TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ROGERS DEMOCRAT FEBRUARY 6, 1919 P. 1
January 3, 1919
Dear Mother and Brothers:
Will write a few lines to you to night so I can give it to a sailor boy tomorrow and maybe you can hear from me in some way, I never get any mail from you folks and I can't understand why it is for I thot after I came down here and quit moving around so much, I would get some mail, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I got a letter from Talmadge written Nov. 4th so you see how much mail I get and if there ever was a time when a fellow wanted to hear from home it is when he is over here. I go to town every day but it isn't like going to town over in the good old States but I will be back before long, and believe me I don't want any more of France after I get away from here still there are a lot of pretty girls but they can't all talk so I can understand them.
I love to see the other boys go home if I can't, and there are a lot of them leaving just now; but they have been here longer than I have, but I have been here long enough to want to go back.
Wish you folks could see some of the rigs they have over here. They always have an old cart with two wheels for a wagon and if they want to work two horses they put one in the shafts and the other in the lead. It sure looks queer: they plow the same way. One never sees a buggy. The farms are very small over here. Have seen mighty pretty country while I have been here.
Don't believe I will write any more tonight: will write some more in a few days if I hear from you. Your son and brother,
Corp. ELMER CRAFT.
NOTES: This letter was written by Elmer Craft from St. Nazaire, France to his family in Hutchinson, Kansas. Craft was raised in the Pleasant Ridge community in Benton County. He was born on September 3, 1895 and died on June 22, 1967. He is buried in the Fort Gibson National Cemetery in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. He departed Newport News, Va. on August 6, 1918 onboard the Zeelandia. He was listed as a Private Co. C 154th Infantry 39th Division.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
January 3, 1919
Dear Mother and Brothers:
Will write a few lines to you to night so I can give it to a sailor boy tomorrow and maybe you can hear from me in some way, I never get any mail from you folks and I can't understand why it is for I thot after I came down here and quit moving around so much, I would get some mail, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I got a letter from Talmadge written Nov. 4th so you see how much mail I get and if there ever was a time when a fellow wanted to hear from home it is when he is over here. I go to town every day but it isn't like going to town over in the good old States but I will be back before long, and believe me I don't want any more of France after I get away from here still there are a lot of pretty girls but they can't all talk so I can understand them.
I love to see the other boys go home if I can't, and there are a lot of them leaving just now; but they have been here longer than I have, but I have been here long enough to want to go back.
Wish you folks could see some of the rigs they have over here. They always have an old cart with two wheels for a wagon and if they want to work two horses they put one in the shafts and the other in the lead. It sure looks queer: they plow the same way. One never sees a buggy. The farms are very small over here. Have seen mighty pretty country while I have been here.
Don't believe I will write any more tonight: will write some more in a few days if I hear from you. Your son and brother,
Corp. ELMER CRAFT.
NOTES: This letter was written by Elmer Craft from St. Nazaire, France to his family in Hutchinson, Kansas. Craft was raised in the Pleasant Ridge community in Benton County. He was born on September 3, 1895 and died on June 22, 1967. He is buried in the Fort Gibson National Cemetery in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. He departed Newport News, Va. on August 6, 1918 onboard the Zeelandia. He was listed as a Private Co. C 154th Infantry 39th Division.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD