A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume I, Part 88

Author: Lincoln, Allen B
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co.
Number of Pages: 930

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was hauled in a sledge to this hospital home of a descendant of the Hyde family of Norwich.

The chancellor became a life-long friend of the young soldier, and visited him in later years in Connecticut. The chancellor jokingly said the captain lived because when the bullet entered the lung the heart was not in the right place or it would have been pierced. The soldier replied that his heart was back in Ledyard. However true the story, the captain resigned his commission in 1815, and in 1817 married Hannah Gallup Lester, only child of Nathan Lester of Ledyard, a veteran of the Revolution. His brother, John Lester, fell at Groton Heights. Hannah Lester's mother was Susan, youngest daughter of Lieut. Col. Ben Adam Gallup, a soldier of the Colonial and the Revolutionary wars.

To Adam and Hannah Larrabee were born six sons and three daughters. The eldest, Nathan Frederic, spent his life on the sea. The next two, Charles and Henry, ended their days at ripe old age on their farms at Windham. Three, John, William and Frank, emigrated to Iowa. Hannah, the eldest daughter, was the wife of Judge E. H. Williams of Iowa. Miss Ellen Larrabee lived for many years with her sister Emma, wife of Judge George Perkins of Fond du Lac, Wis. John Larrabee died before he was thirty. The eight others lived to advanced age and were useful citizens. The youngest, Mrs. Emeline Perkins, is still living at Fond du Lac, a beloved and honored woman, active in her church and charitable work at the age of eighty-three. William Larrabee, at one time governor of Iowa, was a man of mark for many years in his state.

There are living now in the East and West twenty-two grandchildren, thirty-one great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren of Adam and Hannah Larrabee. In Connecticut, Lester, son of Frank and grandson of Charles, is the only young man who has the name. -

In the summer of 1919 ten of the western cousins and fourteen from Willi- mantic, Windham, Norwich and Groton, had the pleasure of dining together at the Old Lyme Inn.

The founder of the family, Greenfield Larrabee, came to Saybrook from England in 1646. He married there Mrs. Phoebe Brown Lee. It seemed appropriate that these descendants of Greenfield and John 1st and John 2d, Timothy, Frederic and Adam, should have their happy re-union at the beauti- ful old Village of Lyme, so near the first home of a Larrabee.

Capt. Adam Larrabee had the ability to make a farm profitable and also neat and attractive. The house was always of a dazzling white with green blinds. There was a large vegetable garden tended by the old gentleman himself, fruit trees, currants and blackberries were cultivated and the home was always sunny and cheerful because the hospitable host and his second wife and daughters, Ellen and Emeline, enjoyed company.

Captain Larrabee did not confine himself to the life of the farm altogether for he was interested in politics and business. In 1822 he was a member of the House of Representatives of Connecticut. In 1828 he was pleased to be appointed visitor to the military academy at West Point and in 1820 he was one of the presidential electors. He was a director of the Thames National Bank of Norwich from 1826 to 1869, and was a director of the Norwich Savings Society for many years.

Captain Larrabee was a great reader and for those days had quite a library

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of substantial leather-bound books. He took the English Blackstone Magazine and Scotch Edinburgh Review, and thus kept in touch with English literature.

He was a contributor to the church, even sending help to the town churches where his children located. He believed in the educational and moral value of the church in any community.

He was interested in the growth of our country and when his youngest boy Frank was a lad he said, "Your children will see a railroad to the Pacific Ocean." He lived to see it in his own lifetime and twice went west to Iowa to visit his children who settled there. He was a believer in our public school system. At the age of eighty he wrote to a son that they were about to build a new schoolhouse in Windham: "The tax will be quite heavy for me, but I heartily approve of such improvements."

Captain Larrabee was a man of integrity in business and lived a most exemplary life, performing his domestic and social duties so as to win universal respect and esteem.

His children revered him. Few fathers are quoted so often by gray-haired sons and daughters as was this parent. His memory is cherished still by friends who remember him.

