TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SPRINGDALE NEWS NOVEMBER 8, 1918 P. 3
France, Oct. 5, 1918
Dear Mother:
As I have a little time, will write you a few lines. I have been traveling around so much that I have not had a chance to write for a week or two. Just after I wrote you before I was sent Eastward, and I thought sure I was going to the front but I landed in a camp a short distance back of the lines, stayed a day or two, and was sent here to join my organization, but when I reached here the said organization was not here, so am lying here waiting for further orders, was put in charge of some other men (can’t tell you anything definite) at the camp from which I wrote you before. They are still with me.
Have not received any mail since I left Fort Riley and don’t expect to till I get settled. Have been nearly all over France since I landed. Some times it was smooth traveling, other times it was rough, but am in the best of health and would be pretty well contented if I could get settled with some organization.
The weather has been warm and sunny. It is altogether a different climate from that of the camps I was in when I wrote you last. Am now quartered with a very fine lot of boys, who are very hospitable. They are far above the average in every way. Many of them are from Arkansas, some from Washington County. I can’t tell you all about them, I can’t tell you all about anything, on account of the censor, so I leave out some of the things you would like to know. Am now far behind the lines. I have good quarters to sleep in and excellent food and plenty of it, so you see I am not faring so badly.
There is considerable excitement in this town today, it is market day. Every Saturday is market day here, the merchants come in Friday night and early Saturday morning raise their tents and spread out their wares. The people put on their best clothes and come to town to spend the day. They bring everything they have to sell and buy a week’s supply. The day is sort of a holiday, and every one is as pleasant as possible. They are the most polite people you ever saw. Monday the merchants will be at some other town and it will be next to impossible to buy anything for another week.
Everything in France seems very primitive their wagons have only two wheels and are pulled by one horse, one burrow or a team of oxen or cows. Their turning plows have beams about 8 feet long with wheels under ends of the beams, and two mouldboards, one right and one left. They plow straight across the field turn their plows and plow straight back. Their railroad cars look about like a Kansas cook schack and have only four wheels. They will not permit an American engine to run very fast for fear it will tear up the tracks and it undoubtedly would.
Well must bring this to a close, bought you some silk handkerchiefs at the market place this a.m., and am enclosing to you, Ethel and Golden. Hoping to hear from you soon as I get settled, I am
Yours lovingly,
Frank.
NOTES: Frank Akin Deaver was writing to his mother Mrs. B. J. Deaver of Elm Springs, Arkansas. He had registered for the draft in Kansas and was sent to Ft. Riley, Kansas. He was born on January 5, 1893 in Elm Springs, Arkansas and died on October 6, 1985 in Tulsa, Okla. He is buried in the Rose Hill Memorial Park in Tulsa. He departed New York on September 1, 1918 onboard the Belgic. He was serving in the Ft. Riley Exceptional Medical August Replacement Draft Unit #60. He returned from Brest, France on January 7, 1919 onboard the Pueblo. He arrived in Hoboken, NJ on January 20, 1919. He was serving as a Private in the Medical Department, 53rd Ammunition Train, CAC.
TRANSCRIBED BY DAVID COLLINS
France, Oct. 5, 1918
Dear Mother:
As I have a little time, will write you a few lines. I have been traveling around so much that I have not had a chance to write for a week or two. Just after I wrote you before I was sent Eastward, and I thought sure I was going to the front but I landed in a camp a short distance back of the lines, stayed a day or two, and was sent here to join my organization, but when I reached here the said organization was not here, so am lying here waiting for further orders, was put in charge of some other men (can’t tell you anything definite) at the camp from which I wrote you before. They are still with me.
Have not received any mail since I left Fort Riley and don’t expect to till I get settled. Have been nearly all over France since I landed. Some times it was smooth traveling, other times it was rough, but am in the best of health and would be pretty well contented if I could get settled with some organization.
The weather has been warm and sunny. It is altogether a different climate from that of the camps I was in when I wrote you last. Am now quartered with a very fine lot of boys, who are very hospitable. They are far above the average in every way. Many of them are from Arkansas, some from Washington County. I can’t tell you all about them, I can’t tell you all about anything, on account of the censor, so I leave out some of the things you would like to know. Am now far behind the lines. I have good quarters to sleep in and excellent food and plenty of it, so you see I am not faring so badly.
There is considerable excitement in this town today, it is market day. Every Saturday is market day here, the merchants come in Friday night and early Saturday morning raise their tents and spread out their wares. The people put on their best clothes and come to town to spend the day. They bring everything they have to sell and buy a week’s supply. The day is sort of a holiday, and every one is as pleasant as possible. They are the most polite people you ever saw. Monday the merchants will be at some other town and it will be next to impossible to buy anything for another week.
Everything in France seems very primitive their wagons have only two wheels and are pulled by one horse, one burrow or a team of oxen or cows. Their turning plows have beams about 8 feet long with wheels under ends of the beams, and two mouldboards, one right and one left. They plow straight across the field turn their plows and plow straight back. Their railroad cars look about like a Kansas cook schack and have only four wheels. They will not permit an American engine to run very fast for fear it will tear up the tracks and it undoubtedly would.
Well must bring this to a close, bought you some silk handkerchiefs at the market place this a.m., and am enclosing to you, Ethel and Golden. Hoping to hear from you soon as I get settled, I am
Yours lovingly,
Frank.
NOTES: Frank Akin Deaver was writing to his mother Mrs. B. J. Deaver of Elm Springs, Arkansas. He had registered for the draft in Kansas and was sent to Ft. Riley, Kansas. He was born on January 5, 1893 in Elm Springs, Arkansas and died on October 6, 1985 in Tulsa, Okla. He is buried in the Rose Hill Memorial Park in Tulsa. He departed New York on September 1, 1918 onboard the Belgic. He was serving in the Ft. Riley Exceptional Medical August Replacement Draft Unit #60. He returned from Brest, France on January 7, 1919 onboard the Pueblo. He arrived in Hoboken, NJ on January 20, 1919. He was serving as a Private in the Medical Department, 53rd Ammunition Train, CAC.
TRANSCRIBED BY DAVID COLLINS