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Edwin H. Ewing. Mason County Historical Society
Veterans Day 2026
This Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union and the Mason County Historical Society.
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
In August 1918, Cpl. Edwin Harold Ewing carried messages through heavy German artillery fire along the Vesle River in France. The 24-year-old soldier from Ludington had been entrusted with maintaining communications between battalions of the U.S. Army’s 32nd Division during one of the most intense periods of fighting of World War I.
Ewing successfully delivered an important message despite the barrage. But, while returning to his position, he was struck by an enemy artillery shell. He died Aug. 5, 1918, becoming one of the first Ludington soldiers to lose his life in combat during the war.
His commanding officer, Capt. Cornell, later wrote to Ewing’s father about his son’s final mission.
“On reaching the Vesle river, he took it upon himself to bring an important message through a very heavy German barrage. He came through perfectly cool and calm. He was wounded going back.”
The officer concluded: “He had a wonderful character, and I am highly honored in being able to tell you of his bravery.”
The letter was published in the Oct. 10, 1919, edition of The M.A.C. Record, the newspaper of Michigan Agricultural College, where Ewing had been a student.
Although his life ended on a battlefield thousands of miles from his hometown, his name would become a permanent part of Ludington’s history. In 1919, returning veterans organized Edwin H. Ewing American Legion Post 76, naming it in honor of the young corporal.
More than a century later, the organization continues to serve veterans and the community from its headquarters at 318 N. James St.
On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, the story behind the post’s name is a reminder of the generation of young men from Mason County whose lives were forever changed by World War I.
Frank Ewing, Edwin’s father. Mason County Historical Society.
Growing up in Ludington
Edwin Harold Ewing was born Jan. 5, 1894, in Ludington, the oldest son of Frank C. and Lillian Elida (Williams) Ewing.
The family also included a daughter, Mary Josephine, born in 1896, and a younger son, Roger William, born in 1900.
According to the 1900 U.S. Census, the family lived at 201 Ludington Ave. They later resided at 104 N. Harrison St.
Ewing attended Ludington Public Schools and graduated from Ludington High School in 1913.
Among his classmates was Cosmer Magnus Leveaux, another Ludington young man whose life would end in France during World War I. The two would die just five days apart, both while serving in the 32nd Division.
Following high school, Ewing attended Michigan Agricultural College, now Michigan State University, in East Lansing, studying civil engineering.
An Aug. 30, 1913, article in the Ludington Daily News listed both Ewing and Leveaux among the graduates planning to attend college that fall. Ewing entered the engineering program, while Leveaux pursued forestry studies.
Ewing attended M.A.C. for two years before leaving school and beginning a career in industry. He worked as an efficiency expert for Shaw Electric Crane Works in Muskegon.
His education and technical abilities suggested a promising future, but events overseas would soon redirect his life.
Corporal Edwin Ewing. Mason County Historical Society.
Military service begins
In June 1916, Ewing enlisted in Company G of the 32nd Michigan Infantry, Michigan National Guard, at Muskegon.
At the time, the United States was not yet involved in World War I. Instead, American troops were being mobilized along the Mexican border during tensions associated with the Mexican Revolution.
Ewing was sent to Camp Cotton near El Paso, Texas, where he served with his National Guard company.
Letters he wrote to his father were published in the Ludington Daily News, giving readers a firsthand look at the experiences of a young Michigan soldier serving far from home.
In September 1916, Ewing described a massive military exercise involving thousands of troops, cavalry, artillery, machine guns and an enormous convoy of trucks.
He wrote that the troops had assembled before dawn, marched across the plains and participated in a military demonstration that stretched for miles.
He also described the everyday difficulties of military life, including the intense heat, lack of water and uncertainty over when the soldiers would return home.
“I guess we will come home in about a month or six weeks, if no more trouble comes up,” he wrote.
The young soldier also observed that military service was costing him money compared to his civilian employment in Muskegon.
The letters offer a glimpse of Ewing before the war in Europe claimed his life. He was an educated young man with a career ahead of him, a sense of humor and a close relationship with his family.
Following his return from the Mexican border, Ewing resumed civilian life, but only briefly.
The United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917.
On July 15, 1917, Ewing was called back into federal service. He trained at Camp MacArthur in Waco, Texas, with the newly organized 32nd Division, composed primarily of Michigan and Wisconsin National Guard soldiers.
The division would become known as the Red Arrow Division, a name associated with its battlefield record.
Ewing was assigned to Company I, 126th Infantry Regiment.
In February 1918, he sailed for France.
