The men in the region went to Lusitania – Shaw Local

Over a century after its destruction, the mention of the Lusitania still causes a shower. With a loss of 1.201 life, it remains one of the most fatal and most influential shipwrecks in the world.

May 7th marks the age of 110 of the loss of the British Cunard liner, who contributed to steering the United States against Germany in the First World War. There were some area connections to the tragedy.

George Groves, an English immigrant who managed near Sycamore for over 40 years, lost his life in Lusitania, like David Loyd, a missionary who was also born in Great Britain. Loyd was the pastor at Deer Park Baptist in Lasalle County.

There was also Charles Plamondon, a native of Ottawa who was a leading industrialist in Chicago. Plamondon's wife Mary, also in Lusitania. Ironically, the couple had celebrated their 36th anniversary on the ship the day before the demise.

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When the Lusitania was launched in 1907, it was the largest ship in the world with a weight of 31,550 tons and one of the greatest liners of its time. With a top speed of 25 knots, she was able to sail away from submarines, which infiltrated the Atlantic water and was a source of the sources of dispute between the warfare nations.

On May 7, 1915, the Lusitania was 1,960 passengers and crew off the coast of southern Ireland and sailed a straight course at a slow speed of 12 knots. This was a departure from the usual procedure in dangerous waters, which in a zigzager way had the full speed.

At 2 p.m. the Lusitania was shaken by a torpedo from a German U -Board and sank in just 18 minutes. The shot was fired without warning, a violation of the international protocol. Among the lost people was the American Tycoon Alfred Vanderbilt.

Germany argued that the Lusitania was an armed merchant ship, an untrue claim when the ship had no weapons or troops and only 5,000 cases of cartridges. Although Germany formally apologized, the demise was celebrated by the German press and a medal of commemoration was created in their honor.

The loss of the Lusitanias increased the demand for the war among an American public that divided the nation's politics at the time. With the resumption of the unrestricted German U -boat war and the release of the Zimmerman telegram, in which Germany's conviction of Mexico took part in the war against America in 1917, the first American troops ended up in Europe in June.

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The 68 -year -old Grove sailed the third grade in Lusitania. Together with two brothers, he had considerable amounts of arable land near Sycamore.

George came to the area for the first time around 1872. After his wife died in 1902, he returned to his homeland of England, where he lived with a sister. However, he often visited his brothers in Illinois and crossed the Atlantic 14 times.

After his last trip to Illinois he was in Lusitania at the beginning of spring. The loyal republican in Bergahmmer reported that he had spent “four or five weeks” in March and April 1915 to “attend his brothers and to join his financial matters”.

Groves left Sycamore on April 29, nine days before the downfall. The true Republican reported that “he takes a design in London from a Sycamore Bank with him with over 9,000 US dollars.

Loyd, who was listed in 1891 as a “leather picker manufacturer” in his home country of Bolton, England, later toured the world in mission work. He was in Chicago in 1896 before he had driven to Africa. In 1903 he married his wife Alice, who accompanied him with many of his missions, also to Canada.

He was back in Illinois in 1910-11 and served as a preacher in Thomson along the Mississippi in the northwestern part of the state.

Loyd apparently returned to Thomson in 1914 and also served as a pastor in the Deer Park Baptist Church southwest of Ottawa. It was described as a standing 5 foot, 6 and a half centimeters tall, with gray hair and brown eyes.

The Loynds left Ottawa in early April 1915 and spent three weeks at a mission in the city of Richmond in East Indiana before driving to New York.

They traveled as passengers of the second class in Lusitania. Some accounts state that the Loynds were thrown out of the first lifeboat, which was lowered by the founding ship.

On May 26th, a correspondent for streamer Times wrote: “The many friends [of the Loynds] In this area you are in the harbor at that time and well in the port. ”

Unfortunately, the word had not yet reached a stir in the fate of the Loynds. David Loyd's body was on May 21, 50 miles east of the disaster area. His wife's body was also found and identified.

Both were buried in their homeland of England. David was 51 years old while Alice was 49 years old.

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Another victim of the area was Charles Ambrose Plamondon, who was born on September 14, 1856 in Ottawa as the son of a father who was a steel producer. It was a wealthy education for Plamondon, although there was a tragedy; The family lost their home in the Chicago Fire from 1871.

Charles followed his father as the captain of the industry and was the president of a national manufacturer of machines. Later he also led his father's old company. Charles was also Vice President of the Chicago School Systems and in several citizens' groups.

The father of five children, Charles, and his wife Mary lived in the Aster St. 1344 in Chicago. A newspaper in a region reported that the couple in Dixon is “known to many”, where it often visited a friend.

Charles traveled with Mary on the Lusitania in the shop. However, none of the children was on the ship. Newsreels of the Day show the plamondons that arrive in a taxi at the start.

In a diary, Charles described on May 6th the day before the catastrophe as “pleasant weather, sunshine all day”. Her bodies later wash on the coast of Ireland.

Charles left a discount worth 200,000 US dollars. The property was accepted into a massive agreement against American victims of Lusitania, which was finally solved by the German government in Washington in February 1924. The court decided that the five Plamondon children were due to a total of 70,000 US dollars from the German government as compensation for the disaster and the loss of their parents.

For comparison: The surviving brothers from Grove received nothing because it was found that he did not support them.

The Plamondon family seemed to have an unfortunate talent for being involved in large disasters. One of Charles' daughters and a niece survived on December 30, 1903 the massive Irokois Theater Fire in Chicago, in which 602 lives, claimed the deadliest individual building fire in American history.

One of his cousins, Edwin, and his wife Susan, were on the Eastland, a steamer who, on July 24, 1915, corrected in the port of Chicago with a loss of 844 life, just 11 weeks after the Lusitania disaster. Susan was among the lost.

• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. It can be reached under 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.