The Story of My Life
(Taken from the Talk to Kiwanis, May 22, 1987)
by LAURENCE R. DAVIS
I was born December 14, 1905, in a town called Salem in Indiana. This Salem is located about 40 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. Millions of other people were born in a town called Salem, for I have discovered that there are three other towns in Indiana with this same name, Salem. Also, there are towns named Salem in many other of the States. Possibly it is so because in early versions of the Bible, the "abode of God" is referred to as "Salem." In modern versions it is "Jerusalem." So founders of towns called Salem wanted to live in the same town with God.
At any rate, Salem, Indiana, is now a town of 5,000 population. Probably it was about 2,000 when I was born. It was my home for the first 13 1/2 years of my life. I had two sisters, Thelma, three years older and Nellie, three years younger. The other important members of my family were my father Clarence C. Davis and my mother Clara Dobbins Davis, my grandparents, and David Buttorf who was like a grandfather to us. There were relatives of my mother and I recall many family gatherings.
My father was an orphan. His mother died in childbirth and he was taken in by a close friend of my mother. She later married David Buttorf and the two of them raised my father but never adopted him. My father's own father had come from Wales, England, and served in the Civil War, but we have little knowledge about him.
I will always remember my father as a worker. He worked as a cabinet finisher in a furniture factory in Salem for perhaps fifteen years after his marriage. Then he worked as a meat-cutter in a small packing plant in Salem owned by David Buttorf. The packing plant closed with the death of David Buttorf and he went back to work for another two or three years in the furniture factory until we moved out of Indiana. We always had a large garden of vegetables and we all did some work in it at times. We also had chickens and collected eggs daily. Each of us had chores to do and mine included keeping the wood box filled and helping in the garden and taking care of the chickens. In the fall we collected black walnuts and my job was to knock off the hulls leaving my hands stained brown.
My mother never worked outside the home but she was a worker in the home, cooking and canning and washing. I remember she did take on a job in World War I when she and other women joined together to do piece-work sewing to make wool shirts for soldiers in the army. It was for the government but the work was done at home. My boyhood was a happy one. We had many boys and girls living in the neighborhood and we never lacked for companionship. I remember large maple trees on the edges of our years and they were great for climbing. There was also a barn with a hay mow at the edge of the chicken yard. I remember a swimming pool for boys only about a mile from our home underneath a railroad bridge. We did not have swimming trunks so were supposed to keep under water when a train went by. My grandfather took me fishing and I caught some small fish and he likewise, but he also caught some turtles which were the base for good turtle soup. Our grandmother took all three of us berry picking on occasion and we usually came back home with two gallons for each of us of luscious blackberries which were canned for the winter. On one summer I had a billy goat for a pet and trained him to pull a two wheel cart about the neighborhood.
I do recall going to Sunday School. The teacher for us boys of about ten years of age was a lawyer who took us on Sunday afternoon hikes in the summer time. Later he was our scoutmaster and I recall hikes and one summer camp on the little Blue River near Salem. We fished and also caught bull frogs and fried their legs over an open fire.
I enjoyed elementary school also and remember well two teachers, one a woman by the name of Brady Schrum who gave me and others a paddling one time for writing notes. The other was a man teacher by the name of White. He also supervised the playgrounds at recess time and gave us some elementary coaching in the games we played. Wrestling and running games were our favorites. We had a large playground in good weather and a huge basement room in the winter which echoed with yells and screaming as we played the running games.
Holidays were times of family gatherings, sometimes at our home and sometimes at our grandparents' home. We always ate well but especially on these occasions when pie and cake and ice cream were favorites. Our mother was a good cook and had plenty of fresh vegetables from the garden in the summer and fall, and always a well stocked cellar pantry in the winter time. We had our own eggs and chickens.
One experience I recall with good feeling was our enjoyment of music. Thelma, my older sister had had music lessons on the piano and I had lessons on the cornet. Dad played a guitar and a mouth harp, both of them at the same time with the use of a special frame over his shoulders to hold the harp to his mouth. Three of us played some popular number or a hymn and other members of the family sang. We never had a piano but Thelma played a foot pedalled organ which we did have. I recall I played the cornet in a local band one season.
We had our own family friends and on occasion I recall a family would be our guests or we would be in their home. The adults would play cards and we kids would have our own games in a basement room or outdoors. I always had a sled for winter days, sometimes one hand made by my dad or sometimes one purchased as a Christmas gift.
I remember we had picnics and sometimes just a hike out in the wooded areas on Sunday or holiday afternoons. I also recall a few occasions when we went to New Albany, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky where we had relatives. We went by train for my father never did own an automobile.
One member of the family very important to all of us although not a blood relative was David Buttorf, husband of the woman who made a home for my father at the death of his mother at the time of his birth. I do not recall Mrs. Buttorf and assume she died before I was born or when I was very small. David Buttorf was something like a grandfather to all of us kids. However, he lived alone in a house across the street from us and was often out of town or working on a farm he owned about six miles from town. He often ate in our home; I recall my mother taking a hot meal to him in the evening when he came in too late to be with us.
I have some wonderful memories of him taking me with him to the farm on different occasions in the summer. Tenants ran the farm and I would eat with them when with him. I remember helping with chores including feeding sheep and cattle. They raised feed cattle and I was allowed to help load the cattle in wagons and drive to the sales lot in town or help drive them into cattle cars for shipment to some other community. David had a team of black mules which he drove to and from the farm and at the close of the day I remember those mules being driven at great speed on our way home.
One particular reason for David Buttorf being important in all of our lives was the fact that he decided to start a small town packing house in Salem. It was located in new buildings built for the purpose in an area back of his dwelling place. It was an area of five or six lots and a gravel road went into it from the street on which our houses were located. There was easy access to it from where we lived.
In this packing house, cattle, sheep and hogs were killed for both wholesale and retail sales. Bacon and hams were salted and smoked. A delivery wagon with a horse made delivery of fresh meat packages to persons and restaurants in the town of Salem. When it was ready for operation, my father quit his job at the factory and became the manager and meat cutter for the business. Others were involved in the kill room and in other areas of the work. There were no child labor laws in those days and I at the age of eleven and twelve worked at odd jobs in the business. One thing I recall doing was tending fires in the smoke houses for the bacon and hams. I also worked on the delivery wagon as we went over the town. It was an exciting experience for me and the adult workers helped me to be involved and learn a little of what it was all about from the kill room to the delivered package of meat.
Tragedy came into our lives for the first time when David Buttorf was killed in a farm accident. While he never lived on his farm, he liked to participate in at special times. He was assisting in the haying season by driving a team pulling a hay wagon. In a pause the driving lines fell down to the tongue of the wagon. When David stepped down on the back of the wagon tongue to pick them up, the team frightened and ran. David was thrown off the tongue and fell under the wagon. The wagon wheels ran over him, crushing his chest and he died almost instantly.
This soon brought an end to the packing and meat market business for relatives who inherited the estate were not interested in continuing it. Even though my father had been reared by this man in his boyhood and teen years, there had never been an adoption and my father received only a small grant from the estate. He returned to work again in the furniture factory.
Tragedy came into our lives again in less than two years. It was the time of World War I and the epidemic of the Spanish Influenza disease. Our mother and all three of us children became ill in November, 1918. On November 15, our mother died. Dad called us together to tell us. One thing he said I shall never forget. "Now that mother is gone, we must all pull together more than ever." We hugged and cried together.
Mom's sister Minnie, sometimes called Edith, came for the funeral with her two small boys, from their home in Sidney, Nebraska. She stayed on for three or four months and we moved to a larger house across the street. Minnie Kirchgestner's husband had served in the U.S. Navy with our uncle Harvey Dibbins and he had met Minnie through Harvey. Henry Kirchgestner was then a switch engineer on the Union Pacific railroad in Sidney, Nebraska.
Dad had chronic bronchitis and had been told by his doctor that he should move to a drier climate. Through Henry he secured a job as a butcher in Sidney and in July of 1919 we moved by train to Sidney, our furniture stored in a box car.
The balance of the summer was a lonely time for me and I imagine for my sisters also. We knew no one except the Kirchgestner family. The climate and the surrounding country were very different. In the Salem area we had rolling and wooded country. Summer temperatures were quite mild. The area around Sidney at that time was flat and barren. There were few trees and the sun was hot. I was glad when school started in a few weeks and we began to make friends. We had attended the Methodist Church in Salem but there was a Christian Church only a few blocks from our home and the Kirchgestners attended there. So we got started there and I recall a very fine woman teacher who was truly concerned about her students, all boys in this eighth grade class. We had partied at her home and played games in the basement room of that place.
My father worked only a short time in the butcher shop and secured a more suitable job in a creamery. Soon I was working part time in that creamery with him and continued to do so for over a year. We purchased fresh milk and pasteurized it for selling in quart bottles. We also purchased sour cream from farmers who brought in cream in five and ten gallon cans. My job was to wash bottles and steam them in hot water and later fill them with milk. I also juggled the cream cans around, weighing them and putting them in the proper place. This cream had to be tested for the butter fat content and I was shown how to do this. Later a state inspector came and gave me a test and also a license to do them. However, six months later another state inspector came and took it away because I was not yet 16 years of age. Later I had it renewed. We did not process the sour milk and it was shipped on to other outlets. We did make cottage cheese for retail sale. It was impressed on all of us that cleanliness was a must. Milk bottles must be steamed properly and all utensils that contained milk likewise. Floors were washed down with hot water regularly. I enjoyed this work and was glad for the money I made which probably went for clothing and spending money. All the other workers on the staff were men and I was doing what they did. I must have been 14 and 15 years of age at the time and worked during the summer and on Saturdays during the school year. One interesting experience during this time was a car trip to Cheyenne. The owners and operators of this creamery were the Nelson brothers. They had formerly been ranchers and cowboys. They both continued to wear high heel riding boots even at work and they also wore broad brim stetson hats. They invited Dad and me to take a trip with them one Sunday to Cheyenne, Wyoming. The unique character of this trip was that we rode in a model T Ford touring car with the old flapping window shades and on the trip to Cheyenne we drove over old trails these cowboys had ridden before highway 30 had been completed. Now the trails were fenced in for cattle and it was my job to get out each time we came to a gate in the fence and open it up and then close it. There must have been 20 or more gates on that trip and the trails were just barely a roadway. But I recall that I had some memories of Zane Gray books I had read of the old cowboys of former years. I was on the trails with two cowboys even if it was in a Model T Ford and not on a horse.
I now turn to school experiences and will try to weave in the part time work experiences. I attended the eighth grade at Sidney and began forming friendships, some of which would continue over many years. During the spring of that year I was one of many youth about 14 to 16 years of age who were in a membership training class at the Methodist Church in Sidney. I enjoyed the fellowship of the group and the teacher who was the Reverend T. Porter Bennett. For those of us who chose, there was the experience of baptism by immersion in the swimming pool at the high school. One of the persons in that group who became a life-long friend was Vern Livingston. From that experience, the church continued to have a growing interest for me. A church member and a farmer living near Sidney was a Sunday School teacher for a group of us teen-age boys and we his farm home.
Rev. T. Porter Bennett was a live-wire pastor who attracted youth and adults. He had been my scoutmaster one year and I recall one brief camping period in a river area not far from Sidney. One thing Rev. Bennett did that was different and appealing was his Sunday Evening services. There was much singing and much youth participation. We had motion pictures, most of them I suppose with a religious subject and we often had refreshments for he was one who enjoyed eating.
In those days the Methodist Youth Group was known as the Epworth League. I was a part of it through High School and in later years of college when I was home in the summer months. We had studies, parties and sponsored our own programs. One program I was involved in as an older teen was the "Gospel Team Services." A group of us would take over an evening service of music, prayers, Scripture and speaking, at the Sidney Church but also in other churches within driving distances. We also had visiting groups come to Sidney to be with us.
During my high school years which I enjoyed very much I was involved in different activities. One of them for all four years was football. I only weighed about 135 to 145 but I had always enjoyed running and must have been fairly fast. High school at that time was a four year plan. I did not play very much the first year but went along on every out of town game. In the last three years I played most of the time in every game. We played teams from North Platte, Chappell, Kimball, Alliance, Scottsbluff, Bayard, Crawford, Gering, Morrill, Chadron in Nebraska, and I remember we played one team in Sterling, Colorado. Arch Kirpatrick, three years older than I and who was later to marry my older sister Thelma, was a player the first year I was on the squad. That was a championship year as I recall for we had a great back by the name of "Hoot" Gibson. His younger brother who was also called "Hoot" was a good friend of mine and later played college football in Baltimore. We were winners in the conference of Northwest Nebraska for the next two years but losers my last year of playing for we had lost so many players who had quit or graduated. That last year of football is one I will recall for I was named all northwest Conference quarterback. We lost our last game on a Friday but Coach Green sought me out on the next day, Saturday, to give me this encouraging word.
Another activity I enjoyed was public speech. I was on the high school debate team and one year we were chosen to go to the Nebraska High School Debate contest held in Lincoln. Our team lost on the first round but we enjoyed the visit in Lincoln which was a first for me.
The year I was a sophomore a group of us about my age appealed to the domestic science teacher to have a cooking class just for boys. She agreed and I think about twelve of us signed up for a semester of cooking. It was a good experience for we learned some of the basics in cooking and I have benefitted from it a great deal through the years. My family benefitted from this experience in those years. It was agreed in our family that we would pull together in chores and home work. The burden of cooking and housekeeping always fell on Thelma, our older sister but here now was a chance for me to use some new skills. I played football which kept me from helping out at all for cooking the evening meal at home. But I did not play basketball but Thelma and Nellie did. The time of practice was after school so at that period of the year I took on some of the responsibilities of cooking and took pride in doing it. I had learned how to cook chicken fried steak and baked beans and scalloped potatoes and apple pie. It was a fun experience, a great improvement over the rough and primitive kind of cooking I had learned in Scouting.
One value of high school for me was an influence by different teachers I had through those years. They showed me the importance of an education. Very early in high school I knew that I wanted to go on to college and decided I would do so and be willing to pay the price.
One other experience during my high school days was not a part of public education but was certainly education for me. This was my experience in the De Molay Lodge. This organization came to Sidney when I was about 16 years of age. At any rate I think I was a charter member. This lodge is sponsored by the Masonic Lodge and is for 16 to 21 years of ate. It has its own ritual which has as its goal guiding those of that age group to live a life of courage, honor, truth, responsibility, supporting fellowship. Over a two year period I went through the offices of the lodge and became the leading officer of the local lodge at eighteen years of age. One important part of it was the good fellowship and guidance of the men of the Masonic Order who took special responsibilities in helping us along. A part of the plan also involved social activities. We had our parties and our dances in which girls and sponsoring adults had a very important part. We also had a basement room in the Masonic Building which had different games including three or four pool tables. This room was open to us on lodge night and other specified times. I am grateful De Molay was brought to Sidney at an impressionable time in my life and that I had the privilege of going through the offices and learning by memory the inspiring ritual.
