Inscription: CO K 31 IA VOL INFT

"W. F." enlisted in the Union army in 1862 and saw considerable action before the close of the Civil War. His first real engagement was at the capture of Arkansas Post, Arkansas where he received a flesh wound in his left thigh. This was followed by the battles and siege around Vicksburg, the campaign about Chattanooga, and the charge up Lookout Mountain. W. F. was with Sherman on the march through Georgia until the Battle of Atlanta, at which time he was severely wounded in the right thigh. Fighting off doctors' attempts to amputate his leg, he was sent home to Iowa to recuperate for a few months. Upon returning to duty, W. F. helped apprehend deserters in eastern Tennessee during the winter of 1864, and later rejoined is company at Raleigh, North Carolina. He marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D. C. with thousands of other soldiers during the Grand Review after the war, but later recalled that it was a sad review because the murdered Lincoln was not there.

W. F.'s obituary from the Fairview Enterprise reads in part: "Mr. Lambertson's rugged physique, with his strong and easy stride, peculiarly fitted him for infantry service and permitted him to carry not only his own burdens but those of his comrades on the weary marches." His son, W. P., was always proud that his father's two wounds "were in front".

After the war, W. F. Lambertson worked as a bridge builder for the Rock Island Railroad, having become adept at building and destroying rail lines during the war. In 1869 he bought a store at Welton, Iowa where he met Ida Brown. Two years later he took up a claim near two of his sisters in Jewell County, Kansas. However, on his second trip to his claim to make a permanent settlement, he was delayed in a snowstorm one mile east of present-day Fairview, Kansas. Thinking he had been gone too long to keep his land farther west, W. F. bought 80 acres where Fairview is now from his brother-in-law at Sabetha. This farm, with various additions and subtractions, has been home for the Lambertson family ever since.

His wife bore him seven children, four of whom died while young: Giles (2-1/2) in 1878, Leonl (9) and Paul (1-1/2) died four days apart with diphtheria in 1887, and Lemont (6) in 1894. Ida Brown Lambertson died in 1892 with yellow jaundice. W. F. remarried four years later to his housekeeper, Augusta Roquette, who had a daughter, Josie. Their daughter, Ruth, was born in 1900.

W. F. was active in city, township, and school district affairs at Fairview. He and his wife were active in the Congregational Church at Old Fairview, he was the first president of the Walnut Township Sunday School Association, and gave the land for the Reformed Church. He also was one of the organizers of the Fairview Townsite Company and of the Fairview State Bank. In his later years he joined his son-in-law in some business ventures in Oregon, and traveled there and elsewhere in the West.

His death came slowly and painfully due to throat cancer. This malignancy apparently got a grasp on him due to an incident from the Civil War. He burned his throat severely near Vicksburg in 1863 when having to drink his hot coffee while marching. Being a cigar smoker, cancer later formed in the damaged tissue.