USA > Iowa > Marshall County > Marshall County in the World War, 1917-1918 : a pictorial history of the community's participation in all wartime activities with a complete roster of soldiers and sailors in service > Part 1
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MARSHALL COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR 1917-1918
Gc 940.410 Io9w 1580851
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00724 6231
To the boys who gane all that liberty might not perish this work is dedicated
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MARSHALL COUNTY
2
IN The WORLD WAR
MARSHALL COUNTY
- IN - .
THE WORLD WAR
1917-1918
A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITY'S PARTICIPATION IN ALL WARTIME ACTIV- ITIES WITH A COMPLETE ROSTER OF SOLDIERS AND SAILORS IN SERVICE
COMPILED AND PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH A. WHITACRE and W. J. MOORE
MARSHALL PRINTING COMPANY
1919
1580851
HONOR ROLL
LIEUT. CLARK G. BOWEN
LIEUT. EARL L. WALL
SERGT. FRANK GLICK SERGT. ELZA C. MeKIM
SERGT. GEORGE W. PROBST
CORP. JOHN A. BENSON CORP. FLOYD GRIGGS
CORP. GEORGE W. HAIRE
CORP. IVO A. McKIM
CORP. HAROLD G. RALLS
CORP. CLYDE L. THOMAS
JAMES ABDALLAH
CHESTER ANDERSON
PETER ANDERSON
SAMUEL ANDERSON
WILLIAM H. BOWMAN
CALVIN C. CROSON BERT D. DELAWYER
FREDERICK G. EKSTROM
HARRY E. EVERIST
ALONZO EVERTS
WILLIAM M. GIFFORD
FLOYD C. GROOVER
VICTOR I. GUSTAFSON
RAYMOND HALL
HARRY C. HARTER
PAUL F. HAUSER
EDWARD R. JOHNSON
CHARLES H. JONES
AUGUST MAYER
RAYMOND O. PETERSON
HARRY E. POWERS
HERMAN PROBST
BEVERLY PROCTOR ERWIN PURSEL
CHARLES WESLEY RUNNER
ELMER B. SOULES ALBERT STEPAN THOMAS VANHOY
ROY H. WALTER HUGH WEATHERMAN CLARENCE WHITE
THEY MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE
BERT D. DeLAWYER Killed in Action
LIEUT. EARL L. WALL Died of Wounds
FREDERICK G. EKSTROM Killed in Action
EDWARD R. JOHNSON Died of Wounds
PAUL HAUSER Died of Wounds
1.
RAYMOND O. PETERSON Died of Wounds
CORP. CLYDE L. THOMAS Killed in Action
CORP. FLOYD GRIGGS Died of Wounds
Page Twelve
SERGT. CLIFFORD MeKIM Died of Wounds
HUGH WEATHERMAN First Marshall County Boy to Lose Life in Action Killed about March 1, 1918
HARRY C. HARTER Missing in Action
Page Thirteen
PETER ANDERSON Killed in Action
HARRY E. EVERIST Died of Wounds
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ALVIN L. CROSON Died in France
CORP. HAROLD G. RALLS Died in France
.ARRY E. POWERS Died in France
ALBERT STEPAN, JR. Died in France
ERWIN PURSEL Died at Camp Shelby
ELMER B. SOULES Died at Camp Dodge
FLOYD C. GROOVER Died at Camp Dodge
WILLIAM H. BOWMAN Died at Camp Dodge
AUGUST MAYER Died at Camp Dodge
CHARLES H. JONES Died at Logansport, Ind.
CHESTER ANDERSON Died at Great Lakes, 111.
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DAVID A. PAUL, JR. Died of Wounds Lived just out of county. Postoffice Gilman
THOMAS VANHOY Died in France (Croix de Guerre)
APGAR
SERGT. FRANK GLICK U. S. Marines First Marshalltown Boy to Die in Battle Killed at Chateau Thierry, June 3, 1918
Page Sixteen
TRIBUTE TO A FALLEN HERO
Before the annual meeting of the Marshalltown High School Alumni Association, June 17, 1918, C. H. E. Boardman paid a glowing tribute to Sergt. Frank Glick, of the United States Marines, the first Marshalltown boy to fall in battle. Mr. Boardman said:
"Fellow Members of the Marshalltown Alumni:
TT is indeed fitting that we pause at this time to lay on the altar of mem- ory our tribute to the first of ours that has fallen in the great and final struggle twixt militarism and morality.
