Chunk breaks off WWI memorial

Sunday, September 16, 2007
A chunk broke off of the base of the WWI Doughboy memorial on the courthouse square Friday afternoon.

Four-year-old Shelby will probably think twice about what she walks on from now on.

A two-foot chunk broke free of the base of the World War I memorial on the southeast corner of the courthouse square and fell on the little girl s legs Friday afternoon.

Her grandfather, Jerald O. Williams of Mooresville, said the incident happened after she climbed on the base.

She wasn t badly hurt, just a scared and a little bruised.

Williams said he called the police and asked to file a police report about the incident.

County officials were notified of the damage and the child s injuries.

It s not terribly surprising that a piece broke off the rock-and-cement base of the 80-year-old statue, said Will Niebold, the Putnam County Veterans Affairs Officer.

We ve always had a problem with water getting in there and cracking it, he said.

The memorial, which depicts a WWI doughboy and lists the names of all Putnam County soldiers who died in the conflict, was one of hundreds of its kind made in Spencer about 10 years after the war ended.

Repairing the statue should be relatively easy for any cement mason, Niebold said.

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