Rooting for Ancestors: November 2018

On Nov. 11, 2018, the 100^th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the Great War in 1918, I played the piano for the Life Church choir as we honored the sacrifices of millions of people who endured the horrors of World War I. Click "play" to hear the inspiring piece as you read the article below.

Leonard Robinson, in 1918-1919

At age 33 in 1918, my paternal grandfather, Leonard Robinson, joined the American Expeditionary Force, and was assigned to Company C, 109th Engineer Regiment, 34th Infantry Division. Many of the men in his regiment were from the Midwest states of Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Leonard came from Wayne, Iowa, and was a single man. His rank was Private First Class.

On 17 Sept. 1918, his company departed New York City on the RMS Cretic troop transport ship. They probably steamed to St. Nazaire, on the west coast of France. In the months and years before this trip, German submarines had attacked troop ships and supply ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean, so it’s probable that the Cretic was part of a convoy with other ships and defense ships.

Formerly a passenger ship, the Cretic's name changed
several times, and was repurposed as a troop ship, then an
agricultural cargo ship before it was broken up.

Troop transport record for Leonard E Robinson, 1918.

Because of the postcards my grandfather brought home from his service in France, I know that he must have been stationed at Allerey-sur-Saône, France, which is not far from Verdun. The Americans were constructing a military hospital base of 10,000 beds with a crisis capacity of 14,468. In addition to the medical and rehabilitation patients, thousands of support French and American personnel were employed in every aspect of supporting a city with daily needs of cooking and serving meals (including a bakery that made 800,000 pounds of bread a day), transport, medical and pharmaceutical supplies, laundry, delousing, clean drinking water and sewage treatment, recreation, and everything to sustain a temporary city.

The newspaper “Le Progrès,” from Chalon-sur-Saône, collected information about this project and, on February 15, 1918, published an article which announced the stunning news:

"An American medical health service camp --- For some time now, we have been informed that the town of Allerey had been chosen for the installation of a vast American medical health service camp. After several visits to the site by Franco-American commissions, the project is allegedly on the verge of being carried out.

The camp will be comprised of ten hospitals of 1,000 beds each and will occupy a total area of four hundred hectares [988 acres], including a cemetery of a little more than one hectare [2.47 acres].

The land chosen is located in a cheerful countryside, along the road to Beaune, near the château and not far from the woods. This the best land in the township and the most salubrious. At this time, it is covered with wheat fields or vineyards. The rent for the duration of the war has been agreed to at the rate of 500 francs per hectare for prime land; 400 francs for second class land and 300 francs for third class.

A track will connect the camp to the station and a second line will be constructed on the Gray line, from the hamlet of Chauvort to the camp.

Wells will be drilled for obtaining drinking water. Electricity will be installed for lighting, and telephone and telegraph services will be established. And, in typical American fashion, we have been assured that three months will be enough to complete the whole set up.

The installation of this camp is certainly a bit of good luck for this township which, benefiting from its location as railway head, was the preferred choice of the Americans.

The agricultural and wine production of the region and local commerce will be happy for this turn of events, and we might even venture to say that, in the future, the town of Allerey might find itself transformed into a large city after its occupation by our powerful allies." [Spoiler: Allerey returned to a sleepy village after the war.]
Source: http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/comment/Allerey/Allerey03e.html

Postcards brought back from France in 1919, by my grandfather.

The ground at Allerey was level, but very low, and the soil that was perfect for crops quickly became saturated with rainwater and muddy with heavy traffic.

The camp was crossed by a two-tracked railway line, connected at the hamlet of Chauvort to the PLM line from Chalon to Gray . This facilitated the unloading of the sick and wounded, as well as food supplies. The roads which paralleled the track comprised a large avenue which facilitated the circulation of ambulances and trucks. From each section of this central avenue---the camp's backbone---two secondary roads split off to service the base hospitals, while being linked among themselves by various crossroads. There were also roads along the back of the two groups of five base hospitals, placed symmetrically on either side of the railway line.

Source: http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/comment/Allerey/Allerey04e.html

Letters written by American servicemen at the time mentioned ever-present mud. The postcards show streets in the camp that have churned-up clods of mud from truck, equipment, and ambulance traffic. For foot traffic, there were long boards bridging muddy fields.

Not only was The Great War one of attrition—whoever kills the most men wins—it was marked by plagues of diphtheria and the so-called Spanish Flu [H1N1], which killed more than 20 million people worldwide. Also, the German and Austrian forces were gassing the Allies on the fields of war.

“The flu killed 15,849 U.S. soldiers in France and another 30,000 in stateside camps. That’s 45,849 killed by the flu versus 26,277 killed at Meuse-Argonne— documenting that the flu was by far our most deadly battle.”

