William A. Fenlason Square
Franklin, Merrimack County, New Hampshire
Marker Inscription
Private Machine Gun Co. 103rd Infantry 26th Division Wounded In Action July 22, 1918 Died Of Wounds Oct. 26, 1918.
The Story
This square in Franklin honors a young New Hampshire soldier who served with the Machine Gun Company of the 103rd Infantry, part of the 26th 'Yankee' Division — a New England National Guard division that was among the first American units sent to France in World War I. Wounded in action on July 22, 1918, during the summer when Allied and American forces launched the counteroffensives that finally turned the war, he lingered for three months before dying of his wounds that October, just weeks before the Armistice. Naming a public square for one local man was a common way American towns turned private grief into permanent civic memory after the Great War.
Why it matters
It marks the moment the United States stepped onto the world stage as a military power, and it shows how ordinary hometowns absorbed the enormous human cost of that first modern, mechanized war — one name, one square, at a time.
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Related people
- · William A. Fenlason
Related events
- · World War I
- · Second Battle of the Marne (1918)
Themes & tags
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