From “As I Remember Scott County”. Passage written by Kathleen Walsh, Belle Plaine
I was about thirteen years old when the word came on November 7, 1918 that World War 1 was over. It was a nasty, cold, rainy day and the town went wild. were were dismissed from school and ran around excited, but to our great disappointment, the evening news brought the word of false report. News reports were much different back then and the telephone was our fastest dispenser of good and bad news.
The O’Connor girls, Ann and Winnie, were the telephone operators then. November 11, about 4:00am, the call came in that the War was officially over. Winnie, the night operator, called Ann. She got up and dressed and went across the street to ring out the good tidings on the bells of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
My sister and I had collected noise makers after the false alarm so we were ready when the real news came. Some of the young men of the borough had stuffed a suit of clothes to represent the Kaiser and had made a cannon noise maker and shot the Kaiser at day break, put the remains in an old style casket from the local undertaker, put that on a flat sled- like thing and lined up for a parade.
Later in the day farmers came to town on steam engines screeching whistles and the band played and we all marched in the parade that followed. It was a day full of excitement and memorable indeed.
Armistice Day, Belle Plaine, 1918. From the SCHS collections
Armistice Day, Belle Plaine, 1918. From the SCHS collections