River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-09-19
John Rasmussen
Reported Killed
Letter from Oliver Perry, His chum,
Conveys Sad InformatIon---Minot
Soldier Performed Remarkably
Daring Feat

Independent, Minot, n D., Sept. 12)
Mrs. E. C. Perry of this city re-
ceived letter from her son Oliver
Perry. q member of the A. E.
Forces, conveying news of the death
Of John Rasmussen, the only son of
Mr.. and Mrs. S. J. Rasmussen of
this city, which is presumed to have
occurred in the Chateau Thierry
fight during the latter part of July
at the time that the Americans turn
ed back the Hun tide, resulting in
the greatest defeat of the Germans
during the entire war.
S. ]. Rasmussen, who is connect
ed with the Second National Bank,
is neighbor of E. c. Perry, well
known salesman, and their sons,
John and Oliver, have been great
chums for years. They graduated
from the Minot High school in the
same class some three years ago
and after enlisting in the war, they
managed to spend considerable time
together in France. The parents
nave received letters from their
sons, reading them with eagerness.
and last Saturday afternoon, Mr..
Rasmussen carried two letters to
the Perry home, which had come by
post that day from Oliver. Hand
ing one to Mrs. Perry, he remarked
that she could read one and he
would read the other. AS he read
a few lines down the page, he read
the following lines, concerning the
death of his own son, the first
knowledge he had received of the
heart-breaking news:
August l, France
II don't knew whether or not you
or anyone at home has heard about
John being killed. If you have,
this will be a mighty welcome letter.
So many things have happened late
ly that it is mighty hard to know
what to tell first, SO l will just use
the order of time. N.
AS soon as the Dutch started to
retreat, we started after them and
were put on the line. Of course,
they left back lots of machine guns
and snipers which caused more
trouble than flock of mosquitoes
when a man is trying to sleep.
John. as usual, in his daring way,
was scouting in front of our own
lines the second day. He told me
how this all happened. He was
rambling along thru some thick
brush, when all of a sudden, he saw
a German little way in front of
him, so John fell fiat and waited
about 20 minutes and then crept up
close and whispered "Handen auf"
Hands up" to Dutchy Well, the
Germans first impulse was to grab
for his gun, but on looking down
the bore of Johns rifle, which was
on him, he threw up his hands and
yelled, Scheme nacht," or some
thing of that sort. Then John not
iced another German on to one side,
just raising his gun to shoot John.
and this scared John so much that
he hollered out this time and that
scared the German, so that he threw
his hands up and called for mercy.
John started them off at double
time in a rain of bullets from the
company about 80 yards in the rear
of these two outposts, and when l
saw him, he was marching these
two men with their hands in the air
down the road. That is all there
was to that, but it was next morn.
ing when we all got into a nest of
machine guns that John was killed.
No one was with him when it hap
pened. imagine he was trying to
cap.nra machine gun alone or
something like that and got picked
of " sriper. l didn't see him
ana uot't know where he is buried,
but they tell me that he was shot
thru the head and probably didn' t
suffer any.
/ didn't know he was killed until
three days after and even now
can't find out anything about it, ex-
cept what you know.
l suppose it will go hard on his
folks, but just remind them that
John established a reputation in his
company and around of having