Shelbyville Township (part 3 of 3)

Tex. On the 28th of Xov., 1918, she sailed from Hoboken on the transport Mongolia, landing in Brest, France, on Dec. 10 following. She served at Allerey, where she had charge of the surgical ward, and at Toul. where she was in charge of the spinal meningitis patients. Returning to Xew York in the summer of 1919, Miss Snyder was discharged there in June and returned to her former employment as a nurse in St. Louis. She is a graduate from Barnes hospital, St. Louis.

Ethel Yaxt1S

Miss Ethel Yantis, formerly of Moweaqua, was throughout the war and still is in service as a nurse. About six years ago she was graduated from the Post Graduate Hospital in Chicago. In the year the United States entered the war she enlisted for war service, and for some time was stationed at Camp Grant, Rockford, 111., where she gave her best work in ministering to the sick soldiers. F'rom that camp she was transferred to Fort Sheridan, where she remains. She is in love with the work in which she is engaged, and means to re-enlist for three years more, instead of accepting the discharge to which she is entitled.

Miss Yantis is a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Yantis, and was born and reared in the vicinity of Moweaqua. Shortly after her graduation from the nurse's training course, however, she located in Decatur, where she was engaged at her profession until she heeded the call to wider service. She is an attractive young woman, and is popular with those to whom she ministers.

Corxklia M. Thomas

Miss Cornelia M. Thomas is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Thomas of Shelbyville, and was born in Paris, 111., June 25, 1894. She took a training course, was graduated with honors, and was on private duty in her profession when she enlisted, Oct., 1918. in the Army Xurse Corps. Her first duty in the service was at Camp Custer, Battle Creek, Mich., where she was on duty during the terrible scourge of influenza. She received the rank of second lieutenant during her service there. On Dec. 6, 1918, she was transferred to United States General Hospital Xo. 6, Detroit Mich., and worked in the operating room there until the hospital was closed in the latter

Miss Emma Pauschert was born in Shelbyville June, 1890, and is a daughter of W. R. Pauschert, who now lives in Decatur, 111. Miss Pauschert was a nurse, and was employed as Night Superintendent of Grant Hospital, Chicago, when she enlisted, Sept. 1, 1918, for service in the Army Xurse Corps, and was sent to Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio. After being on duty there for nearly two months she was transferred to Albert Hotel, New York City, where she continued her service until Xov. 28, 1918, when she was ordered overseas and sailed from Hoboken, N. J., aboard the U. S. S. Mongolia. She arrived at Brest, France, Dec. 6. She gave splendid service overseas until the summer of 1919, when she was returned with Base Hospital Unit Xo. 99 to Xew York City, where she received her honorable discharge on July 6, 1919.

Gail Frede Tallman

Mrs. Gail Frede Tallman, wife of J. Leverett Tallman, was born in Stewardson, 111., 1895, and is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Frede of that place. She was married to Mr. Tallman on May 27, 1919. Before her enlistment she was employed as a newspaper reporter on the Decatur Herald. In June, 1918, she entered Vassar Training Camp for Xurses at Poughkeepsie, X. Y., for three months' intensive course. In September she was transferred to the Walter Reed General Hospital at Washington. D. C., as a student nurse in training, and was discharged from that place with rank of student nurse after a training course covering a total period of nine months. Though not permitted to see overseas service, she nevertheless did a great deal of practical work among the sick and wounded.

Alta Kooxtz

Miss Alta Koontz of Stewardson, was one of the nurses in the service. She was called to Camp Grant in the fall of 1918, and gave splendid service there. She already was a graduate nurse, and had been practicing her profession, with eminent success.

Miss Blanche McCollom, formerly of Windsor, was in the service at Xewport Xews, Va., for a period of eight months. Following her release from army nursing service she returned to Jacksonville, 111., where she is engaged as a school nurse. She is a daughter of the Rev. C. S. McCollom, a former pastor of the Methodist Church at Windsor.

