Lee County, Illinois - Chapter 38, 1920

The war \york for Reynolds township was staricd in October, 1917. N. A. Petrie of Ashton recommended William KwAd as town chairman and AI. Sullivan was named as assistant. Messrs. Ewald and Siilli\'an met and ilcvised a plan for the Second Liberty Loan campaign which was a house to house camass. The town's allotment was .§38,000 of which S12,000 was subscribed. This was a very har.l task to midertak.' at that time as our people di<l not undcrstaml the importance of these calls Imt they learned soon after this first call.

Before the next work was lie,min a coinmittee of tour was named by the Finance committee of the State ( 'ouncil of l)efeii>e. ;i- loUows: M. Sullivan, chairman; Charles Ewald, William EwaUl, and H. Weiner. This committee met and named the working organization of three persons from each schof)l district in the township. The first work to be done by this body was the Y. M. C. A. drive in November, 1917, the required sum of S800 being collected. Following this was the first drive for Red Cross membership starting in December. 1917. A meeting of our sel 1 .listrict committeemen was held at the Sullivan s<-hool

The following April, our allotment of the Third Liberty loan was made, being the sum of S21,000 and .S;24,000 was suliscribed. Next in order and right on the heels of the Third Liberty loan came our share of the first Red Cross .hive. Our allotment was SlO.jO, an.l we c<illected about S12()ll. This was done m the month of May. 1918.

In .lune, 191S, our drive for the War Saving Stamps was made. The amoimt of our allotment, which seemed to be high, was $16,000. Fearing that we could not gel this amount in pledges, meetings were held in each school house and addressed \>y s|ieakers from Dixon who were brought to Reynolds by Chief Deputy Sheriff Frank Schoenliolz and after having sup|ier at M. Sullivan were assigned as follows:

These meetiiiiis were well attended and after the speakers finished pledges were asked for and then and there some 815,500 was taken. This certainly was well done. This shortage of 8,5(10 was made good Ijy an oversultscription l)y some of our landowners who were living in Ashton.

In July, 1918, a meeting was called at the German Evangelical church for the purpose of organizing a Red Cross auxiliary. This meeting was addressed by Judge John B. Crabtree, Harry Edwards, and Harry W'arner of Dixon and the pastor of the Church,

In Septenilier lOlS iiur allntuient for the Fourth Liljerty loan was made and the allotment lirini^ .s4'2,(K)() a nieetinii was held at the German Evangelical church and John E. Erwin, ('lyde Smith and Edward Vaile of Dixon as speakers. On this drive the school district comniittecs went to their several school houses after giving notice to the people to come and suliscrilie to each one's share of the allotment which they did nobly, finishing the drive in one week's time by taking $45,000 which was over the top again for Reynolds and by this time it seemed clear that everyone was on the heels of Kaiser Bill, but when our next work was ordered, being the United War Work campaign from November 11 to 18, which happened immediately after the signing of the armistice, this fact made the getting of our share, which was $1150, very hard. This was the first time that a delinquent list w-as retui-ned and 17 names were so returned hut we finally finished by coUecting 11275.

Finally there came a second call for annual memberships in the Red Cross in December, 191.S. This work was handled by the regular chairman of Red Cross, together with till' aid of school district committeemen. Memberships obtained were about 350. The first registration was June 5, 1917, and was held at the Sullivan scliool tmder the supervision of Charles Ewald as chief registrar, together with .lust us Henert and Henry J. Wagner, assistants. Some 75 men wei-e registered.

The Patton brothers enlisted in Company A, 3rd 111. Infantry at DeKalh. This regiment was called hy the i)resideut into service on July o, 1917. and mobilized at the home station, De Kalb, III, July 25, 1917. They were mustered into the federal service Aug. 5, 1917, and left DeKalb for intensive training at Camp Logan, Texas, on Sept. 13, 1917. They arrived at Camp Logan Sept. 16, 1917. On Oct. 11, 1917, the name of this regiment was changed to 129th Infantry. The regiment left for overseas service early in I\lay. 19 IS, and was put into the first line service early in July, 1918.

registration, Sept. 11, 1918, was hekl at the regular polling place, the ise. District 112. In this work M. Sullivan was named as chief registrar, Charles d Iv H. Weiner, assistants. Lender this call there were registered 100 persons, ilioin were inducted into ser\'ice. They were just beginning to call them for