Location: East side of Gillham Road at 42nd Street
Designer: Unknown
Dedicated: November 7, 1936
Description:
Base – Height: 1 foot, Width: 3 feet, Length: 3 feet
Pedestal – Height: 4 feet, Width: 2 feet, Length: 2 feet
Red granite with 18 inch by 24 inch bronze plaque.
Major William J. Bland was a Rhodes scholar and member of a prominent Kansas City family. This monument stands on the grounds where Major Bland drilled many times before leaving for the battle fields of France.
The bronze tablet attached to the monument reads as follows:
To the memory of Major William J. Bland, 1st Battalion, 356th Infantry, 89th Division. Killed in action September 12, 1918 during the St. Mihiel offensive in France. “A nobler man, a braver warrior, lives not this day within the City walls.”
Dedicated by William J. Bland Post American Legion.
