Frenchtown's Boys 'Over There'

WORLD WAR I – As the Great War was heating up in Europe, the American armed forces were not prepared. Neither were our poets, as evidenced by this opus by Frenchtown's Allie Sharp Balch Shields, which was published Oct. 27, 1915, in the Frenchtown Star. Here is most of it:

PUMPKIN PIES

Thanksgiving a wee bit wrong this year;

War is in the atmosphere,

Be thankful Uncle Sam's content,

On the way “our Wilson's” bent;

Then what's the use of tears or sighs

Just be glad of pumpkin pies.

* * *

Thankful we have tears to shed

For our soldiers live – or dead;

Thankful if across the sea

Peace will set our soldiers free;

But what's the use of tears or sighs

When there's such good pumpkin pies.

* * *

Oh there's lots to thank about,

Watch the children play and shout;

Thankful that “Old Glory” floats

O'er our women casting votes;

What's the use of tears or sighs?

Thanksgiving and good pumpkin pies.

But this would be no pie fight. The Sept. 5, 1917, the Star reported: “Over two hundred gathered Friday evening at the Warford House (now the Frenchtown Inn) to pay honor to those who will soon be called and to those who have already gone to answer their country's call to arms. The citizens showed to the boys that their hearts went with them. There were decorations around the dining hall; the band rendered music appropriate to the occasion, while Mr. and Mrs. L.N. Burham had seen to it that the inner-man would be satisfied.

“Two tables were reserved for the selected men; at the head of the first sat Mayor Lanning, across sat H.L. Stout, County Solicitor; at the end, H.L. Able, Prosecutor; at the second, C.B. Fargo, toastmaster, and the Rev. J.C. French, pastor of the Presbyterian Church.”

In his concluding speech, Stout said, “I would sooner have my son brought home a corpse than to have the finger of scorn pointed at him as a slacker.” In May of 1918 a parade of automobiles conveyed inductees from Frenchtown to Flemington.

On Sept. 24, 1918, Sgt. George W. Britton of the 60th Infantry Regiment wrote home to his sister Cynthia, “I suppose you have read what we did to the Germans on the 12th of this month. It was northing more than a walk over and get them. Of course some put up a little fight. But our rifles and bayonets soon put an end to them. Cynthia, you think you might not have nerve enough to stab a man with a bayonet. But let one of these Dutchmen get up in front you, and you change your mind. We ran them so fast that we could not catch up with them." (Note: Frenchtown sent two George Brittons to the war.)

Three Frenchtown men died Over There in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the last battle of the war. They were Frank H. Everitt and George D. Britton of the 60th Infantry Regiment and Edward Robinson of the 326th. Everitt and Robinson died on the same day – Oct. 14, 1918.

Everitt's body was buried in a field cemetery, later transferred to a French military cemetery, and finally shipped home and buried with honors in the Frenchtown Cemetery in 1921. As with most of the Doughboys who died in France, the bodies of Britton and Robinson remained there. Granite memorial markers in their family plots in the Frenchtown Cemetery honor their sacrifices.

Although he was a dentist, Roscoe J. Nash served as a private in the Army in France. He developed a mental disorder under fire and he was sent to a sanatarium in Lakewood. In 1919 he went missing and was found in a building nearby. He had hanged himself at age 27.

Jason V. Sipes didn't die in France, but he came home mentally destroyed, unable to live independently and barely able to speak.

According to Clarence Fargo, the local men who'd survived that war were: John R. Abbott, Arthur C. Beck, Alton F. Bellis, John R. Bellis, Wm. R. Bittenmaster, C. Arthur Britton, George W. Britton, Walter H. Carver, U.S. Grant Cole, William Cronce, Taylor Dillon, Albert C. Ellis, Leslie A. Fargo, Charles N. Fargo, Raymond J. Fargo, Marion C. Fulmer, Charles Gano, Jacob W. Gaskill, Edward T. Haney, Byron M. Harman, M.D., Irwin Hartpence, Grant S. Hoffman, John H. Hoffman, George L. Holcombe, William E. Johnson (corporal in the 606th Engineers), J. Lester Kerr, Rev. G.H. Ketterer, Alfred B.N. Kugler, Harry Maxwell, Lloyd McIntyre, Oscar H. Miller, Maust W. Reigle, Lyman G. Rowe, Peter R. Sinclair, Jason V. Sipes, Thomas M. Sipes, Ray Slack, W. Ross Snyder, Clarence Stout, Raymond P. Stryker and Albert P. Williams Jr.

In November the Star reported:

FRENCHTOWN JOYOUS OVER WAR'S END

Never in the history of Frenchtown has there been such a parade, never were the people so aroused as when news came that “Germany had surrendered.” The school and church bells and whistles, together with drums and horns, were used for several hours. Quickly news scattered among the employes of factories; they could not work, in some departments work was at a standstill…

During the afternoon O.E. Broderick secured some aides in order to get up a parade. Automobiles containing men, women and children arrived in town. The parade was quickly formed on Bridge St.; headed by the Frenchtown Band, it winded its way up Milford road toThird St., covering all streets of the borough. Behind the band marched the Red Cross, followed by the Firemen in uniform, the Frenchtown Porcelain Co.; then came a fife and drum corps, more women, children, then the men, followed by many automobiles and wagons. Nearly all the parade carried the emblem of liberty.

In the rear of this line one of our townsmen followed by a lot of youngsters with clubs dragged what was termed the “Kaiser.” As this effigy was dragged around the streets the boys used their clubs freely. After the parade the “Kaiser” was strung up in front of the post office.

In conclusion various speakers spoke from the steps of the post office concerning the victory. Newspapers were sought for, over a hundred additional copies being received. They sold like “hot doggies” at a fair ground. The headlines read “The Surrender Confirmed.”

From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"