Mary Buzzard Gexeva Elizabeth Casstevexs

There was one of the nurses who went from Shelby County to tend the wounded and sick, who gave her life for them. This was Geneva Elizabeth Casstevens, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Casstevens of near Fancher, who died Oct. 14, 1918. at Liverpool, England, where she was on duty at Military Hospital Xo. 40, with Unit W from Springfield, 111., under command of Major D. M. Ottis. Overworked, as was the ordinary lot of the nurses during the influenza epidemic. Miss Casstevens contracted the disease and in her weariness of body hadn't sufficient vitality to withstand its ravages. She was sick but a week and a day before her brave spirit took its flight. Busy and happy had been a customary condition, and those who came in contact with her from time to time say she was a veritable ray of sunshine.

Her popularity among those who knew her best was attested when a great concourse of people assembled at the little United Brethren church in Fancher, one day in the summer of 1919, to attend services in her memory. Truly of her it may be said, "she hath done what she could."

Fae Isexberg Searcy

After completing a War Workers' Training course at Lake Geneva, Wis., in Aug., 1918, Mrs. Fae Isenberg Searcy, wife of Sergeant Earl B. Searcy, received appointment from the National War Council1 of. the Young Women's Christian Association to assume duties at Camp Funston, Kansas, as Volunteer Assistant in recreation activities. Shortly afterward she was transferred to War Camp Community Service in the capacity of hostess to the soldiers of Camp Funston and Fort Riley, in the Soldiers' Community House in Manhattan, Kansas. She remained there until February, 1919.

This tells in brief the service of Mrs. Searcy after her formal entrance into the service; but before her course at Lake Geneva she had been in Red Cross training at St. Louis, where she also had served in the canteen at the Y. M. C. A. hut. She sang in various cantonments, and in Shelbyville, where she was born and reared, she worked diligently with the women of the Red Cross and materially aided activities there. During the summer of 1919. when Sergeant Searcy was stationed in Chicago as temporary secretary of the American Legion of Illinois, Mrs. Searcy still further gave generously of her service as motor driver, transferring wounded men to and from the hospital, taking them for a drive and in other ways ministering to those in need.

Arthur M. Cannon

Arthur M. Cannon, native of Tower Hill, 111., where he was born March 4, 1877, a son of the late Robert E. Cannon and of Mrs. Julia A. Cannon, still a resident of Tower Hill, entered the War Camp Community service at Portland, Ore., Aug. 15, 1918, and is still engaged in that work in a very responsible way. Immediately before entering that service he was city agent for a life insurance company at Portland, Ore., where from 1911 to 1917 he was principal of the Holladay and Couch public schools. His career as a teacher began at Puckett, southeast of Tower Hill, then from 1899 to 190S he was principal of schools at Tower Hill; from 1905 to 1906 at Rochester, 111.; from 1907 to 1910 principal of the high school at Shelbyville, and from 1910 to 1911 principal of the high school at Eveleth, Minn.

Mr. Cannon entered the War Camp Community Service as representative for the Clatsop district in Oregon, with headquarters at Astoria and in charge of spruce production centers of Astoria, Seaside and Tillamook, Ore., and near the coast defense forts, Stevens, Columbia and Canby. When the camps broke up, subsequent to the signing of the armistice, he was transferred to Seattle, and on April 1. 1919, was placed in charge of the outside work, including clubs at a number of points near Port Townsend. The work is now being transferred from W. C. C. S. through a transition period from Nov. 1 to Feb. 1, to Community Service, Inc., and efforts are being made to form local Community Service committees to continue the work indefinitely.

Mrs. Carl Olmstead

Mrs. Carl Olmstead, though little known in Shelby County, belongs by reason of her marriage to a Shelby County soldier, to the great army of service people of this county. Mrs. Olmstead's service was with the Y. M. C. A., and consisted largely of ministering to the soldiers of the Texas army camps in beautiful song, while she utilized her spare time in knitting sweaters and doing other work under the direction of the Red Cross. She was a daughter of Mrs. A. Steinert, 1238 Wabash Ave., Kansas City, Mo., and was married to Carl Olmstead of Shelby County on March 23, 1918, while the latter was stationed at Camp Logan. The next day her husband left that camp, and while he was absent in Europe, his bride passed away, her death occurring March 22, 1919, at her home in San Antonio. Her body was taken to Kansas City for burial.

