Military service prior to 1916 ▸ M.R. Limb & G.S. Limb Military: 1890-1916
Marcus R. Limb and George S. Limb served in Company D, Wooster City Guards, Eighth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Ohio National Guard. Both were active in the Improved Order of Odd Fellows, Patriarchs Militant, which complemented the Guards in training and competing in drills and encampments. Both experienced deployments in the O.N.G. to assist in peacekeeping situations. George was the first to be engaged in an actual war – the 1898 Spanish-American War in Cuba. Marcus had resigned from Company D while living away from Wooster and rejoined upon his return to Wooster in 1901. In 1916 George resigned from the military and Marcus was deployed in the 1916 Mexican Border War serving in El Paso, TX.
Marcus Robert Limb (1870–1937)
1891 ▸ March 30, Private, Company D, 8th Regiment, O.N.G.
1891 ▸ December 30, Corporal.
1892 ▸ July 6, Sergeant.
1892 ▸ September 19, First Sergeant.
1894 ▸ March 30, discharged. Re-enlisted same date and warrant continued in force.
1894 ▸ July 20, discharged to accept commission as Second Lieutenant.
1894 ▸ July 20, 2d Lieutenant.
1895 ▸ November 29, married Lucille Bradshaw and went south to study dentistry and establish a practice.
1896 ▸ February 10, resigned Co D.
1901 ▸ Returned to Wooster with wife, Lucy, and son, Marcus George.
1902 ▸ June 30, reappointed 2d lieutenant, Co D, 8th Regiment, O.N.G.
1903 ▸ May 16, Captain, Co D.
1903 ▸ Purchased the armory in Wooster.
1916 ▸ June, Mexican Border service in El Paso, TX.
1917 ▸ June 15, War with Germany (WWI). Captain Co D, 146th Infantry.
1917 ▸ August 5, Captain 146th Infantry from O.N.G.
1917 ▸ November, Adjutant 146th Infantry.
1918 ▸ June 11, Major, 146th infantry, Wooster, O.
1918 ▸ Camp Sheridan, Ala.; Camp Lee, Va.; American Expeditionary Forces.
1918 ▸ June 13, overseas.
1918 ▸ June 15, departure date from Hoboken, N.J. on the USS Leviathan. (Son, Fritz, age 15, also on the Leviathan, as a Private.)
1918 ▸ October 9-15, hospital (gassed in the Argonne battle).
1918 ▸ October 15-November 8, C.O. St. Dizier.
1918 ▸ November 11, Armistice signed at Compiegne.
1919 ▸ Ordered to report to 146th Inf. Transferred to 358th Inf. 90th Div. G.H.Q. Inspector Feb. 23rd to March 6th.
1919 ▸ March 8, reported at Gerolstein, Germany, to 90th Div., assigned to 2nd Battalion 358th Inf. Station Daun, Germany.
1919 ▸ May, awarded French War Cross.
1919 ▸ June 8th, left France.
1919 ▸ June 28 Treaty of Versailles.
1919 ▸ August 20, Honorable discharge Camp Pike. 15% disability.
1916
The Marion Star
Marion, Ohio
Monday, 10 January 1916
pg 1 & 3
Mills Reopen; Strike Broken
Hundreds Return to Work in East Youngstown Today.
Majority, However, Fear to Leave Home
Most of Troops Quit Strike Zone; Fourth Ordered Home.
Two Austrians from New York Under Arrest as Leaders of Strike—Situation at Republic Plant Unchanged.
Youngstown, Jan. 10.—Partial evacuation of East Youngstown by the National guard was decided on by Brigadier General C. Speaks this afternoon, following a conference with officers of his staff and a talk with Governor Willis over long-distance telephone.
The Fourth Regiment, led by Colonel Byron L. Barger, of Columbus was ordered back to the several headquarters of the companies in central Ohio; the Eighth regiment, under Colonel E.C. Vollrath, of Bucyrus, was ordered to Struthers, five miles from Youngstown, and the other ten companies of the Fifth infantry were left in Roumanian hall, at East Youngstown, and the other ten companies of the Fifth regiment were brought to Youngstown and quartered in the Y.M.C.A. building.
It was estimated at noon that only 577 of the 9,000 workingmen of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube company, who had been out since Thursday night, had returned to work, 500 entering the plants over the Poland-avenue bridge, and seventy-five over the burned Wilson-avenue bridge.
Afraid to Leave Homes.
“In attempting to discover why so many men stayed out, I found that many are afraid to leave their homes,” said General Speaks. “They told me, through an interpreter, they were afraid their homes would be burned and their wives and children might be in danger. They said they were not afraid while the soldiers were on duty, but they refused to believe the militia would remain on guard long.”
In discussing the situation today, President J.A. Campbell, of the sheet and tube company, said he feels practically all the old employes will return at the twenty-two cents per hour offered, which in an increase of 2-1/2 cents for ordinary skill, as soon as they feel they are secure from violence within and without the plant.
Won’t Import Workers.
“We feel that it is not our men who started the trouble,” said Campbell. “Evidence is at hand to support such a view. We have done so much for our employes that I am certain they would not take the lead in a strike like this. We are not trying to import workmen. That would be silly.”
Conditions at the Republic Iron & Steel company plant were reported to be exactly as they had been for some days. No work is being done in the plant and there is little prospects of a resumption for a time at least, officials said. General Manager J.W. Deetrich said he had a second conference with the committees representing the strikers and they they had gone to report his ultimatum to the men.
Arraignment of the men under arrest at East Youngstown was commenced by Squire Skipp today. Most of the prisoners pleaded not guilty and were bound over to the Mahoning county grand jury, which is now in session.
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Many Return To Work.
East Youngstown, Jan. 10.—The backbone of the big strike at the mills of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube company appeared broken today. Hundreds of the strikers returned to work, all apparently in a docile mood, when the bit mill whistle sounded the call at 6 o’clock.
Following the sedition of the company officials last night to open the mills, Brigadier General John C. Speaks, in charge of the 2,000 Ohio National guardsmen on duty here, withdrew all his soldiers from the property of the company. Speaks said he did not want to be considered as suing his force to guard the property of one particular concern.
Anticipating trouble at the opening of the mills, General Speaks called the entire Fourth regiment, under command of Colonel Byron L. Barger, of Columbus, which had been stationed at Berlin Center and Alliance Junction, to reinforce the Fifth regiment, led by Colonel Charles X. Zimmerman, of Cleveland, and the Eighth regiment, commanded by Colonel Edward C. Vollrath, of Bucyrus.
Ready for Action.
The guardsmen, fully armed and equipped with twenty rounds of ammunition each, were stationed on long trains of cars under Center street bridge, one mile west of the western end of the plant.
The repentant workmen entered the mills over the Wilson avenue bridge, which was partially burned by the mob, Friday night, and the Poland avenue bridge on the other side of the mills.
Squads of soldiers aided the company policeman guard the entrances of the bridges and no men who could not be identified by the corporation timekeepers were allowed to enter.
Clear the Street.
The militia and East Youngstown civic authorities cooperated with the Youngstown Sheet & Tube company, by clearing the village of all loiterers who were on the streets. If the men refused to leave they were taken into custody.
The 327 men under arrest at midnight on charges varying from that of carrying concealed weapons and loitering to charges of looting, assault and destroying property, were augmented by continued arrests until over 500 were in the regular and improvised jails by 6 o’clock this morning.
The prisoners were housed in the village jail, the fire engine-house, the various lodge halls, the council chamber and the banquet hall of the municipal building. Colonel Zimmerman loaned several companies of infantry to keep guard both inside and outside the buildings.
Eight detectives in the employ of an agency serving the steel mills arrived this morning for the purpose of hunting down the leaders of the mob which destroyed property and lives Friday night.
Two Important Prisoners.
Both the civic and military authorities today considered the most important prisoners to be Dan Eleck and John Briski, two Austrians from New York City, who were put through a third-degree examination last night by Prosecutor A.M. Henderson and Sheriff J.C. Umstead.
According to Umstead and Henderson, the men confessed that they were sent here from New York by “certain interests” to stir up discontent and trouble among employes of all mills manufacturing supplies for the allies.
Later the men hedged on their stories and said they had not been sent from New York at all, but had been in Youngstown for months. They told such conflicting stories that the authorities did not know what to believe and they were to be turned over to the Mahoning county grand jury, which reconvened today. Both were well dressed, plentifully supplied with money and apparently educated, although they spoke very broken English.
United States Inspector George Pate, of Cincinnati, today opened up a temporary postoffice in East Youngstown. The village postoffice was burned in the Friday night riot.
General Speaks today announced that the crucial test—the way the opening of the mills was taken by the strikers—had showed that the nerve of the trouble-makers had been broken.
Troops May Leave Today.
Although making no official statement of the disposition which would be made of the soldiers here, General Speaks held a conference with Governor willis over long-distance telephone following the opening of the plant, but he refused to give out the subject matter of the conversation.
Shortly after midnight two squads of soldiers, under the leadership of Captain Marcus R. Limb, of the Eighth infantry, raided a row of houses in the outskirts of East Youngstown and confiscated several wagonloads of liquor and merchandise which had been stolen by the marauders, Friday night.
The occupants of the residences offered no resistance. They were all foreigners and nothing could be gained from quizzing them until interpreters could be secured.