Dancing was not permitted in the high school or in the churches of Sidney. But a group of us of high school age and older did manage to arrange for a few dances by a loose knit group called "the Young People's Dancing Club." We arranged for music and the renting of a dancing hall which as I recall was under an apartment building not far from the business section of Sidney. I participated in this experience for a time until my work schedule took me out of it.
Now I go back to recollections of my part time work experiences. I have mentioned that I always remembered having some summer work and always some part time jobs on Saturdays and sometimes after school hours. One summer I recall was filled with a variety of such experiences. For two weeks I worked on a farm south of town shocking wheat. Three of us followed the binders and stacked shocks of wheat in rows and later the harvesting crew would come along for the shelling of the wheat. It was hard work but the food was good and the pay was excellent for me at my age. It may have been a part of that same summer that I was with my dad, Arch Kirkpatrick and two or three others who worked for some weeks for the Sidney Country Club. Dad was part of the group because the Nelson brothers had sold the creamery and he was relieved from that position. We had two jobs during those weeks of the summer. One was to complete a cement swimming pool with bath houses and the other was to build a nine hole golf course. The job involved shovel work for we did not have many of the mechanical tools now in use. It involved mixing cement by shovel work and pushing it by wheelbarrows to the required place for the floor and the walls. It involved building the bath houses. After the pool was finished, we cleared the land for the fairways between the greens. We hacked out soapweeds with picks and axes and filled gopher holes. We killed a few rattle snakes. The so-called greens were not grass greens and they were not green. They were a dark brown and made from the mixture of oil and sand and then spread out over the required space. Each green then had one hole for the golf ball placed near the center. The hold was made secure with a steel pipe of the right size put in place. Arch Kirkpatrick and I have joked many times about the summer we killed rattlesnakes, chopped out Indian soapweed and greens out of brown oily sand.
One winter time I had the job of custodian at the Methodist Church and did most of my job on early Sunday morning from one o'clock in the morning till about eight o'clock. I fired the furnace like fury to warm up the church and also swept and dusted the sanctuary and the basement and extra Sunday School rooms. During my Senior year I worked some Saturdays and after school times for the Christmas holiday season at the Barker Clothing store. We had all kinds of men and boys clothing and shoes and also had a cleaning and pressing department. During the two summers between my 10th and 11th year and my 11th and 12th year I worked full time on the Union Pacific Railroad Rip track or repair department. I was classified as a carpenter's helper. I started out as a water boy but soon was swinging a hammer nailing down new floors in box cars. The second summer I had the same classification but was a helper of the man on the power saws who cut out repair pieces for box cars, cabooses and even some passenger cars. My dad also had a full time job as a carpenter and continued in this railroad work until his death in 1944.
Four times in my life I followed my father in a particular place of work. They were the packing house in Indiana, the creamery in Sidney, the summer of work at the Sidney Country Club and then the U.P. Railroad. Before any of these places of work were the days we were together in the garden of our home in Salem, Indiana.
As I think upon it, I know that I learned so much about work from him. He taught me some of his skills. But more than this he taught me to enjoy work, to learn on the job and to develop the conviction that if you lose one job for any reason you should look around for another one. I never knew him to be without a job of some kind except for two months one time when he had to lay off because of sickness as a result of infection when he had to have extensive dental work done.
I had sufficient credits to graduate from Senior High School when I completed the first semester in January, 1924. Already planning to go to college at Nebraska Wesleyan in September of 1924, I realized that here was an opportunity to get a job and make some money. I well knew Dad could not afford to pay my expenses in college. So I found a job in the Maynard Osborne Dodge agency and garage. My sister Thelma was already a bookkeeper and secretary and my friend Vern Livingston was an employee.
This Dodge agency sold new and used cars and serviced them. There was an extensive parts department, a maintenance and repair shop, battery department and wash rack. There was also a curtain repair department, for closed in sedans were almost unknown in those days. There was also large space for parking cars and people often parked their cars for short periods and some had regular stalls. Three gas pumps with hand and arm propulsion power were out in front on highway 30 going right by the building. We operated 24 hours a day, never closing. Night service included gas and oil, grease jobs, battery service and sometimes wash jobs and of course parking, for many persons who kept cars inside more than we do today.
I learned the job on the job, for I had had very little experience with any kind of car. My dad had never owned a car and never drove one. My friend Arch had taught me some basics but I doubt if I had driven a car more than twenty miles. So I learned to drive in a garage, backing, swerving, turning into stalls, shifting gears in all makes and models. But I had many teachers and a desire to learn. I worked two months in the day time shift from 7:00 a.m. til 6:00 p.m. at night with an hour off for lunch. After two months I went on the night shift which was from 6:00 p.m. till 7:00 a.m. with a lunch pail meal on the job somewhere around 12:00 midnight. For a time I had some help and then I was left to shift for myself all alone. But I made it and I worked in that garage, most of my shift at night until the end of August 1924. With about a week off I went to Lincoln to register as a student at Nebraska Wesleyan. I had some money in the bank and I had a part time job at Wesleyan as a custodian of one floor of a children's school on campus, a job which paid very little but it was something and I had it for two years.
This first year I also worked for my room by firing the furnace and doing other chores for a widow and her daughter in a house fairly close to the campus. This daughter was also a freshman at Wesleyan and we sometimes shared classes. However, there was never any romantic relationship between us and we were more like a brother and sister and continued friends through the next years, although I stayed in this home only one year. A friend of mine from Potter, Nebraska, by the name of Frank Lally worked for his room in the basement of the University Place Library as a part time custodian. I was often in his room and we shared some classes.
I knew little about campus life but was guided a great deal by the Beta Kappa fraternity which I pledged. The Beta Kappa house was on a street next to the campus and I ate two meals a day there and spent quite a bit of each day at the house making friends, a few of whom I still keep in touch with today.
I went out for football and played quarterback on the Freshman team. We only played three games that year but won them all. Sometimes we scrimmaged with the varsity team which helped them get ready for the regular games of the season.
I played in the backfield on the varsity team in the seasons of 1925, 1927, and 1928. One year we played in the North Central Conference including teams in the Dakotas as well as Nebraska. Two other seasons we were in the Nebraska Conference. Hastings College was always a traditional rival. I never weighed more than 150 but had some speed so managed to play part of many games and felt it was worth while. I was free from any major injuries.
I dated from time to time but had no serious relationships during the first years at Wesleyan. These first two years I thought I would like to be an engineer so took math and science classes, the required English and chose as a language class, Spanish.
At the end of the first year I returned to Sidney and worked through the summer months at the Dodge agency and garage. I do not recall anything unusual about my second year at Wesleyan. I continued in math classes, physics, and architectural drawing. I also played on the football team and while not a regular player did earn the letter "W." In the spring I went out for track and ran the hundred and 220 yard runs. I did live at the Fraternity House and ate all meals there.
One important fact about this year was that Vern Livingston joined me at college for his first year. Art Lally, brother of Frank, also joined us. At the end of this second year I was out of money and decided to stay in Sidney and work a year to recoup my finances. A job was available at the Dodge garage and I went to work expecting to work there a full year. I did not get along with Maynard Osborne's young brother who was manager. I went to work in the middle of the summer for Barker Clothing Store and Cleaning Plant and continued there until our return to Wesleyan in September. At this Barker store I was sometimes a clerk with the store goods but most of my time was spent in the cleaning plant and on the steam press. I also learned how to make minor alterations in mens slacks and minor repairs on clothing. We had a man tailor on the staff.
I now realize this was an important year in my life. It started me in a definite choice of vocation, the Christian Ministry.
Dr. Louis Kaub, then pastor of Sidney Methodist Church, influenced me more than any other person. However, I am sure many persons influenced my life in this direction. The decision was a process and not a sudden one I could pinpoint with time or one experience. Louis Kaub was about forty years of age at the time and a very alive and enthusiastic person. He had attracted many people to the church before this year and continued to do so during this year. One thing he did that influenced many was to write a pageant of the life of Christ and then with the support of a large number of Sidney people cast it and presented it in the canyons west of Sidney in the out of doors. Lights and amplification were used. Hundreds of people were in the audience and enthusiasm was very high. I played the part of John the Baptist. For some years, a year after this, he directed the same pageant, no doubt improved, in the out of doors near Bayard where he became the pastor of the Methodist and Presbyterian Federated Church.
His wife inherited some money from relatives in Germany about this time and one stipulation was that the money had to be spent in Germany. So Dr. Kaub, his wife and teenage daughter decided to go to Europe for travel and study for the year beginning in August, 1927. I had spoken briefly at times in services at Sidney and in other churches in the area in Youth Gospel Teams services. He apparently sensed that I was thinking some about the ministry. So he called me to his office and he asked me if I might be willing to preach the four Sundays in August. This would fill the pulpit for the last four Sundays of the Conference year. I agreed to do so with fear and trembling for I had never spoken more than four or five minutes. This would require four sermons and full length ones of eighteen to twenty minutes. Dr. Kaub arranged for me to be issued a License to Preach through the District Superintendent and I still have it in my files. He gave me some suggestions and I managed to struggle through those four Sundays in that month of August. The people of the congregation were very understanding and supportive.
In September I returned to Nebraska Wesleyan to complete my last two years for graduation. This time there were five of us from the Sidney area, Frank and Art Lally, Vern Livingston, a new student Cliff Waitt and myself. I believe there were two girls also, perhaps more.
When I arrived in Lincoln I made an appointment with Chancellor Schreckengast as soon as possible. He was friend and supporter of students and also an ordained minister. I was sure he would give me some good guidance. He did encourage me to think further about the ministry as a profession but put no pressure upon me. He suggested I go to the District Superintendent of the Lincoln District, Br. Burt Story. I did so and very soon I was given a student charge and became a student pastor under his guidance. The church was Trinity Chapel, an open country church, ten miles south and three miles west of Lincoln. I was elated. It gave me a small income, I believe ten dollars a Sunday. The congregation was wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed this experience through the nine months of this and the next school year. (This practice of having small churches near Lincoln and Omaha being served by college students under the guidance of the Superintendent continued up into the late 1950's and then was phased out and more mature and better trained pastors were assigned in two or three church charges. In my first assignment as the Lincoln District Superindendent in 1955 I had some churches served by students. I held some classes for them at Nebraska Wesleyan and they earned some credit hours for my instructions.)
A big experience in this year of college was that I met Merna McGlasson. It was in Dr. Gregg's class in psychology. I had seen her at a Gothenburg camp in the summer when I went to pick up my sister Nellie who had attended but did not talk with her. On this first day of class at Wesleyan I went forward to introduce myself. We dated fairly regularly that year and the following summer I drove to Wood River to see her over the Fourth of July period. The next year we dated again regularly and the first of June, 1929, announced our engagement and I gave her my Beta Kappa pin. I had three years of seminary to finish and she two years at Wesleyan.
These last two years at Wesleyan were busy and enjoyable and rewarding. So were the first two years, but these were even more so. I was more sure of what I was doing. I had made many friends and knew the value of friendship more. I was achieving some goals. I was in love!
I was working part time in some activity each year I was in school in order to pay tuition, pay for board and room and have money for clothing, fun and dating. During the last two years I had the regular income from the church which as I recall was ten and later twelve dollars a week. During the last semester of my junior year and both semesters of my senior year I was the steward or treasurer of my fraternity and received my board and room as payment. As the steward or treasurer I worked with the house mother to make menus for meals, helped her to purchase foods wholesale when we could, kept books with the aid of another fellow and collected payments from membrs for board and room. I remember driving my Ford, Model T, down to the wholesale area of Lincoln most every Saturday and loading up with wholesale goods, mostly canned goods but also sometimes fresh produce and packaged goods.
My major study for all four years was English and my minor was public speaking. Other classes included philosophy, Bible, psychology, biology, sociology, ethics and religion. I had some private voice lessons with Prof. "Pop" Bennett but never became a soloist except for some I sang at home for the family. I also had private lessons in speech with Dr. Enid Miller, one of the well known professors of Wesleyan. Both of these private sessions helped me later in the ministry. One of the most enjoyable experiences during these last two years was singing in the male chorus or "Glee Club" and the Male Quartet. We sang not only in college events and in Lincoln events. We also went out each year for about three or four weeks on a bus tour. We sang in schools, other community institutions and churches. The purpose was to advertize for Wesleyan and to give all of us students of music a chance to sing. It was also for all of us who went a chance to have a great time. We had to keep up with our lessons but even so it was a "fun" experience.
We stayed in private homes as guests and often ate meals in churches or meals provided by the community group for which we sang. A business manager went out in advance and made these arrangements. We often sang in two schools during the day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Then our major concert took place in the evening, usually in a church. Offerings or some set amount arranged in advance took care of most expenses. Our concert in the evening or on Sunday morning would last about an hour and the daytime events would be half that. Our quartet sang four or five numbers each time. Sometimes we had a reader give a humorous or a serious reading as part of the total program. We had a varied program according to the audience. It could be all serious and religious or it could be primarily humor and entertainment. This was in the later 1920's so there were very little paved highways to travel. We travelled in a leased bus and often had to get out and push the bus through some muddy place. Therefore, the dress code for all of us for much of our travel was knee high laced boots. We dressed in tuxedos for Sundays and for evening concerts.
During about ten weeks of the summer following my graduation five of us also went out on a singing tour in Nebraska, some part of Wyoming and Colorado. A business manager went out in advance, probably in April or May to arrange our schedule. He was to receive three-eighths of the income from offerings and sometimes agreed upon down payment and each of the five of us was to receive one-eighth of income after expenses. The major expenses was expected to be travel expense for the old touring car Buick which was to be our transportation. It belonged to Floyd Hanson our second tenor. Needless to say it did not turn out to be a great financial success. When we finished the tour in Central City, Nebraska, about the first of August 1929, I had ten dollars left in my pockets from my income. We had had a great time, met many friends of Wesleyan days, saw some new sites in Colorado and Wyoming, played golf in different areas and enjoyed one another. Three of us were Beta Kappas and are still close friends. Our reader, both humorous and serious, was Vern Livingston, later to be my brother-in-law and life long friend. First tenor was Dwight Mason, Beta Kappa member and another life long friend. Second tenor, manager on the trip and driver was Floyd Hanson. Floyd later was a teacher in schools in Nebraska of music. Our bass singer was Loren Winship who had been our bass in 1928 and joined us for this tour because our 1929 bass, William Timm was unable to go. Loren later became a professor in a Texas University.
Dwight, Vern and I have often talked about this trip. We realize now that it was a trip we could hardly afford since we were all either going on to school or trying to get settled in a full time job. But we went out with faith in making some money and even though we did not make money we had some great experiences that will always be a part of us.
