Ada-Owyhee County ID Archives Biographies.....Regan, John M. 1886 - 1918
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Source: See Below
Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1920)

Lieutenant John M. Regan, D. S. C.

DEEDS of valor have been the theme of song and story through all the ages, and
when personal bravery is combined with the highest Christian ideals man has
reached the fulfillment of the purposes of life. There is no citizen, young or
old, who has expressed more fully the ideals of manhood than did Lieutenant John
M. Regan, who gloriously met death on one of the battlefields of Europe in the
recent World war. It was his most earnest desire to be actively engaged in the
conflict because of the high principles for which the war was waged and he
sacrificed military honors and promotions in order to take his place on the
firing line. The story of his career is one which thrills the world and will
cause his memory to be cherished as long as life remains to those who were his
close associates. His was the first gold star to be placed among the one hundred
and twenty stars on the service flag of St. John's parish.

   Lieutenant Regan was born in Silver City, Owyhee county, Idaho, February 6,
1886, but in his boyhood days his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Regan, became
residents of Boise. There in his early youth he became a pupil in St. Teresa's
Academy, which he entered at the age of four, remaining under the instruction of
the Sisters of the Holy Cross until his eleventh year. He then became a pupil in
Santa Clara College at Santa Clara, California, where he continued until 1904,
when he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and with the highest
honors of his class, maxima cum laude. The college faculty also awarded him the
Nobel prize for excellence in character and scholarship.

   With his return to Boise, following his graduation, Lieutenant Regan entered
business life in positions suitable to the son of Timothy Regan. Not that
parental influence was exercised to give him an easy berth. Indeed the father
believed that the son should receive thorough training and the latter was just
as anxious to qualify for responsibilities in the business world. John M. Regan
took up work in connection with the Boise Artesian Hot & Cold Water Company and
with the Overland Company, Limited, owning and controlling one of the largest
office buildings of Boise. But business affairs did not altogether monopolize
the time and attention of John M. Regan, who eagerly utilized his opportunities
to assist those in need. He early became interested in the work of the
Associated Charities of Boise, which at that time was a struggling organization.
His contagious enthusiasm and deep interest in the work were soon manifest in
effective results. The success of the various charity balls given in Boise, was
attributable largely to his efforts and he was continually giving generously but
unostentatiously to the organization, which at the time of his death, at a
meeting held in the office of Mayor Hays, expressed in a set of resolutions
"deep sorrow over the death of Lieutenant John M. Regan upon the field of honor"
and spoke of him as "for a number of years a most devoted, most unselfish and
kind-hearted officer of this organization," in whom "the necessitous of our city
have lost a silent friend and a faithful helper." The Associated Charities
further paid public tribute to his "noble Christian character and his unfeigned
charitableness." Lieutenant Regan became one of the most prominent members among
the Knights of Columbus of Idaho, the local council passing resolutions at the
time of his death which termed him "one of its most faithful, diligent and
enthusiastic workers," while noting also the loss to the nation of "one of its
most loyal and devoted citizens." He was one of the organizers of the Knights of
Columbus in Idaho and was called to important offices in both its local and
state councils. He was also a member of the Boise Lodge of Elks and of the Boise
Commercial Club and he did much to further clean sports in the capital city.
While at Santa Clara he had become known as an all-round athlete and achieved an
enviable football record. Following his college days he frequently acted as
coach for high school teams. He also possessed considerable dramatic ability and
aided in the performances given by Boise talent for local charities.

   It could not have been otherwise that a man of Lieutenant Regan's disposition
and character should have manifested the utmost patriotism and love of country.
He became a member of the National Guard of Idaho, enlisting as a private in
Company H, Second Idaho Infantry, February 27, 1912. On the nth of June of the
same year he was commissioned a second lieutenant and on the 7th of March, 1915,
was commissioned captain of the quartermaster's company. This would have given
him the opportunity to remain at home out of danger, but when his company was
ordered to the Mexican border he resigned the honorary commission and reenlisted
as a private that he might go with the troops to Nogales. There he was soon made
a sergeant and upon the resignation of Lieutenant L. W. Tennyson was again
commissioned second lieutenant. He was on guard duty at Sandpoint when labor
troubles prevailed in north Idaho in the summer of 1917. Responding to the call
of the colors, he went with Company H to Camp Greene, where the command was
merged into the One Hundred and Sixteenth Engineers under Major Oleson. On the
26th of October, Lieutenant Regan left for Camp Mills and on the 26th of
November sailed for France, where he arrived on the 10th of December. His duties
did not call him to active service at the front and, wishing to take his place
in the trenches, he asked to be transferred to the infantry, notwithstanding the
fact that he had been recommended for promotion. His request was granted and he
became a member of Company D, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Infantry, of the
Thirty-second Division, composed largely of Wisconsin and Michigan troops. He
was thus on active duty until death called him when he was in action on the 4th
of August. His last letter to his mother was dated July 31st and in this he
mentioned the terrible devastation of the villages through which he had passed
and the ruin wrought in the churches. His religion had ever been the guiding
spirit of his life and it was a matter of deep sorrow to him to see these holy
places of worship so demolished. Speaking of one large church, in which he said
that not an image was left nor a window unshattered, he wrote: "I picked up the
crucifix out of the wreckage and placed it on top of the debris." Further on he
said: "My God, what a price a country pays for war! America and England will
never know just the price. One has to be in France or Belgium to appreciate it."
There was perhaps no officer in the arm\ who felt more keenly his responsibility
for the men under him and in this connection Lieutenant Regan, in his last
letter to his mother, wrote: "May God grant when our men go in we may do our
duty and still not lose heavily. Pray for me that neither by cowardice, nor lack
of attention, nor bad judgment, nor false courage, may any of my men be lost.
That is my strongest prayer. The lives of my men are a heavy responsibility.
Pray God and His Blessed Mother to give me wisdom in carrying this responsibility!"

