Most NIU students and other young residents of DeKalb pass the ornamental clock at the intersection of 1st Street and Lincoln Highway without giving it a second glance.

In light of the recent military conflict, we may want to take a second look at this monument to all the residents of DeKalb who died in World War I.

The Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Clock has a storied past. Inspired by the village of Waterman, which purchased an ornamental clock from E. Howard & Sons the year the war ended, 1918, DeKalb purchased an even more elaborate clock from the same company for $2,900 in 1921, said Steve Bigolin, former chair and co-founder of DeKalb’s Landmark Commission. DeKalb Chronicle articles from the time state that the money was raised by the Soldiers & Sailors Relief Society, and identify the clock as the Howard Memorial Clock.

The body of the clock bears plaques on two sides. One facing the intersection reads, “The citizens of DeKalb erect this memorial to commemorate forever the loyalty and heroism of those of their number who answered the call of humanity in the world war 1914-1918.”

A quote from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “That government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth,” runs beneath. It is surmounted by images of doughboys, as American infantrymen were called in WWI, marching off to battle. There is also a merchant ship that has been retrofitted with a cannon, over the heading “1914 World War 1918,” although the U.S. didn’t enter the war until 1916.

A plaque on the reverse side depicting artillarymen continuing to fire their cannons after one of their comrades has fallen reads, “May the memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice live forever in the hearts of the people.” Beneath that, Theodore Roosevelt is quoted as saying, “To all those who have paid with their bodies for their soul’s desire.”

The current location of the clock is its fourth home. It originally was located squarely in the intersection of 3rd Street and Lincoln Highway. There was a dedication ceremony on Feb. 14, 1921, pictures of which are mounted inside Tom & Jerry’s, 501 E. Lincoln Highway, and the cafeteria in Grant South.

The featured speaker was Chicago author Harry F. Atwood, who spoke for one hour at Grace United Methodist Church. By DeKalb Chronicle accounts, the former U.S. district attorney kept his audience wrapt, extolling the virtues of the Constitution, saying its formulation was the greatest event in history after Christ’s birth. Bigolin explained, “Old-timers have told me that back then alternating churches hosted civic ceremonies.”

The clock was moved for the first time in 1929 because of public uproar following the injury of a child in a traffic accident in the intersection, though Bigolin insists “the clock did not play a part.” The city simply moved the clock onto the sidewalk, in front of the present location of Megan Morrison Antiques & Interiors.

“A second move came in either 1974 or ‘75,” said Bigolin, to a spot in front of the now empty Salvation Army store. Bigolin explicated that DeKalb was inspired by Waterman again in the 1990s. When the people of Waterman had their clock restored in 1992 for $13,000, a movement started in DeKalb to have its clock repaired, which finally was accomplished in 1996 for $17,000. “I was told it was in such a state of disrepair by then that if a car had struck it, the clock would have collapsed,” Bigolin said.

DeKalb Memorial Park, the fourth and presumably final home of the clock, was built on the site of the old Amoco station. This was done after the station closed and the federal government advised the city of DeKalb that there had been “remediation of the soil,” meaning oil had leaked into the underlying soil, said Mayor Greg Sparrow, who was in his first term in office at the time.

“Amoco did some clean-up, but it wasn’t safe to put any other buildings on the site for a number of years,” he said. The town bought the site in collaboration with the park district using tax increment funding and turned it into a park.

Several myths have sprung up around the clock. The photograph inside Tom & Jerry’s of the original dedication at the intersection of 3rd Street and Lincoln Highway misidentifies the ceremony as having taken place in 1924. The plaque on the base of the clock itself misidentifies the re-dedication ceremony as having occurred on Dec. 11, 1996.

According to the recollections of both Sparrow and Bigolin, the ceremony actually took place on Nov. 11, 1996, Veterans Day.