PREPAREDNESS AT YALE UNIVERSITY

By Lester Hart Larrabee

Yale University was foremost among the advocates for preparedness, and her position of pioneer in this movement was due in large part to the influence exerted on the student body by Gen. Leonard Wood, who, as far back as the winter of 1916-17, speaking before a huge audience of students gathered in Woolsey Hall, had impressed upon Yale men the need of immediate action. That he succeeded in imbuing the college with the spirit of preparedness was testified by the promptness with which Yale men responded to his call. They awoke to a realization of the need of the moment, and gradually they emerged from the lethargy which at that time was so prevalent throughout the country.

The Yale battery, which had been in existence already for two years, gained large numbers of recruits. Then came the declaration of war during the Easter recess of 1917, and upon the re-opening of the college, students flocked to join the Reserve Officers Training Camp. Enlistment in this organization was optional, yet any man who withheld, unless he had a pretty potent reason, was looked upon with considerable disfavor. The entire university curriculum was changed, and in place of the old Yale, a new and strange successor grew up which in all respects was comparable to a truly military academy.

In the meantime men had been leaving school ever since Congress declared a state of war to exist, and many of them turned to aviation. The student ranks began to dwindle so noticeably that the faculty took steps to restrain the departure prematurely of men who had as yet not fully decided upon just what course to take. Many, too, had enlisted in the Reserve Officers Training Camp merely that they might not waste valuable time while awaiting the first opportunity to enlist in the branch of the service that presented the greatest attraction. Then, one morning early in June, 1917, there appeared in the News an article which many had been waiting for-the announcement that a recruiting office had been opened in New Haven for the purpose of enlisting men in the federal ambulance service. Thither repaired all men interested,

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and from the applicants, forty-five were chosen as being physically fit and mentally sound. Coming from all departments of the university and even from environments quite foreign to college life, few of these had even slight acquaintance with their future comrades. Yet, here, in a little office on the fourth floor of the Malley Building were begun those friendships which can never die and which were to constitute the one chief good that we derived from the war.

Followed two miserable weeks of impatient waiting. College had closed, commencement exercises were over, and the university was all but deserted. The outlook seemed dubious, and it began to look as if we had been tricked or else the deal had fallen through. But finally orders were given out at the recruiting office that the enlisted men were to report at the railroad station at 8 o'clock on the morning of June 22, 1917. The preceding evening was spent rather jovially in bidding good-bye to New Haven and the few straggling acquaintances who still remained around town. Congregating the next morn- ing at the station, bag and baggage, we boarded our special car and were soon en route for New York and the training camp.

Arrived at the camp in Allentown, Pa., we were directed to the fairgrounds and there installed in horse barns, where we lived "happily ever after," until the time was adjudged ripe when we should depart for regions unknown. Dur- ing several weeks we were put through a course of instruction which was quite at variance with that which students are wont to engage in in college, yet no one seemed any the worse for wear. On the contrary, all were much better off than they ever had been before, in spite of the strenuous work.

The all-important question was, of course-when do we sail ? And it was here at Allentown that we were initiated into the realm of rumor. Thenceforth rumor was to rule all. Nor, as we learned from experience, is she an amiable potentate ; but austere and unbending, she respects no man. With her indomi- table spirit, she can make or break a man, and indeed she can do much toward making or breaking an army. Rumor guides the morale of an army. It seems surprising to me that the historians now busily engaged in reproducing the war in written matter have neglected entirely one of the most potent forces at work during the war-rumor, at once the friend and enemy of the soldier, now raising his hopes, now shattering them. Had one the time and inclination, a whole volume might be written on the struggles which were waged between rumor on the one hand, now openly blatant, now "sugar-coated" and derisive; and on the other, the soldier with his hopes and desires, entirely at the mercy of her whims. But I have gone further than I intended, which was merely to remark that 585 first made acquaintance with Dame Rumor on the fairgrounds at Allentown. And she stuck ever after !

At length, the time being deemed auspicious to those engaged in the task of getting us "across," we were ordered to leave on the night of August 6th for New York. The next morning we set sail under cover of darkness and set out for the land of France.