We did have a chance to be in Wood River and I got to see Merna at least that once during the summer.
Vern and I hitchhiked a ride to Sidney and each of us went to work almost immediately. During my several years of education in college and seminary Dad was not able to assist me with cash support and I knew this. He did help my younger sister Nellie. However, he did give me free board and room during the summers so all the money I made could be used for school. And he could provide me with one benefit and did so again and again. This was a pass on the Union Pacific Railroad from Sidney to and from college. I believe this continued until I was married in 1931 and was of course a substantial help. It made it possible for me to get home for Christmas when I was in college and I believe twice after I went to seminary in 1929.
I was able to come back to be with Merna twice each of the next two years and she was able to come back to Evanston and stay with a friend for a few days to be with me. Of course we kept in touch with mail and sometimes a telephone call.
One interesting experience in the first year I was in Evanston in seminary involved my sister Nellie. She was in Wesleyan that year and stayed with Merna and Merna's grandmother. She was also engaged to Vern Livingston, my long-time friend and Beta Kappa fraternity brother.
When I arrived in Evanston and enrolled in Garrett I was not alone. Another Beta Kappa brother and Wesleyan friend had already been there a year. I managed to pay tuition and room fees for the first quarter from money I had made in August and the sale of my old Model T Ford. But I needed work right away for living expenses. Harold Sandall, friend and already a second year student, took me to a sorority house near our dorm and I soon arranged to wash dishes six days a week and meals on those days. On my own I went looking for work and soon had a part-time mob working at Lord's Department Store in Evanston downtown area. I worked Saturdays and occasionally other times in this store for the next two years. One department was for children's shoes and another department I was in later sold only women's shoes. With a forty dollar a month scholarship I received later I was in good shape. I also secured a student church in Schiller Park, a small suburb of Chicago and now a part of northwest Chicago. This was a small church which required only my attendance with a sermon and service planned for each Sunday. I managed to get to it by elevated line, street car and connecting bus. I almost always ate Sunday dinner with a family of the church. I continued in this church for one and three-quarters years. The salary was not large but it helped and I gained some valuable experiences in preaching and working with people.
Garrett Biblical Institute, the name of the seminary then, now know as Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, was a three year graduate school for the training of clergy. At that time there were only a very few who were studying to be religious education directors. It was established in the 1850's and is a part of Northwestern University's total campus in Evanston, Ill. However, it is an independent school and not legally a part of N.U. At the time I registered it was about 200 students with a faculty of possibly 15. In three years one earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree. This was later changed to Master of Divinity and this is what I now have. I received it in June, 1934. I also had three courses in Sociology and Social Work at Northwestern University in addition to two courses at N.U. which were transferred with credit on my degree work.
I was not an honor student at either Wesleyan or Garrett, partly because I had to use so much time in part time work to pay expenses. However, I did improve at Garrett. While in Nebraska Wesleyan my average grade was B-; it was B plus at Garrett with more A's than B's.
I stayed in the dorm at Garrett the first two years and enjoyed the fellowship and support of other students. There was space for possibly 100 students. Many students were married and in nearby apartments. A few traveled in each day from some nearby clergy appointment. We had soft-ball games in the season and touch football in the fall. Lake Michigan was only forty or so yards from the entrance to my dorm room and I often swam in July and August. Otherwise it was too cold. Professors were demanding but friendly and there was a comradeship among students and also faculty members I had not experienced in college. As I recall we had a daily chapel service and students frequently took part in the service although speakers were usually faculty or some visiting clergy. There was a dining facility in the main building.
Merna and I were thinking about being married. When she came to see me in the spring of the second year we made a decision to work toward the summer of 1931 after her graduation in June. I had different sources of income and we hoped she might get a school teaching job. We set the date as August 26.
During the summer quarter I worked full time as a salesman of Wear-Ever Aluminum. I had already worked at this part time during the year and did very well on sales. The method of selling was to provide a dinner for a small group in a home and then demonstrate to them the values of waterless cooking. Special appointments were made to see them in their homes later. I managed to save $600, and in those days that was a lot of money. I planned to discontinue thos sales program after marriage and I felt confident with my savings and other sources of income including forty dollars a month working scholarship, work at the Lord's Department store and my student church income that we would be able to make it. I arranged for a small apartment in the second floor of a residence in Willmette, the town just north of Evanston and within walking distance to Garrett.
August 26 was the big day! We had a formal wedding in the Methodist Church in Wood River, Nebraska. Rev. W. H. Stephens, pastor of the church, performed the ceremony. The Matron of Honor was Mrs. Vern (Nellie) Livingston, sister of the groom. The best man was Vern Livingston, long time friend of the groom. Alterta Koon of Red Cloud and Dwight Mason of Oxford were soloists. Family members of both bride and groom were present as well as many friends of both. A reception was held at Merna's home following the church ceremony. We had our honeymoon at the Yancy Hotel in Grand Island and then in Willmette, Illinois. We had the windy city of Chicago to explore in about a ten week period before my fall quarter began at Garrett.
Very soon we had a rude awakening with our finances. It was during the depression days. Churches were suffering lowered incomes. My student charge paying me about fifty dollars a month was turned over to a full time pastor whose income had been cut from his other church. Then I learned that my Saturday work at the shoe department at Lord's Department Store would not be regular. I still had a working scholarship from the Garrett Department of Sociology amounting to $40 a month. That was all of my income I could count on. From $120 a month we went down to that $40 scholarship. Our rent was $37.50 a month. Fortunately, I still had most of my $600 savings.
Merna managed to get in a small amount of substitute teaching and I found some odd jobs but our income was short until Merna went to work full time for the Illinois Unemployment Relief Service as a Social Worker. This must have been about the first of March, 1932. Merna's parents came to visit us at Christmas time which was a real treat. I was of course going to school at Garrett this year, September, 1931, through May, 1932. I was majoring in Social Studies and had had several classes in this field. The first of June, 1932, I also went to work for the Illinois Unemployment Relief Service and from then on until we left Chicago to come back to Nebraska our financial problems were over. We had two salaries. However, I was always enrolled in from one to three classes during these years of work. Classes were in the evening at Northwestern University, McKinlock Campus in Chicago and I took one correspondence class with a professor from Garrett. I received my degree from Garrett in June, 1934. My major was Systematic Theology and my minor was Sociology and Social Work. At least three classes listed as Majors in Social Work, perhaps four, were not listed on my Garrett transcript, but not needed for graduation at Garrett. These were classes taken during the fall of 1934 and the Spring of 1935.
During these years of work for the I.U.R.S. we lived in an apartment house in Chicago near the Loyola area about 6000 north. I was able to take the elevated to my work office at Eighth and Chicago Avenue not far from the Loop District and not far from McKinlock Campus. Merna had to travel by surface street car in northwest Chicago on Milwaukee Avenue.
The story of our lives would not be complete without some stories of this work for the I.U.R.S. It was almost like a vocation in itself and both of us think of it as a special kind of education in social work. The formation of the Unemployment Relief Service was the result of the increasing unemployment of those depression years. Families who had never given a thought of being dependent upon public charity or support found themselves helpless as unemployment came home to them. Many borrowed on insurance or secured a mortgage on a home when savings were exhausted. Finally, with no money even for food, let alone rent, utility bills and medical care, they came to these offices for help. Case workers which Merna and I were, had the job of checking on the facts. Then when it was determined there was a real need it was our job to work with the family to get first of all basic food needs and then to fill other needs as we were able from the variety of sources. The stress of being unemployed, being on public relief, facing all kinds of problems that accompany long lack of personal income compounded problems persons had to face. So it often was not just a matter of trying to fill basic needs for food, shelter, clothing. We often had to refer persons to clinics, hospitals, and to individual doctors. We needed to know which one could fill the need. We at times had legal problems and needed to know where to turn. We at times had to work through the courts and we had to work with banks. We had to work with the Utilities Company and with the Police. In short, we were trying to do the work of social workers with an impossible numbers of cases. Each of us had 150 cases and some time many more. This was a major program in Chicago and in my office there were at least twenty five case workers. In Merna's office there were more. We worked five and a half days a week.
In the office I was in, which was in the center of a poor section of Chicago with a multiplicity of races and cultures, we often had the threat of violence and sometimes the real thing. We had to have police security every day for anger and frustration often broke out into action. On one Saturday morning we had two murders and two suicides involving two social workers and two clients receiving relief. This was in the office in which I worked but I was our visiting that morning.
In the office Merna worked out of, there was held a non-violent protest called a "Sit-in Strike." The Illinois State Legislature had not voted enough money to adequately provide for relief needed for a certain month. So the members decided to cut all relief in half. Everyone would have to get along on the first two weeks' assistance for the whole month. Those of us who were case workers knew this was foolish for we knew how tight was the rate of support. We knew many of our people would be in trouble and there was bound to be many suffer as a result of it. A group of persons on relief in Merna's area, an area of so-called "blue collared workers," decided a means of protest while they got the message to the State Legislature, the Governor and other state officials. They came to their area office and sat down and when the time of closing came they did not leave. They had speeches and they had some forms of entertainment and they brought their food and drink, such as they could muster, and they sat and they stayed, not just one day and night, but several. Meanwhile the message spread through the city to other offices and there was added support of this kind. Finally, the message got through and the Governor and the Legislature convened and made the necessary appropriation to provide for the full amounts of relief for the month. In later years labor unions used this method of the non-violent protest of "Sit-In" but we think this one in Northwest Chicago on Milwaukee Avenue might have been the first one ever.
Merna worked a total of three years in this program. I worked a total of two years and nine months. We both came to understand what it is like for families to know the meaning of unemployment and all that it involves when financial resources simply evaporate in long term periods of unemployment. We observed some of the strains on individuals and families. We observed it is not just a lack of physical needs that take place. Families break up. Violence in the family and in the community break out. Sickness, physical and mental and, of course, spiritual, all become a part of the results. We did the best we could but it was never enough. Those years left indelible impressions upon both of us.
During these years there were other things happening in our lives. One thing was the pleasure we had of having relatives and friends come to Chicago to attend the World's Fair which began in 1933 and was repeated in 1934. Merna's brother Millard and a friend came and we managed to put them up in our small apartment. We later moved into a larger apartment and could really entertain. Some relatives and other friends came to see us and some shared our apartment. Two relatives we enjoyed on occasion were Bob and Lena Mae Day. Lena Mae was the younger sister of Merna's father. Bob was a wholesale furniture salesman from Kansas City and always came to the annual furniture display at the Merchandise Mart. They enjoyed good food and we benefitted by being their guests on occasion in some of the good restaurants in Chicago. With friends and relatives we made many a trip to the World's Fair, probably many more than if we had not had these visitors. Merna's grandmother Savilla Taylor was a very welcome guest with us for nearly three months. When we decided to quit our jobs and go back to Nebraska, she had been with us three months and we arranged for her to go back to Wood River just a month before we did. She contracted pneumonia that spring and died. We loved her so much and grieved the loss.
During these three years we attended church most of the time at First Methodist in Evanston, mostly because of the preacher, Dr. Ernest Fremont Tittle. I had the privilege of having him as a teacher in my preaching (homiletics) course and we both thought he was the most inspiring preacher we had ever heard. So we took the elevated train back to Evanston nearly every Sunday morning. Occasionally we were involved in some church event on Sunday afternoon or during the week. Sunday evenings we frequently attended The Sunday Evening Ecumenical service in downtown Chicago. The choral music in both places was superb. At the Sunday evening service we heard some of the outstanding preachers of the country.
During these years we also attended many operas. We did not have the money for close-up seats but sat with many other music lovers in the balconies. Free concerts at the Chicago Art Institute on Sunday afternoons was a special treat.
During these years of training in Evanston and Chicago, I had taken many courses in sociology and social work and, of course, had the experience of nearly three years as a case worker with the Illinois Unemployment Relief Service. I also at one time had been a volunteer in Presbyterian General Hospital in Chicago. I naturally thought some about being a social worker. But the call of the Church Ministry was stronger. In February of 1935 we decided that the time had come for us to make the change and I began correspondence with Bishop Leet of Nebraska and with Dr. Gilbert, District Superintendent. They accepted my record of training and my readiness for appointment. Although Annual Conference was to be in September that year and this would be the time of appointments I had made it known that I would be available before that if some appropriate church was available. About the first of March, 1935, Dr. Gilbert notified me he had a fine church available in Decatur, Nebraska. He described the opportunity in glowing terms but failed to tell me there had not been a pastor in this church for over two years. It was a Methodist and Presbyterian Federated Church. Decatur at that time was a town of about 700 population about sixty miles north of Omaha on the Missouri River. To the north of Decatur, perhaps three miles, there was the Omaha Indian Reservation and the town of Macy and adjoining this reservation on the north was the Winnebago Indian Reservation and the town of Winnebago. South and west 15 and 21 miles were the towns of Lyons and Oakland, and to the south 16 miles was the town of Tekamah. Just across the river was the town of Onowa, but then there was no bridge across the Missouri. Now there is.
There were three other churches in the community, but no other clergy lived in the community. There was an Episcopal Church, Roman Catholic Church, and Church of the Latter Day Saints. A lay leader had services in the last. A priest came in once a week for the Catholic Mass and the Episcopal Church held irregular services. Whenever a clergyman was wanted for some community affair, I was called. Whenever there was a funeral in the community, the businesses closed up for that period. Funerals in our church always meant a crowded church and I know many persons got to know me because of these funerals. We had two church buildings, the Methodist building in which we had all church services and Sunday School, and the Presbyterian building one block away and right on main street, where we held youth meetings, Ladies Aid meetings, church lunches and dinners and social activities of various kinds. This building was often used by community groups by arrangement. It was not in the best repair, but served its purpose. The Methodist building was kept in fair condition. It had the main worship section with organ and choir, an overflow section with partition that could be moved and a full size basement which was used on Sundays for Sunday School classes. It was equipped with a piano and organ.
An outstanding part of this church was that we had many children and youth. We always had a good attendance at Sunday School of children, youth and some adults. We had a good choir including high school youth and adults. The organist and choir director was Mrs. Sears who had had the position many years. Her husband, some years older than she, was the only town doctor and although about eighty years of age, still had a full practice in the area. His office was in his home and since there was no pharmacy he had his medicines packed in shelves in his office.
Merna and I both enjoyed the youth and we had a meeting with them every Sunday afternoon or evening, sometimes both. We also went to district meetings and to summer camps at Camp Sheldon near Columbus. Leaders of this camp were amazed that from the little town of Decatur we brought in twelve youth the first year, which was the second largest number of any church in the Omaha District.