"We speak with a spirit of pride rather than sorrow. Sable garb is turned to gold, even as the glory of the sun, swift sinking in the western sky, gilds the evening shadows that creep on apace, and death is swallowed up in victory.
"The story of Frank Glick is truly typical of all that is best in America -yet so simple is the tale.
"In 1846 George Glick, Frank's paternal grandparent, emigrated to America from Germany. The German name was 'Gluck.' Germany was not then an empire. The Hohenzollern tribe was just beginning to fix its tentacles on the throne. George Glick was one of those American repre- sentatives of that race which we in America so long believed still lived 'neath the rule of the Kaiser. We are just now beginning to comprehend the vast difference made by education and environment.
"Here on the broad prairies of Iowa, that in themselves spelled free- dom, Dr. Glick builded him a home, and helped lay the mud sills of Mar- shalltown. His eldest son was Albert G. Glick, whom we all loved to call 'Ab,' and 'Ab' was the charter alumnus of this organization.
" 'Ab' Glick married Nellie Abbott, also a Marshalltown girl and gradu- ate, and of this union Frank was born.
"Nothing spectacular marked the progress of Frank through our schools. He was the fun-loving, high-spirited American boy, earnest in his studies, enthusiastic in his play, faithful in his work.
"War was the last thing that Frank probably thought of as he studied through the years-the last thing for which he thought of preparing.
"But while Frank was studying and playing and working from boy- hood to man's estate, a monarch, gone mad with the lust of power, was silently preparing to assassinate a continent. While Frank was engaging in sports, the Hohenzollerns were practicing war, the only game they ever knew, which accounts for the dirty tactics of the Hun; for they never learned to be decent and fair even in boyhood. Mark you, the eternal handicap of America, the persistent advantage of the Hun, is that an American has to be a 'true sport,' and the German knows no 'rules of the game' save the law of might.
"Frank graduated; attended college; abandoned college because of his father's illness, and entered business, where success attended his efforts, while America dreamed on, nor heard the low mutterings of the on-coming storm.
"Then came the sinking of the Lusitania, the Mexican conspiracy, the sinking of the American ships sailing the American flag, peacefully sail- ing the open lanes of the ocean, the killing of American women and chil- dren, and, as their life breath bubbled up through the freezing waters,
Page Seventeen
German soldiers, under government orders, shot down their survivors in the life boats.
"Then, like a great Colossus, America stirred from her fatuous sleep, and began to play the part of a man in the arena of the world.
"Then came the eighth crusade, the greatest crusade the world has ever known, the exodus of the flower of our youth-not to save the tomb of the Saviour from the Saracen, but to preserve the civilization which was the fruit of the Saviour's teaching.
"In that crusade Frank became a true knight, a volunteer answering the call from the fire-ringed, blood-drenched hills of far-off France.
"As we look back, how quietly, and without ostentation, it was done. In May, 1917, Frank enlisted in the United States Marines, the highest type of soldiery this, or any other nation, has ever known. Months of drill and preparation followed, and on Feb. 13, 1917, Frank landed in France, and disappeared in the war cloud that hung low over all Europe.
"Through rifts of swirling smoke came occasional word from fields of battle, all cheerful, all sanguine, all Frank.
"Again the cloud lifted, and news came of recognition and advance- ment, and then the cloud closed down, and out of the murk of conflict and fierce fighting, came the flash that Frank was 'killed in action.' 'Killed in action,' -- and the Hohenzollern family, with its six sons, is the only family in all Germany that has not had a funeral.
"All this story is so absurdly simple, because Frank made it so.
"There were no heroics in departing, because Frank went about the business of war as his other employment, quietly, carefully, methodically. It was commonplace with him. He could see no other course when his country required him, so, without murmur, complaint, or even mention, he laid aside his hopes, and his ambitions, his desires and his dreams, and cast into the scale of battle his life, his limb, and all that life held dear.
"Nor has he died in vain. Let us not even try to look beyond our im- mediate circle. Is there one of us but what walks a little straighter be- cause Frank has 'made good?' Do not the Stars and Stripes seem a little brighter, and a little more beautiful, through the tears that tremble in our sight ? How small and insignificant seem the little things that we have done, when word came of the supreme sacrifice that Frank had made. Did we not one and all resolve that from then on we had but one thought, one mission, one thing to strive for, and that was, to go on, and on, until the Hun was eliminated from the earth ?
"We will read history. Frank has made history; and long after your name and mine will be but a mere memory, even among those who loved us best, the name of Frank Glick will stand blazoned on our banners, marked with a gold star.