Source: https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/communicate/press-media/wwi-centennial-news/3978-flu-killed-more-world-war-i-troops-than-any-battle.html

“In November 1918, the center at Allerey was housing over 22,000 in addition to about 600 troops and employees of the engineers and was severely overcrowded. A number of cases of influenza and pneumonia had been received during October, together with many gassed cases who were very susceptible to respiratory infections. The greatest number of influenza cases was 1,002 on November 4, when the total number of patients in the center was 16,063; and the greatest number of pneumonia cases, 291, was reached four days later.”

http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwi/adminamerexp/chapter22.html

I’m not sure if my grandfather ever had influenza, for which there was no effective medication or antibiotic treatment.

Allerey-sur-Saône is located at the map pin.

Participation of my grandfather’s regiment, the 109^th Engineers, was conducted in 1918: Lorraine, Alsace, Aisne-Marne, Champagne, Oise-Aisne, and Meuse-Argonne. I believe Leonard probably did construction carpentry at Allerey.

On 10 Nov. 1918, only a few hours before the Armistice ended hostilities, 500 men of the 108^th Engineers were killed because of a mistake in orders. This was not my grandfather’s regiment, but you can see the type of duties that engineers were responsible for.

Albert John Lambert, 108th Engineers, Ripley County, Indiana:

“Work of Engineers was to build bridges across the Meuse, build roads, dig trenches, put up barbed wire entanglements, dig dugouts and dressing stations. Also cut wire entanglements of enemy with pliers and blew them up when necessary. Went ‘over the top’ in charges.

“A mistake in orders on the night of November 10, 1918 sent two regiments ‘over the top’ near Metz without a protective barrage fire. They were caught by uncut barbed wire. The enemy fired with machine guns, determined not to let their supplies of ammunition stores be captured since the Armistice was on the point of being signed. This mistaken attack resulted in the loss of about five hundred American soldiers.”

Source: http://www.wwvets.com/Engineers.html

On 11 Nov. 1918, the Armistice of Compiègne was signed between Allies and Germany, and WWI was over, having cost tens of millions of lives.

Men who worked at Allerey

Leonard Robinson remained on duty in France for another seven months after the Armistice, and the Allerey hospital base continued in operation as its patients recuperated from wounds, amputations, gassing, and communicable diseases like influenza. After 1919, the camp was dismantled and became an agricultural school.

My grandfather's postcards of Notre Dame, Paris. I visited
there in 2004.

Leonard must have been given leave to travel, because he collected postcards from Notre Dame in Paris, as well as a stack of hand-tinted postcards of women and little girls, all with a saccharin sweetness about them. Were they provided to remind the servicemen of sweethearts and children at home, or that they had come to France to save and protect innocent women and children?

Hand-tinted postcards from France.

On June 17, 1919, Leonard Robinson departed St Nazaire, France (mouth of Loire River near Nantes) on the ship USS Pastores. The ship arrived 26 June 1919 in Hoboken, New Jersey. On the 2 of July 1919, Leonard was discharged from the American Expeditionary Force with the rank of Private First Class.

Troop ship USS Pastores

In 1920, he was living with his parents in Albia, Iowa, working as a carpenter.

In June 1921, Leonard married Opal Carter of Albia, Iowa. When my grandmother Opal passed in 1995, she left me her gold wedding band, which I wear every day. My brother Brian has Leonard's woolen army uniform in storage.

Leonard Robinson was self-employed as a farmer for the rest of his life, in northern Minnesota. The family lived on 160 acres and in a log house with an outdoor privy. I’m not sure of his educational level because it’s not listed on the census reports, except that he could read and write. But my parents told me that he was well-read and that he preferred histories and biographies. My cousin says that Leonard only had formal schooling to the eighth grade, but he read all of her mother's (his daughter's) schoolbooks. Her mother completed high school and college, and became a teacher.

The Robinson family, probably at church, circa 1941.
From left: Kenneth, Leonard, Donald, Carolyn, Audrey, and Opal.

I only met my grandfather a few times when I was a small child, but I remember a stack of books next to his chair, that he mixed up the food on his plate before he ate, and that he clinked his spoon in his coffee cup during grace at the table (got away with it because he was hard of hearing). I was told that he had a very dry wit. He and Opal were married for 53 years, and he passed away in Park Rapids, Minnesota after some strokes.

Leonard Robinson was descended from Rev. John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrim separatists who escaped England and moved first to the Netherlands, then to Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, on the Mayflower. Also in his direct ancestors were Revolutionary War heroes.