USA > Illinois > Hancock County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Hancock County, Volume II > Part 63
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While a few of the boys used their utmost endeavors to secure exemption or temporary re- lease on the ground that they were farmers, the farmer boys, as a rule, responded cheerfully when the time for their call and entrainment arrived.
978
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY
On May 30th, this Local Board, in response to inquiry from the Adjutant General's office, sent the following telegram: "Number of men remaining in Class 1 (all current calls having been filled) physically qualified for general mili- tary service, 24 who are not farmers, and 216 who have been omitted to date because actively engaged in farming."
PATRIOTIC FARMERS
Among the many instances of patriotism among the farmers, we refer to the following (names withheld).
In the fall of 1917, the father of one of the registrants called upon the Board and stated that he was perfectly willing for his boy to go into the service in December or later, but he would like to keep him until the season for gathering corn was over, as he wanted his help in the cornfield. A day or two afterwards the boy called at the office of the Board and stated that if he was to be sent to the camp he wanted to go immediately, as he was not particularly interested in gathering a field of corn as pre- liminary to his military service.
In the spring of 1918, one of the registrants was passed on call because of his farming affi- davits which were deemed sufficient by the Board. A few weeks later, he wrote to the Board a splendid letter in which he said that his crops had been planted, and that he had made arrangements to have them cultivated and harvested, and that there was no longer any reason why he should not be sent to the service of his country. This boy was entrained on the next call.
One of the Hancock County farmers brought his boys to Carthage for the purpose of as- certaining when they would be called into the service. He said he had not come to claim any exemption for them, or to ask that their call be deferred, but merely to find out about when they would be expected to go. He said his boys were no better than any other man's boys, and that when their turn came, they were ready to respond.
Soon after the registrants had been sent to the camp in September and October, 1917, the Local Board was required to notify those who would be next in the call to hold themselves in readiness for calls which were expected to follow at an early day. The change from the original plan to the questionnaire plan neces-
sarily meant delay. Doubtless, there were other reasons also why the calls for the camps were suspended. But it was provided that any registrant who wished to go into the service could make application for special induction papers, authorizing the Local Board to send him forthwith to the designated camp. Under this arrangement men were sent to one or another of the camps, sometimes a single person, some- times two or more, during the early months of 1918. Some of the boys, in expectation of an early call, had given up their places of employ- ment, or had disposed of their effects, and were consequently without employment, and without means, and were unable to secure employment because of the uncertainty of the time when they would be called into the service. At the request of some of these young men, the Local Board wrote to the Adjutant General on the subject, stating the foregoing facts and asking whether or not we had the power, of our own initiative, to send these men to the service. The Board really knew in advance what the answer would be. The Board had no such power. It was open to any of the boys to apply for specific orders authorizing their induction .. And so the time dragged along heavily. The Adjutant General at this time was not able to give us definite information as to the time of the next call.
DEFECTIVE QUESTIONNAIRES
In the meantime the board was called upon to wrestle with the question of defective ques- tionnaires which had not been filled out or signed conformably to the regulations. Failure to comply with the requirements in these re- gards was not due to obstinacy, but to lack of information, and the Board undertook in every such case to give the registrant an op- portunity to put his questionnaire in proper form so that he would not be in default for non-compliance with the rules and would not fail as to any claim for exemption to which he was really entitled. It was not considered a safe practice to send any such questionnaire directly to a registrant, and this was not done except as a last resort. The questionnaire was ordinarily returned to some lawyer, banker or other citizen of the neighborhood where the registrant resided, with the request that he would have the registrant come in and make the necessary corrections in his questionnaire
979
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY
and would return the questionnaire thereupon to the Local Board. It must be said in com- mendation of the many persons to whom such questionnaires were forwarded and of whom such requests were made, that, with few ex- ceptions, they cheerfully and promptly com- plied with our requests and returned the ques- tionnaires in proper form and condition. In a very few instances there was delay, but the delay was temporary, and the questionnaire was finally returned. In one case a questionnaire was mislaid or lost in the mail, and it became necessary for the Board to give the registrant an opportunity to make out and file a new ques- tionnaire.
