ed for so important a task? The
eyes of the whole world were upon him, when he reached France. His was
a task of tremendous difficulties, and a single slip on his part would
have brought shame upon his country, no less than upon himself. That
he was to succeed, and to win the official thanks of Congress are now
matters of history. The story of his wonderful campaign against the
best that Germany could send against him is also an oft-told story.
But the rise of the man himself to such commanding position is a tale
not so familiar, yet none the less interesting.

The great-grandfather of General Pershing was an emigrant from
Alsace--fleeing as a boy from the military service of the Teutons. He
worked his way across to Baltimore, and not long thereafter volunteered
to fight in the American Revolution. His was the spirit of freedom.
He fled to escape a service that was hateful, because it represented
tyranny; but was glad to serve in the cause of liberty.

The original family name was Pfirsching, but was soon shortened to its
present form. The Pershings got land grants in Pennsylvania, and began
to prosper. As the clan multiplied the sons and grandsons began to
scatter. They had the pioneer spirit of their ancestors.

At length, John F. Pershing, a grandson of Daniel, the first immigrant,
went to the Middle West, to work on building railroads. These were the
days, just before the Civil War, when railroads were being thrown
forward everywhere. Young Pershing had early caught the fever, and had
worked with construction gangs in Kentucky and Tennessee. Now as the
railroads pushed still further West, he went with them as section
foreman--after first persuading an attractive Nashville girl, Ann
Thompson, to go with him as his wife.

Their honeymoon was spent among the hardships of a construction camp in
Missouri; and here at Laclede, in a very primitive house, John Joseph
Pershing was born, September 13, 1860.

The boy inherited a sturdy frame and a love of freedom from both sides
of the family. His mother had come of a race quite as good as that of
his father. They were honest, law-abiding, God-fearing people, who saw
to it that John and the other eight children who followed were reared
soberly and strictly. The Bible lay on the center table and the willow
switch hung conveniently behind the door.

After the line of railroad was completed upon which the father had
worked, he came to Laclede and invested his