As we recognize and thank today’s veterans, it is also good to remember those who served earlier and paved the way.

By the door of the New Carlisle Library there is a marker honoring “Major General Fred Funston, Nov 9, 1865 – Feb. 19, 1917,” but no one really seems to know who this man was.

“I don’t remember anyone asking about him,” said Library Director Ted Allison. Allison also ran across a historical marker in Kansas that mentioned Funston. “I remember thinking, ‘Hey, he’s from back home!’ ”

The library plaque reads “Major General Fred Funston,” but to his contemporaries he was Fearless Fred Funston.

Fred Funston was born in New Carlisle just after it became a town. I cannot help but wonder if any of us are related to him. When he was only two, his family moved to Kansas.

As a kid, Fred got a reputation for standing up to bullies at school. Known for his bright red hair and being gutsy, Funston was only 5 foot, 4 inches tall and weighed only 120 pounds.

After his application to West Point was turned down, Funston spent his 20s working and exploring America’s wild areas like the Black Hills, Death Valley and Yosemite. Like Teddy Roosevelt, he embraced the outdoors life.

At 30 he joined the Cuban army to fight for independence from Spain. On the way there, he learned about shooting cannons from a book. Always in the thick of the fight, Funston had 17 horses shot out from under him and once, when captured, he had to chew up and swallow his identity papers to avoid execution.

When the Spanish-American war broke out, he became a colonel in the Kansas National Guard. In 1899 in The Philippines, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism in battle and promoted to general.

In 1901 he designed and led a daring expedition into enemy territory to capture the opposition leader in the Philippines, Emilio Aquinaldo. Funston became a national hero, and the president awarded him the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army.

During the San Francisco earthquake disaster of 1906, Funston helped dynamite houses to create a gap that stopped the fires and commanded patrolling of the streets. Again a national hero, he was credited with saving the city.

Later, in 1914, he was the military governor of Vera Cruz, Mexico. In 1916 Funston was promoted to major general and was the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. Army.

Funston commanded the pursuit of Pancho Villa and secured the border with Mexico. Under his command during this expedition were a group of young officers who would themselves impress the world; Gen. Black Jack Pershing, Capt. Douglas MacArthur, Lt. George Patton and Lt. Dwight Eisenhower.

In 1917 he was favored to command American forces if we joined WWI, but that was not to be.

Funston died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 51 in San Antonio. He was the first person honored with laying in state in the Alamo. He was similarly honored in San Francisco’s City Hall and is buried at The Presidio.

WWI and WWII soon overshadowed the loss of Funston. Yet his name is honored still with streets in San Francisco, Fort Bragg and New Carlisle.

William White a famous writer of the time wrote, “We had a man as dashing as Sheridan, as unique and picturesque as the slow-moving, taciturn Grant, as charming as Jackson, as witty as old Billy Sherman, [and] as brave as Paul Jones.”

New Carlisle should be proud that Fearless Fred Funston was born here.