BLOOMINGTON - Memorial Day is a time to honor fellow citizens who paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the nation. We remember those who died in military service with prayer, graveside visits and parades. We also erect monuments of stone in their name, with one exceptional example found at Miller Park in Bloomington.

Dedicated Memorial Day, May 30, 1913, the towering McLean County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument includes eight bronze tablets with the names of 6,053 local residents who fought in the American Revolution, War of 1812, Black Hawk War, Mexican War, Civil War and Spanish-American War.

The monument replaced an earlier county memorial located in Franklin Park. That one, dedicated in 1869, honored McLean County men who died in the Civil War. By 1910, the monument had deteriorated to the point that the county ordered it removed. That same year, county residents voted to erect a replacement.

County supervisors picked lifelong Bloomingtonian Dwight E. Frink to design the new monument. Frink, who was chief clerk of the Bloomington Election Commission, had neither professional design experience nor works of art to his credit. Nonetheless, he had artistic leanings, and, as secretary of the McLean County Historical Society, a deep appreciation for local history. He also agreed to work for free, helping the county complete the project under budget.

Despite Frink's lack of experience, the monument is a handsome triumph of proportion and patriotism, a well-ordered work of public art befitting the Beaux-Arts style popular at the time.

The monument stands about 78 feet tall from grade line. The base measures 35 feet square and is bisected by four walkways or approaches, each framed by an arch 11 ½ feet tall and 6 feet wide. Inside the arches, at the center of a granite mosaic floor, was an oversized Greek-style vase (also made of granite), surrounded by eight bronze plaques or tablets containing the 6,053 names. The vase is gone but the plaques remain, though one is defaced by graffiti. Topping the monument is a 32 ½-foot-long shaft, a fluted Tuscan column 4 feet at the base and 3 feet at the top, weighing about 36 tons.

Today, the 96-year-old monument is showing some wear and tear. In addition to the graffiti and the missing ornamentation (such as granite curbing and eight bronze lamps that once flanked the archways), there's a big chip in the column's upper reaches.

Back in 1913, the Woodbury Granite Co. of Hardwick, Vt., handled general contracting duties. By mid-February, Woodbury granite setters and hoisters were working at the monument site at the northeast corner of Miller Park. The arch stones of light gray Bashaw granite weighed some 20 tons "and it is no child's play to hoist them and properly adjust them," noted The Pantagraph.

In addition to the granite, the monument features three Civil War figures cast in bronze. Above one arch stands "Picket," a sculpture of a young soldier on the lookout. On the opposite side is "Anxiety," a captain holding field glasses. Perched atop the shaft is "The Color Bearer," a figure in full stride clutching a regimental flag across his chest.

Frederick C. Hibbard of Chicago sculpted the three figures from Dwight Frink's specifications. Hibbard's body of work includes Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in Hannibal, Mo., and a series of Civil War-themed pieces, such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy Monument at Shiloh National Military Park in Tennesse; Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi; and Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln in Racine, Wis.

The Memorial Day 1913 dedication began with a parade from the courthouse square to Miller Park, featuring National Guardsmen, the Soldiers' Orphans' Home Band from Normal, Spanish-American War veterans and nine Civil War veteran posts from Bloomington and McLean County.

After the parade, several thousand attended the dedication ceremony that included about two hours of speechmaking by the likes of former Illinois governors Joseph "Private Joe" Fifer of Bloomington and Charles Deneen of Chicago; former U.S. vice president Adlai E. Stevenson, also of Bloomington; and the Rev. Alanson R. Morgan of Normal.

Each of these Memorial Day addresses lasted upwards of a half-hour, with the speakers offering lengthy and flowery prose on history, political philosophy and patriotism. It's hard to imagine such a program in today's era of fleeting attention spans.