Mechanic Arts High School - M Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

Page 17 text:

JU11',Ef,1939,,-..-L. L a L Ll? ff. MQQL is i 15 'lest We Forgetl' By MABEL COLTER INE years have passed since the youth of America answered the nation's call for help in the World War. The Q ' names of more than a thousand men and women, graduates and former students of Mechanic Arts, who answered that call are in file in the school. A smaller file records the names of those who made the supreme sacrifice irl that war. lt seems strange that there is no memorial in the building to keep alive in the school today the fact that Mechanic Arts played its part in the World War. When we entered the war, even the seniors were in the primary grades. Without the least desire to stimulate a war spirit and with conviction that world peace is the most desirable hope of today, is it not fitting that we stop a moment here. to do honor to those who suHfered and to those who gave their lives in the hope that democracy might live? Lest we forget-it is well that as we pay honor to the survivors, we drop a tear for the dead. The first on our service list to fall was George Rosness, who died of pneumonia, Nov., 1917, at the Brooklyn Navy Yards. Harold Dion died in March of the next year at the Philadelphia Navy Yards, and Ber- nard Bardwell died in North Carolina, both of pneumonia. Two army posts in St. Paul are named after our boys: one for John de Parcq, who died of the same dread disease at Camp Dix: the other for John L. Christie, who was a sergeant in the 15lst Field Artillery. He was twice cited for bravery. He died in the drive on Sedan. Two of our boys died at Camp Zachary Taylor of pneumonia. Lieut. Arthur Lau- bach, 1914, after training in Alabama, was transferred to Kentucky, where he died. Lieut. Norman Claussen, 1911, attended the Hrst Officers' Training camp at Ft. Snelling, was early sent to France, where he under- went intensive training, followed by over a year of active service. Sent to Camp Taylor to train new officers, he stopped for a few days in St. Paul and spoke to the student body at Mechanic Arts. Within a few days of his arrival in Kentucky he died of influ- enza. Four of our boys died in Canadian serv- ice. Norman West Gammon was seriously wounded near Vimy and died shortly after. William Ringus died when a hospital, where he was confined with wounds sustained in action, was bombed. Harold Livermore Smith was severely gassed and while he lived to be honorably discharged, his death was clearly a war death. Milo Korslund was a lst Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps. After training in both Canada and England he arrived in France April 6th, 1918. Six days later he dropped within the German lines. Four of our soldiers died in accidents. Cyrus Dorr was killed enroute to Miami, Florida. John Stanley McGregor, in the Spruce Division of the Aviation Corps, was killed by a falling tree in Washington. Wil- liam Laidlaw, who left school to join the 151st Field Artillery, was killed by an ac- cidental explosion of powder in June, 1918, in France. Oscar Thorson, of the 33rd Engineers, was killed in a railroad wreck in France. William Toensing of the S. A. T. C. died of influenza at Ft. Snelling. Enoch Spence died of tuberculosis in December, 1918. He was a member of the Enlisted Engineer Re- serve. Lieut. Charles Lloyd Watkins C19l4j died in an accident in the flying field at Is- soudun, June 23, 1918. Ensign Alan La Mott Nichols fl9l3j fell from an airplane in Triano, Italy, Aug. 17, 1918. Granville Gutterson entered the Flying Service immediately after graduation in 1917. ln August, 1918, he earned his commission. He impatiently awaited his order to France and was on board ship ready to sail on Nov. llth, 1918-Armistice Day. Too ill to travel he obeyed orders and arrived in a dying condition at Ellington Field. Sergeant Fred Warwick was one of the first Americans to fire heavy artillery in France. He served with the l5lsttand re- 4

Page 16 text:

JUNIOR CLASS

Page 18 text:

16 M ' wg TrlEg up JUN13,19264 ceived three medals, one of which was for carrying an important message through a heavy barrage. He was twice gassed and died January, 1919, in France, of pneumonia. Alfred Giesen of 1916, was General Pershing's chauffeur. He spent four months at the front. The Commander of the American forces was busy night and day fol- lowing the Armistice and his chauffeur, over- worked, contracted bronchial pneumonia and died Thanksgiving Day, 1918. Joseph H. Kipp of the U. S. Marines saw hard service in France and died of wounds. Lieut. John Donohue, 1906, was early in the war. He saw hard service and was Wounded in the St. Mihiel drive in Septem- ber, 1918. In October he died in Base Hos- pital 51, where, strange to say, a Mechanic Arts girl cared for him in his last days and herself put the flag on his grave. Edward Lundholm, 1915, was in the medical corps of the 118th Infantry and was many times under fire. He died in a French hospital of wounds received in action, Cc- tober, 1918. Not all of the price of the war was paid by those who died while in service. Some came home to die. Lieut. Robert Bishop, 1910, of the Rail- way Engineers, died in St. Paul in his sleep three months after his return from France in June, 1919. Alphonse Klotz of the 15 lst F. A. fought tuberculosis, contracted in the war, for a long time before he died in January, 1925. The same may be said of Kidwell MacKnight, who returned to fight the white plague un- til 1925. Lieut. LeRoy Hensel of the 340th Infan- try A. E. F. never recovered his health after the war and died in Washington, June, 1921. Max Bernstein, 1917, had perhaps the most varied career of all our boys. A bugler, he was transferred from one regiment to an- other so frequently that for nearly two years he received no mail, He was gassed at Chateau Thierry, moved from hospital to hospital-carried an important message- was reported missing in action-wounded. Discharged in May, 1919, he entered upon his university work and social service, The gassing and the wound troubled him, and he died in Aberdeen Hospital in 1925. Business houses, schools, colleges, through- out the country have erected monuments to honor their men who fought in 1917 and 1918. These monuments vary from tablets to arches, roadways, and buildings. Me- chanic Arts has reason to be proud of the number of its former students and grad- uates who went to the war, to thrill at the distinctive service they rendered, and to grieve at the price they paid. Was not some step taken right after the war to put up a suitable memorial? What became of the plan? Would it not be well to revive the idea- lest we forget? di LUNCHROOM FORCE Top row, le!! to rightgflharley Eldridge, Vic Leonard, Kenneth lrigwalmn, Ernest Woodhouse, Fritz Gerber, Mr. Raymone, lllr. ilfIeKee. Second row, left to right4 Fatty Rigg, Ray Nelrort, Erwin fuug, Robert Nelson, Kenneth Williarnx, .Mr. Dunran. Third row, left to right--lllrr. Sfhierel, lVIr.r. Herkroth, Illrx. Wegmari, Nlrr. fohrzrorx, 11115, flrtderron, Mrr. Brady. Fnuth raw, left to rightfKathIeen MeCarty, Victoria Fire- harnmer, Victoria Guxtafron, Stella Heinze. 1-'ifllt row, left to rightgllhzriun Emerxnri, lllargaret Wagner, Lorell Shu,-qart. Genevieve Bayley. Sixth row, left to riglttgfohn IW. Gran, lllry. Nettie Firebaugh, the burr, and Billy Thomar. '