History Knox
History Knox is a column that publishes each Saturday morning on Knox County, reflecting on the community's history.
MOUNT VERNON — There may be a very specific reason why Shannon Clements didn’t return to his native Mount Vernon after World War I.
The reason is, it didn’t end when he said it would. Clements thus fell into the old trap of fortune tellers: He was so convinced he was right, he made it known far and wide, but when his prophecy failed to materialize, he was humiliated.
Bet he didn’t see that coming.
Shannon Clements was born in Knox County in 1888, and according to an article in the Nov. 20, 1917 Democratic Banner, on Aug. 11, 1909, he had a vivid, confusing dream:
“It was while I was lying asleep in bed that the Lord appeared and said: ‘The destruction of the world will be in 1915, but it will never see 1918.’
Clements was duly confused by the dream and commented in a letter that he wrote to the Banner from Camp Sheridan, where he was stationed during the war:
“For seven years I could not understand the vision and tried to get it off my mind without success. On Nov. 17, 1915, the vision was repeated and I saw the United States in war and myself in a hospital and then it changed and showed a number of boys that I knew wearing uniforms and I was with them.
“That part is already fulfilled,” Clements wrote, “for I did go to a hospital for an operation and the scene from my window there was identically the same as the one pictured in my vision.”
Apparently, this was shared as proof of his vision.
“On July 2, 1916, I saw the third and last vision. This time I was wide awake when the Spirit spoke to me, saying, ‘Read St. John, 26th chapter and 20th verse.’ I got my Bible immediately and read as directed. I am sure that anyone reading that verse will understand it the same as I did.”
Well, that wasn’t the case, because the newspaper drolly adds in parentheses, “Mr. Clements has evidently written down the wrong Bible reference.” Fact is, there is no John Chapter 26.
If Clements bobbled the numbers, there is a John Chapter 20, of which the 26th verse speaks of Christ suddenly appearing in a room even though its doors were locked.
This doesn’t seem directly applicable, so at this point of reading this old article, I began to suspect the editor of the Banner saw Clements as a kook with whom to fill some column space on a slow news day.
If so, he wasn’t the only one.
“I told some of my friends about these different visions,” Clements continues, “but they laughed at me and said I was crazy, but I still believe them and would stake my life that the war will end before Jan. 1, 1918.”
The newspaper lists the people that Clements identified as the friends whom he told as Edward Sharp, Clyde Stokes, George Rhea, William Norris, Robert Lahmon, and James Silliman.
Apparently, it never occurred to any of those “friends” to warn Clements of how unwise it was to write lavish predictions about world events in a letter to the newspaper.
Clements was, of course, horribly incorrect. The war would continue more than 11 months past the ending date he foretold, with some of the most devastating fighting taking place during the year 1918.
A peace agreement finally fell into place on Nov. 11, 1918, which became known as Armistice Day, the precursor to our modern Veterans Day.
So, in his certainty, Clements blew it. After the war, he lived elsewhere, passing away in Indiana in 1938, not even making it to his 50th year.
We may never know what motivated Clements’ strange visions. He was remembered in Mount Vernon for having been a successful high school wrestler back in the day. But when he wrestled with telling the future, he lost.
Clements was part of the Ohio 37th Infantry’s E Battery, which was stationed at Camp Sheridan in Montgomery, Alabama, for training before being deployed to Europe in June of 1918.
The camp is also famous for being the place where a young lieutenant from the next group of soldiers at the camp, F. Scott Fitzgerald, met his future wife, Zelda, who lived in the town of Montgomery. The famous author would go on to write ‘The Great Gatsby,’ among other works.
I was unable to locate an image of Pvt. Clements, but if anyone is aware of a picture of the young man, let us know and we’ll run it as a follow up.