McCurtain Gazette. (Idabel, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 51, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 21, 1918 Page: 2 of 8
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DRIVE BEGINS
Over the Top the First Day
Is the Slogan
——rrrrrzrrr" 7
LIBERTY BOND
Contributed by W. J. Old, Chairman
I U/ITH OUR SOLDIER BOYS
| IT AT HOME AND OVER THERE
rr At nuiriL Anu uVLi\ inLnc. |
5 eminent
j abroad, I will recite our leaving
5 j were told one day that at -
speckled trout, some fine fishing.
I could write a lengthy letter on fish-
ing for these trout but won’t just give
you briefly my experience last Sun-
j time next night we would leave our
tents, march to - and be
The following letter was -received , our port of embarkation was pleasant.! on board train at-time, that
from Dr. L. H. Hill by E. L. Kniseley At nearly every town we were met i we must be at Dock No. - by
by the citizens and given a hearty 8 o’clock. We left our tents on time,
cheer and Godspeed, and at quite a were on train 2 minutes before time
1 few places where the train stopped for train to leave, arrived at dock j days and came across to France. Here
any length of time the Red Cross peo- at 7:45—by 9 o’clock we were all1 we visited at British Rest camp where
pie served us, and I can say truthful- aboard and_boat leaving. Now to have we saw and heard stories from men
in mind the number of troops the U. | of various nations that play a part in
S. is moving each day, you get an : making up the Allies line along the
of this city, and will be read of in-
terest by his many friends here:
Somewhere in France,
July 24th, 1918.
Friend Elmer and Others of Kniseley
Bros., and Those Attached There- ly that the boys voted Oklahoma the
t0._ best state of’em all. At Duncan, Ell
Two months ago today I received Reno and Enid we were given great
my “wire” to report for active ser- treats. In our Eastern camp we were
vice, and today I am in camp in very busy getting equipped for for-
France far enough behind the lines to i eign service that our time while in
hear the big guns in the far distance camp was all taken up in hard work, rough, sunshine and storm. Had the
and see. the aeroplanes going by each Yet being so close to New York we pleasure of coming over on a very
day. had chance to run over there frequent- fine boat, practically new. Our quar-
It would take some time to tell ly for a few hours. ters were of the best and all was love-
vou of my line of work the past 60 Mrs. Hill was up there so w-e had ly, no submarines at all. Had coun-
davs but begging vour indulgence I a very nice time, no other officer ot cels every night, on 4th of July we
will give vou an outline of my* army my company had h:s w-ife tnere, so had an interesting program, band
life to date. they were kind enough to let me have concert and special dinner and few
Our journey from Camp Travis to their rights and as we stayed at the speeches—quite a number of men as
home of a friend on Riverside we had j very ancient city full of interesting
the best of my stay there. To give. places, castle, cathedral and other
you an idea of the system the gov-j places that havfe played promient part
is using in getting men in the making of history. Here too
We men were few, stores only opened,day afternoon. A French man took
- from 9 to 1, and town on rations could j we officers of two companies that are
not get anything to eat without card j billeted in this village, out, with or-
and very little then. We men were j dinary pole, caught string 8 or 10
forbidden to try anything to eat, as to j feet long. The hook was baited with
do so would be to deprive some En- ■ grasshoppers you catch when needed
glish one from getting his daily ra-' in fields through which this stream
tion. We were in England only a few runs. The stream is not more than
everybody who wlil please write to me
and give me the news of the best town
in Oklahoma.
LAWRENCE H. HILL,
1st Lieutenant, M. R. C. Amt Co.
360 Sanitary Train 315, A. E. F.
RUSSELL HERNDON
Former Idabel Young Man Has Land-
ed Safely Overseas.
idea of what system and management
is. Leaving New York coming across
was very interesting and pleasant,
saw the ocean in all its moods, quiet,
8 to 10 feet wide, shallow, very clear
water, weeds and moss grow abund-
| A. J. Goforth, of Nashville, Ark., is
antly. You sneak up, look through
the brush sec ydur fish and then throw
over your line. You ean see several
Western Front. By the way while i fish run UP to >'our hook> sometimes
there I saw Major Baird (Dr. Baird, | they bite antI aKain only smell around
of Broken Bow), did not get to talk >and swim <dT- We caught quite a
with him though. He is operating a! few and had them cooked for our sup-
hospital train and was very busy eva-
cuating a front hospital that had been
per. I don’t know whether it is due
to incampment or what but can say
I in receipt of a card announcing the
safe arrival overseas of Russell Hern-
don. Russell went to school in Idabel
for two years where he has a host of
friends. He was drafted from this
county about the 28th of May and
trained at Camp Bowie, Fort Worth,
Texas.
bombed the night before. The 14th of that 1 bclieve the>' are better eatinK
July is France's "4th of July.” A few lthan any of the Littlc River fish-
of we officers got to go to the city'., The s.c,e,ne,^ here is ,b?yond deffrip-
and there saw a parade, etc., that goes
IDABEL BOY
with suqh patriotic “to does.” They
cheered the Sammies fully as much or
more than their own men. Our ride-
well as officers were sea sick for' aboard the French train was very in-
several days, fortunately I enjoyed , teresting, had several days of it. Of-
good sailing and all the pleasures the j ficers cramed into car, no sleeping ac-
boat offered, reading,, smoking, and. commodations, or water. The men „ , ,
of course English Tea. English Tea. cramed into box cars about one-half; *’J1.0 CS' °r mu< 0 a yar< >
tion. All France is like a park or
garden, roads are well made of rock,'
boarded with birch trees. The coun-1
try folks do not live on their farms
but in groups which go to make up
these giant French villages you read
so much about. All these houses are
stone, roof and all; fences are rock
Who Was Wounded in Battle is
proving.
