David Colburn
TOWER- About halfway up the hill toward the west end of Lakeview Cemetery in Tower is a large, rough stone family marker, with the name “Campaigne” inscribed in a smoothed oval. Nearby, severely tilted and partially covered with grass and dirt is a headstone, “Maude A. 1894-1918.”
1918 was a tumultuous year for Minnesota. Many young men from this area had answered the call of the nation and were engaged on the battlefields of Europe in the “great war” we know today as World War I. Much closer to home, the first two weeks of October were scarred by massive fires that started near Cloquet and Moose Lake, blazes that destroyed 38 communities, scorched 1,500 square miles, displaced 52,000 people, and claimed the lives of more than 450 others.