and the festivities continued most of the day, as people employed pop crackers, guns, horns, and whistles to express their excitement. Girls from Louisburg Female College joined townswomen in a parade through the streets that featured “Old Glory and its companion flags.” It was a fitting way to mark the end of years of war.

The complete issue of The Franklin Times for November 15, 1918, and issues for much of the twentieth century are available online through the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: http://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/the-franklin-times-louisburg-n-c/. They were digitized from microfilm supplied by the Cecil W. Robbins Library at Louisburg College.

Published in The Franklin Times on Oct 3, 2018.

Maury York is director of Louisburg College’s Tar River Center for History and Culture.