Surgeon General Joseph A. Hall, of Cincinnati, sent here by Governor Willis to look into the quarters of the men from a standpoint of sanitation, today had the sleeping places of the militia thoroughly inspected and fumigated.
Only Slight Trouble.
The only trouble this morning occurred at the Poland avenue bridge when a man stopped working men as they alighted from street cars and told them the Brier Hill Steel company, a rival corporation, was offering twenty-five cents an hour for common labor today.
The men were returning to work at the sheet and tube works at twenty-two cents an hour. Soldiers requested the man to move on. He seemed reluctant to go at first, but gentle prodding with a bayonet changed his mind.
Fred C. Croxton chief mediator of the state industrial commission, today continued his efforts to bring the men who are still out and the officers of the big concerns together.
“I am up against the proposition of working with men who belong to no union and who apparently have no spokesman,” said Croxton. “We hope, however, to arrange a meeting before night at which wages can be discussed.”
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Virtually Evacuate City.
Columbus, Jan. 10.—Adjutant General Hough was informed this morning by National guard officials at East Youngstown that the troops had practically evacuated that city with the exception of a small detachment at the bridge at East Youngstown and a small number of soldiers stationed at the plants and in the village of Struthers. The adjutant general was told that the Fourth regiment troops were being held in their cars at Berlin Center and that all of the Fifth and Eights regiments except the detachments mentioned are in their cars at Hazelton yards, ready to be ordered home.
The adjutant general, however, declared that he has no intention of recalling all the troops, at least before tonight. He intimated that the withdrawal of most of the soldiers was for the purpose of preventing a charge being made that state troops were being used to protect private property when not necessary.
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Federal Investigation.
Washington, Jan. 10.—The federal government today took a stand in the Youngstown strike. Late today the department of labor ordered an investigation of conditions at East Youngstown leading to the rioting of last Friday night.
News-Journal
Mansfield, Ohio
Tuesday, 7 March 1916
pg 4
City News Notes
Colonel Edward Vollrath, J.C. Cramer, H.O. Pontius, Frank A. Munz, Cyrus Fisher and Daniel Spade, of Bucyrus, and Major F.C. Gerlach, Captain M.R. Limb and Lieutenant Grover McCoy, of Wooster, were among the officers and members of the Eighth regiment, O.N.G., who were here yesterday to attend the funeral of the late Mayor Fred S. Marquis.
1916: 23 March, M.R. Limb and Helen A. Weidner of New Philadelphia, Ohio, are married in Wooster.
Dayton Daily News
Dayton, Ohio
Friday, 14 April 1916
pg 8
Going to Annapolis
New Philadelphia, O., April 14—Senator Pomerene has appointed Will L. Butler of New Philadelphia to the Annapolis naval academy. As alternates he has named Marcus Limb, Wooster; Donald Stratton, Alliance, and William C. Sellers, Marysville.
Mexican Border War (1910–1919)
The Mexican Border War culminated in a US military expedition into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa, who had attacked a border town in New Mexico. The ending of the war lead to the establishment of a permanent border wall. “The boys”, as soldiers were called at that time, returned from duty on the Mexican Border just in time to be faced with recruitment for World War I.
The Bucyrus Evening Telegraph
Bucyrus, Ohio
Monday, 17 April 1916
pg 8
Company “D” Claims 1400 Rifle Score
“Use Amber Glasses” Says Captain Limb
Co. D at Wooster is hot and heavy after that 1383 score made by Co. A of Bucyrus. read this from the Wooster Republican:
Members of Co. D rifle team participating in the home and home shoot of companies of the Eighth regiment, chalked up a total of approximately 1400 out of a possible 1500 points Friday. The unofficial score kept here shows a total of 1380, an average of better than 46 for each man out of a possible 50. Capt. Limb had word from the chief inspector, Capt. Eddy, however, that the official count would make the figure slightly higher. It was expected that 1400 would be close to the actual figure.
“Capt. Eddy stated here that Bucyrus also made a good score and that Wooster and Bucyrus are close so far in the shoot. The shooting is the best ever done by members of Co. D.
“Major F.C. Gerlach and Capt. M.R. Limb up to Saturday had received no instructions whatever regarding a possible call for the Eighth regiment to participate in the Mexican controversy.
“‘I don’t know why you hear talk about it requiring two or three weeks to get regular army men to the border.’ Capt. Limb said Saturday. ‘We can mobilize the Eighth regiment in four or five hours—it was done when called to Youngstown—and the trip to the border can be made in three days and a half.
“‘If we were called to Mexico we would like to see every man in the company have a pair of amber glasses. They are needed there in the bright sun.’”
Shreve News
Shreve, Ohio
Friday, 12 May, 1916
pg 4
Wooster.
Captain M.R. Limb Tuesday gave out the following result of the company team shoot in the Eighth Ohio infantry, Ohio national guard.
Co. E, Ashland, 1416; D, Wooster, 1389; A, Bucyrus, 1383; C, Canton, 1379; H, Shreve, 1334; M, Mansfield, 1258; I, Tiffin, 1228; B, Akron, 1190; L, Galin, 1118; F, Akron, 1077; G, Wadsworth, 1041.
In discussing the latest Mexican entanglements and the likelihood of state troops being called out, Captain Limb stated that he did not believe the Ohio troops would be ordered into service soon, and that he looked for very little being done in connection with the guards until after the enactment of the new military law.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati, Ohio
Friday, 23 June 1916
pg 3
Militiaman Arrested.
Newark, O., June 22—Upon the request of Captain M.R. Limb, of Wooster, local police to-day arrested Joseph Lucci and returned him to Wooster, where he is a member of the National Guard. Lucci was in Newark with a carnival company exhibiting in connection with the Eagles convention.
The Times Recorder
Zanesville, Ohio
Friday, 23 June 1916
pg 3
Arrest Carnival Man as “Deserter”
Newark, O., June 22—Upon the request of Captain M.R. Limb, of Wooster, local police today arrested Joseph Lucci and returned him to Wooster, where he is a member of the National Guard. Lucci was in Newark with a carnival company exhibiting in connection with the Eagles convention.
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati, Ohio
Monday, 26 June 1916
pg 3
Equipment Fails To Arrive, So Mobilization of Ohio Militia Is Delayed.
Guards May Be Called To Camp Wednesday.
State Authorities Decide Upon Prompt Action
To Break Up Further Attempts at Interference With Enlistments in Buck-eye Unite.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Columbus, Ohio, June 25.—There will be a delay in mobilization of troops at the big camp here, and none is to be ordered in before Wednesday because of the lack of equipment from the Federal Government. Equipment is needed for more than 8,000 men, and nothing has arrived.
Army regulations provide that when, under call of the President, state troops are called out for service, the War Department will furnish uniforms and other equipment an arms to care for the men who are in excess of the peace strength of the guard without formal requisitions.
Adjutant General Hough has proceeded on this theory. Thus far he has not received notice of the shipment of any supplies. Until they are shipped men will not be mobilized.
Decide on Prompt Action
The state authorities to-day decided on prompt action to break up further attempts at interference with enlistments. Judge Advocate general Robert J. Turney, of Cleveland, has been assigned to assist Attorney-General Edward C. Turner to show the power of the military arm of the state.
At Toledo and Xenia attempts have been made to secure release of men from the guard by habeas corpus proceedings. The Federal Courts may be appealed to in order that the attacks on the guard may be ended. If Sheriffs interfere there may be assertion of the superior power of the military.
While Governor Willis is deeply chagrined that at any city in the state such a situation would develop, he is full of fight since he has been informed of some of the antecedents of the factional trouble. He has pledged the full strength of the Administration to Adjutant General Hough in forcing to a final test the questions raised. There will be no back-tracking. That has been positively determined by the state authorities.
Governor Willis feels there has been a great work done the past week by the National Guard of Ohio. Without preliminary notice the call to the colors came.
Doubled in Number
Within the week the enlisted men of the guard have been doubled in number, the big mobilization camp laid out and put nearly ready for use, nearly four miles of sewer been constructed, enormous storehouses constructed, kitchens and other buildings required are nearly completed, electric light, telephone and telegraph wires put in place, over a mile of street-car track laid and in operation, a postoffice established and put in service, enormous stores purchased, 50 cars of camp equipment and field hospital supplies moved from Camp Perry, rations for men and beast purchased in train-load lots and the whole organization brought up to the minute without excitement or flurry.
To-day the big motor ditcher used in sewer ditching broke down, but after a few hours a big manufacturing plant assembled its men and put the machine in working shape again. There has been quick co-operation from every source in the state with the guard in putting the camp preparations along.
Major K.I. Best, guard architect, who was in command of the construction of guard armories over the state, helped the construction of camp buildings by transferring all his workmen at all points to Columbus. He brought the contractors and foremen and had seasoned organizations to take charge of every piece of work. The big storehouses and other buildings have gone ahead without delay under his direction.
Major Darby in Charge.
Major John C. Darby, of Cleveland, has command of the sanitary conditions at the campus sanitary inspector. He has absolute command to enforce full safety of health. The delay in ordering the troops in is wholly a matter of health preparations. federal and guard officials and State and City Board of Health are all co-operating in the health precautions taken. Adjutant General Hough has positively refused to hurry any troops in until the camp is disease proof. In that position he has the full support of Governor Willis.
