SANFORD — They were fathers and husbands who didn’t come home. They were uncles and cousins, brothers and only sons. And as they marched toward battlefields in France and elsewhere in 1918, the music of the era reflected their march.

“Over there, over there, send the word, send the word over there — that the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming … and it won’t be over, til its over, over there,” one popular tune promised.

One hundred years later, at Sanford Veterans Memorial Gymnasium 15 men from Sanford who died in World War I were honored by young people  in two performances on Tuesday.

The Sanford Junior High School Chorus sang music of the era, their voices rising in unison to “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” “Danny Boy,” and “Over There.” Members of the Sanford Junior High School eighth grade band, who composed music to honor each of the fallen, performed.

The young people remembered U.S. Army members Thomas Cole, Thomas Carrier and Samuel Valley, Arthur Dexter Arthur Green, Leroy Cotton, Mahlon Wilson, Arthur Lavigne, John McGrath, Lenwood Littlefield and Albert Guay. They also honored Thomas J. Binette and Harry Porter, who served in the U.S. Navy, Robert Steel, who served with the British Army, and Alphonse Lavoie who served with the Canadian Army.

“The men we are honoring today are not statistics, they were Sanford and Springvale’s finest, and its future,” said Joe Doiron of the Fallen Veterans Project during the invocation.

Banners, bearing portraits of the fallen — or marble crosses, where no photos were available — and featuring scarlet poppies and flags, were hung on stands in the auditorium, with banners of those who perished in World War II, Korea and Vietnam hung behind them.

Student Laurel Fink pointed out that of the 15 who died, six perished in the influenza outbreak that killed so many people worldwide in 1918, soldiers and civilians alike.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, in a letter read by his York County aide, Bonnie Pothier, noted that 35,000 Maine citizens served in World War 1. Of those, 1,000 perished.

Pothier had a few words of her own. She said the pennants with the crosses and photos reminded her of her grandfather, who came to Sanford from Canada to work, enlisted and was sent to France, where he met the woman who would become his wife, and Pothier’s grandmother. She commended all those who worked on the project.

“To all of us, it has a huge profound impact,” she said.

Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio, D-Sanford, thanked Doiron for his work and the students “who took it and ran with it.”

“This is what community looks like,” she said.

The Fallen Veterans Project has previously produced remembrances in conjunction with Sanford schools honoring local veterans who died in World War II, and Korea and Vietnam wars.

Among those attending the morning ceremony was Anna Hoffman, of Barrington, New Hampshire, grand-niece of Thomas W. Cole, for whom the Sanford American Legion Post is named. Cole, of the Trench Mortar Battery, 26th Division, was killed in action on May 10, 1918, in Verdun, France. At the end of the ceremony, Hoffman was presented with a folded American flag by two members of the ROTC program.

“It really impressed me,” she said of the presentation.

Roy Hanscom of Shapleigh didn’t know much about his grandfather, Leroy Cotton, growing up. Later, as he began to research, he learned Cotton had applied for a furlough so he could visit with his wife Myrtle and their baby daughter, Arrietta, in Maine. He isn’t sure whether that furlough ever took place. Cotton died in battle in France on July 19, 1918.

Through his research at the Sanford Springvale Historical Museum, Hanscom found a letter Cotton’s brother-in-law, Mahlon Wilson, had written home after being wounded in the same battle that killed Cotton.

“I have done my part, and was willing to give my life, but they only took a leg, and that is enough, for I think it will lay me up for some time to come,” Wilson wrote to his wife, Mildred on Aug. 2, 1918.

Wilson died of his wounds on Sept, 20, 1918.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.