TRANSCRIBED FROM THE MONTICELLIONIAN JULY 19, 1918 P. 4
“Somewhere in France, June 18, 1918.
Dear mother:
Have been over here a week and a half, now; haven’t received a bit of mail since I left Quantica, Va., and don’t suspect I will get any soon, as we are moving around so often that it is hard for mail to catch up with us.
This is a much better part of the country than where we first landed. It is not as mountainous, and is not cut up with those little truck-patches. There are miles and miles of vineyards, orchards and wheat, fields, and, believe me, they sure have some crops too; looks like stuff that grow in the Mississippi swamps.
They have Pike Roads all over this country, too; they take all the rocks off their farms and put on the roads, to help pay the taxes.
I’ve been thinking I would meet someone over here whom I knew, but haven’t, so far.
The nights, over here, are very short; it doesn’t get dark until about ten o’clock, and get, day-light about three or three thirty, in the morning.
You don’t see any four wheel vehicles here either; they are all two-wheeled, and they only work one horse or a burro; don’t see any mules at all.
The trains are about half the size of ours and the doors open on the sides and the seats run all away across, instead of opening at the ends and having aisles, like ours.
John H. Cotham
NOTES: John House Cotham is writing to his mother. He was born on January 22, 1891 in Drew County Arkansas and died on September 15, 1971 at Arkansas City, Arkansas. He is buried in the Trippe Cemetery at Trippe Junction, Arkansas in Desha County. His military headstone identifies him as a Pvt. in the US Marine Corps.
TRANSCRIBED BY NANCY ARN
“Somewhere in France, June 18, 1918.
Dear mother:
Have been over here a week and a half, now; haven’t received a bit of mail since I left Quantica, Va., and don’t suspect I will get any soon, as we are moving around so often that it is hard for mail to catch up with us.
This is a much better part of the country than where we first landed. It is not as mountainous, and is not cut up with those little truck-patches. There are miles and miles of vineyards, orchards and wheat, fields, and, believe me, they sure have some crops too; looks like stuff that grow in the Mississippi swamps.
They have Pike Roads all over this country, too; they take all the rocks off their farms and put on the roads, to help pay the taxes.
I’ve been thinking I would meet someone over here whom I knew, but haven’t, so far.
The nights, over here, are very short; it doesn’t get dark until about ten o’clock, and get, day-light about three or three thirty, in the morning.
You don’t see any four wheel vehicles here either; they are all two-wheeled, and they only work one horse or a burro; don’t see any mules at all.
The trains are about half the size of ours and the doors open on the sides and the seats run all away across, instead of opening at the ends and having aisles, like ours.
John H. Cotham
NOTES: John House Cotham is writing to his mother. He was born on January 22, 1891 in Drew County Arkansas and died on September 15, 1971 at Arkansas City, Arkansas. He is buried in the Trippe Cemetery at Trippe Junction, Arkansas in Desha County. His military headstone identifies him as a Pvt. in the US Marine Corps.
TRANSCRIBED BY NANCY ARN