And now that it is all over and-well, not exactly forgotten, but yet buried in the past, I will say a word about the Yale we men found upon our return to college. It is, in short, an entirely different Yale from the one we knew in the "old" days. At the opening of the present college year (1919-20) the uni-

LESTER HART LARRABEE

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versity underwent a complete reorganization, a thorough housecleaning, so to speak, one of the chief effects of which was to dispel the tendency toward lax- ness and ease which were admittedly all too prevalent in pre-war days. The standard was raised tremendously, and in order to maintain his enrollment as a student of the institution, a man must apply himself vigorously. It is "work or get out." Efficiency is all-pervading-the endeavor to get the utmost pos- sible out of the college course. This principle is carried out further in the reconstruction of the courses and departments, the knocking down of the bar- rier which has long existed between "Ac" and "Sheff," and the welding together of the several colleges into one university, all of which minor divisions had hampered the effectiveness of the university's efforts to educate its students.

From the standpoint of the educator the new regime is a vast improvement over the old. Yet the old atmosphere is gone. The spirit of goodfellowship, the true Yale spirit has suffered because of the war, though perhaps the change has been in the men rather than in the college. At any rate, it is different, and returned men sense a lack of something. We seek in vain to fill up the gap, for those now in college cannot tell, since they never knew the old. "If we could only have the old days back again," we hear daily.

In reply to inquiry as to what Yale has done for her returned men, I will say that she has "come through" nobly. By the creation of a special "war degree" a student is enabled to complete in three years the regular four-year course. And it is this "war degree" which I received this last June, along with some thirty or forty other members of my class, the Class of 1919.

A GRAPHIC WAR STORY

S. S. U. OR THE UNITED STATES ARMY AMBULANCE SERVICE WITH THE FRENCH ARMY

By Lester Hart Larrabee

The particular branch of the service known as the "Service Santaire Unie" was an outgrowth of the former American Field Service, a semi-military organi- zation composed chiefly of young men from American schools and colleges who had volunteered their services as ambulance drivers to the French government. The field service came into its being during the early part of 1915 as a purely private organization, its members being under no military constraint to con- form to the regulations of the French army, and though it bore the semblance of a military body, strictly, however, these Americans were merely the guests of the French government and were always treated as such. On the other hand, the sense of moral duty was very strong, and it was precisely this obligation of duty and honor that formed one of the most striking characteristics of the service, even after it had been incorporated into the American army upon the entry of the United States into the war. For in the sort of work that the ambulance service entailed each individual was put more or less on his honor, that is to say, he was "on his own hook" to a much greater extent than was the infantry man, for example, who performed his work in company with many others, whereas the ambulance driver worked alone.

During its existence of some two years the field service accomplished some mighty good work, though later towards the end of its career it began to disinte- grate and fall into decay. It then became deserving of no better name than a

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club of rich men's sons out to see the sights of France, to whom it offered an excellent opportunity to "do" France by automobile and to enjoy the hospitality of the French people. This was precisely the status of the field service when it was transformed into a strictly military organization by being taken over by the United States government. It then became a part of the American army on permanently detached service with the French army, and subject to the regulations of both. Under the direct supervision of such able and far-sighted men as Col. Percy L. Jones, commanding officer of the service, the Service Santaire Unie took on a new aspect and grew in favor among those with whom it came in contact. A reputation had to be lived down as well as one to be built up, and through the leadership of its officials and the spirit of ever-readi- ness of the men in co-operating with them, the Service Santaire Unie won for itself the coveted reputation, of which every man was justly proud. Efficiency was the keynote of the service, a high degree of which was attained through the working of the French "système" of management.

And now a word about this "système" on which the French prided them- selves so much. In good plain Yankee we call it "red tape." The French have a more polished term for it. But just as we believe a certain amount of good must ultimately be derived from an exasperatingly close observance of forms and routine, so there were many advantages as well as disadvantages in the "système." "Red tape," so called, always gains for itself and for those responsible for it a certain amount of censure and disapproval on the part of its victims, wherever it may exist. And I am firmly convinced that it does exist everywhere. Certainly it was in existence in the French army-an end- less string of it. So we can console ourselves in the thought that it is not peculiar to our land. Yet it seems to me that it never became quite so bungled up as it did in our country shortly after we had entered the war, particularly in that city which forms the seat of our government, where congressmen and aeroplanes yet-to-be-built became so entwined in the miles and miles of this self-same yarn that neither has ever succeeded entirely in escaping its meshes, when the wild and futile writhing and squirming of the former but made the yarn more perplexing. Yet fundamentally it is all the same, whether French or American or Russian, "red tape" is "red tape," always and everywhere, and as the French used to say: "If it must be, it is far better that it be red than yellow."

