GEORGE WANDER

ALLGAYER, WANDER, LIGHT, BRAUSE, RANDALL, GORDON, DIBBLE

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 12/17/2002 at 11:57:58

This is the interesting article:

FIGHTING IN HIS HOMELAND

Western War Front All Familiar Ground to George Wander, Once a French Soldier

No man in Fayette county follows the fighting on the western front in the European war with more personal interest than George Wander, our aged friend from Clermont, who was in West Union Thursday. The fighting of last week was especially interesting, the towns mentioned in the dispatches and shown on the maps all being familiar ground to him. Born near Strasburg, in Alsace, and living there till he was a young man, he joined the French army in 1859, and according to the custom of moving troops in those days was marched across France to the Pyrenees. Taking the map published in last Tuesday's Chicago Herald, Mr. Wander traced with his finger the places which his regiment had passed through, and which now mark the French-German fighting front. Luneville, Pont a Mousson, St. Mihiel, Verdun, Reims -- all are as familiar to him as Clermont and Elgin and West Union. Going to Rome, where his regiment was one of those assigned to the duty of protecting the temporal power of the pope, he was in the battles fought in 1861 against Garabaldi, the Italian leader. At one time he was stationed at Camorra, near Rome, where the celebrated trials of the political conspirators took place a few years ago. Mr. Wander, when he joined the French army fifty-eight years ago, was given a small pocket note and record book, which he was exhibiting to friends here on Thursday, and which is in as good a state of preservation as a book used only a year or so might be. Mr. Wander constitutes a living page from European history of the nineteenth century. He came to America in 1866, and has greatly prospered in farming and fine stock raising, but moved this spring to Clermont, where he is having a fine house built in which to make his home "when he gets old". An ardent partisan of his native country, France, he hopes to see his native province of Alsace restored, and reads the war news in his daily paper as closely and with as much interest as anybody could, so that he is thoroughly posted all the time as to the progress of the fighting.

Although it isn't noted, I assume this is a West Union newspaper.

Another note in these personal papers of my deceased brother-in-law is the following:

The Clermont Enterprise reported that George Wander "was probably the best informed man in the county concerning the War."

From the West Union newspaper dated June 25, 1919:

George Wander of Clermont, born in Alsace, who 60 years ago was carrying a gun for his native country, France, rejoices in yesterday's announcement that his native province is again to be French after 48 years of separation. He is here today, returning from visiting his nephew, Eddie Wander of Oelwein, who has just returned from overseas. Mr. Wander's father was a French soldier, he was a French soldier, and now his nephew has fought for France -- as an American."

GEORGE WANDER

Widely Known Man Passes Without Warning Sunday Noon at Clermont Home, Aged 82

A SOLDIER OF FRANCE

Had Lived in County For Fifty Years; Is Survived by Ten Children -- Funeral Today

George Wander of Clermont, widely known throughout Fayette county, died suddenly on Sunday about noon, leaving behind him the record of a long, adventurous, and successful experience in life. Mr. Wander, who had been feeble for years, suffering a great deal from asthma, was up and about as usual on Sunday, and was discovered dead by his daughter, Miss Anna, when she returned from attending Sunday school at about noon. The funeral is to be conducted this afternoon in Clermont by Rev. Gilbert Chalice of West Union.

Mr. Wander was born in Alsace, then a French province, eighty-two years ago. His period of military service in the then French empire began in 1859, and shortly after his enlistment he was sent to Italy as a member of the French force with which Louis Napoleon was upholding the temporal power of the Pope. The regiment to which Mr. Wander belonged was stationed at Camorra, which afterwards became the location of the Italian revolutionists known as the Camorrists. Mr. Wander was an eager partisan of France during the World war, desiring to see his native province returned to that country, and through his assiduous reading of almost everything that was printed during the war was probably the best posted man in this county on the progress of military matters from 1914 to 1918. To converse with him was to read a living page of modern history.

Mr. Wander came to America about fifty years ago, and has spent the time since in Fayette county, locating first on a farm south of Elgin, then on the farm on the Clermont road, and for the past five or six years in Clermont. He was one of the most extensive breeders of pedigreed live stock in the county, specializing in short-horn cattle and by industry and sagacity acquired a large amount of good farming land.

Mr. Wander's wife died about six years ago, and he shortly afterwards moved to Clermont. He is survived by ten children as follows: George Wander, Jr., of Clermont; Mrs. Fred Brause of Cedar Rapids; Mrs. David Brause, near West Union; Mrs. Hugh Randall of West Union; William Wander of Clermont; Philip Wander of Fenton, Iowa; Mrs. Emma Gordon, near Postville; Mrs. Ezra Dibble of Clermont; Charles Wander and Miss Anna Wander, both at home.

Mr. Wander was man of strict integrity, of kind heart, of upright life, and was respected and loved wherever he was known.

Probably a West Union newspaper of that time or the Clermont Enterprise newspaper found in a collection of personal family papers. George was born December 17, 1838 and died on January 30, 1921 and his buried with his wife, Francis Light, in the Clermont Cemetery. She died January 11, 1916 at the age of 72. George's parents were Jean George Wander and Barbe Allgayer.