It’s great to see World War I featured in the Academy Award-contending movie, “1917” and I dug with glee and anticipation into The Daily Item morgue in search of our mass of old news clippings detailing Lynn’s connection to the “war to end all wars.”
Packed into a manila envelope labeled, “German War 1917-1918,” the clippings chronicle the full impact America’s entry into the war had on just one out of hundreds of cities and towns in the United States.
The rest of the world had been fighting for years by the time the United States entered the war. A mobilized America sent a torrent of troops and equipment to Europe. The former Camp Devens in Ayer was the first stop for 59 Lynn men who were in the second draft called to meet war needs.
They listened to a speech by former Mayor Walter H. Creamer in City Hall before receiving a box lunch, a “comfort kit” presumably packed with toiletries, an American flag and a sweater donated by the Red Cross.
A March 29, 1918 article in the The Daily Evening Item described the draftees marching by twos to the railroad station for the Ayer-bound train.
Another Item story detailed how “14 Lynn men of color” joined the Army, including Edwin A. Anderson of Laconia Court, Minard Robart of Blossom Street,and Amos D. Clements, a Collins Street resident.
City elected officials, a band, Boys Scouts and members of the Grand Army of the Republic hall escorted the 14 from City Hall to the train station.
Plenty of Lynn troops were already in the French trenches in the winter of 1918, including Cpl.s. Austin Applebee and Harold Fennell service with Company I, 103rd Infantry.
Lynnfield resident Earl M. Bailey wrote home in February, 1918 while serving with the 101st Field Artillery, a storied Lynn unit.
“We sleep in a dugout about 40 feet under the side of a hill dug out of sandy chalk. The bunks are made out of chicken wire and board. We have to sleep with our clothes on, ready to get out in short order.
“On the way here we came over an old battlefield covered with barbed wire and trenches. Many towns are knocked to pieces, some having only pieces of walls two feet high,” Bailey wrote.
It didn’t take long for Lynn soldiers’ names to appear on casualty lists. Sgt. Matthew L. Buchanan, a Western Avenue resident, was killed in France. He served in the 104th Infantry, the same unit Cpl. Thomas H. Berube was fighting in when he was killed.
News of the two deaths reached Lynn along with a list of nine Lynn area residents wounded in combat, including Alfred R. Smith of Marblehead.
Creamer’s eulogy for Buchanan and Berube included an appeal to action for Lynn residents:
“No labor, foodstuffs, or materials of any kind needed by our defenders should be diverted to purely local or individuals needs.”
Mary A. McPhetres received this telegram on April 4, 1918: “Deeply regret to inform you that it is officially reported that Sergt. Harland A. McPhetres, field artillery, was severely wounded in action.” The telegram was read aloud during a service for troops serving abroad held in the former Maple Street Methodist Church.
Within days, McPhetres was informed that the Army had made a mistake and the wounded soldier was not her son, but his cousin, Hadley M. McPhetres of Danvers, who served in the 101st Field Artillery with his cousin.
People packed into Broadway Methodist Church to hear the names of Lynn soldiers read aloud, beginning with Fred L. Curtis Jr., who was killed in France. The congregation sang “Stand Up for Jesus” as Rev. Edward E. Small and Sunday School Superintendent Charles W.A. Thurston carried an honor roll bearing Lynn soldiers names down the church’s center aisle.
Fluency in French tugged Pauline Bourneuf of Broad Street and Swampscott resident Jeanette E. Couture into the war. The women resigned their jobs as telephone operators and sailed for France as members of the U.S. Signal Corps assigned to operate military telephone exchanges.
By December, 1918, troop embarkation and casualty lists had been replaced with “home again” directories listing troops mustering out of the service and headed home. Employers and families eagerly awaited their return from American fighting units and Canadian units like the battalion Harry Katz of Blossom Street served with or the one Ernest Nichols of Dearborn Avenue fought in.
World War I ended more than a century ago. Fortunately the sacrifice entailed to win it is still honored and celebrated.