To-day two companies of the Fourth Regiment went to the camp to prevent the grounds being overrun by visitors and sightseers. The Ninth Battalion had plenty of other work to do and the two companies had plenty to stop the thousands who had a good-natured curiosity to see a large military camp being put in preparation. They estimated they turned back 20,000 persons to-day.
The men engaged in putting the improvements in worked all day and to-night a big gang is pushing the work ahead. another day of sunshine and the end will be at hand, officials said to-night.
Columbus had its first military religious service in public to-day since the call came and the men went on duty. The headquarters companies of the Fourth Regiment under Colonel Byron L. Barger and staff, assembled at Goodale Park, where Chaplain Avery Clinger held services. Many thousands of citizens were at the services. Several nearby churches dismissed their services and joined the worshippers in the park. Music was furnished by the Fourth Regiment band.
Horses purchased for the Ohio Guard are being corralled at the bans in the State Fair Grounds as fast as they reach the city. More than 100 were brought in yesterday and a train load is expected to-morrow morning. They are inspected by State Veterinarian Dr. A.S. Cooley, of Cleveland, as a further measure of protection against contagious diseases. There is room at the Fair Grounds for many hundreds of the animals and fine facilities for handling them and making them familiar with the work they will have to do.
Plans for turning Camp Willis in to a permanent army camp, to be used in conjunction with the Columbus barracks, are being discussed by guardsmen here who say that the Federal Government is working to that end. The improvements that are now nearing completion may be permanent.
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Crowd Cheers Third.
Dayton Troops, Come Without Equipment, Go Through Drills.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Dayton, Ohio, June 26.—Military activity was in evidence in all sections of the city to-day and large crowds witnessed the scenes enacted at the Fair Grounds, Armory and the recruiting stations. Many names were added to the rolls of the Third Regiment which is almost at war strength with nearly 1,200 troops.
Colonel R.L. Hubler has received orders from Adjutant General Hough to begin the movement of troops to Columbus Tuesday, with Company L, of Sidney. Headquarters company, band and sanitary detachment, and Companies G, H and K, of this city, and the machine gun company are included. Company B will be picked up at Springfield.
Company A, of Covington; C, of Piqua; D, of Urbana, and M, of Greenville, will proceed direct to Columbus from their respective stations. Company E, of Hamilton; Company F, of Middletown, and Company I, of Xenia, will entrain in a body.
Company G, quartered at the Dayton Fair Grounds, went through rigid drill exercises to-day. A large crowd cheered them. The “rookies” appeared without uniform and many without equipment. No attempt will be made to furnish uniforms or military equipment until the state camp is reached.
The Dayton Bicycle Club has arranged to conduct a supply depot and will send bundles, parcels valuables and money to the members of the Third Regiment. For some time an effort has been made to raise a fund of $5,000 to $10,000 for the regiment.
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Taggart Swamped.
With Telegrams From Indianians Who Wish To Be Officers.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Washington, June 25.—If Senator Taggart carries out his plan to raise a regiment of Indianians for service in Mexico he will not be handicapped by a lack of officers.
The Senator was bombarded to-day with telegrams from Indianians who would like to be officers in the Taggart regiment. Nobody has yet telegraphed him for permission to go as a private, although it is expected there also will be no lack of privates.
There seems to be an impression that Taggart would be a fine boss to work for, even in the arduous pursuit of chasing Mexicans. Senator Taggart said that a soldier cannot do good work “unless there is plenty of fight in his boiler,” and that if he should be permitted to fit out a regiment to be taken to the front he will make it a point to see that the commissary is well equipped.
“I understand,” said Senator Taggart, “that the militia will be first called out, and that when the militia is in the field there will be consideration given to the calling of volunteers.”
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Aviation Centers
Are To Be Established Throughout Country To Train Birdmen.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
New York, June 25.—To provide a continuous aeronautical patrol of the border 10 aviation centers, with a chain of smaller stations between, are to be established at once. The military aviators are to be recruited from the National Guard and civilians who have taken up aviation.
Recruiting and training of operators has commenced. The War Department made arrangements to operate the Hempstead Plain aviation center, which is one mile from Garden City, L.I. Eight other aviation schools are available and are in running order at the present time. They are located at North Island, San Diego, Los Angeles, Newport News, Governor’s Island, Ithaca, buffalo and Jamaica Plains, Boston.
In Addition there also are available the following locations: Augusta, Ga.; Belmont Park, L.I.; Sheepshead Bay; College Park, Md.; the Aerodrome of the Aero Club of Illinois, and San Antonio, Texas.
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Thousands At Camp.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Charleston, W.Va., June 25.—Thousands of persons this afternoon went to Kanawha City, the mobilization camp of the Second Regiment of the West Virginia National Guard, now awaiting muster into the Federal service, to see the 12 companies on dress parade. Colonel Charles E. Morrison, commanding, made an inspection of the entire camp and expressed himself as well pleased with the regiment, which is increasing in strength each day.
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New Company Organized.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Evansville, Ind., June 25.—The military company being organized here by Lieutenant Colonel Julius Blum, upon orders from Adjutant General Frank L. Bridges, of the Indiana National Guard has enrolled nearly 50 members. Colonel Blum expects to have the company filled in two or three days, when it will depart for Ft. Benjamin Harrison at Indianapolis.
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Troops May Move To-Day.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Frankfort, Ky., June 25.—Orders for the Kentucky militiamen to move to Ft. Thomas are expected to-morrow. Company K, of Ashland, and the Signal Corps, of Lexington, will entrain at 5 o’clock Monday morning for the fort, where they will prepare the camp. Colonel Colston, of Louisville, came to Frankfort to-day to Governor Stanley regarding the movement of the First Regiment. The Governor was out of town, however, and his conference has been postponed until to-morrow.
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Leave Ashland Monday.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Ashland Ky., June 25.—K Company, of the Second Kentucky National Guard, will leave Monday evening for Ft. Thomas. Captain Poag was the first Captain in the state to report a full company. This afternoon the flag which L Company, of Ashland, carried during the Spanish-American War was presented to K Company.
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Clark Made Captain.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Hopkinsville, Ky., June 25.—E.W. Clark, former Captain of Company D, of this city, will leave early to-morrow morning for Murray to take charge of L Company, of which he has been appointed Captain. Captain Clark says he will prosecute a vigorous enlistment campaign to bring the company up to full war strength.
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Reception For Guardsmen.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Findlay, Ohio, June 25.—Citizens of Findlay this afternoon tendered A Company, Second Regiment, a public reception. In the morning the company attended church. Grand Army veterans, followed by Spanish War veterans, headed a parade to the theater. The company will leave for Columbus Tuesday.
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Ready For Front.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Wooster, Ohio, June 25—The hundred mark was passed to-day in recruiting Company D. Captain Limb has 102 men ready to go to the front.
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Recruits Are Added.
Special Dispatch to the Enquirer.
Wooster, Ohio, June 25—Captain Limb has added 35 recruits to D Company, Eighth Regiment, now having 102 men ready for service.
George Limb resigns from Company D as of Friday, June 30, 1916.
Shreve News
Shreve, Ohio
Friday, 7 July, 1916
pg 5
Court, County & General News.
George Limb Resigns.
Columbus, (Camp Willis), July 1.—First Lieut. George Limb of Company D of Wooster tendered his resignation, which was accepted Friday, June 30, and will leave for home Saturday or Sunday. He has been a member of Company D for twenty-three years.
Capt. M.R. Limb requested the boys of company D to take a ballot as to Lieut. Limb’s successor and Fred Redick was elected to fill the vacancy. Redick has been with company D for sixteen years and has been second lieutenant for five years. He rose from the ranks step by step.
William G. Jolliff was elected second lieutenant to succeed Redick. Jolliff has been in the company since 1913.
Lieut. Redick holds the distinction of never having missed a muster during the sixteen years that he has been a member of Company D.
Capt. Limb said this afternoon that affairs are moving fast in military circles and that Company D may possibly be on the way to the border in a few days. The boys are about equipped now. Drilling is the order of the morning and afternoon.
Corporal Ed. Ross is acting as barber. Bill Charlton made a barber chair. It is a first class one and is a fine piece of work. It is worthy of a place in the Wooster museum.
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In its description of the arrival of the Eighth regiment at Columbus news writers pays the following tribute to Colonel Vollrath and his soldier boys:
“Along a five-mile course crowded with a throng of cheering thousands, Colonel Edward Vollrath of Bucyrus, led the Eighth regiment, Ohio National Guard, into Camp Willis at 4:40 o’clock this evening.
“This, said to be the largest regiment ever entered into the federal service, was the first infantry unit of the Ohio guards to take quarters at the big mobilization camp preparatory to enlistment into the federal service and journeying to the Mexican border.
“Colonel Vollrath is the idol of his regiment. Though more than a score of invitations to ride in an automobile were proffered him, every offer was politely refused. He set the pace of his command during the five-mile hike.
“Admiration of regular army mustering officers of the national guard and the citizens of Columbus was heaped on Colonel Vollrath for the wonderful mass of soldiers he brought into camp. His command of 1856 officers and is above maximum war strength.”