Shortly after we arrived I was requested to be a Scoutmaster. No Scout troop was then active so we started from scratch. During two summers we took our troop for a week of camping on one of the Fremont Lakes. We joined three other troops from communities where scouting had been going on for some years and benefitted from their leadership. We swam in the Fremont Lake of the camp site. These lakes were sand pit lakes and very deep. I was concerned about safety but we used a very strict "buddy" system and had no accidents. However, I decided right then to take life saving training and the next year I passed Red Cross Life Saving training, swimming in another lake under the direction of the examiner.
During these two years Nebraska was still experiencing the depression and farm prices were low. Since most of our people were on the farm or directly dependable upon farmers, money was tight. We were supposed to get $1,000 a year for salary and the parsonage provided. We did not collect the full amount for any of the two and a half years we were there. But we had some savings and people brought in meat and produce on occasion. So we managed.
Memories include: Merna's major surgery for a problem she had had from childhood which had never been properly diagnosed; two vacations in Minnesota with friends, Allan and Elsie Williams in cabins on Lake Pelican; visits to the Omaha Indian reservation for their pow-wow; visiting on farms of church members and learning how to pick corn and make sorghum cane molasses; conducting funerals and all it involved in relationship with grieving families; cutting firewood from dead trees on the Missouri River bank; having my own garden for the first time and helping Merna can fruit and vegetables; playing golf with Dr. Sears on a dilapidated course near town. I had three clubs; he had only one and played better than I did.
Families I remember: The Sears, I have mentioned; the Smalls, who had two teenagers, one boy, one girl; Mrs. Small ran the theatre and he owned a hardware store; The Larsons with three small children. He was the banker; the Tipperarys with three teenage youth, farmers.
I did not ask to be moved from Decatur but according to the procedures in the Methodist Church at that time about one week before Annual Conference held in September, I was told I would be moving to the Methodist Church in Oakland, just a little over twenty miles from Decatur. I hated to leave good friends at Decatur but looked with anticipation to a larger church in a community where there were many other churches and pastors.
Oakland had been established by Swedish people. There were eight churches in the area, six in town and two country churches near the town. All of these eight churches except the Methodist I was to serve had been established by Swedish speaking people and until fairly recent years had had their services in Swedish. They were loyal to their churches and to church attendance. This carried over I think to the church I was to serve for three years.
The church was a white frame structure in fair condition, three blocks from the parsonage and on the south end of the main business street. The parsonage was an eight room house with full basement. I managed to screen off part of the 2nd floor to save fuel costs. I had a very nice room for a study.
One outstanding experience of these years was getting acquainted with the Swedish people and pastors. Not all of our congregation were Swedish but many were. The Burt County Ministerial Association held monthly meetings and this was a great experience to get acquainted with all these people. The monthly noon luncheons with the Oakland pastors was also a treat. It was a custom for these eight pastors and their families to have a great Christmas party between Christmas and New Years, after all the churches had had their congregational services and celebrations. At this family gathering there was great singing and good fellowship. The food brought in by these wonderful cooks turned into a banquet, a Swedish smorgasbord. After the dinner we had a program presented by children and youth of these clergy families. After the first such celebrations, we looked forward to others and always planned to be present.
Another experience I recall with pleasure was the annual Burt County Fair. Tekamah was the county seat of Burt County but as I remember there was always a fall County Fair at Oakland at very good facilities. It was a time of rejoicing about the crops of the year. Young people brought in their live stock for judging; families brought in their vegetables and fruits for display and judging; entertainment features were held every afternoon and evening. The second and third years we were there I was a leader of a children's 4H garden club so this gave added interest to me. Our church also made it a big time making part of our yearly budget. We had a dining room on the grounds and served meals and snacks every one of the three days. Men, women and youth assisted in the project. One person always present was a farmer named Joe Preston. He was not Swedish but he had learned how to make very good coffee according to the special Swedish method. It had to be boiled with an egg or so until the foam turned just the right color. He must have known his skill, for he was asked to make coffee for many a community affair and this was a great commendation for the Swedes really loved their coffee.
We will always remember Oakland for a special family reason. While we were there, our first daughter, Jeanne Carol Davis was born, April 5, 1939. Delivery was as planned in the Methodist Hospital in Omaha and unlike later years, Merna had to remain in the hospital about seven days. However, everything went well for both of them. Merna's mother came to be with for several days.
I had membership training classes and as in Decatur worked with youth groups. We always had fine groups at the Camp Sheldon, near Columbus. We frequently sang after meals in the big dining room and I usually was the song leader. Friendships begun among the staff members continued with us through the years.
These are a few of those remembered from these years at Oakland:
The Holmquist family who were active in many ways in church and community and operated a lumber yard
The Hulquist family who had several children including teenagers and were farmers near town
Earl Latsch's, no children
The Wests, two older children
(These two couples were older than us but were close friends.)
Joe Preston and family, farmer. I attended Wesleyan with son Ted
Stauffer's. He was a lawyer and his high school daughter played the organ
Summers family with several children, some teenagers
Dr. Stromsburg, not a member of our church but pastor of the Swedish Methodist church in the country near by. He was an author and had been honored by the King of Sweden. I attended Wesleyan with one of his sons
Mr. Ford, a lawyer. I had a double wedding for him and his brother
Ewell Ford, our choir director
In September, 1940, after only three years at Oakland I was moved again and this time to Wahoo, about fifty miles south of Oakland and only thirty miles from Lincoln and only forty miles from Omaha. I was more excited about this move than I had been with the move to Oakland. Wahoo was known to be a good community, county seat of Saunders County and the population was just over 3,000. There was also a Junior College in the town. The move meant that my leadership and my efficiency as a pastor and preacher had been recognized. I was excited about the move and prayed the Lord to keep me steady and to guide me. The church was of beautiful design and brick structure. The sanctuary was quite adequate with an overflow room with sliding doors. The choral space was back of the pulpit and under the organ pipes. There was a basement under the overflow room with kitchen and there was a gymnasium and showers under the sanctuary. The parsonage was right next to the church to the rear and a very old building, but adequate for us. It was replaced by a modern brick structure about 1950.
We had a good time here and probably felt more at home with the people than we had so far, either at Decatur or Oakland. We had one of the best choirs we ever had in all of our churches. I had good results with the local church youth and continued my youth work in the Lincoln District and the Conference. I was co-director with "Maesi" Sigler for the first Junior High youth camp in Nebraska. "Maesi" later became our first employed youth director of the conference. I continued being director of a district High School youth camp and in `94` became the first volunteer and unpaid Nebraska Conference Youth Director. Everything was going well but it was not to last. Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, changed all of our lives and it certainly did mine.
In the months following as the U.S. prepared for the War, there was a continuing call for Chaplains for all branches of the service. I registered in the draft but clergy were not called. But I knew that I was of the right age and I was physically fit and I should consider this need. In the months that followed I kept reading of the need for chaplains. Such information came not only in the secular news but through our church magazines and journals. I talked it over again and again with Merna. I counselled with my District Superintendent and I even went to see Bishop Martin of our Nebraska Conference. All were understanding but every one emphasized I would have to make the decision. By June, I was convinced I should volunteer and during the youth camp that month I talked with Walter Jewett who was also seriously considering this move. Something he said helped me to be convinced. It went something like this, "The person who does not actively participate in the important events of his time does not truly live."
I made application for appointment as a chaplain in the Army about the first of July and it meant I had to be approved by the Methodist Commission on Chaplains and by the Commission on Chaplains of the Army of the United States. Merna and I went back to Washington, D.C. to be interviewed by the Commission of our Church. I was approved after an interview and of course my credentials were accepted by the Chaplains Corps of the Army of the U.S. Merna and I had a few days to look over some of Washington, D.C. On July 27th, I was given appointment as "Chaplain, 1st Lt. AUS." I soon received orders to report to Chaplain's School, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and be there August 9. Other orders gave me instructions about purchasing suitable military clothing which was available in Omaha, Nebraska.
Traveling by train I reported for duty in the Chaplain's School at Harvard. I joined about three hundred others commissioned as Chaplains. There were Protestants, Catholics and Jews. There were twenty-six Methodists. I assume this kind of training went on for other groups over a period of many months. One of those in my group was Lyle Burdick from Nebraska. I knew him as a student at Wesleyan. Another Methodist chaplain in that group was George L. Fox, one of the "Immortal Four" who went down to death in the U.S.S. Dorchester in the North Atlantic the following February. I remember him because he was a "retread" which meant he was a veteran of W.W. I. He had volunteered at the age of 17 and shared with us some of his experiences. I have a copy of the book written by his wife about his life of forty-three years.
There were apparently two major purposes of this school. One was to get us into as good physical shape as possible in four weeks of marching and other exercises. I believe we marched about four hours five days a week and went through a routine of calisthenics. The other goal was to instruct us in the traditions, the routine and the laws of the military and in this case of the Army, since this group of chaplains were all A.U.S. Very little of our time was spent in training for what we were to be as clergy. We were supposed to know the requirements of our profession We were either trained as Catholic Priests, Protestant Clergy or Jewish Rabbis. We were given some instructions to better understand the other practices than our own. We were helped to see what we could for persons of the other two religious professions in the absence of such a chaplain. I will refer to this later as I experienced it personally and did what I could to serve persons of all faiths.
After four weeks of Chaplain's School, I was given orders to report to 2nd Army Headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. I did so and was given orders to report to the 606 Tank Destroyer Battalion in Camp Hood, Texas. I rode a hot and dusty train to Camp Hood, Texas and discovered for the first time in my life blacks and whites do not ride in the same cars on railroad trains. I discovered also that the 606 Tank Destroyer Battalion was up in Tennessee in the Cumberland River Manoever area. The next day I retraced my ride and managed to locate that Battalion. However, security was tight and it took many questions of different persons to convince officers of the 606 Bn. I was legitimate.
This kind of security of course was to train officers and men for the real thing, of combat places and experiences. An executive officer assigned me an officer's vehicle and a driver. For the next six weeks I lived out in the open, slept in a bed roll and followed the orders of time and places of the maneuver plan. There was a let-up on weekends and we managed to clean up and get baths and some good food. I held services out in the open as I was able and learned right at the beginning of my duties as a chaplain to make do with what was available. There were real tanks and tank destroyers in the games and I well remember the sound of "enemy" tanks coming over the hills and plains. It was our job to keep under cover and out of sight. My driver was well trained and we usually were out of sight under some trees or debris or in some gully. In addition to the weekend services I was able from time to time to get with a small group of men or an individual and have some good conversations.
After this experience I was granted a leave of absence and went back to Wood River to get Merna and Jeanne. We arranged for them to stay in temporary quarters in a hotel in Lebanon, Missouri, and later in Rolla, Missouri, near Fort Leonard Wood where I was to be stationed temporarily. After only a few weeks I was transferred to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, near Evansville, again on temporary duty, this time with the 22nd Ordinance Maintenance Bn. This group consisted of training companies, five of them making a total of about 1200 men and officers. This time we were fortunate. We managed to rent a house in Henderson, Kentucky, not far from Camp Breckinridge and shared it with another Chaplain, his wife, and one child. I was able to be home with Merna and Jeanne four or five times a week.
During these 10 weeks or so I kept with the men of these companies as much as possible and went on many a march of from five to ten miles. I also ran the obstacle course as many days as possible. In fact, there was a standing order that all officers were supposed to run this course daily. I also went on the firing line for rifle and pistol practice. Chaplains were never to carry arms but I enjoyed being with the men in what they were training for. All these months I knew these assignments were temporary for the groups were training groups and did not rate a chaplain in their ranks. I held regular services to serve as many of the men as possible, sometimes having multiple services to accommodate different groups. Sometimes we had a chapel to use and more often we did not and I held services in any place made available. I had services on at least two occasions for mostly black troops. They could really sing and I enjoyed that.
The big order came about the first of March 1943. I was assigned to the 95th Evacuation Hospital. Security was tight but I knew the signs and knew we were receiving new assignments of nurses, doctors, trained medical personnel. Without being told, I was sure in a matter of time we would be sent somewhere in a combat area. Finally we were told to make arrangements for our families. The date suggested was the end of March. During these weeks of March we had some social gatherings of members of this newly formed 95th Evacuation Hospital and I was able to have Merna with me on occasion to meet some of the nurses and doctors. Of course these weeks were emotional ones for us and we made the most of them with me spending as much time as possible at the home in Henderson. It just happened that Chaplain Riley who was the one who shared our house recerived orders for an assignment and we gave up the house at the end of March. He had an assignment that took him later to duty in the Pacific area. On April 1, I said goodbye to Merna and Jeanne as they took a train back to Wood River. How little did we know it would be two years and seven months before we saw each other again.
During the month of March I was able to greet many enlisted men, nearly all medically trained as they came into our unit. I also met nurses and doctors and had a busy time of it in these personal relationships. I also had the choice of one of three men to be my chaplain's assistant. I chose Lawrence Kurth, from Kansas. He had graduated from college and had been a music teacher for a couple of years in a high school. Her was also a skilled typist. We became close friends in the months to come and I thanked God for this many many a day in the next two years. He was our song leader in almost every service, choir director and my jeep driver. His first child was born within a few months after we were overseas and he never saw him till the war was over.
When we were completely staffed, we had 32 doctors, most of them trained in some kind of surgery, 40 nurses and usually a Red Cross worker, 217 enlisted men, most of whom had had special training as medical technicians, secretarial skills, motor pool technicians and food service technicians. In addition to the doctors there wee five special duty officers in charge of special areas such as food service, motor pool service, office and secretarial services. One doctor was an X-Ray specialist for we were to be a surgical hospital for most of our work. For the first seven months I was the only Chaplain assigned. We did get a Catholic Chaplain, a priest, after the first seven months and I was greatly relieved and grateful. Chaplain Luckett and I became good friends and worked together in harmony until we were separated after the war was over in Europe.
After a couple of weeks in Camp Shanks in New York, we shipped out on a troop carrier to cross the Atlantic. We had air cover for the first few hundred miles, but then were on our own. The ship zig-zagged every mile of the way to escape the possibility of submarine attack. There were other military units on board so the chaplains took turns with daily services. I had a chance to get better acquainted with our personnel.
After about ten days we landed at Casablanca, on the northeast coast of Africa, in French Morocco.
We spent about three days and had a chance to look over the city of about 250,000 people of many races and cultures. Most of them were Moslems but there were other religions represented. There was also poverty and beggars. This we would see in Africa later on.
With much of our supplies for the hospital loaded, we travelled some miles by train up the Mediterranean coast to near the town of Oujda. Near there we set up as a tent hospital for the first time and took in some patients of the 82nd Airborne Division, both sickness and injuries. This unit was getting ready for the invasion of Sicily, although we did not know that at the time. In training jumps we had many brought into the hospital with broken bones and other injuries, several with broken legs as I recall. Three things I recall about this first set-up. The surroundings were semi-desert with much blowing sand which got into our clothing and our bed rolls and our food. The second thing I remember was that there were desert tribes with their sheep and goats near by and many of them, particularly children came begging for food and sometimes they were chased away from the garbage cans. The third thing I remember was that some of us had a chance to get a ride in a troop carrier plane and enjoyed a short ride up the coastline and out over the ocean or Mediterranean Sea. Also, we had a chance for a swim once in the sea.
