Last Wednesday’s post shared some WWI crowd photos from an album of photos from 1917, put together by Alice Leeuwenhoek, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
You can read it here: WWI in Kalamazoo, Part I This post will make the most sense if you look at the photos first.
Here is a sample photo from the post:
It’s my favorite because of the man with his arm around someone’s shoulders.
I knew the photos were from 1917 and taken in downtown Kalamazoo, but I could only guess that the citizens were seeing off the troops. Then I started searching for newspaper articles. They create a bit of a story about the event.
In the first article, dated 14 September 1917, we learn:
The “folks back home” in Kalamazoo will be given a two-hour opportunity sometime Sunday for a final farewell to the boys of Companies C and D. / / There is going to be a big military formality about the farewell.
The article states that Kalamazoo will have a two hour layover for the troops who are embarked on a long journey. They will make up the equivalent of a mile long train. These men will be from 4 companies–two of them Kalamazoo companies. The whole shindig, including a parade, has been planned by Col. Joseph Westnedge. The long artery down Kalamazoo and Portage was named Westnedge in his honor.
15 September 1917:
The next day we learn that everything is ready for the men to arrive. Now they are calling it the 32nd Michigan Infantry, made up of 2,000 men and officers. The event is scheduled for 16 September 1917, the next day, which is a Sunday.
Then this on page 1 of 16 September 1917 Kalamazoo Gazette:
There is a delay because they didn’t have enough cars to get the troops there by the schedule time:
There is deep disappointment among the relatives and friends of the Kalamazoo units because of the fact that the Thirty-second will not arrive in this city this morning. MEN GREATLY DISAPPOINTED.
Still, the event as planned is described in some detail, ending with the information that the big whistles at the municipal pumping station will be sounded an hour before the arrival of the train carrying the troops.
The next article is from Monday, September 17, the day the scheduled visit eventually occurred, but written ahead of time.
People from SW Michigan have been pouring into Kalamazoo from Friday night through Sunday night, just to get a glimpse of their (dough)boys before they take off for the unknown.
I CANNOT FIND AN ARTICLE WRITTEN AFTER THE EVENT ABOUT HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN. That is a little strange. Maybe they didn’t want to write how botched it was–or wasn’t.
Of course, that wasn’t it. Three days later the Kalamazoo Gazette reported that 96 more Kalamazoo men took their places at Fort Custer for training.
All for the insatiable appetite of a horrific international war. No wonder the townspeople turned out in such numbers to honor the young soldiers.
Last week blogger Louise Mabey caused me to question how many of these boys returned home. I used this website and counted at least 27 Kalamazoo men who died in battle. Many others died from disease, including their leader Col. Westnedge. I found two boys of the same last name who are related to a friend. Another Kalamazoo street shares their last name, Milham. Also, that 27 does not include those from tiny towns right around Kalamazoo or from Battle Creek. So sad to think of those people in the streets in the photos grieving not long after this.
***
In thinking about the possibility of Joseph DeKorn taking these photos, I wondered what a 36 year old man was doing during WWI. Would he have been required to serve? I have a temporary membership to Fold3, and it was there that I discovered his WWI draft registration on 12 September 1918. He was a civil engineer in Ohio. I am not sure if he was in Ohio the year before, the month that these photographs were taken or not. So it is possible that someone other than Uncle Joe took the photos. Here is his draft registration.
He was lucky that the war ended two months later.
After this was posted, Amy at BrotmanBlog found some more articles!
The Family Kalamazoo 