In every case in which the questionnaire was thus forwarded for correction, a notice of the fact was sent to the registrant at his address, with instructions to go forthwith before the person to whom the questionnaire had been thus entrusted and make there the proper cor- rections. The Board had power to require the registrant to come to its office for this purpose, but this would have been a hardship in many instances and the other course was ordinarily pursued in order to accommodate the registrant.
More or less of difficulty arose in connection with non-resident registrants, some of whom lived in distant states and some in Canada, but by patient effort the Board was able to reach all of them, and, as far as the editor now remem- bers, questionnaires, filled out and executed, were received, sooner or later, from all these men.
EXAMINATION AND MOBILIZATION ON TRANSFER
Another matter which devolved upon the Board was the examination of registrants for other jurisdictions, so as to save those who had registered in other counties or states and were temporarily in Hancock County from hav- ing to be at the expense and trouble of return- ing to the places of their registration for physi- cal examination. There were many of these cases, necessitating examination by our physi- cians and the preparation and forwarding of the papers, together with the appropriate cor- respondence on the subject. In like manner other Boards conducted the physical examina- tion of certain of our registrants who were residing abroad.
It was possible to transfer the case as well as the physical examination of the registrant, and
such transfer was made by a number of Boards to our Board, whereby we were required to send the registrant to the mobilization camp, making arrangements for transportation and meals.
AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL EXEMPTIONS
In cases where claims for agricultural or in- dustrial exemptions were made, the Local Board, after having classified the registrant except as to those claims, was required to send all the papers to the District Board at Spring- field for disposition of the agricultural or in- dustrial claims. In some instances the Dis- trict Board called upon this Board for infor- mation, or returned the questionnaire to al- low affidavits to be corrected, whereupon the Local Board was required to notify the regis- trant and return the questionnaire to the Dis- trict Board after the affidavits had been cor- rected and inquire into the facts of the case and to furnish the requested information.
SECOND REGISTRATION
The necessity for the second registration, the manner in which it was authorized, and the manner in which it was conducted, are set forth in the following paragraphs from the Second Report of the Provost Marshal General :
"1. Need for this registration .- In the spring of 1918 it was apparent that the yield of ef- fectives in the first registration would not suf- fice for the increasing demands of the military program; and 'a further registration for mili- tary service became necessary. On May 20, 1918, Congress passed a joint resolution (Pub. Res. No. 30, 65th Cong., S. J. Res. 124) requir- ing the registration of all males who had at- tained the age of 21 since June 5, 1917, on or before the day set by the President for their registration ; and further authorizing tlie Presi- dent to require the registration, at such in- tervals as he might prescribe, of all males at- taining the age of 21 since the day of this sec- ond registration and on or before the next day set by him for such registration. This reso- lution made all such persons liable to mili- tary service under the act of May 18, 1917; but provided that they should be 'placed at the bottom of the list of those liable to military service in the several classes to which they are assigned.'
980
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY
"June 5, 1918, was fixed by presidential proc- lamation as the date for this second registra- tion.
"2. Plan of registration .- Anticipating the enactment of this legislation, a plan for con- ducting the registration was decided upon and communicated to the Local Boards three weeks in advance of the passage of the act. The regis- tration organization was thus made ready in advance and was enabled to conduct the regis- tration at an early date after the enactment of the law.
"An experienced and fully equipped organi- zation-the Local Boards-was in existence to accomplish the registration, and the vast ma- chinery found to be necessary for the first regis- tration would have been cumbersome as well as useless. It was therefore decided that every person subject to registration would be re- quired to register under the supervision of the Local Board having jurisdiction of the area in which he permanently resided."
The regulations as to this registration pro- vided that, in the rural districts, the office of the Local Board, wherever practicable, should be the place of registration. But it was fur- ther provided that if places of registration seemed to be necessary at other points, the Board was authorized to consult with the Adju- tant General concerning the establishment of additional places of registration.