The Democratic Banner
Mount Vernon, Ohio
Tuesday, 11 July 1916
pg 5
Cigars Not Wanted
By Co. D — Money Raised For Tobacco
Wooster, July 10—Walter Whitaker and former Mayor Van Over were busy Saturday gathering in subscriptions from the business section for the boys of Company D at Camp Willis. A goodly sum was collected and this will be taken to Camp Willis Sunday by some one of the many who will make the trip. The money will be handed to Captain M.L. Limb, who will use it for the Wooster boys.
“We want a little chewing and smoking tobacco,” is the word sent back by the Wooster boys. “Don’t send cigars.”
Unknown Wooster newspaper
Sunday, 26 November, 1916
pg. ?
CAPT. LIMB LOOKS FOR XMAS BOXES
He Tells of Mishap That Befell Two Wooster Boys
El Paso, Nov. 26—I have spent considerable time in investigating the cause of the accident to the machine in which Bricker and Jolliff were riding.
It seems that they were passing to the left of another machine and had just about gotten past when a big truck coming from the opposite direction caused Bricker, who was at the wheel, to turn sharply to the right, bringing him in front of the machine he was passing.
The truck, however, hit his front fender and may have hit the left front hub. This caused the machine to lose some of its speed, and of course the machine in the rear in an endeavor to pass without hitting him, pulled to the right, but in doing so, hit the right rear wheel, throwing Bricker’s machine up against a telegraph pole. Both boys in the front seat went through the wind shield. Both were given first aid in a very short time, but the report phoned to us was that Jolliff was fatally and Bricker seriously injured. After I saw both boys I sent first message.
Four or Five X-ray pictures have been taken of Jolliff, and there is no depression on the skull. The last two show no fracture. But he looks a sight, as does Bricker, from bruises and cuts, which, of course, will amount to nothing in the end, or when healed up.
Both have recognized Colonel Weybrecht and myself at all times, and both will be all right in a short time.
I’ll not burn up the wire unless there is something doing, and then you will get it straight as I see it. However, we have little sickness. Colds! Some of ys, yes, but there is little wonder when the weather is considered. Our nights are cold and days warm. I often wonder whet would have happened if we had not taken the shot in the art at Columbus. We have not had a death in our regiment. Rap! Rap! There have been 1200 men for six months in the field. I believe most of the men have gained from five to twenty-five pounds since they left home. I don’t say they are getting all they want. No man can do that, nor that there is not a grumble once in a while. However, that is to be expected, for it is as hard to find a man that won’t grumble once in a while as it is to find a man who is always satisfied with what he gets. Time smoothes all such things over.
It looks to me as though you might as well get that Christmas box ready, for the prospects of return before that time look slim.
Dalton Gazette
Dalton, Ohio
Thursday, 30 November, 1916
pg 1
Two Wooster Guardsmen on Border Injured.
J.C. Jolliff, sergeant in Co. D, Eighth regiment, was seriously hurt and Harrison Bricker, private in Co. D, slightly hurt in an automobile accident at El Paso, Tex., according to a message received Saturday from Captain Limb, the company commander. No details were given. Both victims are well-known Wooster young men.
1947
Wooster Daily Record
Wooster, Ohio
Monday, 22 September, 1947
pg 10
Wooster Long a Guard Service Center
Nearly 80 Years of Fine Service Back of Co. H As Wooster Guards
By Elisabeth Quinby
As the new mobile armored Company H, 145th Infantry, 37th Division, Ohio National Guard swings into a 60 day recruiting period it will be representing nearly 80 years of Wooster military tradition.
A long-forgotten record of achievement lies behind today’s Guardsmen.
Shortly after the Civil War a young high school faculty member — F.G. Steel — formed a small army of school boys. Himself a veteran of the Civil War, Steel directed his boys in military maneuvers strictly from the latest 19th Century ideas in warfare.
* * *
THE WANDS THEY used as weapons in storming the hill which then occupied the present site of the Bowman Street School are far different from the real guns and the modern vehicles with which Company H is equipped.
Later, when the Wooster City Guard was organized on October 4, 1879, many of the Steel Cadets exchanged their wands for the slow-loading and firing guns of their day.
Soon after the formation of the Guard, the group became Company D, 8th Regiment, Ohio National Guard.
ONLY FOUR MEN IN Wooster today know much about the early days of the Steel Cadets and Company D. They are Jack Russell, Joe Fischer, Reuben Bechtel, and Jesse Marshall.
All four men are in or nearing their eighties and Mr. Bechtel and Mr. Russell are the only surviving Wooster members of the Cadets.
Company D, with J.W. Clark as its first captain, was to have thirty-six strenuous years.
* * *
AN EARLY ASSIGNMENT came on May 8, 1880, to stand guard at Silver Creek during the coal strike. Its last assignment as a unit was in 1916, when Company D, as part of the U.S. Army, went on border duty at Las Cruces, New Mexico. The company was mustered out of U.S. service on March 22, 1917.
Following World War I in the fall of 1920 Governor Victor Donahey of Ohio called for the formation of a new local unit to be part of the 37th Division, which was then being formed.
Major Marcus R. Limb undertook the task, which resulted in the activation of Company K, 145th Infantry, Ohio National Guard. The company was sworn in on October 19, 1920. It served with distinction until 1928, when the company was moved to Akron and replaced with Company G, a unit commanded by Julius A. Stark, now chief of staff of Ohio’s 37th Division.
COMPANY G, THIRD REGIMENT, Ohio State Guard was activated during the war years and was commanded by Capt. Ross Weygandt of Wooster. It was de-activated at midnight on September 12, 1947.
Newest Wooster military unit is Company H, Ohio National Guard, which was activated earlier this year. Capt. Charles McDlarran of Wooster is its commander. Lieutenants are Alfred Coppola, Ira Ryder, jr., and Paul Malarkey.
All the long years of the preceding units are studded with historic assignments and outstanding honors won in various competitions.
In February, 1881, the City Guard was mustered in for state service as Company D, 8th Regiment, Ohio State Guard. Officers were J.W. Clark, captain; J.A. Ogden, first lieutenant; C.V. Hard, second lieutenant. In 1882 Pvt. James Taggart was appointed Regimental Quartermaster and Company D distinguished itself at the Toledo camp in September, 1882, for taking the $500 drilling prize.
* * *
THE YEAR 1884 WAS memorable for a number of things — the Company was called out on the Cincinnati strike, but was ordered home when they arrived at Orrville, the Company also served two strife-torn days at Ashland, protecting the jail and courthouse at the time of the hanging of Horn and Gribbens.
“The crowd at Ashland climbed over the high wooden fences,” Jack Russell recalls, “and finally they knocked one whole side down. They were determined to get in on the hangings, and they did.”
The active years rolled by. Company D was drilling at the old Academy of Music where the west store of the Freedlander Co. now stands. It later moved to the “old plow shop” better known in those days as the McDonald Agricultural Works located on Diamond Alley and South st. The building they used is still standing and was used as a warehouse by the McIntire Company until it was recently acquired by the William Annat Company here.
“We used the huge third floor of that building,” Jack Russell says, “One time we were drilling there and Jacob Snyder, a Union veteran, mistook the drill order and walked out the third floor door. He fell to the ground and was pretty well shaken up. We laughed about it all the rest of the years were were in the company.”
* * *
IN THEIR LATER DAYS, Company D moved to the old armory built by B.B. Lake on East North st. Modern Woosterians are still using that armory, which has been converted into bowling alleys.
In 1885 1st Lt. Hard was elected major, Robert Cameron 1st Lt. and D.W. Kimber, 2nd Lt. They went to Philadelphia that year for their prize drill.
Philadelphia was having a Soldier’s and Sasilor’s reunion at the time. Mr. Jack Russell remembers that the town was filled with colorful troops — the Lomax Rifles, the tough Bush Zouaves, the Houston Light Guards, the Montgomery Grays, and many others.
* * *
COMPANY D WAS NOT TO be outdone in sartorial splendor by their competitors.
“Potter and I,” says Mr. Russell, “put on our fine gray dress uniforms and went out to see Philadelphia in a big way. We thought we cut a good figure but not a single person spoke to us. Most of them took one look and turned away in disgust.
We wondered what was wrong. “Why,” we asked a Philadelphian we managed to corner. He glared at us. “No one in Philadelphia likes Southerners,” he told us. “An there we were all decked out in Confederate gray — with nothing else to put on.”
Company D camped at Gallion in 1887 and participated in a prize drill at Washington, D.C., a long trip in those days. The company went to Columbus for the parade at the opening of the Ohio Dentennial Exposition on September 22, 1888.
* * *
BECAUSE 1889 WAS THE year of the George Washington Centennial at New York City, Company D prepared for a long trip, a fine time and another national event to record on its log.
Jack Russell and Joe Fischer will never forget that trip.
“They marched us from the Battery clear up Main Street. While those cobblestone streets hurt our feet our spirits were high. All the way to our encampment just off the Bowery the people of New York showered paper down on the marching troops,” they recall.
That was the time also, that Brandon McClure of Company D proved once and for all that he was the champion pie-lover of them all. McClure his fellow troop members claim was afraid that he wouldn’t get his favorite dessert in the big city. He packed a whole grip full of those little 5-cent pies to fortify himself while we were encamped at New York, and for snacks along the way.”
McClure was the subject of another pie story — the pre-Battle of Christmas Run fracas when Guy Teeple stole McClure’s hoarded berry pie and caused a one man revolution.
