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ONE BY BIRTH AND HOME; TWO MORE BY REST
Private Edward Z. Sousley is the town's own First World War dead. The roll carries him whole: born at North Liberty on 24 September 1895; enlisted 4 August 1917; Company G, 28th Infantry, 1st Division; killed in action 20 July 1918 at Château-Thierry. The roll places his burial at Ploisy, France, and that resting place prints here exactly as the record gives it — he is the town's by birth and home; where he rests is France, and both facts stand. The word "North Liberty" occurs exactly three times in the whole county roll; the other two occurrences are the burial lines of the two men who follow. A caution on the record itself: a circulating transcription of this roll attaches to Sousley's name the Argonne death of 3 October 1918 that belongs to another soldier (Zell). The full roll text governs, and the conflated version is refused wherever it appears. No decoration is recorded for Sousley anywhere in the roll or any carrier reached — the war-heroes file carries that negative whole.
Two more of the county's 109 rest in this town's ground, and under the house rule they are claimed here plainly. Corporal Emery C. Farver, Headquarters Company, 115th Field Artillery — born 14 June 1888 at Millersburg, Ohio; moved to St. Joseph County in April 1911; a teacher; entered service 17 October 1917; died of pneumonia 30 January 1919 at Le Mans, France. The roll's own line for him reads: "Buried in North Liberty, Ind." Private David A. Whitmer, 12th Company, 3rd Battalion, 159th Depot Brigade — born at New Bedford, Ohio (the roll prints his birth date as "September 31, 1891," an impossible date, carried here as the roll's own error and not corrected by guess); moved to the county in 1896 and, in the roll's words, "settled on a farm near South Bend"; entered service 23 July 1918 at South Bend; died of pneumonia 17 January 1919 at Camp Taylor. The roll's line for him reads: "Buried in North Liberty Cemetery, St. Joseph County, Ind." Their homes print at exactly the strength the roll gives them — Farver's at county strength, Whitmer's as near South Bend — and neither home bears on the claim: they rest here, and the history is where they rest. Their deaths in France and in Kentucky print as facts of their courses, nothing more. No decoration is recorded for either man.
Gold Star Honor Roll (1921), entries read whole; the resting-place rule as stated in this section's headnote; American Battle Monuments Commission record for Sousley carried as residue (R-33-2) in the war-heroes lane.