The Hancock Local Board telegraphed the Adjutant General, and wrote a letter to him, on May 24th, asking permission to designate seven places of registration for the county, be- ing six in addition to the Local Board office at Carthage, so as to accommodate the people in the matter of registration; but the Adjutant General deemed it unnecessary to have so many places of registration, and gave the Board power to designate two places only besides Carthage. Warsaw and La Harpe were selected as the additional places.
The regulations provided that the Board members should act in the capacity of chief registrars. The Board had authority to ap- point additional registrars.
The registration at Carthage was conducted by two of the Board members, Dr. S. M. Parr and Charles J. Scofield, by the chief clerk, Earl N. Bell, and by W. E. Miller, county clerk.
The registration at Warsaw was conducted by Philip Dallam, Board member, and by C. E.
Wallace, L. Fairfax, M. T. Hunt, Henry B. Schafer and E. E. McAdams.
The registration at La Harpe was conducted by Clifford W. Warner and Charles D. Moon.
. Every one of these persons served without compensation.
The registration at Carthage was at the courthouse, the registration at Warsaw at the city hall, and the registration at La Harpe at Mr. Warner's law-office. No charge was made for the use of any of these registration places.
The Board had sought to have this registra- tion conducted without compensation, as a mat- ter of pure patriotic service. This was done.
On June 6th, the Local Board reported to the Adjutant General a total registration of 209, being 208 in Group A and one in Group C. Three others were registered later. This made a total registration of 212, which was known as the Second Registration, to which was added the supplemental registration of August 24, 1918, treated also as part of the second registra- tion.
The registration of August 24th was under proclamation of the President, issued pursuant to the joint resolution of May 20th, requiring the registration on August 24th of all male per- sons (except those exempted by law from regis- tration), who, since June 5, 1918, and on or before August 24, 1918, had attained their 21st birthday.
There was but one place of registration, Car- thage, on August 24th, and the members of the Board and the chief clerk acted as registrars.
On August 26th, the Local Board reported to the Adjutant General as follows:
"We send you herewith list of those regis- tered on August 24, 1918; also copies of their registration cards. There are 49 of these regis- trants, one of them colored. The highest regis- tration number of those registered on June 5, 1918, and the week or two following, is 212. The cards we are now sending you should be- gin (in numbering) with the number 213."
The order of liability in the second registra- tion was determined by the second drawing at Washington, which occurred soon after the reg- istration of June 5, 1918, and occupied a pe- riod of two hours and four minutes. Twelve hundred numbers were drawn. The first cap- sule was taken from the glass globe by the Secretary of War, Hon. Newton D. Baker, at 9:34 in the forenoon, and the number drawn
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981
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY
was 246. This number and the six following numbers were larger than our total registra- tion of 212, and hence did not touch our regis- tration. The 8th number drawn was 154, and the registrant whose registration number was 154 thus became No. 1 in the order of liability for service. This was Harry Hobart McDaniel of Plymouth. Serial numbers were not assigned for the second registration, but the registration numbers were used. The order numbers as- signed, based upon the drawing, began with No. 1 and ended with No. 212.
The registration numbers of those who regis- tered on August 24th and who thus belonged to the second registration, were'Nos. 213 to 261 inclusive. The order numbers of those who registered on August 24th were assigned so that the order of liability of these registrants was the same as if they had registered on June 5th, which was accomplished by the use of let- ters after the order numbers. To illustrate :
Order No. 19 had been assigned to Rosco Glen Corder of the June 5th registration. In assigning order numbers to the registrants of August 24th, this particular place fell to Wil- liam Mckinley Mabry, but, inasmuch as two men could not have the same number, Mr. Ma- bry was given Order No. 19 with the letter "a" affixed, his order number being 19a, and his liability for call following immediately that of Mr. Corder whose order number was 19.
.
In the same manner the order number of Lewis Henry Brown, Jr., of the August 24th registration was No. 59a. Carl Ramsey Flem- ing was another man of the August 24th regis- tration who came in the same place, but after Mr. Brown, and his order number was No. 59b.