* * *
NO ONE SEEMS to know quite when the Battle of Christmas Run took place, but he survivors all agree that it was the Battle of the Century, so far as Wayne County, Ohio, was concerned. Nearest guess at the date is in the early 1890’s.
The warriors gathered for lunch out on the old fairgrounds which were then on the Lincoln highway, west of Wooster, alongside Christmas Run.
Not only Company D was involved in the mock battle, but also members of the G.A.R. and the Lakeville Guards.
It began in earnest after lunch, lasted until dusk. Old soldiers grounded their arms and fought hand to hand as the battle fury increased.
Cal Spear had brought his horse for the occasion.
* * *
‘HE RODE LIKE A GREAT general right in the thick of battle,” Jesse Marshall says. “Sam Hildebrand was one of the wounded — with his cap blown off and his face burned with gunpowder — spite of the ruling that no real ammunition was to be used.”
A haze from the battlefield rose into the murky day and hung all afternoon about fifteen feet above the battling heroes.
McClure was the only pre-battle casualty. His uniform was badly stained with berry juice from the stolen pie which Teeple finally threw at him. McClure was at that time a noted strawberry grower, and Teeple was the scion of the family which owned Teeple’s Galleries, a photographic studio on the southeast corner of the Public Square. It stood where the New Quinby building now stands.
While Capt. J.A. Ogden headed Company D, the men in the ranks were constantly on the alert for his unpredictable orders.
* * *
“ONE THAT I REMEMBER,” says Jack Russell, “is Fours right, double time, HALT.”
Those were the years of the 16-man roller skating platoon which executed perfect drills on skates. The unpredictable orders once caught Mr. Russell and his skating partner, Harry Pearson, in a tight spot. They broke up the figure when they were unable to stop, and wound up sailing through the armory in opposite directions.
It was Capt. Ogden too, who routed out a Company D honor guard of twenty-four men on one of the coldest nights Wayne County ever had. The men went up to the Hart home on Larwill st., Wooster, to fire a salute in honor of Dr. Hugh Hart, father of Wayne Hart, of Wooster. Dr. Hart had just been appointed surgeon general of Ohio by Governor Campbell.
“The men were half frozen, but they did their duty happily for their fellow member,” Jesse Marshall recalls.
In the spring of 1890 Capt. Ogden resigned his post because he was moving away from Wooster. The company also lost its second lieutenant, Forbes Alcock, who was later to head the Canton Wrights, one of the crack drill teams of the country.
* * *
UNDER THE NEWLY ELECTED Capt. W.J. Mullens, the regiment encampment at Massillon, July 29-August 3, 1890, was the high spot of the year.
“No one ever forgot Massillon,” Jesse Marshall says. “That was the time the police department got so mad at Company D that they arrested the whole bunch, took them down to the mayor’s office, and held them until 2 a.m.”
Cause of Company D’s wholesale arrest started with the sudden hatred they had worked up against a newspaperman named Skinner.
Skinner printed a story in the Massillon paper comparing the Eighth Regiment with the tramps who had killed a policeman up the railroad tracks a piece — and then had had the nerve to come out to the enraged encampment.
“We caught him, got a tent fly ready, put him in and tossed him in the air till he cried for mercy. He was really scared,” Jack Russell describes the prank. “The citizens of Massillon didn’t like it.”
When “the law” arrived instead of taking the whole regiment, they arrested Company D.
* * *
“I ALWAYS GIVE VOLRATH credit for using his head at that time,” Marshall adds. “He was a lawyer and told Company D to appoint three or four members to take the blame for tossing Skinner in the fly.”
“Then he furnished Wayne County bonds instead of the Stark County variety, and everyone finally walked away, free men.
“The sheriff caught on and came out for us — but by that time the Company had gone back to Wooster.”
That November Sgt. Joe Fischer, one of the three living Wooster members of Company D was elected second lieutenant.
The 1891 was another year the company never forgot. It was then in the heyday of its long history. They had few outside interests in those days, which accounts for the enormous amount of time the members devoted to hard workouts with the company. The incidents that are recalled today are mainly the out-of-the ordinary ones which brought laughter into a serious project.
* * *
THEY CAMPED AT MEYERS LAKE, near Canton, from August 18 until August 24 in 1891.
“The greatest temptation there, besides stealing one of the lake boats for a hair-raising cruise, was the straw stack,” Jesse Marshall says. “We finally had to throw a guard around it day and night to keep someone from sneaking up and settling it on fire.”
Company D’s history includes attending the World’s Fair at Chicago in 1893, official duty in the coal strike in Belmont and Guernsey Counties in June, 1894. Lt. Joseph Fischer resigned on July 12, 1894 with First Sgt. M.R. Limb (later Mayor of Wooster) elected to take Fischer’s place. The Company made a practice march to Chippewa Lake and back in 1895 and the big event of 1896 was attending the inauguration of Gov. William McKinley at Columbus.
As the Spanich-American War approached, officers in Company D changed rapidly. By the time war was declared in 1898, F.C. Gerlach was captain.
* * *
THE ORDER TO ASSEMBLE, for the Spanish-American war was given on April 28, 1898. Company D went to Akron to join its regiment and thence to Camp Bushnell at Columbus. Members were mustered in to United States service as Company D, 8th Regiment, O.V.I. and ordered to Camp Alger near Falk Church, Va. The 8th Ohio became part of the second brigade, First Division, Second Army Corps, along with the 6th Illinois and the 6th Massachusetts. Brig. Gen. G.A. Garrettson was commander. The 8th O.V.I. was designated as President’s Own, and left New York aboard the U.S.S. St. Paul on July 6. They reached Santiago on July 10, camped near Aguadoras River, and later on Seville Hill.
In August, when they were encamped on San Juan Hill, the 8th OVI was ordered to embark on the Mohawk for New York. Members of Company D were finally discharged officially on November 21, 1898.
Company D stayed in service as a detached company assigned to the Eighth regiment. The company camped during the summer of 1899 at Cedar Point. Meanwhile, the regular training was being kept up, and in 1900 Company D took second place at St. Louis in competitive drill. Also in 1900, the company attended the inauguration of Gov. Nash at Columbus.
“Mind the time Sammy Hildebrand slipped on a banana peel when we were marching in Columbus,” Jack Russell reminded Jesse Marshall.
* * *
“DID HE FLOP! I thought he was really going some place,” chuckled Marshall.
President McKinley’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., was attended in force by Company D. That year the Company went to the Buffalo Exposition and had a side trip to Niagara Falls. They took second prize in competitive drill at the Columbus State Fair, September 4. In September, also, they attended the President’s funeral at Canton.
The Company, although still going strong, was becoming more involved in other activities, other interests. Many of them went into the famed Canton Wrights, along with their old second lieutenant Forbes Alcick — who by this time was beginning to be weighed down with the medals he’d received as commander of the drill team.
In 1903, when James B. Rahl of Wooster, was serving as second lieutenant, the company “received new 1898 model rifles and participated in regular Army maneuvers at West Point, Ky,” according to the record. They served in the coal strike crisis at Jefferson Co., O., in 1906, attended the Taft inauguration in 1909, stood flood service at Zanesville in 1914.
The latter turned out to be something of an adventure for the company, since railroad communications were cut off in all directions from Wooster, and the company first attempted to find passage out through the bottoms toward Shreve. At noon they arranged passage over the Erie at Creston, packed baggage and supplies in wagons, and walked to Creston. A number of shifts brought them to Columbus, then to Lancaster, where ten boats took them eventually to Zanesville. Baggage had to be transported over the intervening bridges by handcar.
In 1916, Company D was called into service during the Youngstown strike in January. In July of that year the company, with 138 men and three officers, was mustered into United States service.
Twenty-eight of the men were eliminated in the physical examination, and — to Company D’s sorrow — one member deserted.
* * *
CAPT. M.R. LIMB, 1st Lt. Fred C. Redick and 2nd Lt. William Jolliff and Company D left on August 31 for El Paso, Texas. On Sept. 28th the company was assigned to border duty at Las Cruses, N.M. The company was ordered to Fort Benjamin Harrison for mustering out on March 22, 1917.
Back in Wooster there were still a few months before Company D was called to action, July 15, in World War I. Lt. Jolliff had resigned, with 1st Sgt. Walter R. Yost commissioned 2nd lieutenant to take his place.
Company D had come a long way from the Steel Cadets who stormed the old tree on the Bowman street hill fifty years before World War I.