" 'Somewhere in France,' close to the front, there is a grave, dug in soil hallowed by the blood of heroes. No stately monument marks the spot, and perchance only the winds murmur sobs and the waters more softly rush as cannons boom their requiem over our schoolmate's last habitation. But in the shrine of the soul the lamp of recollection burns, ever clear and steady, and his spirit will ever 'carry on.'
"'As goes the sun-god in his chariot glorious, When all his golden banners are unfurled- So goes the soldier, fallen but victorious, And leaves behind a twilight in the world.' "
Page Eighteen
FALLS 2000 FEET IN AEROPLANE
THRILLING EXPERIENCE OF SERGT. HERBERT T. NEWCOMER
SERGT. HERBERT T. NEWCOMER
T 10 fall 2,000 feet while flying in an aeroplane in France and escape death was the remarkable experience of Sergt. Herbert T. Newcomer, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Newcomer, of Marshalltown, attached to the Thirty-fifth Aerial Squadron. The accident occurred June 22, 1918. resulting in Sergeant Newcomer sustaining a fractured skull, and the pilot, Lieut. H. W. Stunkard, an aerial instructor, escaping with less serious injuries. The aeroplane was demolished.
Sergeant Newcomer, who was serving as a mechanic in the squadron, was being taught to pilot a machine by Lieutenant Stunkard. When 2,000 feet in the air the machine became unmanageable when one of the planes failed. The aeroplane, with its human cargo, came down in a spiral, Newcomer alighting on his head when it struck the ground. The ser- geant's skull was fractured, while the lieutenant suffered fractures of the shoulder, one knee and several ribs.
Newcomer was a patient in French hospitals for about three months before he was permitted to return to America. He enlisted in the air ser- vice May 16, 1917, and arrived in France Aug. 21, the same year.
Lieutenant Stunkard, a Coe College alumnus, is a fraternity brother of Sergeant Newcomer. Below is a picture of the wrecked machine taken by a member of the Thirty-fifth Aerial Squadron.
THE WRECKED MACHINE
Page Nineteen
Off to - - Hunt the Hun
MARSHALL COUNTY WAR WORK
M ARSHALL COUNTY was 100 per cent effi- cient in all of its war work at home. It was one of the eleven counties in Iowa which met its quota in the First Liberty Loan. It was one of the seventeen to meet its full quota in the Second Liberty Loan and in the Third and Fourth Loans, when Iowa was the first state over the top in the nation, Marshall County was among the first half dozen counties over the top in the state.
Marshall County purchased 115 per cent of its quota in war savings stamps when the nation at large purchased less than 50 per cent, and Mar- shall County gave 115 per cent of its quota to the seven welfare societies in the union war work drive.
To the Red Cross Marshall County always de- livered its full quota, tendering its check in ad- vance of the drive and raising twice and three times as much as was asked so as to have plenty of funds for the work of its local chapter, which ranked as a model for all other chapters, accord- ing to the judgment of the directors in Chicago. Marshall County owes its home service record to the well directed efforts of its County Council of Defense.
After war work had started at home and one Liberty Loan drive had been conducted, it was found there were to be as many separate organi- zations as there were drives, each expending more time and effort upon organization than upon the drive itself. Efficient business men in Marshall- town, executive heads of the largest local enter- prises, themselves familiar with efficient business organization, accepted the leadership of the vari- ous home war activities and sitting around the directors' table in the First National Bank, re- organized the County Council of Defense into an efficient, powerful, military force for the conduct of all war work at home.
The chairman of the County Council of Defense, A. A. Moore; the county chairman of the Liberty Loan, C. C. St. Clair; the county chairman of the Red Cross, C. H. E. Boardman; the county chair- man of war savings stamp sales, D. W. Norris; the county chairman of the union war work, R. W. McCreery; the county food administrator, L. C. Abbott, and the city fuel administrator, John I. Bell, were made a committee of county com- manders of the County Council of Defense, to act as an executive committee for all drives and chief
A. A. MOORE
D. W. NORRIS
C. C. ST. CLAIR
Page Twenty-one
command of each drive being assumed by the commander assigned to that branch of the home service.
Each county commander was given a precinct captain for his branch of the war work in each voting precinct of the county, and these seven pre- cinct captains were all admitted to the County Council of Defense to con- stitute the local Council of Defense for their precincts and to act as a per- manent precinct committee for all drives, the precinct command being assumed in each drive by the captain for that branch of the service.