For the same reason the order number of Homer Leffler was No. 196a, that of William Edward Hayes, No. 196b, and that of Orville Lester Walker, No. 196c, each of these three registrants being of the August 24th registra- tion.
The registrant whose order number had no letter was liable to be called first when that number was reached, and then the registrant having the same number with the letter a af- fixed, and then the registrant, if any, having the same number with the letter b affixed, and then the registrant, if any, having the same number with the letter c affixed. There were but two numbers with the letter c affixed, and these were 193 and 196.
The plan devised for the assignment of order numbers to those who registered on August 24th, treating the two registrations of June 5th and August 24th as a single registration, was one of the most wonderful of all the provisions of the selective service regulations. This was the only instance in which the drawing pre- ceded the assignment of those numbers, either serial or registration, by which, in connection with the drawing, the order of liability was to be determined, and no other plan for the assign- ment of order numbers of the August 24th regis- tration could have been devised which would have been so absolutely fair and impartial as was the plan above outlined.
It is proper to state that the registration numbers of those who registered on August 24th were not assigned by the Local Board. Under the rules, the Local Board was required to send, and did send, these registration cards to the Adjutant General, who gave the cards their registration numbers.
FURTHER MOBILIZATION MOVEMENTS
In order to connect the registration of August 24th with that of June 5th, for the reason that they are regarded as but one registration, we have passed by certain important mobilization movements, to which we now return.
On June 14, 1918, this Local Board forwarded 13 registrants to the Rahe Auto School, Kan- sas City, Mo., under call No. 612.
Call No. 660 for 110 men to be entrained for Camp Grant on June 24th was received by June 13th, and on that day the Local Board tele- graphed the Adjutant General as follows :
"Agricultural county. Large crops. Call for 110 men will take farmers. Harvesting en- `dangered. Farmers frantic. Postponement of call 30 days would save situation."
No person, except a Board member, can have any appreciation of the embarrassment caused by this call at this time, or of the work and nervous strain on the Board members in an- swering inquiries at the office and by telephone, and in endeavoring to pacify those who were vigorously protesting against the entrainment of the farmer boys in harvest time.
The request of our telegram for postpone- ment for 30 days was not granted. At this particular time our boys who had crossed over were fighting on the battlefields of France and
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982
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY
the military emergency was such as to render further delay impossible.
And so, on June 24, 1918, this Local Board forwarded 108 men to Camp Grant, Ill., under call No. 660. With the exception of 5, these men were farmers. Crops had been planted and cultivated, and the Local Board was now instructed to send the farmer boys who had been omitted under previous calls, and this was done. The number of men to be entrained from this county under this call was 110, but on account of death in the family, two of the registrants, brothers, Daniel Enoch Martin and Edward Howe Martin, were not forwarded on Monday morning, the 24th, but were forwarded on Wednesday morning, the 26th, under power conferred upon the Local Board in such cases by the rules and regulations. On June 24th, this Board sent to the same camp for foreign jurisdictions, on transfer to this Board for that purpose, five men, Arthur Thomas for Local Board, Sweet Grass County, Mont., Charles Carroll Hoppe for Local Board, Boone County, Neb., Louis M. Biery for Local Board, Beaver- head County, Mont., Truman Christopher Buckert for Local Board, Nuckolls County, Neb., and Frank L. McMinimy for Local Board, Fergus County, Mont. These five were Han- cock County boys, who had registered abroad, and were at home at the time of entrainment, and so were sent on transfer from this county.