The company roster back in the heyday of Co. D is incomplete because of scanty records. It includes many family names that are still well-known in modern Wooster —
* * *
THERE WERE HUGH ANNANT, James Taggart, Ross Funk, Ed Hard, Irvin McClarran, Joe Keister, and Samuel Hildebrandt;
Jack Russell, Ed Gray, Curt Snyder, Charles Barrett, Charles Worley, Harry Pearson, Dr. Brown, Sherman Lundy, John Potter, Dr. Whitmore, Harry Deemer, and Brandon McClure;
Charles Zimmerman, James Shamp, Charles Clark, Jacob Snyder, Charles Weber, Will McClure, Frank Smith, Jim Peppers, John Reamer, John Keller, Dr. Hessler and Will Myers;
Horace H. Clemmons, George Winters, Lou Cook, William Banker, Lynn Jeffries, Harry Imgard, Harry Floor, Fred Floor, Wesley Keller, C.V. Hard, James A. Ogden and Joseph Cumberland;
Rube Bechtel, Fred Faber, Joe Fischer, Frank Fletcher, Ed Bates, Al Peckinpaugh, Cal Spear, Fin Luce, Charles Clark, Will Allis, Frank Gott, Cary Taggart, Jud Proger, Charles Taylor, Bert Ebinger, Sam Bissell, Charles Curry, Charles Dice, James Glass, Harry Scovil, Guy Teeple, Will Shively, and Harry Kramer;
Jesse Marshall, Walter Potter, Julius Sugars, Addie Ross, Ross Wallace, William Long, Andrew King, Leander Geiselman, Jesse Spear, Jesse Wilhelm, Frank Motz, George Webb, Jesse Robison, Russell Smith, Emmett Manges, John Bloxhan, Robert Cameron, Forbes Alcock and many others, added each year until World War I.
* * *
AFTER WORLD WAR I, Company D was never reactivated. In its place Company K, 145th Infantry, Ohio National Guard was formed by Major Marcus R. Limb — long active in Company D — at the request of Governor Victor Donahey.
Company K was to be part of the 37th Division then forming. It was on October 19, 1920, that Company K was sworn in. There were three officers and sixty men, about fifteen of whom were World War I veterans, the rest largely seniors in the Wooster high school class of that year.
Walter R. Yost, now Chief of Police in Wooster, was the first captain of Company K. The other officers were Julius Stark, now chief of staff of the 37th Division, O.N.G., and Edward Ross, Ralph Harpster was first sergeant; Ernest Martin, supply sergeant; Paul Lyon, mess sergeant; and Merle Conrad, clerk.
This organization achieved such a high degree of efficiency that it was placed on the Board, of Honor at President Warren Harding’s funeral at Marion, O., in 1923.
* * *
“PERHAPS THE MOST marked difference between Company K and its predecessors,” Capt. Yost says, “was the control of its administration and training by the regular army — for at this time one regular army instructor was constantly on duty with the organization to aid and assist in building its abilities up to the standard of requirement of the regular army.
“This standard had been required by the reorganization bill of 1916, which made the Guard responsible for 18 divisions of the 27 divisions then known as the First Line of Defense.”
In 1928 Company K was moved to Akron to assure that city of a full battalion of infantry, and was replaced with another unit — Company G, Ohio National Guard — which was commanded by Julius A. Stark. At that time Capt. Yost’s active participation ended.
* * *
IN EARLY SUMMER, 1941, Company G was called up to duty with the 37th Division, shortly before the United States entered World War II.
On Thursday, May 18, 1944, nearly three years after Wooster’s National Guard company entered regular army service, a meeting of the Board of Trade offices was announced to discuss the organization of a unit of the Ohio State Guard in Wooster.
On Friday evening at 8 p.m. details of the new company were fully discussed, and at a second meeting, on May 24, Ross S. Weygandt was recommended as commander of the new unit.
Several days later, Horace M. Doyle and Mayor Ralph E. Fisher were appointed as lieutenants in the unit. Doyle was appointed 1st Lieutenant, Fisher 2nd Lieutenant.
Drills were held in the Wooster Armory, which was leased from Ohio M. Yocum on May 31, 1944. Company G was formally mustered into service on Wednesday, June 16, 1944.
In slightly less than one month, after the decision to organize the State Guard unit in Wooster, a full company of 60 men had been mustered in. They attended Camp Light at Zaleski, Ohio, that first summer — leaving Sunday morning, July 16, with only a small part of the necessary equipment because delivery had been delayed.
Company G attended three annual training camps with members giving a good account of themselves at all of them, as Capt. Weygandt emphasized at last week’s farewell dinner.
Wooster’s latest military organization is Company H, 37th Division Ohio National Guard, which is commanded by Captain Charles McClarran of Wooster. Strength now stands at half of the authorized 150 enlisted men and 7 officers.
* * *
COMPANY H, ACTIVATED this spring, is a heavy weapons company and is the fourth lettered company of the Second Battalion of the 145th Infantry. The battalion is commanded by Lt. Col. William Morr, who distinguished himself in all of the campaigns of the 37th Division during World War II.
Close to the heart of Col. Julius Stark, of Wooster, chief of staff of the 37th Division, is his home company.
“A real job is confronting the people of Wooster in organizing and maintaining Company H,” Col. Stark points out.
Overall strength is seven officers and 150 enlisted men with enlistments extending over a period of twenty-four months.
Company H has leased the grandstand at the fairgrounds for use until a new armory is built in Wooster.
“I believe we will find many men who served in World War II most anxious to enlist in the organization, for various reasons,” Col. Stark says. “The pay, from an enlisted man’s viewpoint, will be the best in the history of the National Guard. This company will be composed almost entirely of specialists. It will be motorized and, at full strength, will have some forty motor vehicles.
“The type of training the organization will do cannot help but be interesting and should attract intelligent young men who are interested in preparing themselves to help in the defense of their country, should the occasion ever arise again.”
While come of the most urgently needed posts have already been opportunities are open for those enlisting in Company H, as Capt. McClarran has previously announced.
This modern-day motorized company is operating in a world that has come a long way from the turn of the century world.
But it will still have to go some to beat the record of achievement hung up more than half a century ago by the Steel Cadets and their successors in Company D, 8th Regiment, Ohio National Guard.
1948
Wooster Daily Record
Wooster, Ohio
Friday, 23 April, 1948
pgs 10-11
Observe Fiftieth Anniversary Of War With Spain
Group of Spanish War Veterans As They Appear Today
PHOTO w/caption: Following the April meeting of Buckeye Camp No. 51, members present at Memorial Hall posed for their golden anniversary portrait. Front row, left to right: George B. Webb, Harry L. McClarran, Arch H. Dice, Charles R. Scott, Robert J. Campbell, Frank P. Bedford, John W. Kostenbader, Percy Maize, junior vice commander; Charles E. King, commander; Lyman R. Critchfield. Back row, from left, William E. Barnard, Wiley K. Miller, Ernest A. Berry, William A. Conrad, William Ernst, Fred J. Leopold, W.B. Swartz, senior vice commander; John C. McKeever, Frank G. Gray.
PHOTO w/caption: Lt. George Limb, of Wooster, has a whole series of pictures which he took both in the U.S. and in Cuba. This one shows the landing of Company D at Siboney, Cuba, two boat loads being shown pulling away from the Transport St. Paul.
PHOTO w/caption: Barracks such as these were used to house Company D men in their brief training period at Falls Church, Va.
PHOTO w/caption: E.A. Berry, Wooster nurseryman, treasures this picture taken when Company H, of Shreve, landed upon its return from Cuba. While the figures are somewhat dim, those near the front, left to right are Gen. A.B. Critchfield (a captain then), E.A. Berry (just the back of him), Charles White, former Deputy Sheriff Sam Manson, Walter Robison, Chas. Clewell, Charles Christopher and William Downing. The Robinson family had a father and two sons in the service. Clewell’s mother is still a resident of Shreve, probably the only mother of a Spanish War veteran living in this vicinity.
PHOTO w/caption: This picture was taken, April 26th, 1898, when Company D, 8th Regiment, O.V.I. entrained at the Pennsylvania depot and was off for war in Cuba. The photographer was looking west, the building in the left background being the depot. Note the clothes and the buggy in the foreground.
Vets Recall Events Of Conflict In Which Disease Took Big Toll
by Elisabeth Quinby
“Forever in thine eyes, O Liberty, shines that pure light whereby the world is saved, and though thou slay me, yet will I trust in thee.”
— LYMAN CRITCHFIELD, jr. (in letter home, 1898)
Two world wars and current strife in the Far East and in Europe have over shadowed the short hazardous war the United States fought with Spain half a century ago.
Sunday, April 25, is the 50th anniversary of the official call for United States troops to fight in the Spanish-American War.
In Wooster and Doylestown and Orrville, in Shreve, Millersburg, Medina, Creston, Killbuck, Smithville, Marshallville, Loudonville, Apple Creek, Big Prairie — in hundreds of villages and cities the golden anniversary will pass quietly.
But those who survived the ordeal by disease, lack of food, and skirmishes with Spanish troops, will not ever forget the war months in 1898.
On February 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine was hit and sunk in Havana harbor, with the loss of some 200 lives.
Egged on by the Hearst press in particular, the country was seething until the war call came on April 25.
In the spring of 1898 the Eighth Regiment, Ohio National Guard, possessed a complete 12 company formation: A. Bucyrus; B. Akron; C. Polk; D. Wooster; E. East Liverpool; F. Canton; G. Wadsworth; H. Shreve; I. Canton; K. Alliance; L. Canton; and M. Mansfield.
President William McKinley’s home city, Canton, was represented by three companies — and Ohi’s Eighth Regiment was to become famous as “McKinley’s Own.”
On April 23, 1898, Col. Curtis V. Hard, commanding officer of the 8th Regiment, O.N.G., was informed the call for troops would be made Monday, April 25.
Capt. F.C. Gerlach of Wooster rounded up his men Sunday morning, went with them to a special war-eve service at the Wooster Methodist Episcopal church that night. Rev. J. Frank Smith took his text from Samuel 2, 10:12: “Be of good courage; Let us pray for the men, for our people and the cities of our God.”