Marshalltown was divided by the intersection of Main and Center streets into four precincts, with a local Council of Defense and seven cap- tains for each precinct. For the purpose of rapid and efficient canvassing each of the city precincts was then sub-divided into from five to six sub- districts and a committee of seven war workers or privates in the War Service League assigned permanently to that district to do the canvassing for all drives. These War Service League workers were not members of the County Council but when that body did meet every month in the east court room it filled the room with as representative a group as any county convention of a political party. Its sessions were businesslike and serious as most of the members had sons in the service. There was no oratory, no lost motion. The business men acting as county commanders were always ready with proposals and instructions for the work in hand and the precinct captains were there to co-operate with their leaders.
The County Council maintained a committee on loyalty and patriotic service, composed of its chairman, Mr. Moore; its secretary, Mr. F. G. Pierce, and C. H. E. Boardman, W. H. Arney, H. A. Kinnan, A. H. E. Matthews, W. B. Nason, J. L. Wylie, J. F. McMahon and C. E. Nickerson. This committee, known as the "slackers' court," reviewed all controversies between individuals and their local councils and invariably, without a single failure, induced objectors to come across for the contributions and pur- chases in the war drives according to a fair allotment.
All war funds were alloted to its citizens according to their ability to pay. Liberty Loans were allotted among the precincts upon the basis of assessed values of property ; war stamps upon the basis of population; Red Cross and all welfare funds one-half upon the basis of property values and one-half upon the basis of population. Every citizen's assessable property was listed from the tax books, his income estimated by compe- tent committees and each precinct quota in every drive was then allotted to its citizens as fairly in proportion to their ability to pay as committees of neighbors could distribute the war burden. So fairly was the work done that all of the later drives for bonds and stamps and Red Cross funds were conducted at polling places to which people went without being solicited to volunteer for the war as they would to vote for a president.
Marshall County's plan for war service organization was adopted in the later months of the war by many other counties which were unable to meet their quotas in the war fund drives in any other way. As soon as the armistice was signed the Council of Defense adjourned sine die.
Pag- Twenty-two
RED CROSS ACTIVITIES
C. H. E. BOARDMAN
R. W. MCCREERY
A NY attempt of a detailed report of the doings of the Marshall County Red Cross Chapter during the war period would extend this article beyond the limitations imposed.
The Marshall County Chapter was organized April 24, 1917, with twenty members. Its officers for the first year were A. A. Moore, chair- man ; H. S. Lawrence, treasurer, and Mrs. M. G. Ingalls, secretary. These served until Dec. 1, 1917, when the following officers were elected: A. A. Moore, chairman; H. S. Lawrence, treasurer, and W. H. Arney, secretary. In November, 1918, C. H. E. Boardman was elected chairman; H. S. Law- rence, treasurer, and C. R. Edmister, secretary.
The raising of funds and obtaining a membership was placed in charge of C. H. E. Boardman, who continued in that capacity until he became chairman in November, 1918, when L. A. Larson became chairman of the Membership Committee, and conducted the 1918 Christmas Roll Call Campaign.
At present there are 21,500 members in Marshall County Chapter, without counting soldiers and sailors in the service.
The total cash receipts from membership and the first war drive were $69,706.84. The total cash raised in the second war drive was $38,446.68, while the third membership drive produced $18,304.73. This gives a grand total of $126,458.25 in real money raised directly for war purposes. Out- side donations and individual work of the chapter will increase this amount to $150,000.00.
The raising of funds, however, was but a small part of the actual war
Page Twenty-three
work of the Red Cross in Marshall County. The greater portion of Mar- shall County's contribution consisted of the work done by the women who faithfully, efficiently and persistently, day by day, labored at the rooms and in their homes, sewing and knitting, making surgical dressings, all for our soldiers and sailors over seas and in the camps. Words of appre- ciation fail; statistics mean so little. By actual count of known work, Mar- shall County shipped 352 boxes, made 11,935 hospital garments, produced 27,406 hospital supplies, knit 8,912 articles, made 209,392 surgical dress- ings, shipped 13,546 refugee garments, besides packing 14 boxes and 50 packages for refugee work. Christmas was made merry for the soldiers, packages were sent across seas, supplies were created, crated and shipped. Every requirement was more than met, and with promptness. Individual mention would only mean to catalog a long list. This branch of the ser- vice was at all times under the efficient management of Mrs. A. F. Balch.
Any article on Red Cross work in Marshall County that did not refer to A. A. Moore, would be indeed lacking. There is no one man in Marshall County who has devoted more personal attention and individual energy than has he. He was the directing and performing head of the organiza- tion during the entire period of the war and the success of the organiza- tion in all its endeavors speaks more potently than could volumes of what has been accomplished by him.
