On November 11th, Veteran’s Day is celebrated throughout the Country with patriotic parades and programs. Each year Galt's cemetery is filled with waving flags placed by the VFW and the Boy Scouts at the graves of servicemen and women who served their country proudly. We thought this bit of Galt’s history might be of interest to our readers.
Known to many as Flanders Field, because of a poem written by John McCrae, the French cemetery was the final resting-place for 25,000 American Soldiers. Families in the United States asked to have their loved one returned to this country. Many elected to go to France, to find the grave, and then accompany the body overseas to the family plot in America. It was a difficult experience. The grieving parents found themselves in a foreign country confused and uncertain, having difficulty communicating in a foreign language. The transportation was slow. There were no jet planes. Ships were the means of travel from here to Europe and back. Many never attempted the trip. Their boys remained in France.
For those who braved the arduous trip, France became their destination. Once there, the travelers boarded trains that took them to L’Argonne Cemetiere where they looked out over a sea of white crosses, each of which identified a fallen American hero.
Such was the trip taken by a Galt couple, Amadeo and Giuditta (Marengo) Lippi, owners of the Galt Winery. As Italian immigrants they knew the stress of the long ocean voyage. This trip would not be easy for them. It was a sad, grief-filled, tedious voyage. They had but one goal, to bring their son, George, home to America.
George Lippi was born and raised in Galt, attended Galt schools. He was working as a salesman for an international food import company in San Francisco, in 1914, when World War I broke out, George being the oldest son in the Lippi family, was drafted into the army, trained at Fort Lewis, Washington, and then sent overseas to France. In the battle of Argonne, George and several of his comrades were killed when a grenade was thrown into their foxhole. George became Galt’s hero, Galt’s first local soldier killed in battle. Until recent years, George Lippi was remembered on a bronze plaque at the base of the town flag on Fourth Street.
A picture of the those pioneer parents of George Lippi, Amadeo and Giuditta Lippi, who brought their son home to rest in Galt Cemetery, can be seen on the wall at Save Mart. They are shown standing beside their wine fermentation tanks at the Galt Winery. The barn that housed those tanks is still standing and in use today.
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