Men of Wooster’s Company D could not know that night that they were going to meet death chiefly from pestilence — yellow fever and dysentery — instead of bullets.
(Many years later, at a Memorial Day service in Wooster, the late Edwin Slusser Wertz landed the 1898 U.S. Army as having been the direct influence in vast improvement in health and diet conditions for American soldiers in later years.)
On the26th of April, 1898, the 8th Regiment was assembled at Akron, and two days later proceeded to Camp Bushnell, Columbus, where it was mustered into U.S. service as the 8th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, on May 13, 1898.
MEANTIME, back in Wooster, outstanding citizens of the community chipped in a total of $395.50, with which a bay horse was bought for Col. C.V. Hard and a seal brown horse for Chaplain I.N. Keiffer, beloved confident of the Wooster contingent. Col. Hard’s horse was named “General Wooster;” the horse given to Chaplain Keiffer was “Martin Luther, Jr.”
A dispatch from Camp Bushnell to the Wooster Republican on May 2, 1898, brought news of food gripes and of Cpl. Charlie Scott’s appointment to chief of police duty. “Assistants are Will Curry, Pete Miller, and Blondy Plank. Can you guess the reason why? (oversleep), runs the news item.
On May 16, the 8th Ohio was ordered to Camp Alger, in Fairfax county, near Falls church, Virginia. The camp was only nine miles from Washington, D.C. Crowds from the capital city came out daily to view the troops on parade.
ALL ALONG the way to Camp Alger the troops were greeted by mobs of cheering citizens. At the camp the 8th Ohio waited impatiently for orders to proceed to the front, in Cuba. Rumors flew — the 8th was going to Washington, to Puerto Rico, back to Columbus, out to Manila, where Dewey was attempting to take the Philippine Island for the United States.
The 8th Ohio was one of the earliest regiments to reach Camp Alger, which became one of the great permanent camps of the Spanish-American War. The camp was at Woodburn Manor, near Bull Run, one of the historic spots of the war between the states. Regiment members griped about food — in the historic manner of troops — about the long overdue pay, and about the camp’s being far from civilization.
Among celebrities of the regiment were Chaplain Keiffer, who was to die suddenly before the troops left for Cuba; Capt. Ammon B. Critchfield, of Shreve’s Co. H, “weighing 294 pounds, jovial and brave;” Capt. F.C. Gerlach of Wooster, Co. D, “the splendid young captain;” Col. C.V. Hard, “erect on his elegant bay, dignified, unimpassioned.”
Back in Wooster, 1st Sgt. Arch Dice was recruiting additional men. More than 40 men were added to the company rolls before he returned to Camp Alger. A fellow passenger on the trip was Chaplain Keiffer, who became ill soon after arriving in camp.
In June, Col. Hard, commander of the 8th O.V.I., wired back news of the sudden death of Chaplain I.N. Keiffer.
THE CHAPLAIN, who was president of Century club here when he left from military service, had been feeling ill for some days.
“I talked with him a few hours before his death, and both of us agreed he was improving,” Col. Hard wired back to Wooster. “At 3:45 a.m. the attendant was startled to hear him gasp. Assistant Surgeon Wuchter, of Wadsworth, who tented next door, heard him and rushed in. He gasped again and was dead. The cause was probably neuralgia of the heart. Officers and men of the regiment are all thoroughly dejected.
To replace Chaplain Keiffer, Col. Hard recommended the Rev. Dr. J.O. Campbell, minister of the United Presbyterian church, Wooster.
— ADD SPANISH WAY
In his farewell sermon at the church before leaving for the front, the Rev. Dr. Campbell told his overflow congregation: “American arms are triumphant on the hill tops around Santiago, and are sweeping Spain’s navies from the seas. God always writes with a legible hand . . .”
On the 4th of July, 1898, orders were received by Col. hard to move his regiment to New York City, to take the U.S.S. St. Paul for Cuba. The ship was in command of Captain Sigsbee, who was in command of the Maine at the time it was destroyed in Havana harbor.
The ship left the evening of July 6 for Santiago. During the voyage the 8th Ohio had some diversion for the St. Paul chased several suspect vessels.
TROOPS WERE instructed to land at Siboney, about 12 miles down the coast from Santiago.
Arrival of the U.S.S. St. Paul on July 12 brought a special entry in the diary of the British Consul in Havana, Mr. Ramsden. “The sight of the 8th Regiment as reinforcements increased the despondency of the Spanish for their cause,” Mr. Ramsden observed.
“As soon as all were landed, the advance over the mountain trails was begun. “The heat was oppressive and the tropical sun beat down hard upon the heads of the boys from northern Ohio . . .” runs a dispatch from Cuba to the Wooster Daily Republican. The men saw many crude fresh graves, over which the buzzards hovered.
All through the war, which was officially over late in August, 1898, Lyman Critchfield, Jr. — known to succeeding generations in Wayne Co. as Judge L.R. Critchfield — kept up a running account of 8th Ohio news. Other correspondents signed themselves “Sgt. Slim” and “High Private.”
As they marched to encamp after landing at Siboney, the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry saw fresh graves along the road. Col. Hard received orders to encamp his regiment on the east bank of the Aguadores river.
THE CAMP was wet and unhealthy. From the time of muster in and muster out the regiment was to lose 106 men — with more deaths added the following year from conditions directly traceable to the Spanish American War.
Although Col. Hard asked and received permission to change the location of the camp to Sevilla Hill, the entire stay in Cuba was a constant struggle against disease.
The regimental graveyard was in a secluded spot high on the hillside and commanding a view of Santiago, five miles away. Irvin Lautzenheiser was the first regimental death in Cuba. Famous “Round Robin” letter signed by every officer in the entire army of Santiago protested against the circumstances which endangered the health of their troops.
Part of the Ohio men had gone into the signal corps — and, like Fred Leopold of Wooster, spent the war months in Puerto Rico. Spain progested the American landing on that island and tendered a peace proposal. (“Young” King Alphonso of Spain was ill at the time with the measles.)
On July 23, Col. Hard wired to Wooster: “Eighth All Well — notify towns interested.”
RUMORS OF THE disease which was striking down the 8th Ohio in Cuba still made a nightmare of the summer of ’98 for the families in this district.
Lt. Col. Charles Dick of the 8th Ohio was selected to return to the United States to confer with President McKinley on conditions in Cuba.
Lyman Critchfield wrote home: “The health of the 8th is good, of Co. D, excellent . . . Our precautions for preserving our health are strict. We boil all our water and do not eat the fruit here. Our rations are slim, but we expect them to be better soon.
“The boys are singing and joking and discussing war and fighting the Spaniards mentally. We have had no word from home since July 5. We have no drills and all the work is to cook our own meals and keep from starving. Between times the band plays “Yankee doodle” and we all shout and sing. At night we dream of being back in the States.”
In Puerto Rico, as July 1898, wore on into August, the headlines read: “Dons Fled Like Scared Rabbits From the Americans.” All our troops in Cuba were marching on San Juan.
YELLOW FEVER among troops in Cuba was rating scare headlines too, although the Wooster Daily Republican asserted there was not a case of the fever among members of the 8th Ohio.
“Last Saturday,” wrote Capt. F.C. Gerlach, “George Limb, Jerry Naftzger, Sterling Funk and myself walked to Siboney to get some things that were packed in our trunks.
“I had dinner with Capt. H.L. Kuhns. There was a report that there was yellow fever, but it was shown that it was not the genuine fever.”
To allay the spreading rumors, the 8th Ohio sanitary bulletins were published:
This is the way the war now stacked up:
Beginning of the war, Thursday, April 21, 7 a.m.
Admiral Sampson’s fleet sails from Key West to blockage ports of Cuba, Friday, April 22, 5:45 a.m.
First gun of the war fired by the gunboat Nashville, Friday, April 22.
First prize of the war — the Buena Ventura — captured by the Nashville, Friday, April 22.
The president asks for 125,000 volunteers, April 23.
Great naval battle fought in the harbor of Manila, P.I., and the Spanish fleet vessels destroyed by the U.S. squadron, in command of Commodore George Dewey, May 1.
Invasion of Cuba begun by the landing of 600 marines, June 10.
American troops at Guantanamo attacked by Spaniards, who were repulsed, June 11.
Second Manila expedition leaves San Francisco, June 15.
General assault — after previous victories — begun by the army and by ships at 7 a.m. July 1 and 2, the American troops capturing and holding the lines of the enemy.
Santiago de Cuba bombarded by the Fifth Army Corps on Sunday, July 10.
Pease overtures made by Spain announced by the authorities at Washington, Tuesday, July 26.
Army in Cuba ordered on August 4 to proceed to the new camp at Montauk Point, N.Y.
By August 5, General Miles had reached many miles in the interior of Puerto Rico, and the Spaniards were on the run.
Spain’s acceptance of our peace terms submitted to the president, August 9, 1898.
“HOME HOME,” ran the August 6 dispatch headline in the Wooster Daily Republican. “The longing words of sick soldier boys.”
Foul food, or no food at all, foul living conditions, foul everything in Cuba were behind the 8th Ohio survivors.