Im-
at 4 p. m. is quite a fete. Each after-
noon officers would gather in the
Lounge of the boat and have tea and
i cakes served by the steward of the
• Lounger
the size of those in America. You
have been acquainted with them from
stories and pictures. I can varify all
that has been said of them in due
time we piled out, not unloaded, the
The men were very interested in mer> literally piled out as they had
the historical spots of land we sighted
and passed, wish I could mention a
few of them, some are of great inter-
est, and are of note in history. We
been sleeping, walking, setting, eat-
ing and evreything else (on their
feet) was not room enough to sit
down and stretch out in these cars
put into port at night, went ashore but must say here everyone was in
in morning, marched through the city
of England, where we were cheered
the bes^ of spirits, full of good old
American cheers, and at stations
and cheered by the people at home, where we were served coffee and
Watching the Market.
By constantly WATCHING THE MARKET
we are always in a position to PROTECT you
on PRICES.
1 mostly old men, women and girls and ! bread by the Red Cross, the boys went
wounded soldiers, it was our first real wild.
You will be SATISFIED with the results of
your dealings with us.
Kilgore*s Market and Grocery
Phone No. 219
1 picture of war and its consequences,
f Most all women in mourning, and the
2 soldiers crippled, and in the stret cars,
I buss, stores and in fact nearly every
| one working was a woman. We en-
I; trained at a good size station in very
* i quaint ears. The railroad cars are
‘ j built to hold 5 or 8 passengers and
no more. If there are more passen-
gers than have room on train yon
have to wait for next train. How do
you suppose that would work in U.
S., especially down in McCurtain
County where you hardly have stand-
ing room at times. Oar trafta of
course was a special, no stop before
arriving at our station. This waa a
Must say again the Red Cross
is the backbone of the moral of the
army, have heard over and over from
the boys that the Red Cross sure was
the best thing ever here and spite the
fact that everybody at home was do-
ing some work for Red Cross they
would work harder and get more to
work could they realize how we boys
here in France love the Red Cross
women and what they are doing for
us. So you see all Mabel's and Mc-
Curtain county’s work is not in vain,
just stay at it.
We liad a 15 mile hike from rail-
road station to our camp which is lo-
cated in a beautiful valley on an ideal
mountain stream, full of mountain,
I everything of sameness. You have all
seen pictures of them. Our garrison
is an old mill 147 years old, situated
on this stream, the residence and
mill is all one building of three stories
officers ocupy the residence part, men
are granted throughout the mill,
since war the machinery has been re-
moved, family gone and here we
work and work is right. Up at 5 a.
m. on job at 5:30, two hours at noon
and through at 6 p. m. Drilling the
men and lecturing them on first aid,
care of wounds, etc., gas defense,
and combating diseases and wounds of
modern war. Every day we take a
5 to 10 mile hike, soon wc will be
moved up to the front and at it right.
I will write another letter from there.
Might conclude by saying we are all
endeavoring to learn French and
whenever we get a chance to go to
gome place we will be able to get what
we want and be understood. Give
my regards to everyone in Idabel and
all of you write me a letter as news
is scarce here. Do not get any war
news or see any one. I won’t worry
though as chances are we soon will
be making news ourself. I am en-
joying the best of health, have gain-
ed 12 pounds in weight. There are
many questions that I could ask, but
will ask one that will cover all. Ev-
Somewhere in France
July 26th, 1918.
My Dear Mother:
Will drop you a few lines to let you
know that I am getting o. k. I was in
the big American Drive on the 19th
of the month. I got shot in the right
shoulder ahd hand and left leg. I am
doing fine. We were out in a big
wheat field while the Germans were in
the trenches about one-fourth of a
mile from us. We went over the top
after them about 4:30 in the morn-
ing. I was shot about noon. I am
in a big American hospital here with
American nurses. They sure are good
to us too.
I received your letter but have not
had time to answer it until today. I
hope to be with you by Xmas.
With love and best wishes, I am,
your boy.
HENRY DENISON,
Co. L, 59, U. S. Infantry.
Karl Pruitt and Clarence Roberts,
of Valliant, were here Sunday after-
noon.
Germs are plentiful in the summer
air, we breathe them every minute.
In health they do no harm, but to
those who have a bad liver, disordered
stomach or constipated bowels they
mean a spell of sickness. The best
way to insure your health is to take
Prickly Ash Bitters. It purifies and
strengthens the system. Price $1,25
per bottle.—Williams Drug Store,
Special Ageqts.
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Old, W. J. McCurtain Gazette. (Idabel, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 51, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 21, 1918, newspaper, August 21, 1918; Idabel, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1042850/m1/2/?q=%22United+States%22: accessed July 16, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.