W. H. Storm

Rev. W. H. Storm of Findlay served the better part of a year in Y. M. C. A. service, most of the time overseas. He offered himself for that work early in 1918, and during the summer was accepted and ordered on duty, and soon was in France, where he served capably and devotedly. He returned home in the early part of 1919, and resumed his pastorate of the Christian Church at Findlay, from which he later resigned. Before taking up the Y. M. C. A. duties, he was actively interested in the boys of his home town, and was Scoutmaster there. A complete record of Rev. Mr. Storm's "Y" service was not obtainable.

Leaving his position as assistant cashier of the Shelby County State Bank to enter the Y. M. C. A. service, Wm. F. Aichele had expected to go to Chicago for a brief training period, but instead was ordered at once to San Antonio, Tex., where he entered the Y. M. C. A. Training School April 8, 1918. He was "Y" secretary at Camp Logan, Houston, Tex., from May 1, 1918, to the llth of June following, and at Fort Crockett, Galveston, Tex., from June 11 to Oct. 23, 1918, when he resigned for the purpose of getting into the active military service. This course he pursued, enlisting at Shelbyville Nov. 7, 1918.

Charles R. Shepherd

Resigning the pastorate of the First Baptist church of Shelbyville and closing his work there on Sunday, Sept. 22, 1918, Rev. Chas. R. Shepherd, Ph. D., entered the Y. M. C. A. service and was ordered to Galesburg, Illinois, where he was in charge of 500 boys. This service was the alternative for regular military service, which was denied him by reason of the fact that he had taken out his first naturalization papers only, and therefore could get into the service neither of the United States nor his native country, England. Efforts to do so failed, and he took up the "Y" work, in which he did splendid service for many months.

Orville S. Storm

After repeated attempts to get into military service, but meeting only rejection on physical grounds, O. S. Storm of Shelbyville made application for Y. M. C. A. duty and in July, 1918, received notice of his appointment by the War Personnel Board of the Central Department of the National War Work Council. On Aug. 1 he was ordered to the "Y" War College at Chicago, where after a period of training he was assigned, Sept. 9, 1918, to Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, as athletic director for the Quartermaster's section. In the following December he was appointed managing editor of the Camp Sherman News, under military supervision, and retained that post until his discharge, Aug. 14, 1919. During the influenza epidemic at Camp Sherman Mr. Storm volunteered for hospital duty, and for some weeks ministered almost without intermission to the sick and dying. His work in that particular line, as well as the manner in which he discharged his athletic and editorial duties, elicited warm commendation from military and "Y" officers.

Lyman Ray Hi Att

Lyman Ray Hiatt, a son of W. P. Hiatt of Strasburg. 111., is another man who served both in the military and Y. M. C. A. At the outbreak of the war he was finishing student work in the Kansas State Agricultural College. Acting on the advice of the dean of the college, he continued agricultural work, spending the summer of 1917 on Oakhurst farm, belonging to one of the editors of the Breeders' Gazette. Then he joined the staff of the Country Work Department of the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A. and went to New York City, where he spent four months in helping to raise funds for the war work activities of the "Y." Then he enlisted, and served in the army until Nov. 30, 1918. Following his discharge he took charge of the agricultural instruction work of about 350 school students in Thief River F'alls, Minn. In the summer of 1919, however, he reentered Y. M. C. A. work and on June 19 sailed from Seattle, Wash., for Vladivostok, Siberia, where he is still doing agricultural demonstration work in Siberia and European Russia under the auspices of the National War Work Council, Y. M. C. A.

Wilse Underwood

J. Wilse Underwood was and still is in the Y. M. C. A. service, and is building secretary of the aviation camp, Y. M. C. A., Great Lakes, Illinois. He enlisted for that service June 1, 1918, and was assigned to the Great Lakes, where he has been ever since, giving of his service unstintedly and effectively to the boys in that great camp. Not the least of his qualifications for his work is his splendid voice, which he uses in song to the delight and betterment of those who hear him. He has been leading the singing for the senior chaplain's service on Sunday mornings, and giving himself to the whole work with singular devotion.

