The Boys Are Coming Home

Long before the Doughboy statue adorned the Putnam County Courthouse lawn, a real celebration of the Doughboys and their victory took place in downtown Greencastle. Recently unearthed in the Putnam County Public Library archives, a photo from Nov. 11, 1918 depicts an impromptu celebration featuring two companies of the DePauw University Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.) on Indiana Street east of the courthouse on World War I (then called the Great War) Armistice Day. Discovered at PCPL by former Greencastle Mayor Mike Harmless, a copy of the photo is also on file in the DePauw University Archives. The photo and another of the celebration appear in the 1919 edition of The Mirage, the university yearbook. “The festivities began long before daylight for the news reached us at about three o’clock in the morning,” the yearbook reported. “At once both companies were turned out and a parade of the town was made.” Harmless was pleased to find the photo, not only for its patriotic overtones but because few photos of that side of the square exist of the era.