After only about two weeks here, we travelled by truck convoy, our own trucks, and set up the hospital for service a few miles outside of Oran, Algeria. This was a city of 300,000 population and there were many troops, American, British, and French. Some of them were veterans of the African Campaign which had now come to an end with the Allies victorious. We had an influx of patients, injuries from training and sickness. I began to have lots of calling to do in the tent wards and or course had services regularly on Sundays and sometimes during the week.
One particular responsibility I had was to see that services were available for Catholics and Jews. I sought out a priest who was a Chaplain of some other unit and either had him for a Mass and Confessions at a special hour or saw to it that transportation was available for Catholics to go to some near-by Mass. This last was not easy for we had limited transportation. I remember one time I came upon an interesting arrangement. The Italians were enemies at that time of the Allied forces. We had some Italian forces as POW's in a nearby camp. They must have been taken prisoners in the African Campaign. At any rate, they were imprisoned near us and they had a Chaplain Priest, also a P.O.W. with them. I had an officer who spoke Italian go with me to interview this priest. He agreed to come to our hospital and lead the Mass for our Catholic members. He could not speak English, but since the mass was in Latin and Catholics were used to following it in this language there was no problem. I think he served us two different Sundays. I do not know how he handled confessions.
The services on Fridays for the Jews here and in later months were conducted by one of the Jewish officers on our staff or I led them myself. I read from the Prayer Book (Abridged) for JEWS IN THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES. I had learned in Chaplain's School that a Jewish service could be led by any "righteous man" in intent if not always in fact. I even had a funeral service some months later in an Anzio cemetery for a Jewish lay woman, a civilian from Rome who had been killed by leading some American Airmen shot down behind the German lines, near Rome.
The invasion of Sicily took place while we were stationed near Oran and patients flown back within hours after being wounded were in our hospital, scores of them. This was our first experience of treating combat victims. Many of them were Parachute infantry of the 82nd Airborne.
Meanwhile, all through these weeks in Africa I was conducting services on Sundays and often on a week day for ambulatory patients and personnel of our hospital. Lawrence Kurth, my assistant, arranged for music or sang a solo. sometimes he could get a small choir including nurses put together. Organ music was provided by a folding pump organ and our organist was Lt. Haistings, our Mess officer. He continued in this assignment for us for over a year and a half. We had hymnals which were provided for all Chaplains, small in size but containing about 150 hymns and adequate.
During the weeks we were here we often went into Oran. We did some shopping but little for there was little to interest us. But we often stopped at the large hall set up by Red Cross and other service agencies where service persons gathered for entertainment and visiting. There were games, sometimes a motion picture and sometimes live entertainment. Also, sometimes cokes, ice-cream and donuts were available. There was also an officer's club run by the Special Services, I believe, and here there were opportunities to play bridge and other card games, buy sandwiches, even steaks and different drinks.
One of my main interests was swimming in the Mediterranean on a beach not too far from our location. While we had some patients it was not a hurried and busy time which we were to experience in months to come. While there, I did visit the Joan of Arc Cathedral, a large Jewish synagogue and a little French Methodist Church. One afternoon along with some other officers I had the privilege of visiting the synagogue and witnessing an orate Jewish wedding. It must have lasted nearly two hours. Family members had more parts to play in it than the bride and groom.
The last of August we evacuated all patients, closed down the hospital and packed up all equipment. We knew we were probably heading for some invasion but did not know where. I had communion on two different occasions to accommodate everyone and large numbers responded. The Nurses were sent apart for they would be on a different ship from all the rest of us.
Early on September 3, we left our bivouac area near Ain El Tuch and went a few miles by convoy and then marched three miles with full packs to a loading point near docks. After a short wait we were loaded on a large flat boat and a tug took us out to the anchored troop carrier ship, the "Marnex." It was a Dutch ship under control of the British but navigated by the Dutch captain and his crew. It must have been a fine sea liner in peace time. But continued travel for the war period without a chance to paint up and clean up made her look old and dingy. The officers quarters and mess room were o.k. but the enlisted men were quite crowded. Their food was better, however, than that coming over from the States.
Life preservers or inflated inner tubes were dispensed and we were warned to have them on or within reach at all times. However, the Captain took us on a tour and assured us the ship was built in compartments and was practically unsinkable.
Our nurses were assigned to another ship with other nurses and would join us at some later date. We definitely were on our way to an invasion, possibly Yugoslavia or Italy or Southern France. I guessed Italy as did others and we were right. Just before this preparation we had been assigned a Catholic Chaplain by the name of Luckett and I felt very good about that. On board this ship were large numbers of the 36th Division, mostly Texans and with them were two other Protestant Chaplains. Chaplain Luckett arranged for service each day and the three of us Protestants likewise arranged to take turn for Protestant Services. After my Sunday morning service I met two news men. One was from the Chicago Daily News and the other was with the Psychological Warfare Service.
The rumor that we were headed for Italy had become quite evidently the truth. Just as we were having mess Sunday evening, September 8, the news flash came over the loudspeaker that Italy had unconditionally surrendered. We cheered and speculation was rife what effect it would have upon the war and our own invasion of Italy. Some thought we would land easily and advance quickly. How wrong they were proved to be!
About 9:30 p.m. that evening we had our first air alarm. I went to an appropriate place with two other officers and watched the fireworks of anti-aircraft fire. The attack was some miles away from us for we were in a convoy of many many ships and we seemed to be about in the middle of it. We could see the tracer bullets. The following lines are with quotation marks for they tell the story as I wrote it in a little booklet "My Life in the Service" not more than a few days after the event.
"We arrived in the invasion area about midnight of September 8 and held steady until daybreak. Ships of various kinds could be seen in all directions in the giant convoy. Land could be seen in the distance. Landing barges were unloading men and equipment from our ship and others and heading to the beach in a constant stream. One barge from our ship came back with some men from another ship and reported stiff resistance on the beach. One British sailor on a barge was badly wounded. Another barge was damaged on the beach and towed back. I was on a barge which unloaded from the ship about 1400 hours and soon headed for the beach. It was a rough ride in that flat bottomed boat and four men aboard were very seasick.
"It was about twelve miles in as the crow flies and took us nearly two hours. Just as we approached the beach, we saw planes overhead and thought they were friendly ones, but not so. They were the 'Jerries.' Then ship and coastal anti-aircraft guns opened up and the noise was deafening. These Messerschmidts were bombing and strafing landing operations. Either bullets or flak fell in the water about us and we had our first baptism of fire. We had seen a German plane shot down near our ship in the morning but nothing had come close to us till now. The planes were driven away by American planes flying in from Sicily. We began to get ready to jump into the water at the order of the British officer in charge but stopped when the German planes came over and huddled in the boat. One officer had gotten into the water and I remember seeing him snuggling in the water under the side of the boat. Other planes came over and the British officer in charge gave the order to get out, 'It's another bloody Dunkirk.' We scrambled out in water just over waist deep and I fell forward but quickly regained my feet and ran for the beach stopping only when I was about fifty yards in. I was shaking and seemed exhausted for I was carrying a pack of about fifty pounds. Probably it was more excitement than anything else. I do not recall being frightened but I was later on! Others of our hospital were scattered along the beach among sand dunes covered with bunches of grass. We either dug or appropriated slit trenches and foxholes left by others. We prepared for the night for we knew we were not going in any further.
"Looking up and down the shore line, we could see barges and L.S.T. unloading tremendous stocks of various supplies which were beginning to pile up. A Messerschmidt had been shot down near the water's edge. Nearby was a dead American soldier with a massive head wound. Tanks and half-tracks were being unloaded and followed a bulldozer as it cut a path in the sand. All the time with hardly any pause, the destroyers and cruisers of the convoy were shelling inland positions of the enemy and we could on occasion hear the distant rattle of rifle and machine gun fire. A German oil dump had been hit and was burning about three or four miles from our position. We were told that the Germans had put up a terrific resistance and had practically wiped out the first wave that came ashore.
"The German troops were only about a mile from us when we landed. That night we slept as we were able in that setting. German planes came over and we were wakened by the firing of the anti-airplane guns from ships and shore position. We could hear bits of flak falling about and found some evidence of it the next morning. It made everyone crouch low in his foxhole or trench and hold his helmet on tight.
"At daybreak many of us were walking about watching the landing operations. A steady stream of supplies was coming in. The amphibious 2.5 ton trucks were doing a great job and did so for some days. About 0930 many barges were unloading men, also some LSTs with heavy equipment and men. Just as they were getting onto the beach, some German planes with strafing and bombing and everyone up and down the beach hit the sand and jumped for a hole. I had just returned from a walk up the beach to get some K rations which had been and was our menu for some days. I was only ten yards from a hole and hit it in nothing flat. As I did so, I saw a bomb explode in the sand about three hundred yards down the beach. The fall of flak was terrific. We had had injuries from this defensive fire and were afraid of it as well as the Germans' strafing and bombing. This time I was scared, no doubt about it. As we crawled out of our trenches or holes, I noticed a quarter master company of black soldiers. One was sitting up obviously shook but cleaning his rifle of sand with a mosquito net. Others were untangling themselves for some had others pile in on them. No one nearby had been injured but we soon learned that 1/2 mile down the beach a Battalion Command Post had been hit and four officers and an enlisted man were killed. Chaplain Copeland of the 36th came by and told me he had recently left the C.P. Later I visited a clearing station for the wounded and visited with some of them. Some bodies were collected there also. Reports of continued German resistance continued to come back. Men of the 36th Division from Texas were having a rough time. Warships were still shelling a German gun position on a hillside on our right and evidently silenced it in mid-afternoon. We spent the second night as the first with three raids. It was good to see the daylight come. Our planes were overhead much of the time but only briefly for they had to come from Sicily. German planes sneaked in and out hurriedly from a landing field not many miles away up the coast. During the two days we were waiting on the beach because we could not set up our hospital under such conditions, we saw five German planes shot down in our area. Some were on the beach and some went into the sea. I remember some humorous incidents and it was a relief to laugh in that situation. One was seeing a captain of our hospital who weighed over two hundred pounds crouched under the wing of a downed German plan seeking shelter as other German planes went over with their strafing and bombing. He laughed with us afterward as he realized how little safety there was from bullets and or a bomb under the thin fuselage of a German fighter plane.
"I thought of having religious services during these two days but it was too dangerous to congregate men together in groups. I would guess there were lots of praying done anyway. I talked a lot to individual men scattered over the beach and the third morning told Major Binkley that we were going to have some badly shaken men if we did not get out of that danger. He was the executive officer of our 95th Evacuation Hospital. He told me we would not spend another night there but would begin to set up a part of the hospital a mile or so inland. We were needed as a hospital, the only one on the beach so far. Aid stations and clearing units for the wounded could not handle the wounded who were increasing hourly. We began to move by our trucks brought in on a L.S.T. to a station not more than two miles. Everyone pitched in and our men began to set up ward tents all through the night and the next day, September 11. That afternoon we began to receive patients and even began to do some surgery. The next three days some of our doctors and the surgical technicians slept very little as they sought to do what they could for the wounded. As quickly as it was possible these wounded and treated patients were evacuated to ships to be taken back to Africa. Enemy planes were overhead each night but not as close to us as before. However, flak from our gun positions continued to fall and we found pieces from the size of a time to a dollar. One of our sergeants was injured in both thighs and a patient had some flak come through the tent and wounded him in the side, quite seriously.
"On Monday night, just four days after the beginning of the invasion some German troops broke through our lines and the situation was critical. Firing by artillery and guns on the ships seemed never to stop and we heard it all the time. Flashes of guns were clearly visible at night. A clearing company with 150 patients had to clear out of danger and we took all this group in. With supplies including cots we had room for 250 patients. The next morning we had over 500 patients. Half of them slept on the sand with only blankets. All of our men were up that night. I finally crawled into a blanket about 0300. That night was also a memorable one for hundreds of paratroops from the 82nd Airborne were dropped in as reinforcements. We were all warned in the night we might be taken for Germans by these troopers. To be sure, some did land in our area, one near me. And some of them as usual were injured in the jump. Injured ones, mostly wrenched backs or broken legs were added to our patient list. Later we learned that navy had been ordered to stand by to evacuate our fighting troops if the situation became too critical. Patients and medical personnel would not be evacuated. We were also told later that German troops were less than four miles from our location that night. But the paratroopers and other reinforcements from the beach turned the tide.
"The next day, Tuesday, September 14, I spent the whole morning passing soup and hot coffee to patients all over the place. Later that day and the next I passed out smokes and toilet articles to all who had lost all personal possessions. Most of them had. We had some deaths in the hospital and I had the responsibility of seeing that the bodies and personal effects were properly identified and delivered to the cemetery which was set up near Paestum. Some bodies were also left at our morgue tent by ambulance drivers. Some bodies were horribly mangled and I thought, 'Not the glory of battle but the gory of it.' A chaplain was stationed at the cemetery and had an appropriate committal service over each grave.
"We had a daily evacuation of patients to the Zone of Interior for further treatment so we could continue to take care of the most seriously wounded. The wounded kept coming daily and the work of our hospital went on.
"Several navy and also other army men who had been in other engagements in Africa and in the South Pacific told us this was the most costly and brutal fight American troops had ever been in during this entire war. And they said the beaches had not shelled before the landing.
"Meanwhile our nurses who were on a hospital ship and slated to join us about ten days after the invasion had their own troubles. The hospital ship, painted white and well marked with the Red Cross was sunk by a bomb. But there were no serious injuries. They along with nurses from another hospital, the 16th Evac. were picked up and taken back to Africa. They had lost all clothing and personal belongings. At that time we really needed their help but we were all grateful there had been no losses or serious injuries. They were re-equipped and sent to us later on another ship arriving about ten days later. Meanwhile, the 93rd Evac. hospital came in and loaned us a few of their nurses.
"Sometime during the second week I began daily services and Chaplain Luckett began daily masses. My attendance was not large but daily with about 60. We had no cover except a small tent over the altar and makeshift pulpit. But we sang and prayed and I had a brief meditation each day. As soon as the nurses joined us we began to have some choral music arranged by Corporal Kurth, my assistant." (This is the end of the quotation from my daily diary and from here unless otherwise designated, the writing is from notes and my memory of what happened. I will give some direct quotes from the diary later on.)
