Madison County answered the call to serve when the world wars of the twentieth century demanded it. Many gave their lives performing heroic actions both on and off the battlefield. Leland Mead of Morrisville enlisted in the medical corps in 1917 and courageously evacuated every last wounded soldier in his aid station during heavy shelling of the Argonne Forest before being mortally wounded. Decorated pilot and Colgate University alumnus William Rising survived being shot down on an uninhabited island in the Pacific, existing for days on crabs and snails before building a makeshift boat and finding Allied ships. George C. Cox of Canastota deftly captured German snipers by smelling their cigarette smoke in the foxholes of Italy, a feat chronicled by major newspapers from St. Louis to New York. Local historian Matthew Urtz presents the harrowing stories of Madison County veterans who died in the world wars.
Matthew Urtz was appointed Madison County Historian in April 2010. In 2013, Urtz initiated a veterans interview program that, to date, has recorded the personal experiences of more than two dozen soldiers, including fifteen World War II veterans. The program is ongoing, and the interviews are digitized on the historian’s website. He lives in Oneida, New York, with his wife, Christa, and two dogs, Dolly and Martha.