In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

159 Chapter 8 Family and Fate S ome time after Thomas Neibaur’s return from France and the Great War his father, James, sat down with him to have a frank discussion. Thomas began to discuss his war experiences , but he then became emotional and could hardly control himself. A decade later, in 1928, James Hopper visited the Neibaur family in Sugar City. Hopper was traveling the country collecting accounts of Medal of Honor recipients for a book. He learned of the conversation between father and son and of the strain it put on Thomas: There is something queer about this Thomas Neibaur. . . . I said to myself, “There’s a boy who wasn’t over-sensitive, certainly, and who went through the war healthily.” But later we went to see his mother (she lives a few doors from him), and I was speaking with her of the difficulty of drawing out of men who fought any record of their experiences, when she said: “Yes, that is the way with Tommy. He would never tell us anything. One day,” she went on, “his father finally tried to get out it out of him. He placed a chair here, and a chair opposite. He sat himself in one chair and Tommy in the other. ‘Now you tell me all about it,’ he said. So Tommy started. But he’s such a baby! After a while I looked, and there he sat on the edge of his chair as he talked, and the tears were just dripping from his eyes to the floor. Till his father said, ‘Never mind, Tommy, if it makes you feel so bad. Tell me some other time.’ “1 People are amazing creatures. Thomas Neibaur survived great peril in war, was wounded several times, attacked by 160 Place the Headstones Where They Belong some forty Germans, recovered from his painful wounds, returned home, and in the safety of his parents’ kitchen he broke down. Later in the day Hopper asked Neibaur why he became so emotional. He replied, “It’s when I think of those thousands of boys that have gone west.” That he had witnessed the deaths of so many soldiers during the war continued to affect him, understandably. It is also natural that many soldiers sometimes feel guilty for having survived a bloody battle or war, knowing that fate or luck and little else was the difference between death and life for them and their comrades.2 * * * * * Neibaur Day, May 27, 1919, was a huge success. Thomas Neibaur was a sensation, a hero, and the talk of eastern Idaho. How long that lasted is hard to say—a week, two weeks, a little longer perhaps. After all the festivities, what remained was Thomas, a twenty-one-year-old Idaho farmer with no job, little money, no education, and no real prospects. The only tangible things he had were his close-knit family and a medal pinned to the uniform tunic hanging in his closet. What followed in the next twenty-three years included some happiness and normal family life but also much despair, because the Neibaurs faced more than average adversity. Thomas Neibaur kept no known journals, and few items written by him after the war period survived; therefore , the primary evidence and facts available are from occasional newspaper articles, a few family letters and documents , and some government sources. It is hard to piece together a score or more of years with this thin record, but it is apparent that there were two major controlling influences that guided the remainder of Thomas Neibaur’s life: his family and unkind fate. * * * * * Thomas, immediately after his return, organized a musical band and toured throughout Idaho and perhaps other western states. It must have been a great tonic for a young man with a natural talent for music and singing. After the Family and Fate 161 regimentation of the army, the dread and fear of combat, service in a foreign land, why not have some fun? Why not romp around and get some of the angst out of one’s soul? “After the war, instead of getting down to hard work,” James Hopper explained, “Tommy Neibaur with two brothers and two cousins, all of them musicians, formed an orchestra and toured about, strumming banjos—a foolish thing to do, now says Neibaur.” The two brothers were the only brothers he had, Leslie James Neibaur, born 1886, twelve years Thomas’s senior, and his younger brother, Earl Edward Neibaur, born...

Share