Letters from France
On April 26, 1918, the Ludington Daily News published a letter Ewing had written to his parents from France earlier that month.
It was the first letter his parents had received from him since he sailed from the United States.
Dated April 3, the letter described life at a military camp in France, where Ewing was adjusting to his new surroundings.
He wrote about meeting other Americans, attending entertainment programs organized by the YMCA and participating in baseball games.
One particularly interesting encounter involved Harriet McKenzie, a former Ludington teacher who was working with the YMCA in France.
Ewing described meeting McKenzie and learning about her work assisting American soldiers.
The letter was generally cheerful. Although he was now serving in a country at war, he wrote about the weather, recreation and the familiar personalities he encountered.
“I am feeling fine, haven’t even got a cold,” he assured his parents.
It was the kind of message families across the United States eagerly awaited from sons serving overseas.
Within four months, Ewing would be dead.
The battlefield was in the Fismes–Vesle River sector of northeastern France, where Edwin H. Ewing’s 126th Infantry Regiment fought on Aug. 5, 1918. Military records place his battalion near the railroad yards northeast of Villesavoye, west of Fismes.
The fighting along the Vesle
During the summer of 1918, the 32nd Division was engaged in major fighting as American and Allied forces pushed German troops back during the Aisne-Marne campaign.
The fighting around Château-Thierry, the Ourcq River and eventually the Vesle River was among the division’s most significant engagements.
Ewing’s responsibilities had changed from those of an ordinary infantryman.
He had been assigned to serve as a battalion liaison runner, helping maintain communications between officers and units during combat.
In an era before reliable portable radios, messages often had to be carried by hand. Telephone wires could be destroyed by shellfire, and communication between advancing troops and headquarters was essential.
Runners faced extraordinary risks, frequently crossing exposed ground under artillery and machine gun fire.
Ewing was placed in charge of other messengers and was responsible for transmitting information about troop movements.
Capt. Cornell, an officer with the division, later explained the importance of Ewing’s assignment.
“Corp. Ewing was detailed as my representative to inform the 3d Battalion of 2d Battalion movements and report by runners assigned to him. A very responsible position. He kept me properly informed during the entire Chateau Thierry battle.”
During fighting near Fismes, France, Ewing continued carrying messages despite heavy enemy fire.
The division had reached the Vesle River, where German resistance was fierce.
On Aug. 4, Ewing was struck by artillery fire.
Contemporary accounts differ slightly on the timing of his death. Some reports stated that he died almost immediately after being struck, while Army casualty records and Michigan State University historical records list Aug. 5, 1918, as his date of death.
Sgt. Ralph M. Sherman, who had known Ewing and served near him during the fighting, later described the circumstances.
According to Sherman’s account, Ewing was struck by a six-inch artillery shell south of the Vesle River, near Fismes.
Sherman recalled seeing Ewing shortly after he was hit.
The soldier who had carried messages through some of the most dangerous fighting of the summer was dead at age 24.
A family’s painful wait
News of Ewing’s death did not immediately reach Ludington.
On Aug. 28, 1918, his father received a telegram reporting that Edwin had been severely wounded in action.
For days, his parents waited anxiously for additional information about his condition.
On Sept. 8, another telegram arrived, informing the family that their son had died on Aug. 5.
The news devastated a family that had been hoping for his recovery.
The Ludington Daily News reported his death under a headline announcing that Ludington High School now had two gold stars.
The school’s service flag recognized former students serving in the war. A gold star signified a student who had died.
The first two gold stars represented members of the Class of 1913: Edwin Ewing and Cosmer Leveaux.
Five days after Ewing’s death, Leveaux had been killed Aug. 10 while serving with Battery A of the 119th Field Artillery Regiment, also part of the 32nd Division.
Leveaux, 22, was killed when German artillery struck the gun position where he and other soldiers were serving.
His older brother, Emery Eric Johannes Leveaux, had died March 21, 1917, when the American steamship SS Healdton was attacked by a German submarine in the North Sea.
The Leveaux family had lost two sons in the war, while the Ewing family had lost its oldest son.
The close connection between Ewing and Leveaux was remembered by other Ludington servicemen.
In January 1919, the Ludington Daily News published a letter from Cpl. Bert Peterson, who was serving with American troops in northern Russia.
Peterson wrote about learning of the deaths of his former schoolmates.
“I also noticed that Edwin Ewing and Cosmer Leveaux, both old high school chums, have given their lives for the cause, and if you should see either of their parents I wish you would give them my sincerest sympathy.”
The words demonstrated how the losses continued to affect Ludington’s young men even as they served in distant parts of the world.