While I would not attempt to tell the story of this invasion and the weeks and weeks of fighting that followed, I would like to comment on some things I learned about the organization and unity of the Allied Forces in the campaign in Italy. First there was the discovery that this invasion depended upon and would never have advanced very far without the Navy ships, both American and British. Their guns in the early days of the invasion were very obvious to us as shells went overhead to the German mines. Also, we came to appreciate the part of the air force in finally scattering the German planes which were over us so much in the first two or three days.
Secondly, I discovered that this was a war of allies. American troops made up the bulk of the troops for this invasion but the British forces were also involved. And the British 8th Army had invaded south near the toe of Italy where it almost touches Sicily. Within a couple of weeks this army made contact with the American 5th Army, the invading group and the British were assigned to the Adriatic or eastern side of Italy. So we had British wounded in our hospital from time to time in the ensuing weeks. Later in this campaign there were to be French troops and New Zealand troops and finally some French Moroccan troops who were called "Goums" or "Goumiers." These allies had their own hospitals and first aid stations but by the very nature of the fighting we were to have them in our hospital on occasion. So I learned from personal contacts of the allied nature of this war.
After the first two weeks, our forces having been much reinforced and having connected with the British army were able to make advances against the Germans. The first of October, Naples, an important seaport to use for supplies so essential if the advance up the Italian boot was to continue.
Within a few days we had orders to close up our hospital for a move to Naples. However, a few days before this I had had a chance to visit both Paestum and Pompei. Paestum is located about thirty miles south of Salerna and is the site of an ancient Greek settlement. There we saw the ruins of a temple to Ceres, Goddess of Agriculture and also ruins of another temple to Neptune, God of the Sea. Many times as we rode along the coast road always filled with military vehicles I thought of the 25 centuries or more armies of various nations had been traveling up and down that road. Some of us also hitch hiked to Pompei and went through the ruins of this ancient city, much of it destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, 79 A.D. On these visits I made a decision that while I had a job to do as an army Chaplain and I would give it my priority, I was going to see as much of the cities and countries we passed through as possible.
We travelled by truck convoy with all equipment to Naples and after two days of waiting, we set up the hospital and began to receive patients. The trip to Naples was an interesting one along the coast. Wreckage of German equipment was in evidence all along the way and sometimes American and British. Isolated German graves were along the highway with the soldier's helmet, rifle and cartridge belt on top.
Smoke from Mt. Vesuvius was a land mark we were to see often, and at night we would at times see low flames at the crest of the mountain. However, there was no flow of lava at any time we were in Italy so far as I know.
We set up in a very fine building of three stories which had been used as a hospital by the Germans. It was such a luxury to be in a building after being in tents in Africa in two locations and then in a cramped troop carrier and then in tents as a hospital in Italy. We knew it would not be too long so we enjoyed it all the more. A real shower was one of the luxuries instead of a bath from a helmet of water. We had many patients while here for the fighting at the Volturno River and other places was intense as our Allied forces tried to enlarge the beach head without much success. The Germans had been reinforced, the terrain was rough and very soggy from almost constant rains. Our tanks could not make headway and the air force had little success in foggy and rainy weather.
We had our first casualty from our own personnel while here the first week. A terrible explosion shook our building just a hundred yards or so away as a store of T.N.T. used by the engineers was accidentally exploded. One of our men was killed and two others were seriously injured while driving a truck nearby. Thirty men in all were killed and over a hundred were brought into our hospital with injuries. I kept very busy with calls in the wards while we were here and had services about three times a week in a very nice location inside the building.
During this time I became acquainted with Chaplain Brown, on the staff of the 5th Army. We went shopping together and were together on different occasions. He invited me to have two different services at the 5th Army HQ. Later he asked me if I might be interested in filling a vacancy on the staff of the 5th Army. There might be a good chance of being promoted to Captain. I told him I would be glad to be promoted, but preferred to stay with the hospital work. This Chaplain Brown some years later was promoted to be Chief of Chaplains, an administrative position in Washington, D.C. He was a Methodist from the Colorado Conference. We saw each other several times during the Italian Campaign.
It was while we were in Naples that I bought some jewelry and sent to Merna including many cameos. They reached her for Christmas.
While located in Naples we had a chance to travel around in the city and saw many interesting sights, including a building called The Royal Palace. It was the home of the Duke and Duchess, the latter a sister of the King. It was magnificently furnished with paintings and sculptured pieces all over the place. The grounds were spacious and luxuriously planted in flowers and foliage. Some great old trees lined the entrance road. Another interesting trip included the Blue Grotto and Sorrento, a beautiful coastline tourist area in peace time.
While set up in Naples we had some terrible German bombing attacks and always we had a rush of patients afterward, sometimes other soldiers of our allies and sometimes civilians including children. Our hospital was not hit, but we did lose shattered windows by the blasts. While in Naples we had over 500 patients on occasion, with hospital facilities for only 400.
Not far north of our hospital there was a plot designated for an American cemetery. I was called many times for graveside services. During the month of November we had so many patients and many of them ambulatory I held daily services with attendance up to a hundred at times. Singing was always a good part of the services. Either Kurth or I led out in the singing and I believe it was a positive and healthy influence on everyone. During this month I talked several times with Lawrence Kurth, my assistant, about going into the ministry of the church when the war was over. He made his decision to do so and we started proceedings with his church and the Kansas Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church which later united with the Methodist Church to become the United Methodist Church.
One of the interesting and worthwhile projects for entertainment and rising of morale for all concerned was the starting of Operas here in Naples. We heard some of the best singers, for the Italians are lovers of operas and many world famous singers were probably right here.
About the 22nd of November the 17th General Hospital came over from No. Africa to take over our space and we closed down the hospital and packed for a destination not yet known. We kept our quarters for about eight days with little to do but explore the city and travel in permissible areas. We celebrated Thanksgiving and two days later moved in our convoy of trucks to a new location north of the town of Capua.
(The following several pages with quotes comes from a direct quotation from my "My Life in the Service" booklet.)
"I should mention two other things about our stay in Naples. Air raids were frequent but seemed to do little damage. Our building shook and we had windows broken out on one occasion when a bomb landed close. We always had terrific 'ack-ack' or anti-aircraft fire. One night the attack continued one hour and flares lit up the area like a Fourth of July celebration. However, our hospital was not the target for it was well marked with the Red Cross of the hospital. The main danger was that an enemy airplane might be shot down with unexploded bombs still ready to go.
"After leaving Naples we set up the hospital under tents in a field with fair drainage for the rains were now coming fairly regularly. Vehicles were kept on the newly built crushed rock roadways or they would have mired down in the soil. We often walked through mud but the tents kept the patients and hospital on fairly dry ground. This was a good set-up and we kept very busy until after Christmas. Christmas was celebrated as best we could. We had carols throughout the patient area many times with makeshift choir groups made up of officers, nurses and enlisted personnel. My assistant, Lawrence Kurth, was usually the leader, for he was a good singer and I filled in on occasion when he could not be present. We had parties for officers and nurses and also for enlisted men. A turkey dinner was served to everyone on Christmas Day and The American Red Cross distributed stockings filled with fruits, nuts, candy and a package of cigarettes to smokers. We managed to get entertainment from visiting singers or groups three times in Christmas week. I held services daily much of the time in our Chapel tent and Chaplain Luckett, Roman Catholic, held daily mass during this Christmas week. I spent a great deal of time with the patients writing letters, visiting with them and responding to requests for prayers and the books I had available including New Testaments and Psalms. This period, November 27 to January 8, was the busiest I had had in the hospital. During this period I also moved into a Pyramidal tent with three medical officers, two of them surgeons and one the second in command, the executive officer of the hospital, Major Binkley. The two surgeons were Majors Baxter and Patterson. One was the director of Medical Services and one was director of Surgical Services. They got a lot of enjoyment out of kidding me and occasionally trying to shock me, but they soon discovered I had been around the block and we had some great times together. We had an oil stove for heat in the center of the tent and often had a cup of coffee and a snack in the evening.
"Patients brought back stories of bitter fighting in the mountains with slow progress. The booklet of cartoons called 'Mud, Mules and Mountains' by Bill Mauldin and an introduction by Ernie Pyle described some of the bitter fighting and living endured through the winter months of this year and 1944 as the British and American troops sought to make headway through the rain and mud and mountains against the persistent German troops. During these days I often met men I would have liked to have known better as friends with more time to share. But our time together was brief, usually not over a week, for our name 'Evacuation Hospital' indicates one of our purposes, to get the wounded operated on if necessary and then well enough to be evacuated to the rear areas so we could do the same for the constant stream of the wounded. I recall a Sgt. Thomas of the 504 Parachute Infantry and a Sgt. O'Brien of the S.S. Troops, and many others in this location and others we were to have. I still remember one young man who was badly wounded and somehow he was separated from his unit and lay for hours on a wet mountainside, calling but no one responding. I remember him telling me that he kept praying he would not have to stay out there and die all alone. Finally he was well enough to be shipped back to a rear general hospital and probably back to the states. He got an answer to his prayer. He did not die out there all alone. Whether he made it I do not know.
"We were in no military action during this period but often saw flashes of artillery fire in the distance along with the rumble.
"From January 8 to January 18. During this period we were in a staging area south of Caserta with our supplies packed for another invasion. Rumors flew about our destination but most of us guessed it would be at some point on this western coast north of Rome. We had a leisurely time here with a movie nearly every night. The area was in a large clearing with grape arbors and vineyards. A species of poplar tree was used as support for the vines which seemed to stretch for miles along the highway. We talked with some of the farmers who use primitive tools but are hard workers. They raise two crops a year but their yield of corn and other small grains seemed to be quite poor.
"We boarded the L.S.T. #163 under a British flag on January 19. Our nurses were left behind at Bagnoli until called for. One platoon of the 33rd Field Hospital was with us and a detail from some trucking company with seventeen trucks loaded with ammunition. Our own supplies were loaded in nineteen of our trucks. There must have been 300 persons on board in addition to the crew with bunks for only 180. The others slept on deck or in cabs of the trucks. Trucks and some tanks were chained down for safety. Speculation was still rife about our destination until the night before we set sail. We slept soundly and undisturbed but were up early and alert the next morning. News came back from the assault troops and indicated little fighting in Nettuno where rangers landed but there was some resistance for the British troops who landed at Anzio. Air raids began about 1130 hours and several sneak planes came through during the day and our ack-ack was heavy. Allied planes went after the German planes and some were shot down. We saw a patrol boat near us that hit a mine and was sunk. It was so close we could see men jumping into the water and being picked by the several boats that rushed to the rescue. This incident made all of us more on edge and we were disappointed when we learned we would not land until the next day. We were a sitting duck loaded with ammunition of seventeen trucks. However, it was a cloudy night and we had only two alarms and slept fairly well. We started to unload about 0930 hours but the ammunition trucks went first. I landed about 1200 hours and waded in the last few yards. Just as we got to shore four German planes came overhead but did little damage and one was shot down. German planes took a heavy toll for their attacks that day and later, for I personally saw several planes shot down by our planes of our anti-aircraft fire in the next few days. One sight of interest was to watch the 'ducks', so-called because they were amphibious and could be propelled through the water and then when on land became regular trucks loaded with essential supplies of all kinds. Supplies were unloaded and strewn all over the beach as we had seen before at Salerno. Within a few days, most supplies were unloaded at the Anzio docks, which of course became a prime target of German artillery for days and weeks to come.
We bivouacked in a beautiful spot with beautiful trees on one side and the highway on the other, not more than a mile from the beach and not more than fifty yards from where unloading was taking place. We set up our hospital not far away from this first spot and soon started receiving patients. It had all been planned carefully, of course, and we had been through this kind of experience once before. Fighting became more fierce as time went by and the resistance of the Germans grew hourly. Soon our hospital was full and we began evacuating the less seriously wounded to other hospitals farther down the coast. Air raids kept coming and the anti-aircraft fire was frequent and heavy. We all dug foxholes, mine was under my cot in my tent and I spent part of every night it seemed in the hole, never undressing except to take off my boots. Everyone was supposed to wear a helmet during the day. The flak from the anti-aircraft fire was dangerous and several persons were injured by it as it fell, even some patients, and it often tore holes in our tents. Artillery shells whistled over every night targeted for the beach and the ships there unloading supplies. We knew we were not the targets of those shells but feared one might be short and land among us. If it happened the casualties would be high.
"The 93rd Evac. Hospital was located in buildings in Anzio and along with us was ordered to a new location for safety purposes. It was a location farther from the beach. The 56th Evac. and the 33rd Field Hospital were already there and the place could be well marked as a hospital area. However, we later learned it was only a mile from a small airport and not more than that from a gasoline dump, so we were not out of danger.
"While this area was farther away from the favorite target of the Germans, the sea port and all the ships anchored there, we still had shells going over us at night and the nightly flying over of the German planes looking for some good target. Night time anti-aircraft fire with the ack-ack falling back on us continued. Since I was acting as the grave registration officer and delivering bodies to the grave locations I was often out on the roads where bombing and strafing of trucks was common. I had to jump into ditches on more than one occasion as planes went over. Flak tore two holes in my tent one night but through it all I was not hit.
"During this period I had services daily in a tent set up for the chapel and also had services two Sundays for the 6th Corps headquarters since there was no Protestant Chaplain available. During this period at Anzio I had an interesting experience I shall never forget. Sometime before the Anzio Beachhead was set up, a British plane had been shot down near Rome. Two officers on the plane parachuted to safety and managed to find refuge with a friendly Jewish family. A young man and a young woman, his sister, agreed to guide the two officers through the German lines and help them reach our friendly troops. The four of them managed to make it almost to freedom but were discovered and fired on by German troops. The young Jewish man was killed and one of the officers was wounded. The young woman was also wounded but she and the two officers managed to get through and were picked up by Allied medics and brought to our hospital. One of the officers was also wounded. The young woman later died and the British officer came to me to see what could be done about a funeral and burial for her. I contacted a caretaker of a civilian cemetery near Anzio who dug a grave for her interment. The British officer who had not been wounded, my assistant, Lawrence Kurth, and I and the caretaker placed her body in the grave of this civilian cemetery and I read appropriate Scriptures from the Jewish Prayer Book and gave a prayer and committal statement. War brings together all of God's children in unique ways.
"On February 7 about 1530 hours I was in my tent looking over some mail which had just been delivered after a long delay. I heard a plane flying low and went to see. Ack-ack was falling as our anti-aircraft fire pursued the German plane. Then I saw and heard exploding bombs on the nearby tents. The admission and X-ray tents had been hit and it was a sight of horror. Men were lying dead and wounded in the open area and I noted even some of the patient ward tents had been hit. I later discovered five dead in the S-ray tent and four in the admission. Cries were coming from the patient wards. Doctors, nurses and all of us pitched into the job of first aid and evacuation of the wounded to the other hospitals nearby. The dead were collected, identified, searched for personal property and placed in a morgue tent. A day later I took them all to the cemetery. I believe there were 26 of them dead and later in the evening four others died from serious wounds. The German plane which was unloading bombs was shot down and the pilot claimed he was going for our airport a mile from the hospital and missed it. He was injured and treated in one of our hospitals.
