On This Date in Minneapolis History: June 17

June 17, 1919 – The remains of Ralph Gracie, the first Bemidji boy killed in action in WWI, have been found. Shot down in his airplane on Aug. 12, 1918, while in an air battle with the enemy, two miles from Ostend, Belgium, Major Zenn of France has successfully located his gravesite.

Ralph Gracie¹

Major Zenn searched the records of Berlin and found his grave to be No. 1776; cemetery No. 2. The record also shows that he was buried by the Germans on Aug. 13, the day after he was killed.

“His remains were brought home to Bemidji and buried in a family plot in Greenwood Cemetery.”²

2

“Congress chartered a patriotic veterans' organization, the American Legion, in 1919. On June 6 of that year, the Bemidji Sentinel reported that 40 some veterans had met to organize the local American Legion and proposed that the newly formed post be named to honor Ralph Gracie, the first Bemidji man killed in action in WWI. The charter became official in August 1920.”²

The Bemidji Daily Pioneer; “Gracie’s Burial Plot Located in Germany”; June 17, 1919; p. 1.

¹http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=31541267&ref=acom


²https://www.facebook.com/AmericanLegionRGP14/photos/a.1161003993960270/1554511211276211/?type=1&theater

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