SYSTEM PRODUCED EFFICIENCY

The censure and criticism which always follow it as a necessary corollary arose among the ranks of Americans in France. As a natural consequence of the "système" with all its intricate details a great howl was set up by the American "Ambulanciers" who became the victims of its methods. Yet after we had gained a bit more knowledge through experience, we discovered that it was this same much-ridiculed French "système" that in the end produced the high degree of efficiency which, reduced to the vernacular, means "delivered the goods." Accordingly we acquired a wholesome respect for it and for the French way of doing things, though we seldom agreed with them and never sympa- thized with them as regards their routine methods. The temperament of the Frenchman and the American are too dissimilar, in many respects quite irrec- oncilable. The former is far-sighted and plans everything out minutely before

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acting. The Frenchman never "takes a chance," never acts on impulse, and the seeming inaction, a getting nowhere, arising from his insistence on giving great attention to trifling details, often drove the more aggressive, impulsive America beyond all bounds of patience. Applying the "système" to the Service Santaire Unie, we find a well-tried, smoothly working mechanism. In fact, no other army had developed such an effective program for the care of the wounded as that which the French army possessed. This height of perfection had not come about instantly, to be sure, but was the result of a long series of "trial and error," until the one was finally hit upon which produced the greatest efficiency.

From the dirty confines of Rue Renouard, whence were directed the move- ments of every Service Santaire Unie man in France, to the most advanced "poste" in the lines this system was in evidence; from the very spot where a wounded "poilu" was picked up by the "brancardiers," through the various stages of transportation, to the final destination in the hospitals in Paris. The wounded were ordinarily brought from the lines to a "poste de secours," an advanced dressing station, where first aid was administered by the "médicin chef" and his helpers. They were then loaded into the ambulances stationed at the post or as nearby as the condition of the roads permitted, provided there were any, whereupon they were carried by the G. B. D. (Groupe Brancardier Divisionnaire), a second dressing station, located in a position of comparative safety, where the cases were diagnosed, the more serious ones being rushed on at once to the hospital. The next step was to transport them either to a temporary hospital in the nearest town, or in the absence of any such, to a narrow-gauge railway. From then on to the final destination they were entrusted to the care of others. Our part was completed.

While on duty at the front, the section usually occupied quarters some five or six kilometers behind the lines, the character of them being determined by the nature of the region; sometimes a ruined village, sometimes a forest, or even an open field. There were always maintained as a minimum three advanced posts, one for each regiment, there usually were five or six battalion posts as well. In addition to the advanced posts there was also a relay station located at some point midway between the section headquarters and the lines, where four or six cars were kept permanently on duty and held in readiness to replace those coming from the lines. Upon arrival of a car from one of the advanced posts with a load of wounded another was sent out to take its place at the post, while this latter was in turn replaced by a car sent from the section. From this working in rotation were derived two advantages: a fairer distribution of the work, and the assurance of immediate service at all the posts at all times. No post was left more than a few minutes unattended.

Besides being under the direct supervision of the "Service Sanitaire" of its own division, the Service Santaire Unie section was also subject to the gen- eral orders and regulations of the "Convois Autos," or the "Service Automo- bile," a branch of the service which, in its management and organization, was peculiar to the French army, for while it worked in conjunction with the other branches, nevertheless it was quite independent of them, unlike the other armies in which the transport and ambulance services were joined directly to the other departments under one head. Motor vehicles of all kinds-motor transports, trucks, ambulances, motor cycles-were the property of the "Convois Autos,"

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and the maintenance and upkeep of this vast amount of material as well as the supervision of the huge army of chauffeurs and mechanics was entirely entrusted to its officers without any interference from outside, precisely as the equipment and personnel of an infantry regiment is committed to the infantry colonel.