"That evening I spent calling on our wounded who had been placed in other nearby hospitals. The next day we had a memorial service and a crowd packed the chapel and stood outside. Among those killed were three of our nurses and a red cross worker assigned to our hospital. These women were all buried side by side and I later saw these locations and the graves of our men. Graveside services were performed for each one. The next day a German tank went through our lines and fired wildly into our area killing a nurse of another hospital and wounding several other persons.
"Opinions were divided on what should be done with us, that is, among our personnel. But we had no decision in the matter. Corps leadership made the decision and because we were short on key personnel and had no X-ray equipment which was essential to treat the wounded it was decided we would be replaced by another evacuation hospital on the southern front. We continued to take non-surgical patients for three days and then were relieved by the 15th Evacuation Hospital which had been on the southern front north of Naples. They arrived on February 10th with X-ray equipment and took over our hospital equipment and our patients. We loaded up only our personal equipment and started to the Anzio dock only a few miles away. On the way, some shells went over us but we received no hits. That afternoon I kept praying every so often during those three hours, "God, protect us now, we have had enough!" We loaded trucks and personnel on the L.S.T. ready to take us back down the coast. Some German shells came near us as we passed the front lines on the south but none were close enough to do any damage. We arrived at our bivouac area, formerly occupied by the 15th Evac. Hospital and began to get settled about 1300 hours and believe it or not, we had pork chops and the trimmings for evening mess. Much of the time at Anzio and a few days before that we had been living on hash and C rations. What a quiet night it was after weeks of shelling and airplanes overhead. Faces of all of us began to lose that drawn, tired and haggard look. In another twenty-four hours we all felt like different persons. Being in a combat area takes its toll on every person and I am sure all of us would be willing to admit it.
"Chaplain Luckett and I began services every day in a ward tent made into a chapel with seats made of empty ammo boxes which once carried 105s and 90s. Our camp is on a slightly sloping terrain with draining ditches dug by army engineers crushed rock walks and roadways. However rain had made even them sometimes muddy. I began to receive lots of books sent by my Wahoo friends and the Allan Williams, friend and pastor of St. Paul Methodist Church in Omaha. We put cards in them and turned them over to the Red Cross who gave them out to patients and hospital personnel. Two of our nurses are filling in until we get another Red Cross worker assigned. We also were able to put two ward tents together for a theatre and have had shows and entertainment every evening. Ammo boxes made seats for about 100 or more.
"On Tuesday, February 22, I went to Naples to visit some of our hospital personnel who were among the wounded at Anzio and had been sent back to general hospitals to recuperate. We will be getting most of them back in a few days. Young men heal fast. We are now taking patients again so workers are needed.
"The weather is not good but spring is on its way. However, we in hospital units and other service groups have little to complain about. Men on the line come in with trench feet and respiratory problems because of exposure to mud and rain and cold.
"I sometimes speak to Jewish groups on Friday evenings. One of the Jewish doctors leads the service and I speak from an Old Testament Scripture. We have no Rabbi and it is practically impossible to get a Jewish Chaplain. There are very few available in this combat zone. At any rate it is understood that "any righteous man is authorized to lead a Jewish service" according to information I received at Chaplain's School. I am righteous in intent at least if not always in practice! We have about fifteen Jewish men in our unit including three doctors. We usually have a time together on Friday evening and invite ambulatory Jewish patients to join us.
"February 26-March 10, 1944.
"Nothing much unusual during these days. I had a chance to do some reading although with a daily service including preaching I had to spend some time in preparation. Our patient load is down to 200 or less, nearly all of them medical patients. The nurses gave a party for all officers to celebrate the anniversary of their being with us. Just a year ago the officers had given a party at Camp Breckinridge to welcome the forty nurses to the hospital personnel. Nurses Scheetz, Sigman and Morrow, all wounded at Anzio are still in hospitals; they will be well enough to return soon.
"We also had a party with Red Cross entertainment for all the enlisted men. Beer was available as drinks had been available for the officers and nurses party but not many abused it so far as I could see.
"In March, we moved to a new location near Carionola. It was a very pleasant and well chosen location. We continued to have patients but we were not overcrowded as we had been at some locations, especially at Anzio. My services continued daily until after Easter and then I had two services during the week and two on Sunday. I also served the 54th Medical Battalion and became well acquainted with a few men. Sports such as baseball, softball and volley ball were almost daily experiences. I played a lot of softball and volley ball and did all right. Our Easter service was a beautiful one with lots of flowers on the altar area. Another chaplain nearby had gone to Naples and brought back a Jeep loaded with flowers and we benefitted with many of them. Nurses and officers and enlisted men were selected for a choir and we had some great music and, of course, overflowing attendance at all Easter services. We had four services on Easter Day at the hospital and I had an extra one for a nearby unit. What a day! My April monthly report showed we had the largest monthly attendance for any month in the service up to this point. It was a busy month for both Kurth and me. Lt. Haisten, mess officer and our organist was with us most of the time. Of course our organ is a little folding one but it gives us some leadership for singing. Both Chaplain Luckett and I had been issued Jeeps for we had been serving many units near us who did not have chaplains.
"One day after Easter, Lts. Haisten, Freidenberger, Kurth and I made a trip with the Jeep to Amnalfi and across country to Castleforte through a scenic mountain drive. The drive from Amalfi to Salerno is a winding road overlooking the sea. Some of us also made mountain climbs to see some of the scenic country. The mountains might be called hills in this country but they reminded me of the rocky and hilly country of northwest Nebraska. One day we located the body of an American soldier who had apparently been wounded or killed and left behind in some combat experience. We reported it to authorities.
"At Carinola we had some new officers and nurses join us to replace some killed and others who had been reassigned or sent back to the States because of disability. A Captain Howell who I had become well acquainted with was sent home because of a severe back injury.
"At Acrinola, German planes were overhead at night more than once and bombs were dropped on the 56th Medical Battalion not far away from us, killing two of their men. And later the 93rd Evac. Hospital was hit, killing one man. We think they were after convoys on the nearby highway and the bombs were misses. Convoys of supplies were going forward constantly which meant the probability of an allied attack, which everyone knew would come in the good spring weather.
"On May 11 at 2300 hours the allied artillery let loose as we could see the flashes and hear the rumble even though it was some miles away. We began receiving some casualties and were very busy for about a week. But on May 11 we started evacuating patients and packing up for another move. Soon the next day we were moving forward with one long convoy of trucks and other vehicles including my Jeep. When we arrived at the appointed location we set up in a hurry with everyone helping pitch tents. We soon began receiving patients from the front and knew the big push was on to take Rome. On May 23rd, German planes were over but bombing installations near Forinia a few miles from us and to the west near the sea. One bomb did land on the 313 Medical Battalion killing several men. We did not believe these hits of medical units were intentional, but near misses when the planes were after a headquarters or combat installation near by. But intentional or not, they caused casualties. Also, these were German planes flying at night time for the most part, for Allied planes were controlling the skies in the daytime.
"On May 26, Bert Friedenberg, Lts. Dunne and Behrens climbed a mountain back of our area. We had been up a ridge nearby the day before and discovered two German bodies and one American. We had reported to the nearest Grave Registration Service and the bodies were picked up within hours. On this day we went to the top of the mountain supposedly the highest one in that vicinity. It took us nearly four hours. At different points along narrow highways we saw the evidence of the fighting that had taken place. These included expended rifle shells, C ration empty cans. Near the top of the mountain there was a wrecked German plane with debris scattered over a wide area. We found some scattered bits of clothing. We learned later the fighting had been severe on this mountain side.
"Soon we moved the hospital again to a spot near Cisterna, opposite Anzio where we first were located. It was a battered battlefield with dugouts where men had lived and sometimes died through the months of March, April and part of May. There were many evidences of the fighting in this area, including destroyed vehicles and an occasional tank. Anzio was still the port of Allied supplies and bombing planes were still going for it at night.
"For a few days we had a high intake of patients, many of whom did not make it. On June 4, we heard of Rome being taken and we rejoiced. Meanwhile, we had moved some miles north of Anzio at a place called Mt. Alto. At all these locations mentioned I continued to have services four or five times a week and nearly every Sunday Kurth and I would take off in the Jeep after my morning service at 9:00 to hold a service for some group who had no Chaplain. I enjoyed this, for it gave me a chance to work with a lot of men from all over the U.S.A. and in all kinds of units of the army. Chaplains were not ordinarily assigned to units with less than 1000 persons except to hospitals where there was such a need for chaplains in the influx of wounded and the sick.
"On June 6, the Normandy invasion took place and as soon as we heard it we rejoiced for we knew then there might be a chance for the end of the war. We had services of prayer that the war might end as soon as possible with no more casualties than
necessary. We all knew what the cost in human life was already, and prayed that it might end as soon as possible.
"On June 11, I made a trip to Rome and attended the Methodist Church, Via Firenze 38. I met the pastor, Dr. Stefano Armmenti and District Superintendent, Rev. Tito Signorelli. It was a thanksgiving service for the liberation of Rome and the people were very happy. On the day before I had been in Rome and had visited St. Peters and also the coliseum.
"We moved to other places north of Rome. At one of them we discovered a swimming pool, at least we made it a swimming pool and used it often while we were there. On one occasion, I went with doctors to a meeting where Dr. Perrin Long, discovered sulfanilamide, was the speaker. He spoke about hepatitis and afterward I had a chance to meet him and talk to him briefly. Although he was a man of fame, he was very humble and friendly. Some of us also made two trips to Lake Bolzano. It is a beautiful lake of about 10 x 20 miles and is the location of a volcano crater. We swam in it and the water had a sweet rain water taste. I often had a chance to swim in the ocean but I always preferred fresh water.
"About the first of July, we got word that we would soon be closing down and would be making another invasion. No definite statement was made of this, but the word was out and we again wondered where it would be. Meanwhile the allied front had moved on north of Rome and the fighting would go on for months, for the Germans still held northern Italy.
"July 15 we moved to a staging area north of Capua. Haistin, Pellicane, Kurth and I went down highway 6 from Rome to go to Cassino. So much was battered up along the highway and signs warned us at times not to stop and not to get off the highway for there might be unexploded shells of bombs and booby traps. At this location we began a period of loafing and recreation with some volley ball, softball, bridge and other games. I went to a lot of operas in the San Carlo house in Naples and a few afternoons I went with some small group to the beach for swimming. One Sunday afternoon we had a big picnic on the beach. On Sunday, August 6, in the afternoon I had the wedding of Miss Adeline Simonson and Captain Williams at the Waldensian Church in Naples. She was one of our nurses and he was with some combat group.
"We had a choir each Sunday during this period and attendance was very good. We all enjoyed this period of leisure but were ready to get started again when we got orders to prepare to board a ship, another kind of ship for me. It was an L.C.I., landing craft Infantry, #188. Most of our enlisted men, 150 of them and four of our officers and I were on board in addition to four officers of the craft and the crew. The space was crowded! Naval officers included Captain Anderson of the flotilla, including many ships, Captain Thomas of the L.C.I., Petrie from Norfolk, Nebraska and Morrow from Tennessee. Binkley and I played bridge three times with Petrie and Thomas. We all enjoyed a swim at Salerno and later at Ajaccio. The trip was not unpleasant except for the air being stuffy in cramped quarters at night. I held a service en route but only a portion of the personnel could participate well because of crowded conditions. This L.C.I. #188 had gone in on invasions at Gela, Sicily; Salerno, Italy; Elba, Corsica, and Anzio at Italy. Now we were headed for southern France for their fifth invasion. It was the third for us from the 95th Evacuation.
"On the trip over we saw no planes but some mines were being exploded and some naval firing was going on as we approached shore. We waded in at about 1600 hours with water up to our armpits and loaded, of course, with personal items. We walked inland about a mile through a palm and pine-studded area. It was our easiest landing of the three. We heard artillery in the distance and passed by one large group of German P.O.W.'s in a temporary wire pen. That night we bivouacked in view of the beach and the next day went into Cogolin where French civilians cheered and welcomed us. The enthusiasm was high as we and some French soldiers marched along. We set up near Confaron the next day and started receiving patients, both American and French soldiers. Some French civilians were solicited to help with the French soldiers and sometimes a wounded civilian. These French were friendly and enthusiastic and willing to work. Some showed signs of hunger, but they were intelligent and independent. Among the French soldiers were members of the F.F.I. Also some Sengalese soldiers and some "Goums" from Africa. We also had some German P.O.W. wounded in our hospital.
"The hospital registrar told me on this day, August 19, that we have now been open as a hospital, that is open for patients, for 363 hospital days and that our average had been 62 patients a day.
"Some of these first days in France were not very busy ones for the troops had made rapid advances. On one day I hitch hiked with some others in an ambulance and visited Cannes, St. Raphael. Cannes is a resort town which was not badly damaged. We bought some perfume to send home. The next day we again hitch-hiked, and visited in Cannes and Marseille. These showed war damage with much fortifications destroyed by artillery fire. This was mostly along the seaport area.
"August 30 after only a few days receiving patients, we closed down and loaded for a long trip of 120 miles to the 9th Evacuation Hospital where we stayed for the night. Talked with Chaplain Woodward. He told me of a terrible massacre of Germans who had surrounded some of our men and then in turn had been surrounded and would not surrender. We went on to St. Amour and set up for several days. Here I had a chance to get acquainted with some Protestant families and visited my chapel services and participated. They liked to sing and enjoyed Kurth's singing very much. We moved on to Saulz, a small town near Vescul. Later on we spent some time near Epinal. The weather was changing and we made a floor for our tent out of wood from crates which had held ammunition. Lt. Col. Binkley, Executive Officer, with whom I had shared quarters many months requested a transfer to the 3rd Division Medical staff and left us. I hated to see him go, for he had a fine spirit and got alone fine with everyone. We saw him on different occasions from time to time and I saw him after the war in Denver.
"While in this Epinal location we had a Halloween Party in an old barn near our set-up. It was a large building and almost a perfect setting for Halloween. While in this area, we also came across the American 442nd Combat team, made up of Japanese Americans. We had had some of them in Italy as patients and were glad to know they were now in this campaign. I later learned that this unit of Japanese Americans had been honored and received more decorations than any American unit. It was ironic that in the Pacific we were fighting Japanese but here in Italy and France, Japanese Americans were outstanding fighters for America. They were interesting persons and I had a good time visiting with them on different occasions.
"Our campaign up the Rhone Valley and on beyond went very rapidly and we had moved many times. It was with some gratitude we moved into a building near Epinal, France. This was in October and the weather had begun to change. We had cold and rainy weather for many days eventually bringing on some snow. We had lots of snow at Christmas time."