   On the 13th of September, 1918, impressive memorial services in honor of
Lieutenant John Morgan Regan were held in the Cathedral of St. John the
Evangelist, where for the first time a gold star was placed among the one
hundred and twenty blue stars of the service flag of the parish. On that
occasion Father Kayzer took as his text: "Honor all men; love the brotherhood;
fear God; honor the King." He said in part: "Lieutenant John M. Regan honored
all men and in turn was honored and loved by them all. Taught from his earliest
youth in the house of his father, or in a Christian school, that all men are
God's creatures, are God's children, he trained the vision of his mind to
discern, even through the mists of social or racial or religious differences,
the one golden thread that runs through the heart of every man and binds us all
to the throne of God. His was the gentleness of which Cardinal John Henry Newman
speaks, which would never give offense nor cause pain to anyone. Though firm in
his convictions and strong in his principles, and ardent of nature, he possessed
in no small degree that self-control born of a careful and prudent mistrust of
self and kind consideration for the principles or the opinions of his opponent
which caused him never to do a hasty deed or to speak an ungentlemanly word.
Yes, my dear brethren, he had learned to look upon all men as the children of
God; he saw in them God's image, and he was willing at all times to give to each
and every one, like unto a good picture, the benefit of the best light. He was
ready to do all that was good; he gave a hand to anything that was uplifting. It
was not his custom to ride in state, but he would shoulder the wheel. And this
was the democracy of John that brought him so many friends and made him loved by
all.
*   *   *  There are very few men—very few sons—who practice as did John Regan
the commandment, 'Honor thy father and thy mother;' there are very few indeed
who would be so taken up with what was their parents' interests,—ever thoughtful
of their welfare, always happy with their happiness, respectful to authority,
the love of his mother always in his heart, and always afraid that some anxiety
or trouble might unnecessarily come unto them; praying for them, loving them,
living for them.  *   *   * There was nothing sentimental in his piety, nothing
fitful in his devotions, nothing ostentatious or insincere. Though joyful of
mind and heart, full of life and fond of merry company and clean sport, he could
always temper—he could always moderate—himself. Never did he associate himself
with vice; never would he stain his soul with an unconscionable deed. He loved
and feared God and kept His commandments, because in his heart he knew—and he
was not afraid to say it—that a man who is a disgrace before his God can not
long be an honor to his country. 
  *   *   *   He honored and loved his flag. A truer patriot than John M. Regan
never drew breath. Had he been permitted to live I dare say unto you that no
other young man would have put forth better efforts to safeguard and protect the
government of his state with the shield of white honor and with the power of
civic righteousness. Better schooled in the Constitution of the United States
than those so-called, self-styled '100 per cent Americans,' he would never have
lowered himself to place an obstacle of religious difference upon the lawful
ambition of any man for political preferment. And when the tocsins of war were
sounded throughout the land and his country had been insulted, this peace-loving
young man was amongst the first to volunteer his services and, if need be, his
life blood for his country. My dear friends, I need not now recount to you how
restive he was because kept in the rear and how he asked permission to join a
regiment of infantry that might bring him quickly to the firing-line that he
might fight for his country and for its rights. He feared nothing. There was no
fear in his heart, because he kept it clean before his God. And when the word
came to go over the top, his undaunted spirit flung him ahead of his soldiers,
with the impulse of his nature to protect them from the bullet which laid him
low. His was an example of fidelity and of patriotism of the highest type. I
quote the following from the beautiful eulogy that was written of him in an
editorial in the Boise evening paper: 'The heart of John Regan is stilled, but
the spirit that actuated him lives on to inspire us with a better understanding
and conception of our duty. Wherever the story of this young man is told there
shall be re-consecration to Americanism, the story of the young man who left
office and wealth, his family and friends to fight and to die for his country.'
*   *   *  I can see his grave now, in far-away France. I see it marked with the
cross and with the flowers laid upon it. But if the remains of John M. Regan
might not be permitted to rest in our midst, O then I pray—and I venture to
hope— that a grateful citizenry of Boise will erect unto him a monument with his
own features in bronze for the remembrance of his contemporaries and as an
inspiration to the unborn generations of men and if I might choose the
inscription, I would write beneath his statue:

    'To the undying memory of
     JOHN M. REGAN 
     Born at Silver City, Idaho,
     February 6, 1886. 
     He was the idol of Boise. He was the joy and crown of his parents.
     He died for his country August 4, 1918' "

   Lieutenant Regan had been awarded the distinguished service cross before
participating in the engagement in which he lost his life. The Ada county post
of the World War Veterans has been named the John M. Regan Post in his honor.
When one thinks of the good accomplished in the life of a young man, of the love
given to parents and friends, of the assistance extended to those in need, of
the cheer disseminated in social life, of that devotion to country leading to
the supreme sacrifice, there must come the comfort of the spirit of the words of
James Whitcomb Riley:

I cannot say, and I will not say 
That he is dead.—He is just away!

With a cheery smile, and a wave of the hand, 
He has wandered into an unknown land,

And left us dreaming how very fair 
It needs must be, since he lingers there.

And you—O you, who the wildest yearn 
For the old-time step and the glad return,—

Think of him faring on, as dear
In the love of There as the love of Here;

And loyal still, as he gave the blows
Of his warrior-strength to his country's foes.—

Think of him still as the same, I say: 
He is not dead—he is just away!


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

IDAHO
DELUXE SUPPLEMENT
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1920


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