On August 5, Col. Hard was notified to have his troops in readiness for the trip north. “All men will be examined for yellow fever, and all suspect cases will be left behind. Tents will be left standing and only private horses will be embarked,” ran the official orders.
“All clothing and bedding that can be spared will be turned in to prevent infection.”
(Those were the days before the dread yellow fever had been traced to a certain breed of mosquitoes.)
On August 10, the entire regiment was re-united and encamped on famed San Juan Hill. On the 16th of August orders were received that the 8th Ohio was to embark on the U.S.S. Mohawk, a transport that had just landed 1200 miles away on Puerto Rico.
“The sick and emaciated 8th Regiment went north, with two deaths at sea. A number had been left behind in Cuban hospitals. We’ll have ?? camp until ?? September ?? sixty days’ furlough until mustering out on November 10, at Wooster,” goes the published account of the trip home.
Tragedy was still to hit many households in this county.
August 22, in a story datelined Burbank, Ohio, a typical story is told: “While Mr. and Mrs. David Naftzger were attending the camp meeting at Pleasant Home yesterday, a man whose horses were almost white with sweat drove up to the grounds and found Mr. and Mrs. Naftzger and told them that there was a death message at their home.
“Mrs. Naftzger exclaimed with pitiful accents, ‘Oh, I know who it is. It is my boy,’ and fainted dead away and had to be carried to their carriage.”
Fern N. Naftzger, their only son, had died of yellow fever in Santiago. He was only 19 years old.
After the 8th Regiment, O.V.I. landed in the States, the county was stirred by accounts of illness. There was a mass meeting in the Wooster Opera House, which resulted in Harry McClarran and Andrew Branstetter starting at 2 a.m. for New York, with $353.06 to be used in caring for sick Wooster soldiers.
COL. CURTIS HARD was attacked in the press following cessation of the war, for the “skeletal” condition of his troops on arrival at New York. Chaplain Campbell and the 8th Ohio Regiment came to his defense.
Lyman Critchfield reported that “some of the boys brought parrots with them. Co. D has one. We are teaching it to swear and use rude words in the English language. It talks Spanish now.”
The war was over.
Sick and dying soldiers still were hospitalized at Montauk Point, N.Y. Rumored deaths added to the anxiety of families back home.
Then the Wooster paper headlined:
“HARK, THE SIGNAL BELL. Twice it Will Ring for Our Own Boys: When They Leave New York and Are Within an Hour of Wooster.”
There was to be a formal reception at the depot, a parade, a supper at the armory, a 7:30 p.m. parade and fire works, a reception at the Opera House at 8 p.m.
Fire Chief Gerlach was primed to give the special signal by repeating the fire alarm three times in a 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 sequence.
Company D, of Wooster, Company H, of Shreve, and the other companies in the 8th Ohio, came home to royal welcomes.
ON NOVEMBER 10, 1898, Company D reached Wooster. On November 11 they staged a full dress parade. The last full dress parade under Major Edward Vollrath of Bucyrus, came on November 18.
(Even the University of Wooster, through President Sylvester F. Scovel, invited the troops to an impromptu open house on the college campus.)
The regiment ? forgot its gallant band. They agreed: “In the dark days before Santiago, it was as a cooling draught to the fevered brain, to the weak, sick, and ragged boys of the 8th Ohio to hear the inspiring strains of the regimental band come floating over the hills at eventide.”
On November 21 — it was a Monday — the 8th Ohio Regiment, O.V.I., was mustered out. They were never to be together again as a regiment.
But, in 1906 Buckeye Camp No. 51, United Spanish War veterans was chartered on April 2. The camp still meets in Memorial hall on the first Monday of each month.
There are now 58 members of Buckeye Camp No. 51. Officers are: Charles King, Madisonburg, commander; W.B. Swartz, Wooster, senior vice commander; Percy Maize, R.D. Wooster, junior vice commander; Wiley K. Miller, Wooster, quartermaster; Fred Leopold, Wooster, adjutant.
Members of the camp celebrated Muster Day a week early this year, with a dinner on Sunday, April 18. A week from the 50th anniversary date, the entire north-eastern Ohio Booster of Spanish American war veterans and auxiliary members will come to Wooster for an all-day meeting.
The national association of the Spanish American veterans has been invited by Cuba to hold the annual fall convention there this year — but plans are being held up by a transportation bottleneck, Wooster veterans say.
Buckeye Camp, No. 51, United Spanish War Veterans, includes the following members today:
Resident Members — Barnard, William E.; Berry, Ernest A.; Bersch, Albert W.; Conrad, William A.; Critchfield, Lyman R.; Curry, William R.; Dice, Arch H.; Gray, Frank G.; Johnson, Merton R.; Jolliff, Harvey; King, Charles F.; Kinkler, Harry.
Kostenbader, John W.; Langell, Clem E.; Leopold, Fred J.; Limb, George S.; Maize, Percy; McClarran, Harry L.; Merkel, Eugene D.; Milham, Arthur R.; Miller, Wiley K.; Rush, Ray; Scott, Charles R.; Swartz, William B.; Unger, Gus W.; Webb, George B.; Willford, L.R.
Non-Resident Members — Bedford, Frank P., Killbuck; Bensinger, Oliver, Rittman; Bird, Charles E., Loudonville; Brown, Thomas, Cleveland; Buchanan, Sam E., Creston; Campbell, Robert J., Shreve; Chance, Alfred R., Seville; Dewar, James, Dayton; Emrick, Edward, Medina; Ernst, William, Shreve.
Gensemer, Dubs K., Creston; Isch Elmer, Marshallville; Lautzenheiser, Perrine, Hudson, Mich.; Lemon, A.B., Millersburg; Manson, John C., Orrville; Marsh, Clarence B., Sandusky; Miehls, William A., Orrville; Merillat, Oliver B., Millersburg; Miller, Bert R., Shreve; Mumma, Lee R., Washington, D.C.
McFarland, Edgar, Columbus; McKeal, James, Shreve; McKeever, John C., Shreve; McKenzie, H.C., Big Prairie; Pontius, Lee, Orrville; Sterrett, William B., BridgePort, O.; Swartz, George, Barberton; Tanner, Wilbur, J., LeRoy; Werner, Samuel, Orrville; Zeber, George W., Harmony, Pa.
As soldiers always have, the Spanish-American troops thought they were fighting a final war.
Many of them have lived to find they were only starting on another 50 years of strife. Their sons and their grandsons have fought two major world wars.
Yet — they still feel the way they did when they volunteered in ’98.
“Forever in thine eyes, O Liberty, shines that pure light whereby the world is saved and though thou slayest me, yet will I trust in thee.”
* * * *
Complete Company D Roster
Complete roster of Company D, (Wooster), 8th Regt., O.V.I.
Col. Curtis V. Hard, of Wooster, commanding
OFFICERS
Captain F.C. Gerlach
First Lt. William E. Barnard
Second Lt. Gustave W. Unger
Sergeants: First, Arch H. Dice, Q.M., George S. Limb, Horace W. Miller, Harry P. Eaby, Louis E. Gasche, Frank B. Horn.
Corporals: Webster D. Horn, Harry D. Woolman, George M. Swarts, Charles R. Scott, Cary M. Grosenbach, Robert Cameron, Jr., LaVerne G. Cumberland, Charley E. Unger, Perrine Lautzenheiser, Sterling Funk, Will R. Curry, and Rhomas R. Stevens.
Musicians: Charles A. Heater, David H. Drushal.
Wagoner: Lloyd A. Naftzger
Privates: Howard R. Albright, John R. Barnes, William H. Baughman, Willard K. Beckley, George H. Blake, William H. Boyd, George W. Brown, Thomas P. Brown, Harry P. Branstetter, George Burg, William H. Bucher, Jr., Nathaniel C. Cameron, Sherman Carr, Louis W. Christine, Charles Christy.
Jerome E. Clark, Alvin Clay, Edward D. Conrad, Owen Creath, Lyman R. Critchfield, Wallace Criley, Joseph W. Kistler, Frank Kostenbader, Clement E. Langell, Irvin Lautzenheiser, William G. Lerch, Frederick J. Leopold, Chas. W. Linberger, Percy M. Maize, Edward Mahaney, Harry C. Miller, Edward H. Miller, Arthur R. Milham, Charley McKinney, Harry L. McClarran.
William G. McClelland, Howard Meseley, John P. Myers, Fern R. Naftzger, Willis Norris, Antonio Oltmanns, Harry F. Plank, Chas. E. Cumberland, Eddie W. Derr, Ralph W. Eddy, Edward Emrich, Jacob C. Fitler, Charles Fortney, Glenn, Jr., Joseph Glenn, Quinten Gravatt, William Welch Graves, Frank Guy Gray, James Greist.
Harry N. Heller, William H. Hughes, Earl O. Immler, Harry A. Jacobs, Harvey F. Jolliff, Merten R. Johnson, Harry Kinkler, Sinclair Pinnicks, Floyd Plum, Edmond Rieder, William R. Robertson, Amos L. Ross, William Schuch, Fred A. Schuch, Robert Segner, Jr., Vernon J. Smith, Olin Lee Smith, John F. Stotsberry, William A. Stotsberry, Charles C. Stotsberry, John T. Swarts, William Swartz, Edward Thomen, Samuel F. Weaver, George B. Webb, Calvin A. Winebrenner, Ephraim I. Yoder.