From here on, I will not try to mention our moves from place to place but describe some experiences and activities I recall during the next six months or so.
First of all, I would like to mention again my work as a chaplain. It involved many and varied duties and privileges.
We had chapel services at the hospital, usually in a tent seating about sixty or seventy people. Sometimes we had ammunition boxes for pews and sometimes had no seats and in appropriate weather, attendents sat on the ground. During seven months of the thirty months overseas, I was able to hold services in a building. The rest of those months, services were held in a tent or out in the open. I discovered how to improvise and make do with what facilities were available. I would guess that perhaps six times I had services in some church building offered to us by the French or German congregations. A few services on special occasions were held in a ward tent of the hospital. Chaplain Luckett, the Catholic Chaplain, and I used the same facilities with appropriate changes in the altar. We had "Army and Navy" hymnals and later some Methodist paperback hymnals, and singing was always a good part of our services. My assistant Lawrence Kurth, was a music teacher in his few years of teaching and was also a good soloist. Our mess officer, Lt. Haisten, was an organist in his home town of Georgia and played for us often on the little fold up foot-pedalled organ issued to chaplains. We also had a quartet or choir quite often with some of the nurses helping us out. Services were held every Sunday morning and most evenings and often two to four times in the evenings. Services were usually only thirty to forty minutes long and on Sundays always followed by a ten to fifteen minute communion service for all who wanted to remain for it. I preached at both of the Sunday services. Frequently Kurth and I would take off in my Jeep after the morning service to hold a service for some group near us who had no assigned chaplain. I also arranged for or led a Friday evening service for the Jewish men. If we were near the Army or Corps headquarters I was able to get a Chaplain Rabbi but this was not often.
A second major responsibility was personal contacts with patients. This was calling in the ward tents. Our patients stayed with us only a few days and so it usually was only one contact. I had prayer cards, N.T. and Psalms and other materials which I shared. Sometimes I would write a letter for someone. Sometimes we had prayer. When we were receiving numerous wounded as result of combat action being heavy, I often stayed right in the receiving tent and did whatever seemed wise to give support and to let the men know there was a chaplain thinking about them and available for help. Some were not seriously wounded but some might be in shock or near to it.
Often I talked to patients as well as some of our own personnel, nearly 300 of them, about some personal matter, religious or otherwise. I had several with whom I counseled over a period of weeks or months. Sometimes it was about a family matter which required letter writing to a wife sweetheart or another member of the family. I had baptisms and reception into the church and corresponded with the person's pastor and received correspondence in return.
For some months in Italy, I was the grave registration officer and had the responsibility of gathering and listing personal items of one who had died with us or brought in dead on arrival and then taking the body to the nearest cemetery. Only occasionally I had brief graveside services for the deceased, for there were usually chaplains assigned to this duty.
Chaplains were not appointed as recreational leaders for the men but I cooperated with this program, including planning for volley ball, softball and other games and sometimes helping to secure and arrange for shows. Fortunately, we usually had a red cross worker assigned to our hospital and this was done by this person. I did participate in both softball and volley ball and thoroughly enjoyed it. I participated in parties and other entertainment but felt no obligation to do so.
Almost daily I either wrote myself or dictated letters to persons who had written about some persons on our staff, or some patient. Many letters were written to churches and individuals who had sent me some book or gift to pass on to patients or members of our staff. This was particularly true about Christmas time and after.
I looked upon myself as a morale booster person. This meant that I sought to become aware and do whatever I could for any person in our hospital, patient or otherwise who needed some encouragement. So I sought to keep my own attitudes as up-beat and healthy as possible.
I would like to share memories of one particular day, Christmas Sunday, 1944. We were in France and on the southern European front. It was the time of the last big counter-attack of the Germans in Europe and will be remembered as the Battle of Bastogne, a city in Belgium where Allies were surrounded and would not yield. Probably more Americans were wounded and killed in those days of the last big attack of the Germans than in any similar period. On our front we were on the alert but the main fighting was north of us. It was expected, however, that Germans would drop behind our lines to break down communications and cause confusion. Orders went out that every soldier carrying arms was not to leave his arms but to have them with him every hour. I held three services on that Christmas Sunday, two of them for units other than our hospital. I recall that at one of them in a church building, soldiers came in with arms on their backs or right beside them. It was a day when we celebrate the coming of the "Prince of Peace" but there was little peace on the European front. Arms were not stacked at the entrance of the church, but brought inside as soldiers obeyed the order of the day.
One activity I enjoyed when time and other responsibilities made it possible was visiting special places of interest. During the months in Italy I was able to visit many places of interest, particularly in Naples and Rome. I have already mentioned others. During the French and German campaigns I saw many historic sights, including Paris, Cologne, Lyon, Heidelberg, Strasburg, Munich and Dachau. After the war was over in Europe, I was able to go to Belgium on one occasion and travelled some in the German Alps and was able to go to the former hideaway of the German leader, Berchtesgaden.
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This concludes the draft entitled "My Life." The remainder
of this document comes from the document "Notes on Talk to Kiwanis Club."
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The War finally ended in Europe and we began to wonder if we would be sent over to the Pacific. I was told by my superior that I would probably get a leave in the States and then go right on to the Pacific. Well, it did not happen, for the Japanese surrendered, and believe me I was grateful. I had had my fill of war and was ready to become a pastor of a church again.
After months of waiting, I was moved with thousands of troops and eventually on to the Queen Elizabeth.
I arrived in New York the first week of November, 1945, and back to Wahoo, Nebraska, November 9, once more united with my wife Merna and our one daughter at that time, six year old Jeanne.
The pastor of Wahoo Methodist church had moved a month earlier to another appointment, and Wahoo where I had served for two years before the war was wanting a pastor. They had asked the Bishop if I might be appointed there and this is what happened. So I served Wahoo two years before the War and for another two years after.
In June, 1947, I was appointed to Lexington, Nebraska and was to enter into one of the most satisfying period of years in my ministry. Our daughter Jeanne was eight years old and our baby Margaret was one month old.
Lexington was in a good farming area with many feeders of cattle. Fifty percent of the members of the church were on the farm and many others were involved in agriculture. The church grew in eight years from 900 members to nearly 1500. We built an addition to the church costing about $250,000. It was paid for within ten years. We had a director of Christian Education and I had a student join me in each of three summers. Youth work was a priority. I served on camps staffs and directed several camps for Senior High during those years. We had a church bus and took trips to the Black Hills and Colorado and one year we teamed up with another church and took youth to Chicago to visit missions and many other places of interest.
The next appointment, in June, 1955, was to Lincoln, where I served as Lincoln District Superintendent and then in September, 1957, as senior pastor of Trinity Methodist Church in Lincoln. It was a period when I became very much involved in Conference programs and I was elected to Jurisdictional and General Conferences. Our older daughter Jeanne was married and moved to Washington. Then came the experience of seven years, 1960-1967, as the co-pastor with Dr. James "Jim" Chubb, at Trinity Methodist Church in Grand Island. You can imagine what a busy time that was. Seven wonderful years of activity and growing and community involvement. It was in 1965 that I was elected president of G.I. Kiwanis and served the year 1966.
That was a special year for me. Ken Schmidt was Secretary and Irwin Peterson was vice-president. Highlights included a regular Friday meeting for the club luncheon and program and I have here in this book prepared and completed by Ken Schmidt the years' record of meetings. We had a regular mimeographed news sheet mailed to every Kiwanis member and here they are in this scrap book. Ken made it for me and presented it to me as a memento at the last meeting of the year.
We had a regular meeting on Monday noon for officers and any Kiwanian who wanted to make up a meeting. There was no program except to check on plans and programs for the future. During the year we entertained International President Edard C. Keefe of Oklahoma City here at the Liederkranz on March 29, 1966, and District Governor Ed Rogers of Lincoln, Nebraska. We had the usual special programs characteristic of a Kiwanis year. The Pancake Day was held in the Kinman Chevrolet Garage with the day before as cleanup day. Tickets were sold for $1.00 for adults and fifty cents for children under 12. Remember 1966!
I was involved in various community groups including the United Way, Y.M.C.A., Alcoholics Anonymous. I had been awarded a Doctor of Divinity Degree in 1956 by Nebraska Wesleyan so I was known as Dr. Larry, and Dr. Chubb was Dr. Jim. We had five preaching services a week and took turn preaching. The schedule was a seven day program and we were on call at any hour of need. I had more night calls when I was in G.I. than in any community I ever served. Gordon Patterson became a third pastor on the staff and later Bob Call took his place. But for the first two or three years, Dr. Jim and I carried the load. George Stalker was a lay member of the staff and became involved in all kinds of activities of service. It was a great seven years in my ministry.
At the request of Bishop Copeland, I returned to Lincoln in 1967 and this time filled out six full years as a District Superintendent of the Lincoln District. It was a very rewarding experience for it was during the time our two denominations, The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church came together to form the United Methodist Church. I was involved in jurisdictional as well as General Conference meetings and served on the Annual Conference Uniting Committee.
During that period we also had a Negro Bishop for Nebraska, Bishop Noah Moore. My office was right next to his at the Lincoln headquarters and he often turned to me or John Witchelt, also in the office for some counsel on the plans and programs of our uniting churches.
One of the special experiences in this ministry of District Superintendent was the fellowship with eight other superintendents of the Nebraska Conference. We met once a month or sometimes more often, from one to three days to make plans, with the Bishop as chairman.
It was also a time of much involvement. I was on various boards. I served on the Board of Governors at Wesleyan eight years, on the Board of Trustees of Bryan Memorial Hospital six years, Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso, Texas. I was on the General Conference Commission on Higher Education and made trips to Notre Dame University and to meetings in Atlantic City and New York and Washington, D.C. I was also on the board of St. Paul School of Theology, Methodist, in Kansas City. Over the years, I attended General Conferences in Minneapolis, Denver, Dallas and St. Louis.
My last appointment as a pastor of a church was Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Fremont, June, 1973. It was to be five years only, for age was catching up on me. It was a great opportunity. Fremont is a college town and we enjoyed the opportunities made possible with a college. I did take one class at Midland in communication. I also took some classes in oil painting while in Fremont, and made it something of a hobby for a time.
Since I would be 72 years of age December, 1977, I had to retire at Annual Conference time in June, 1978. The Church Board at Fremont knew this and planned a wonderful retirement gift for us. Offerings were taken from members of the church and friends in Fremont and from friends in other places and they collected over three thousand dollars to present us with a eight day tour of Israel, land of the Bible. In January, 1978, we took that trip and turned a few hundred dollars left over to a fund for our associate pastor Gene Watson to take such a trip. He was able to do so three years later.
The church people also planned a farewell party for us in May, 1978, based on the idea that "This is Your Life." Some relatives from different places were able to attend and it was quite an affair we shall never forget.
But retirement from activity was not yet in my plans. Possibilities for part time employment were offered me in Lincoln and in Columbus, Missouri. Also, six months before I was to retire, Harold Meedel, one time very active member in Trinity United Methodist church and In G.I. Kiwanis called me to ask if I might be interested in helping to start a Chaplain's Department at Lutheran Memorial Hospital. I was interested and made a trip to talk with him as president of the Board of Trustees, and Sherman Jackson, Superintendent of the Hospital at that time. It was agreed that I would go to work part time July 1, 1978, as Chaplain of the hospital and also a nursing home near by then under the guidance of L.H.H.S. So, eleven days after we arrived in Grand Island to live in our present home, which we purchased, I went back to work as Chaplain. The half time began to be two thirds time and later full time so I continued work after my retirement as a pastor of churches, for seven and a half years as a Chaplain of the hospital.
This was a very satisfying and growing experience. Of course, I had called in hospitals wherever I was a pastor, but now I was chaplain for any and all patients who came to Lutheran Memorial Hospital, later to be known as Grand Island Memorial Hospital. I had had Clinical Pastoral Education for the work of a Chaplain years before at Iliff School of Theology and Denver General Hospital and had also been a hospital chaplain for almost three years during W.W. II. I went to workshops on hospital work as they became available in Lincoln and Omaha. I joined the Nebraska Chaplains Association, a part of the Nebraska Hospital Association. I made application and went through tests and consultation and joined the National College of Chaplains. When the Family Recovery Center, our department for alcohol and drug addiction was started I became the Chaplain and became certified as a counsellor by the Nebraska Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction. It meant a continuing experience of learning and growing for this final seven and half years as an active minister in a particular phase of ministry. I am grateful beyond words for this additional time and experience of ministry. One of the good experiences was working with the pastors of the community, for my job was to see that the best possible spiritual care was given and this meant getting local pastors and priests involved when members of their churches came into the hospital as patients. Another rewarding experience was having the privilege of working closely with the doctors, therapists and the nurses, and at some point with every member of the hospital staff, for I was in some respect a chaplain to everyone on the staff.
I retired December 31, 1985, having just passed my 80th birthday. I wanted to have more time to be with Merna. We wanted to do some more traveling. I had some personal interests and hobbies to develop. We have traveled some and plan some more. We have traveled much but wanted to some more. I think I have been in every state but two, Maine and Alaska. We have been on European Tours twice, we have been to Hawaii twice, to Mexico City, and to Israel. I was in Cuba back when Baptista was the dictator. During the war I was in North Africa, Italy, France, Germany, England. But there are so many more places and people to see.
Ken Schmidt told me he hoped Kiwanis would learn some things from my sharing with you. Let me suggest four convictions which influenced my life most and some ways indicate my faith and my philosophy of life.
1. I believe that there is a Power far greater than me or you or any human being. I call this power God, and believe that he created us, he is constantly recreating us. I believe he cares about us far, far more than we can possibly imagine. I believe he is seeking to guide us daily and supports us daily to become as fully functioning human beings as we can. He never fails us although we may fail him. He seeks to guide us through the events of our lives, the persons who influence us, family members and all who touch our lives. He is the power for good we call God. Of course, as you know, I believe he is revealed to us through the Bible, the Christian faith and supremely through Jesus Christ.
2. I have learned through the years and now believe that to be fully alive and a fully functioning human being that I have to be involved and active and participating in the events of my time. Sometimes this participation is costly. It would be easier to retreat into a shell and have little responsibility for what goes on about us. But real living calls us forth daily from any temptation to hibernation.
3. I believe that for me to have a meaningful and useful life I must be involved with human beings, with persons in face to face relationships. I am called to be aware of other persons' needs, their hopes, their fears, their successes and their failures, their struggles and their pain, their joys and their sorrows. This I have had the privilege of doing for nearly sixty years in the profession of Christian Ministry. And even though officially retired, I still have that privilege. I am a volunteer in several community groups at present.
4. Finally, be thankful. I have a spirit of gratitude for the privilege of living. My life has been filled with exciting experiences, with challenging opportunities and with more than my share of loving and caring persons, the most loving caring has been and is my wife Merna.