Page 5, The World War I Letters of John E. Kuhl, 1918-1919
Published with permission of the the author, Lanelle Krueger
Full-text of the letters can be read in the book at the Odebolt Public Library
Odebolt, Iowa, June 10, 1918.
Mr. John E. Kuhl
Jefferson Barracks,
St. Louis, Mo.
Dear Johnnie,We just got your letter this morning saying where a letter would, reach you so I am going to write right away and hope it will get there before you are transferred. We have been getting your letters and cards right along but haven’t written to you so far because we did not know where to write.
We are all glad you like army life but one thing, Johnnie, stick to your knitting and don’t get in with the wrong kind of a bunch. It isn’t necessary that you chum with the goody-goody kind but in a big bunch like you have there you can choose the right kind of pals. Remember we’re proud we have a soldier in our family but we want you to come back home and know that the training has been good for you. We aren’t the only ones that are interested in having you make good, judging by the way people are asking about you. Even little Joey Mattes asks about you. Yesterday Belle and George and little Jo were up to our house and Joey said, “Where is Donny Tool?” and Mrs. Mattes said to him he is a “soldier boy” and then he climbed up on the steering wheel and started to swing his feet and said, “Donny Tool a sojer boy”. That was the first time I had a good look at the little fellow. He seems to be quite a bright little rascal. Mattes’ have put up a nice service flag for you. They have it hung right under the big flag. I hadn’t noticed it until, I think it was Saturday, when I went to the post office and they asked me if I had seen the service flag that George Mattes had put up for you so I took a look when l went back to the office.
I don’t know whether you knew before you left that the folks at the store were going to ask for higher wages or not. They got out a sort of petition and asked for a raise. I didn’t want papa to sign it but Miller talked him into it and he finally did sign it. George told papa Sunday that he was going to give him a raise but he didn’t say how much. Dave and Zeigman are going to get a raise …
Registration day (June 5) we had a terrible rain so the boys could not go over to Sac as had been planned. They went over to the First National Bank and Mr. Mattes filled out their cards and telephoned over to Sac just as they came in. I think they said there were about thirty-five that registered here. Clifford Evans, the boy that works for Mr. Helsell had to register. Ed told me that Clifford just dreaded to go. He was afraid if he went he would never come back. I think that is a foolish way to feel about it.
You should have seen the rain we had last week. One day it was almost like a flood. I guess it must have been “bird Cage”. I had to go clear around by the way of Ketterer’s to get home. Down by Mrs. Currie’s it was knee deep over that alley crossing. Paul Schultz had on rubber boots and he carried papa across on his back and they both nearly went down.
… Your hundred dollar Liberty Bond came the same day you left. Mr. Mattes came over to the office and asked me to come over and sign for it and I put it in an envelope and filed it away in the vault along with your other one. You will have that for a nest egg when you come back. There was a few dollars left in your checking account when your statement came the first of the month. If it isn’t all drawn out with your checks at the end of the month I will have it transferred to your savings account for you.
I notice Johnnie that you always spell the work night (nite). It doesn’t make any difference when you write to us but when you write to some others remember it is NIGHT.
Willie Angus McCorkindale was in church yesterday and he told mamma he was going to be sent to Georgia sometime next week and wanted to know where you were. Bill Kistler and Dick Korneisel both told me they expected to go about the 24th of June. Clifford Cooley said yesterday that he was going to enlist in the truck drivers’ corps, but he didn’t say just when he was going but the way he talked he expected to go pretty soon. Albert Walter, the lawyer, said he was going to go into some branch of the service but he wasn’t quite sure yet whether he would enlist in the navy or army. He was going to go and see his brother who is a Lieutenant at Camp Custer before he decided just what he would do.
…. Well, I guess I better close for this time. I hope this letter reaches you before long but they tell us that it is hard to get the mail to the soldiers.
With love from us all,
Your sis,
OLE.
Jefferson Barracks
Mo
June 13Dear folks,
I got Lulu’s special delivered letter tonight and sure was glad to hear from home. I got my second shot in the arm or inoculation or whatever you call it today. It makes a fellow feel pretty tuff for awhile, but its better than being sick. I don’t know how long I’ll be here yet. They are sending men out every day. All a fellow can do is to wait his turn. I wouldn’t mind this place so much if I was stationed here, but I don’t like this waiting around doing nothing.
They put me in the quarter master corp instead of the engineers. It don’t make much difference because I’m a mach. in that branch.
I wish you folks could see this place. It sure is pretty. You know this was a camp at the time of the Civil war. The buildings are all of brick and Mo. limestone. I heard we could get some pictures of this place at a little store down by the depot, but that’s so far down. I think I’ll walk down some evening after supper. I got a few post cards here at the Y.M.C.A. but I sent all them but one to the kids. I’ll put that one in this letter if I don’t foreget.
I think this army life will do me good. One thing I can get up early, it’s 5.30 every mornning Sun. and all. And another thing a fellow isn’t his own boss by along ways.
So you folks had some more rain since I left. There hasn’t been a cloud in the sky down here, and it sure has been warm.
Yesterday we had to stand out on the perade grounds from 8.30 to 11 o’clock, and you know how the soldiers have to stand, too. And the worst of it was it was 98 degrees in the shade.
How does mamma feel about me being gone? I was afriad it was going to be harder for me to get away then it was.