The circumstances attending the mobilization of men for Camp Grant, on June 24th, were more distressing than those connected with any prior entrainment. The men were en- trained by the Wabash road at 5:15 in the morning. There was a large number of them. Many of them had been permitted to remain at home during the night. It was necessary that the Local Board should call the roll and ascertain that the men were present. and, in case of the absence of any registrant called, to put a substitute in his place, and to change the lists of names accordingly, and to with- draw the physical examination and other. pa- pers relating to such registrant individually and to substitute for them the individual pa- pers relating to the substituted registrant, to look after the details of collecting together and taking to the train the suit-cases of the regis- trants, to get the boys together in marching order and escort them to the train, to see to it that all the suit-cases were put on board, and that the registrants were in the cars, and
to send, with one of the registrants in charge of the company, those papers which were to be delivered to the commanding officer at the camp, in which the board certified that all these men, giving their names, had left Carthage on that train for the camp. A large crowd was present, and there was more or less of con- fusion and much difficulty 'in preliminary ar- rangement and actual entrainment. The mem- bers of the Board and the chief clerk were at the courthouse yard by three o'clock in the morning. Some of the boys were already there or at the hotel.
Automobiles, with burning eyes, were speed- ing toward Carthage, one after another, from every direction, in obedience to a great mo- bilization order. It was awe-inspiring. It was indeed a great spectacle, a memorable occasion. When the company started to march from the courthouse yard to the Wabash depot, thé men were lined up in some sort of order, but be- fore the depot was reached, the word order could not be appropriately used in connection with the procession. Parents, brothers, sisters and sweethearts were on hand, and were cry- ing out their words of farewell, and even rush- ing into the procession and taking part in the marching, so that when the depot was reached there was only a confused mass of human beings thronging the platform and the adjacent spaces. Calling of the roll was attempted and abandoned. Members of the Local Board stood at the car steps and endeavored to count the men as they went on board, but had to give up even that method of calling the roll. When the papers were delivered to the registrant who was given charge of the company of men, he was requested to ascertain on the train from Carthage to Golden whether or not all the men were on board, and to telephone the situation to Mr. Scofield from Golden, This was done. The boys were all there.
The transportation of the suit-cases from the courthouse to the depot was done through the courtesy and assistance of John J. Welch, Ed. L. Booth and others.
On Sept. 3, 1918, 16 men were forwarded to Camp Grant under mobilization order No. 1197, James Harry Braucht commanding. This order called for 15 limited service men. There was another man who was ready to go and we en- trained 16 men as the regulations permitted us to do. These men left Carthage on the Wa- bash at 5:15 in the forenoon.
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LESTER JOSEPH HOWARD SARAH FRANCES HOWARD VERA GERTRUDE HOWARD
983
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY
On Sept. 5, 1918, we forwarded 22 men to Camp Forrest, Lytle, Ga., under call No. 1249, Virgil Samuel Rice commanding. Our allot- ment was 20 men, but we had 2 others who wanted to go, and we entrained them under rule 158 of the selective service regulations. These men were forwarded at 8:57 in the fore- noon by way of Quincy.
On Sept. 6, 1918, we entrained 86 men for Camp Grant, under mobilization order 1234, Clem Duffie commanding. These men were for- warded on the Wabash train which left Car- thage at 5:15 in the morning. With the ex- ception of 12 men these were farmers. The difficulties which attended the entrainment of the men for the same camp on June 24th at the same early hour embarrassed the Local Board in the mobilization of these men on Sept. 6th. The call was for 85 men, but we forwarded an additional man who was anxious to go.
This ended the mobilization of men in large numbers. The mobilization of men in the Stu- dents' Army Training Corps was accomplished under different regulations and is considered in a subsequent part of this chapter, as is also the great registration of Sept. 12, 1918.
We wish to speak in this connection, how- ever, of a large call received in October, 1918, under which the men were not mobilized. This was call A-1436-G for ninety-six men to be for- warded to Camp Greenleaf, Oct. 21st. The boys were selected in the order of liability for serv- ice, and notices were given, and it was there- upon ascertained that many of the boys were sick with influenza. On Oct. 18, 1918, the Local Board telegraphed the Adjutant General as fol- lows :
"Call A-1436-G for ninety-six men from Han- cock County to Camp Greenleaf, Oct. 21st. Many of the boys are sick with influenza. Three boys brought back from camps dead in one neighborhood. The most patriotic men feel that call should be deferred. This board re- quests that call be deferred. Please answer."
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