Mr. Underwood was born at Findlay, 111., in 1883, and is a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Underwood of that place. Before entering the "Y" service he was a mail carrier and salesman at Findlay. On May 19, 1908, he married Miss Mabel H. Cash, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Cash of Vandalia. They have three children, namely: Elizabeth Helen, born Jan. 14, 1910; Jay Cash, Aug. 12, 1912, and Lester Wilse, March 21, 1919.

Co-operating in the country-wide campaign to supply the soldiers in camp and sailors on shipboard with reading matter, the Shelbyville Free Public Library and Reading Roomslaunched a drive in August, 1917, for the collection of books and magazines for the service men. This was part of the general campaign undertaken by the American Library Association, of which the local library is a member, and resulted in the collection of 273 volumes. These were sent to the St. Louis Public Library for shipment to their ultimate destination.

The second local drive for library books for the service men was put on in April, 1918, and as the result of a week's intensive campaign a total of 594 books was collected. Of these, 161 were works of nontiction and 431 were books of fiction by popular authors. In the week's drive valuable assistance was rendered from various sources. The "books for soldiers" campaign was featured each evening in a revival meeting that was in progress in a local church, and on the closing day of the campaign the Boy Scouts made a house to house canvass, bringing in the books in baskets, wheelbarrows, gunnysacks and automobiles.

The librarian and her assistants attached pockets, typed cards for the pockets and for catalogue reference, and in every way prepared the books for service and circulation as though they were to go on the shelves of a regular library. The second lot of books was sent to Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois.

The drives were put on under the direction of Miss Grace L. Westervelt, librarian, and the second was completed under the supervision of her successor, Miss Erva J. Davis, the present librarian.

Following quickly after the signing of the armistice there was a decided change in newspaper headlines. The "Safe Over Seas," "Somewhere in France," "Escaped the Subs," and similar lines that told of the outward voyage of American service men, gave way to the more cheerful "Lands in United States," "Overseas Soldiers Home," "Reception for Returning Men," or similar headlines that told the story of the war's ending and the home-coming of the boys who escaped death and pestilence.

SIXTEEN years of loyal service at home and abroad - in annual encampment, on riot duty, in flood rescue work, in tornado relief, on the Mexican border and culminating in some of the hardest lighting on various fronts of the European battle-torn areas - has characterized the activities of H Company, a military organization peculiarly Shelbyville's own.

Product of the patriotic spirit pervading the community in either peace or war, Company H was organized and mustered in as a unit of the Fourth Regiment, Illinois National Guard, in February, 1903, and retained its identity as an arm of that organization until it responded to the call for broader service and became a part of the Federal military machine Aug. 5. 1917.

America's entrance to the World War found the ranks of H Company greatly depleted. With the declaration of war, however, a local campaign for recruits was launched. The influence and active aid of business and professional men generally were enlisted, to such good effect that when the company entrained for the southern training camp, the names of 128 officers and men were on the roster of the company and regiment. The company was increased to war strength by the addition of other men at Camp Logan, Texas.

On April 20, 1917, Vance Courtright and Charles L. Twiss were elected captain and first lieutenant, respectively, to succeed L. X. Stewardson and J. Glen Miller, resigned. Harry Downs was elected second lieutenant. At that time the numerical strength of the company was low, and but fifteen enlisted men were ready and willing to take the Federal oath, an essential of induction into the broader service. These men were Virgil Sharp. Andy M. Hudson, Harry Downs, Henry Thompson, Ray Edwards, Ellsworth Fought, Gaylord Terry, Fred Martin, Roy Vanderpool, Howard Bridges, Charles Young, George Burnett, Orval Rich, Tom Tull and Ralph Conrad. To Vanderpool it was given later to be the first Shelby County man to make the supreme sacrifice under enemy fire.

Four men declined to join with their comrades in taking the larger obligation, but to the credit of the company and community let it be written, when on Aug. 26, 1917, the opportunity was given for any who wished to withhold himself from any but the State service, not a man in the Shelbyville company failed nor hesitated in giving himself unreservedly to the service of mankind in the war to make the whole world safe for democracy.