... The ambulance just went by again. That thing is going all the time. A lot of the fellows get sick from that shot in the arm. I didn’t get sick either time but it made me stiff all over.
How is everybody in Odebolt? It seems as if I have been gone a month.
Well I guess I better stop and go to bed.
I don’t think I’ll do much washing. They have a laundry and they take $1.25 out of your pay for it if you have them do it or not. The Y.M.C.A. sure is a fine thing in the camps. You know the K.C. have a building to. They are haveing a picture show in the Y. hall. I guess I’ll take it in.
Well “good bye” for this time.
With love to all,
JohnYou can send my mail here, if I leave they will sent it on.
Louise M. Kuhl
[undated]
Odebolt, Iowa
Mr. John E. Kuhl
c/o Jefferson Barracks
St. Louis, Mo.Dear Johnnie:
I just received your letter a few minutes ago written the 13th from St. Louis. I will answer it right away and the folks will probably write to you tomorrow. I have been saving the papers to send to you but as we didn’t hear from you since Monday we thought probably you were going to be transferred and would write later when you got to San Antonio. I talked to Bill Kistler in the post office yesterday and he said he got a letter from you last Sunday.
…Mr. Fox was asking all about you the other evening and where you were stationed. I told him you were still at the Jefferson Barracks and he said that certainly was a pretty place around there. He said when he was a soldier in the Civil War he was there for a couple of months. He said he thought it was out about nine miles from the city.
Lloyd Babcock was married day before yesterday to Miss Lutz, and he and Mikey McFarland were to leave this morning for Camp Dodge. They enlisted under that call for twelve men from Sac County to enter training for mechanical work at Ames. I heard Mikey and Clifford Evans talking out in front of the office yesterday morning and they both said if they had known what they knew now they would both have gone when you went. Clifford said he wanted to go but he couldn’t get out of the draft now. Russell Krusenstjerna and McKinley Ericksson have enlisted in what I think they call the Spruce Work. I think they expect to go to the Pacific Coast and are waiting to be called.
…I am alone at the office this week. Mr. Helsell has gone to Chicago again. He is looking for a pony for little William Adams and he don’t seem to be able to find just what he wants. He says he can find plenty of ponies but a good many of them he would be afraid to trust the youngster with because as a rule Shetlands are stubborn….
With love,
OLE.[Mr. Helsell was William Adams’ grandfather. –ed.]
Jefferson Barracks Mo.
June 15Dear folks,
Well I guess I better write you folks a few lines. This is Saterday night again. Every night here is the same. ... I’m on shippment for Monday but don’t know where I’m going. There are about 300 Q.M.C. leaving. Some go to Texas, some to New York, some to Florida and some to Camp Grant at Rockford, Ill. I wish I was going there because I could get home easy. I could come right strait to Wall Lake without a change on the I.C. railroad. But I don’t think I’ll be that luky. I don’t care where they send me, just so I get at my line of work.
... There were two fellows shot here the other night. They tried to set the hospital on fire. The guards saw them and tired to stop them and they wouldn’t so they just shot them. One of them killed was in our Co. street about 300 yds from our tent. You know this was the place that fellow from Sac City was killed, too, for trying to get away about the same time I left home. I guess I’ll have to hurry because it is starting to get dark. I’ve got my red cross sweater on. It sure comes in handy at night but a fellow sure don’t need it in the day time. I suppose I ought to write a letter to Mrs. J. Mattes and thank her for it, but you know what kind of a hand I am at writting and my kit all the fellows like it and wish theirs was as good. A lot of fellows don’t have any.
Mamma can thank them for me some time when she is up there. I don’t know when you’ll get this letter. I think I’ll send you a telegram as soon as I know where I’m going.
I’m going to have my picture taken when I get to my regular camp. I’ll send them home when I do.
From your son,
John
Note: The following letter wasn’t sent when it was written but was enclosed
with the letter dated June 24th.Odebolt, Iowa
June 16, 1918Dear Johnnie,
Well this is Sunday night. I just got home from church and thought I had better write you a letter. How did you spend the day? Did you go to church? I wonder if it was hotter there than here. It was 100 this afternoon, the hottest day we have had. It was awfully hot in church this morning but it cooled off this evening. Lulu went for a ride with Davinfords. I was wishing I could go, too, but they did not ask me.
Well, they put your star in the flag in church. That makes 29 now and one red one. They will have two more now. Ernest Harding and Loyd Babcock went yesterday mornning. Loyd was married the day before I heard. ... Lulu said there was a letter here for you from Ina Griffin. She sent it on.
I do not have much to write. I suppose Lulu wrote all the news. She hears more than I do being downtown. I wish they would not send you so far away so you could come home sometime but I suppose that will not be for a long time. It seems as if you have been gone such a long time but I suppose I will have to stand it the same as the rest of them but I hope the war will end soon so you will not have to go across. Hope you get along all right and not get sick.
This bad weather is awfully hard on anyone and it must be worse there than here, but hope it is not. I wish you was here to help us eat radishes. We have so many now and we are eating new potatoes, too. I suppose Lulu told about the rain we had. The lower corner of the garden was all under water. It was so high back of the house that I could see it from the window well. This is about all I can think of so will have to close.
With Love,
Mamma[Editor's note: For a history behind Jefferson Barracks visit www.jeffersonbarracks.org/]
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