One hundred years ago, in 1917, the United States entered World War I. The commemoration of this momentous event is, of course, a national effort, but amid world-changing events associated with the war, great challenges were met in communities across the country. Local museums tell local stories best, and the Williamson Museum in Georgetown opened an exhibit in March examining the war years from a local perspective.
The exhibit follows a time- line from the lead-up to America’s involvement to the major issues following the war. The effect on the citizens of Williamson County is well told, along with individual roles that various residents played. Other major issues are part of the transformational story as well. The Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918 killed large numbers of people worldwide, even requiring local schools to close for a time to prevent the spread of the disease. And local citizens were caught up in the major social issues of the time, including the passage of a constitutional amendment banning the sale of liquor in 1919 and another giving women voting rights in 1920.
One lasting legacy of World War I in Georgetown was the planting of red poppies. Texan Henry Purl Compton, who served in the American Expeditionary Forces, sent poppy seeds to his mother back home in Georgetown. She planted them in her garden, and from there they spread. Today, Georgetown has been designated the Red Poppy Capital of Texas, and the city’s residents so identify with the eye-catching flower that each April they hold a Red Poppy Festival.
SOWING SEEDS Titled ”Why the Poppies Grow,” this museum mural depicts the colorful flowers, as well as people like Jessie Daniel Ames, who registered 3,300 women to vote in two weeks at the County Courthouse.
To remember the sacrifice of those who fought and died in “the war to end all wars,” people across Texas are being encouraged to plant red poppies as part of the Centennial Commemoration. Inspiration for this gesture spread, in part, from John McCrae’s 1915 poem, “In Flanders Fields.” The Williamson Museum is housed in the historic Farmers State Bank Building (1912) on Georgetown’s Courthouse Square, dubbed the Most Beautiful Town Square in Texas. The Square remains vibrant and visitor-friendly.There are four residential historic districts near the Square dotted by 20 historic markers. The Olive Street National Historic District includes dozens of late Victorian homes and arts and crafts–style bungalows.
Those who come to Georgetown, whether for museums or markers, festivals or flowers, may pick up a walking tour brochure in the visitor center located on the Square.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
