Lloyd Botimer

Lloyd Botimer grew up in a small Michigan town in the late 19th century. Along with several brothers and a sister, he walked to a little country school house as a boy. His father didn't think Lloyd needed to attend high school and insisted that the farm work get done first. However, Lloyd wanted to attend school, so he ran the six miles every day and completed Vassar High School in 1914. He attended Ferris State College for a short time before joining the United States Army in World War One, a journey that led him into one of the greatest and most protracted battles of American history.

This website is in tribute and honor of one of the oldest American recipients of the French Legion of Honor medal, the highest honor bestowed to a civilian.  Although this a only a short story of one battle, one soldier, one letter, and one medal, these pages are representative of all American veterans who were willing to die for our freedom.

My thanks to the Botimer, Blossom, and Chittenden families for providing these ancestral resources and assisting me in this project for my American History class at Spring Lake High School.

Theresa Sarwas
Spring Lake, Michigan
October 2009