Marshall County maintained a "flu" hospital during the epidemic, at times with over fifty patients under its ministration. It co-operated with county and city officials and the checking of the scourge was due in no small degree to its efforts.
A canteen service was maintained at all trains for soldiers and sailors en route.
Its Civilian Relief and Home Service Section have responded with cash. comfort and assistance to all those in the service and those dependent upon them.
Marshall County has twenty-four branch chapters outside of Marshall- town-all alive, all working, and each a credit to its locality and to the organization.
No resident of Marshall County need speak with anything but pride of the work of the Marshall County Chapter in all departments of Red Cross activities-all done with a minimum of expense and a maximum of efficiency.
Best of all was the spirit of patriotism, loyalty and charity which was the inspiration of all during the dark days of the world's war, and which will live longer even than the memory of good deeds done.
Page Twenty-four
MARSHALL COUNTY FOOD ADMINISTRATION
L. C. ABBOTT
THE United States Food Administration for Marshall County was in- augurated December 8, 1917, by the appointment of L. C. Abbott as administrator, and F. A. Moscrip as assistant administrator. Previous to these appointments a committee of conservation as part of the County Council of Defense had through sub-committees and otherwise urged war gardens and tillage of vacant lots with much success. Of this committee the two named administrators were members and when the Federal Food Administration organized the state were so appointed by State Food Ad- ministrator Deems.
The actual work and labor of the County Food Administration as a federal activity came with the rationing of wheat flour and the call for return of overstocks in the hands of consumers in February, 1918. Thence- forth the task was a daily one and continued to be so for the ensuing eighteen months. In May, 1917, Mr. Moscrip was made county adminis- trator and the two administrators gave every afternoon of their full days to the work of their office. The city paid for clerical work for war activi- ties and Miss Lou A. Vogel was appointed assistant county administrator by request of the county food administrators and had charge of the office of the food administration in the court house. E. H. Schilling, of State Center, also was appointed as assistant food administrator for the west end of the county. Both served faithfully until the dissolution of the office, about January 1, 1919.
The County Food Administration evolved a flour card carrying the ration of each person in the family and with the splendid co-operation of
Page Twenty-five
the patriotic retail dealers of the county, who adopted the card and pledged themselves to sell to no one not supplied with that credential, actually held the consumption of flour during the desperate months of scarcity down to the one and one-half pounds weekly as promulgated by Hoover. In this they had the general and most hearty support of the people of Marshall County. It was said authoritatively that Marshall County saved more flour than any other in the state. It gathered up several carloads of its overstock and shipped them to places of extreme scarcity. In this flour wholesalers co-operated willingly. Generally speaking the popular idea was to give every assistance. Some few persons were fined for the bene- fits of the Red Cross and the good of their souls, but the great mass of Marshall County saved food patriotically to win the war.
In the organization of the War Service League of the county, the food administration gladly became part and received every assistance from the extended council of defense. The administration was organized in every township of the county and did excellent and patriotic work in practically every instance. One member was dismissed from the chairmanship of his township for cause and another was replaced because of dilatory methods. But the township food chairmen were a fine body of willing men. As in the hog census taken they did their work with practical hard sense and appreciation of their duty.
No county in the state was better organized in food administration than Marshall or received more general and loyal support. When wheat became easier and certain restrictions were lifted, the sugar scarcity was acute. It will illustrate the completeness of the organization to relate that the flour card was changed by order to a sugar card and so accepted by the retailers and the consumers without delay and without question, and that none in Marshall County could by any means buy more than his two pounds per month of any dealer in the county.
For the most part the administration had the agreeable support and co- operation of the hotels and eating houses on meat and sugar rules and other federal restrictions placed upon these places. Indeed, while watchfulness was the order of the day, the general spirit of all the people, wholesalers, retailers, hotels, restaurants, drug stores and fountains, consumers and all who fell under the supervision of the food administration, was most excellent and patriotic. But one retailer was fined and his offense was re- committed through ignorance more than intent. No baker, restaurant, hotel and but few consumers were penalized.
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MARSHALL COUNTY FUEL ADMINISTRATION
JOHN I. BELL
C OUNCILMAN JOHN I. BELL was a man of many duties during the war period, serving as chairman of the Federal Fuel Board, under the direction of the County Council of Defense; chairman of the Department of Labor, United States Employment Service, and chairman of the United States Public Service Reserve, United States Department of Labor.
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