Delegations were promised from Russell, Lucas and other Lucas County towns and villages. Country school teachers across the county had been making plans to bring their charges into town to march in the big morning parade.
The afternoon program was scheduled for the courthouse lawn with the Tabernacle as a back-up location in case of rain. The Tabernacle was a temporary barn-size structure that had been built on the current site of the Hotel Chariton for a six-week series of giant revival meetings during the late summer. It was scheduled to be torn down in the spring, but the school district had leased it until then as a site for athletic practices and programs.
The giant parade had been choreographed so that at its conclusion near noon the square would be entirely filled with entries and observers and a photographer would record the result for posterity by taking shots from all four corners.
Among the principal organizers were members of Carl L. Caviness American Legion Post 102. Proceeds from several related events would go into its treasury to help fund a new Legion Hall --- still in use at the intersection of South Main and Linden. But the place of honor at the head of the parade would go to the remaining Civil War veterans who still were holding Iseminger Post, Grand Army of the Republic, together more than 55 years after that great war had ended.
In Washington, D.C., and at Arlington National Cemetery that day, the remains of an unidentified U.S. soldier who had died in France during the Great War that had ended on Nov. 11, 1918, would be honored and then interred at what we know now as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The next day, President Warren G. Harding would launch with an inspiring address the international Washington Naval Conference, sometimes described as the world's first disarmament conference.
But back in Lucas County it became evident at dawn on Nov. 11 that organizers had failed to reckon with Iowa weather. There were no extended forecasts, other than Farmers Almanac, at the time. No seven-day projection.
So it was a considerable shock at daybreak to discover the ground entirely covered by snow, wind-whipped flakes still coming down and pre-dawn temperatures that had plummeted into the high teens.
Organizers' first response was to cancel the parade --- and the word went out across town and county, spread broadly by switchboard operators and line rings. Delegations from other towns cancelled their plans to travel to Chariton and scholars across the county resigned themselves to just another day in the classroom.
But then as the morning advanced, the superintendent of Chariton schools contacted parade organizers to tell him students in the county seat still wanted to march despite the weather, which had improved. So the word went out again and a much diminished parade lineup was reconstituted and a parade was held. Plans to record it photographically were cancelled however since bystanders were few and far between.
Organizers took a good look at the Tabernacle and abandoned plans to gather there for the afternoon program --- the structure had no source of heat and it felt colder inside than out. So the Methodists cranked up the furnace at their large church at the intersection of North Main and Roland and the program went forward there in a more comfortable setting.
The Herald-Patriot of Nov. 17, 1921, put a positive spin on the day with a headline that read in part, "Parade, though called off early in day, was carried through with great success and splendid afternoon program was carried out in Methodist Church before a large and attentive audience of patriotic citizens."
And this, of course, was not the only time Armistice Day plans and Iowa weather have collided. The great Armistice Day blizzard of 1940 proved to be the most dramatic.
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Armistice Day (now Veterans Day) will be observed in Chariton this year during a 10:30 a.m. program Thursday at Lucas County Veterans Memorial Park. All are welcome to attend. And in case you're curious, the National Weather Service projects a sunny and breezy day with a high of 51.
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