A Viquesney Biography by Alan Anderson

Alan Anderson, Archivist, Sumter Historic Trust, Inc., Americus, Georgia, offers readers a recapitulation of an article he wrote in 1995 that was published in Save Outdoor Sculpture's newsletter, under the sponsorship of the Smithsonian Institution:

Ernest Moore "Dick" Viquesney (1876-1946), a native of Spencer, Indiana, son and grandson of French sculptors, designed the ultimate World War I memorial - his statue entitled "The Spirit of the American Doughboy". A seven-foot American soldier, boldly entering No-Man's Land, the striding figure is accurate in every detail, even down to the stitching on the knapsack. As of this writing, T. Perry Wesley, editor emeritus of Viquesney's hometown newspaper, has documented at least 136 life-size copies located in 35 states [those figures have changed]!

Arriving in Americus in October 1905, from his native state, E.M. Viquesney went to work for C.J. Clark's Monuments, designing mortuary sculpture. During those early years, he polished his craft on the monuments then being erected at Andersonville National Cemetery and at the nearby site of the former Civil War prison camp.

The Aug. 25,1912 issue of "The Times-Recorder" noted that "Mr. and Mrs. E.M. Viquesney have come from Atlanta and will again reside in Americus. They are at home with Mrs. P.H. Williams."

In 1915, "Dick" Viquesney and his first wife, Cora, moved back to Spencer, but after a year's sojourn, returned to Americus in February 1916 to accept the position of head of the designing department and sales manager for the Schneider Marble Works, local rival to Clark's Monuments. Another family connection here, by the way: Charles Augustus Schneider, the owner, was married to the sister of my great grandfather, W. Henry Speer.

Briefly, during the summer of 1917, the Viquesneys spent a month in Peoria, Ill, where he had accepted a position with a large marble concern, but returned to Schneider's in Americus in August. By February 1918, Viquesney had changed bases again and become special designer at Clark's Monumental Works on S. Jackson. A portion of the plant remains in the form of a laundromat, and Carroll J. Clark lived in the two-story stucco house he built across the street in 1909.

However, it was back with C.A. Schneider & Sons, in 1920, that E.M. Viquesney brought to fruition his dream of "the only absolutely perfectly equipped and historically correct example of what the United States infantry soldier was, and stood for". It was here, also, that he patented an above ground vault memorial marketed exclusively by Schneider's in January of that year.

E.M. Viquesney, himself a veteran of the Spanish-American War, devoted all his spare time over a two-year period to perfecting his statue. He inteviewed returning veterans, studied hundreds of photographs and even had two local veterans, A.B. "Boozie" Turpin and Walter Rylander, Sr., model in their full combat re- galia.

Apparently, the Doughboy's earliest sale was the $5,000 order for Nashville, Ga. in August of 1920. In April 1921 came the Doughboy's design selection as the official national American Legion memorial at Centralia, Wash. This claim is in some dispute, as the American Legion has no record of such a designation and the statue in Centralia is not Viquesney's.

It was announced that a 12-inch miniature version would be available, for six dollars, by June 1,1921. Many of these were manufactured in the building behind the Rylander Theater and I am fortunate to have one, minus the bayonet, that was given me by my late aunt, Mrs. Rosalie Bass, who literally rescued it from our Giddings cousins' trash can.

In the interim, the Nashville statue was on display in the lobby of the Rylander Theater as well as the Windsor Hotel, where locals "who served in France (were) unanimous in declaring it to be a perfect representation of the soldier in every respect, including equipment". Another copy was dedicated at Furman University, in Greenville, S.C., on June 7,1921.

The 1921 Armistice Day unveiling in Americus was preceded the day before by a letter from E.M. Viquesney in the newspaper wherein he noted "that there is a report existing, probably being passed about by those who are ignorant of such fact, that the Doughboy statue...is a small size of the one shown here previously. I want to state frankly and freely that this is a misrepresentation on the face of it, caused probably by the ignorance of the parties who are passing it around, of the fact that a statue erected on a pedestal [of] any height loses rapidly in size, especially in height".

The formal dedication ceremony of his adopted hometown's own $4,000 version saw it mounted on a ten-foot marble pedestal from Schneider's, with a six-to-seven-ton boulder. There was a minor glitch, however. The next day's newspaper carried the correction by E.M. Viquesney "to state for the information of the public that he did not 'hide out' in the crowd, as was stated in the report of the ceremonies, but did not occupy a seat on the speakers' stand solely because he was not invited". Oops!

Originally in the intersections of Lamar and Lee and Forsyth and Lee, the Doughboy and Civil War monuments were moved to Rees Park in 1947.

His creative juices flowing, E.M. Viquesney began a new industry, the "Imp-O-Luck", A Leprechaun-like figure, replete with horseshoes and four-leaf clovers, and within five years the business was processing tens of thousands of orders. Viquesney built a two-story office building which he occupied; then, in 1928, the Tivoli Theater, a two-story affair of Spanish design. Meanwhile, on the first business day of January, 1926, he reacquired the rights to the Doughboy and brought it home as well.

E.M. Viquesney's beloved wife, Cora, died in 1933, although he remarried a couple of years later [in 1936]. With the death of his second wife, Betty, shortly after his seventieth birthday, Ernest Moore Viquesney, alone and despondent, committed suicide at his home in Spencer on October 4, 1946.

Below, in a very rare look into Viquesney's private side, is the letter he wrote in reply to his old friend and coworker in Americus, GA, Ed Purvis, who upon hearing of the death of Viquesney's first wife, Cora, wrote him a letter of condolence. Viquesney's reply below is now in the possession of Mr. Purvis' grandson, Alan Anderson.

Viquesney seemed also to be a seeker of religious truth, as evidenced by the letter below to the Bible and Tract Society, culled from the Web (http://www.agsconsulting.com/htdbv5/r4480.htm). The letter is undated, but from his description of himself as "a young man", it's probably from around the time he moved to Americus, Georgia (1905) at age 29.

BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, GENTLEMEN:--

I have through the kindness of a friend here, a Methodist minister, been allowed the grand privilege of reading your first volume, entitled, "The Divine Plan of the Ages," and was very much impressed with it. Its ideas so nearly concur with my own that I am very anxious to have more of the light and beg to enclose herewith check covering the cost of the remainder of the books and "The Watch Tower."

I look forward to the arrival of "The Watch Tower," as I am very anxious to keep in touch with present-day happenings in relation to the Scriptures and feel that it will be a source of light to me at all times, as the books have and will be.

I wish to say that I have never been a Church member and have been called an infidel on account of my non-belief in a Father who could torture throughout eternity people created by him in his own likeness when they were born in sin and were so weak. The first glimpse of the "Divine Plan" made me feel that I was not entirely alone in my belief and that the coming of the Saviour could be looked forward to with great longings and happiness instead of misery, separation, torture, etc., to some probably who were dear to us.

I am a young man, a deep reader and have until finding your books been unable to secure much consideration from the ministers of the (sect) churches, as all of them left the impression upon me that one must be a member of some church to be saved.

Will you please forward books and paper promptly, as I do not wish to miss a single enlightening point, and have a dear wife and mother I am so anxious shall see the great light as I see it.

Yours very truly, E. M. VIQUESNEY--Ga.