Remembering the fallen
The Armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, brought the fighting of World War I to an end.
For the families of Ewing, Leveaux and other Mason County servicemen who had died, however, the end of the war did not end their grief.
On Nov. 27, 1918, the Ludington Daily News published an elaborate memorial page titled “Roll of Honor,” recognizing Mason County men who had given their lives during the war.
Ewing was among those remembered.
In February 1919, a community memorial service was held at the Lyric Theatre in Ludington, honoring local men who had died.
Their names included Ewing, Cosmer Leveaux and Emery Leveaux.
For Ludington residents, the memorials brought together the names of young men who had attended the community’s schools, worked in its businesses and grown up in its neighborhoods.
Ewing had initially been buried in France, near the battlefield where he died.
His remains were eventually returned to Ludington. According to Lakeview Cemetery records, he was buried there on July 30, 1921.
His grave is in Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington among other members of his family.
Edwin H. Ewing American Legion Post 76
Edwin H. Ewing American Legion Post 76
One of the most enduring tributes to Ewing came from the men who returned from the war.
In 1919, veterans organized a local chapter of the newly established American Legion, a national organization created to serve former members of the armed forces.
They chose to name the Ludington organization in honor of Cpl. Edwin H. Ewing.
An Aug. 27, 1919, report in the Belding Banner announced that the Edwin H. Ewing post had been organized in Ludington by returning veterans of the world war.
The article identified Ewing as a member of the 32nd Division and described him as the first Ludington man killed in action.
The organization became American Legion Post 76, carrying his name into succeeding generations.
The post’s history also connected it to an earlier generation of American veterans.
During Ludington’s Armistice Day observance on Nov. 11, 1928, the records of the city’s former Grand Army of the Republic organization, Pap Williams Post, were transferred to Edwin H. Ewing Post 76.
The Grand Army of the Republic had been the nation’s major veterans organization for Union soldiers who served during the Civil War. As its membership aged and declined, the American Legion became a successor in preserving local military history and veteran fellowship.
The transfer represented a passing of responsibility from one generation of veterans to another.
The organization would continue to expand its activities through the years, serving veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam and subsequent conflicts.
Its headquarters on North James Street became a gathering place for veterans and their families, as well as a center for commemorative activities and community service.
The post has supported veterans’ funerals, memorial observances, color guards, youth activities and other civic programs. It has also maintained a collection of military memorabilia associated with local veterans.
Its Auxiliary has contributed to the preservation of local military history, including memorial tree plantings honoring Mason County veterans.
Cosmer Leveaux. Mason County Historical Society.
A connection to the Leveaux brothers
The relationship between Ewing and the Leveaux brothers continued long after the war.
American Legion Post 76 supported efforts to honor Emery and Cosmer Leveaux through the naming of a park at the east end of Ludington Avenue.
On May 18, 1925, the Ludington City Council formally renamed East End Park as Leveaux Memorial Park in honor of the two brothers.
The park, located just south of Ludington Avenue between Staffon and Madison streets, remains a memorial to their sacrifices.
The brothers were also honored through the naming of Ludington’s Leveaux Post 2409 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Thus, three young men whose lives had intersected in Ludington before World War I became permanently connected through the community’s veterans organizations and memorials.
Ewing and Cosmer Leveaux had attended high school together, continued their education at Michigan Agricultural College and served in the same Army division in France.
Their names appeared together on the Ludington High School service flag, and their deaths were mourned together by the community.
Emery Leveaux, whose life ended at sea, was remembered alongside his younger brother.
All three became part of Ludington’s remembrance of its World War I dead.
Grave of Edwin Ewing at Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington.
A name that endures
Today, Edwin H. Ewing American Legion Post 76 continues to carry the name of a young soldier whose life ended more than 108 years ago.
His story is preserved through family records, military accounts, letters published in the Ludington Daily News and the recollections of men who served beside him.
The surviving correspondence reveals more than the circumstances of his death. It tells the story of a young man who grew up in Ludington, pursued an education, began a professional career and answered his country’s call to service.
His final assignment required him to repeatedly expose himself to enemy fire so that commanders could remain informed of their troops’ movements.
He completed those assignments despite the danger.
In a letter to Ewing’s father, Capt. Cornell expressed admiration for the young corporal’s courage and character.
More than a century later, the American Legion post bearing his name remains a lasting tribute to that sacrifice.
As Veterans Day is observed Nov. 11, the name Edwin H. Ewing serves as a reminder that behind the names of veterans organizations, parks and memorials are individuals whose lives and stories deserve to be remembered.
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