There also existed in the French army a series of motor vehicle parks located along the front at a distance of twenty to fifty kilometers behind the lines (usually in comparatively large towns, such as Nancy, Beauvais, etc.) each park serving both as a base of supplies and as a repair shop for all parts of the "Convois Autos" in the corresponding sector. Here were brought the disabled cars from the front, while others were taken back to replace them. A perma- nent force of skilled mechanics, both American and French, was stationed at the parks for the sole purpose of patching up the wounds which "Henry" and his big brothers received in action. The life of those men assigned to duty at those parks was by no means enviable, and perhaps even more credit is due them for their preseverance and stability than those more fortunate comrades on active duty. Theirs was a well-nigh unbearable existence, nor was the monot- ony of this humdrum sort of living ever broken by a taste of the excitement involved in ambulance driving. Yet they constituted the mainstay of the serv- ice, and without them the high record set by the Service Santaire Unie would never have been possible.

THE ARRIVAL IN FRANCE

The tiresome voyage was over at last. There lay the land of "Sunny France" stretched out before us, looming up on the horizon like a huge cloud. It was still early morning, the sun being scarce an hour high, and the curtain of fog which clung so persistently to the surface of the bay was but beginning to lift, slowly, begrudgingly, as if it were loath to relinquish its hold and let in the more congenial sunlight. From the sides of the sturdy old "San Jack," as she lay tugging at her anchor chains and belching forth great volumes of dense, black smoke, twisting and writhing under her restraining bonds in her impa- tience to "carry on" and to complete the task she had undertaken of conveying these khaki-clad warriors to France, seemed to issue little rivulets of perspira- tion as the consequence of her wasted energy. She seemed fairly to be alive and to typify the spirit of restlessness of those entrusted to her. Her decks were alive with eager, excited youths endeavoring to their uttermost ability to give evidence of their enthusiasm and good spirits; and the crisp, invigorating morning air but served to enhance the hilarity and joyousness of the scene. Some were embracing each other, others were cheering and singing, while still others, less confident, or at least a little more cautious about coming to any conclusions prematurely, were straining eyes and craning necks in an attempt to convince themselves that this was really land, and not merely one more of those hoaxes which had on several previous occasions played havoc with their peace of mind. "Seeing is believing" had already come to be of prime impor- tance, even to these "rookies" whose life in the army had been of but brief duration.

After the first violent outbreak of enthusiasm had subsided somewhat, the scene took on a bit more sobriety. Orders were hurled about right and left by callous, hard-hearted officers whom nothing short of an earthquake could move, who considered any expression of sentimental joy as childish and weak, cer-

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tainly unbecoming to soldiers. Joy killers! Nevertheless the stubborn ones had their way, and soon everyone was busy on some detail. Certainly someone among them had sacrificed many hours of sleep in his efforts to devise new tasks in addition to the long list of details already existing.

Several hours passed, and still we lay at anchor. As yet none knew the identity of the port. All conjecture had proved as wild as it was futile, every port that was ever heard of, from Paris to Petrograd, having come in for its claim. Thereupon the attempt was abandoned, and all resigned themselves meekly to fate and the "San Jack." During the interim enthusiasm had waned appreciably, and impatience had increased correspondingly. A thousand kinds of damnation were heaped upon the heads of the conductors of this convoy. Yet at the same time a certain soberness had come over the men. The realiza- tion that this was France came hard. The truth was obvious enough, yet the transition from college life to our present status, existence, about to be realized, on the continent of Europe, which had hitherto existed for many only in dreams and imaginations or through the medium of a geography book, that it simply could not be comprehended all at once. And the most baffling feature of all, that which rendered the realization more difficult, was the marked similarity which the surrounding country bore to our own homeland. I suppose a large majority of those on board had cherished visions of a veritable paradise, a climate soft and mild, where nature was robed in green and gold, for which fallacious conception, I take it, the misnomer "Sunny France" was responsible. A few months later, however, particularly during the rainy season, had anyone applied this sobriquet to this same land his life would instantly have been placed in jeopardy. But fortunately the same sentiments were shared by all alike. All illusions as to the climatic character of France had been completely dissipated. What we saw on this first encounter was New England right over again.

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A modern history of Windham county, Connecticut : a Windham county treasure book, Volume I, Part 88

Author: Lincoln, Allen B Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co. Number of Pages: 930

Author: Lincoln, Allen B
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke publ. co.
Number of Pages: 930