Rediscovering a soldier’s honor

RICHARDSON COUNTY HISTORY When Harry Lohnes visited Maple Grove Cemetery, he knew where to find his father’s grave. He didn’t realize that a weathered marker nearby belonged to his grandfather, a recipient of the nation’s highest military honor. By the mid 1980s, much of Francis W. Lohnes’ story had been lost to time. “I can’t remember my father ever saying anything about the medal,” Harry Lohnes had told the Lincoln Journal-Star. In 1984, The Schuyler Sun printed a column saying the Richardson County soldier was the only soldier from a Nebraska regiment to receive the Medal of Honor for military action within the borders of what is now Nebraska. The column, supplied by the Nebraska State Historical Society and based on state archivist James E. Potter’s research, traced his service from July 3, 1861, when the Richardson County farmer was mustered in as a private in Company H, 1st Nebraska Volunteer Infantry.

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