Evanston in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Evanston War Memorial
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, March 12, 2025
1. Evanston War Memorial
In the hearts of the people, may the memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice live forever.
Civil War
Alfred L. Bailey George Gamble Walter T. Kennicott Alphonso C. Linn Eugene A. Lyford Henry G. Meacham William Pratt James Roseman Charles H. Shepley William E. Smith Edgar E. Wead
Spanish American War
Frederick O. Brown William C. Bryant Arthur T. Cooper Frank W. Foster Robert B. Gushwa
World War
Ernest Adams Merrill Blanchard Oscar Bloomquist Oliver B. Cunningham Paul B. Dale Russell J. Dills Max Doris Durovicz William Eastman Jr. Alvin Fingal Hugh Fulton Thomas H. Garnett Wayman Guinn John B. Guthrie Warren C. Hauser Louis C. Heppner Edward Hines Jr. Frank J. Hoeynck William Johnson Thomas King Paul K. Le Baron Andrew Letzer Lothar B. Long Albert E. Lowe Hugh A. McKenna Edgar W. Newman Siste Parenti Frank B. Parkhurst Morton Peterson William S. Pettit Frances Poole Carl O. Rosequist John A. Schaefer Frank L. Seery Enoch M. Severin Jouett F. Singleton Jacob Slaate Arvid Sternquist Lawrence Tower Thomas B. Van Every Helen Wood Horace E. Wood
Erected 1929 by Daughters of the American Revolution, Fort Dearborn Chapter.
Topics and series. This memorial is listed in these topic lists: War, Spanish-American • War, US Civil • War, World I. In addition, it is included in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) series list.
Location. 42° 2.712′ N, 87° 40.431′ W. Memorial is in Evanston, Illinois, in Cook County. It is at the intersection of Forest Place and Davis Street on Forest Place. The flagpole is in Patriots Park. Touch for map. Memorial is at or near this postal address: 1609 Forest Pl, Evanston IL 60201, United
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Regionally, this memorial is in Greater Chicago. It is also in the American Midwest and on the Great Lakes. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Viceroyalty of New France, the territory of the Mississippian Culture, and the Northwest Territory.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: W. Russell Arrington (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); Residence of Charles Gates Dawes (approx. 0.2 miles away); Northwestern University's First Building (approx. Ό mile away); First Methodist Church of Evanston (approx. Ό mile away); Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) / Woman's Christian Temperance Union (approx. 0.4 miles away); Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity (approx. 0.4 miles away); The Chandler's Building (approx. 0.4 miles away); The First House of Worship in Evanston (approx. 0.4 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Evanston.
More about this memorial. This flagstaff, featuring an encircling bronze
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, March 12, 2025
2. Evanston War Memorial (Civil War)
According to contemporary news reports, completion of the memorial was later than planned due to trouble casting the model made by Beames, and the flagpole was dedicated on July 4, 1929, instead of Memorial Day. This memorial was Evanston's first war memorial. In the 1950s, another memorial was dedicated in downtown Evanston at Fountain Square.
The Fort Dearborn Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution donated the first public artwork in Evanston, the Memorial Flagpole Monument in Patriots Park; the chapter later funded the memorials restoration. With the William Dawes Society Children of the American Revolution and the City of Evanston, the chapter planted an oak tree in the lakefront park named in honor of its founding regent, Miss Cornelia Gray Lunt.
The triangular Patriots Park is formed by Davis Street, Forest Place and the diagonal Sheridan Road.
Regarding Evanston War Memorial. The
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, March 12, 2025
3. Evanston War Memorial (Spanish American War)
Frances Poole was an Evanston resident who attended Northwestern University before leaving during her junior year to train as a nurse. During the war she enlisted as a Red Cross nurse and was stationed in Fort Ontario in Oswego, N.Y. Five days after contracting influenza, she died on October 8, 1918. She was buried next to her father Charles at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.; her mother Anna was buried alongside her after she died in 1930.
Helen Wood was born in Scotland and emigrated to Evanston in 1909. In 1914 she received a nursing degree from Evanston Training School for Nurses, and in 1917 she volunteered to serve as a nurse with U.S. Army Base Hospital #12, a hospital unit consisting primarily of people affiliated with Northwestern that was formed to assist with the Allied war effort. Wood set sail for France in May 1917, but she and another nurse, Edith Ayres, were killed en route when one of the ship's guns misfired during a routine practice. Wood and Ayres are considered the first U.S. service
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, March 12, 2025
4. Evanston War Memorial (World War)
Also see . . . Fort Dearborn Chapter, D.A.R. (Submitted on March 17, 2025, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, March 12, 2025
5. Evanston War Memorial (World War, part 2)
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, March 12, 2025
6. Evanston War Memorial (World War, part 3)
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, March 12, 2025
7. Evanston War Memorial (World War, part 4)
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, March 12, 2025
8. Evanston War Memorial, close-up of part of the relief
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, March 12, 2025
9. Evanston War Memorial
The Lake Michigan shoreline is in the rear.
Courtesy of Chicago History Museum
10. Helen Burnett Wood
Nurse Helen Wood is one of two women honored on the Evanston War Memorial. She died in 1917 when a gun misfired on the ship taking them to France to assist in the Allied war effort. She and another nruse who was with her are considered the first two U.S. servicemembers to die in World War I. This image of Wood is preserved by the Chicago History Museum in a collection of photographs of Chicago-area servicemembers who died in World War I.
Credits. This page was last revised on July 2, 2025. It was originally submitted on March 17, 2025, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 495 times since then and 67 times this year. Last updated on June 30, 2025, by Carolyn Sanders of Plano, Texas. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. submitted on March 17, 2025, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. • Devry Becker Jones was the editor who published this page.
