TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT MARCH 5, 1919 P. 7
Bourbonne-les-Bains,
February 10, 1919.
Editor Arkansas Democrat,
Little Rock, Ark., U S.A:
It has never been my good fortune to be assigned to a sector where there are any considerable number of Arkansas boys, although I find them scattered all over France. Since leaving Paris the last of December, I have been in eastern France, south of Verdun, in the foothills of the Vosges mountains. My regional headquarters have been at Chaumont, which is the general headquarters of the A. E. F., and the official headquarters for General Pershing.
My first assignment was as Y athletic director for the 51st Artillery brigade of the famous 26 th division, better known over here as the Yankee division, composed of National Guard troops from the New England States. It was the first complete division to reach France and landed here in September, 1917. It fought on four of the most important battle fronts and was under shell fire for nearly nine months, suffering 12,000 casualties. It was the 26th that drove the Germans back after the marines stopped them at the battle at Chateau Thierry.
When the 26th was ordered to the coast the last of January to prepare for return to the United States, I returned to Chaumont for a few days, awaiting reassignment. While with the 51st brigade I also had charge of a canteen at Vicq with the 103rd F.A., and spent a most enjoyable month living in the barracks and messing with the men. It was fairly warm weather and the only disagreeable feature was the mud and the rain—it rained almost every day. Our men were billeted in the various little French villages and the three artillery regiments were scattered around in 14 towns.
I made the hike through to the railroad at Vitrey with Battery B of the 103rd and carried a pack and rifle with the enlisted men. We left camp in the morning at 4 o’clock and reached Vitrey at 10, a distance of 32 kilometers, or a little over 20 miles. Ten-minutes stops every hour, but I confess that I have lost all by appetite for hiking with full packs. My feet were about all in when we arrived and my arms and back were good and tired. The rifle bothers one more than the pack, for there is no good way of handling it save on the point of the shoulder, and you have to grab the sling pretty tight to keep it from slipping off.
The walking isn’t so bad in France for the roads are rock, and as a rule are in good condition, save where the heavy trucks of the army have cut them into deep ruts. These ruts are promptly filled, but the small stones and or rocks used in filling them make it hard on the pedestrian soldier, who has to stick to the column formation and cannot take advantage of footpaths by the side of road. During my stay at Vicq I walked 125 miles after “Y” supplies, and so was in pretty good condition for the last hike.
After leaving the 26th I was assigned to the 29th Division as “Y” Division athletic director, with headquarters at Bourbonne les Bains, a town of some 8,000 people and famous in this particular section for hot sulphur baths, which were under the control of the city. They have a big public bath house, and the charge for a bath is 30 cents, which does not, however, include soap or towels, which are extras. I am associated here with Lieut. Col. Minnigerode, division athletic officer, and his assistant, Chaplain Withrington, famous as an all-American Harvard fullback.
Friday the 29th’s football team won the 5th Army Corps championship in a game at Nogent by a score of 7 to 0. Chaplain Withrington played at left tackle, and is captain of the team. The game was played in a regular blizzard, for we have been having some fierce weather here the past two weeks; ice and snow everywhere, and the thermometer hovering for several days now close to the zero mark. Within the next week the 29th will play the 8th Army Corps’ championship team for the army honors, and a chance to get into the A.E F. finals for the championship of France.
We also have a strong string of boxers who are out for championship honors, under the tutelage of Spike Webb, well known in Eastern fighting circles. A few nights ago Spike took nine boxers to a meet, won nine bouts with as many French fighters. Football and boxing is the only athletic events we can push this kind of weather. The Eastern men like soccer ball, and it is much easier to play on muddy fields than Rubgy, so we push it all we can.
During my stay in Claumont I found a North Little Rock man, Prof. J. E. Talbott, in the division “Y” headquarters, where he is employed as an accountant. He formerly taught in the business department of the North Little Rock High School.
On the wall of the big “Y” hut at Claumont there are lists of men and the States from which they come. These lists are incomplete, of course, but they enabled me to find several friends from Arkansas, among them Ross Hall of Rogers, a former Western Union employe, who is pounding a key in G H.Q. In the printing department of the G.H.Q. I met Will Plank, former editor of the Benton County Record of Bentonville, and one of my strongest rivals for the honor of having the best paper in Northwest Arkansas. It is fine to know he isn’t getting any lead on me these days, as we both have to do our editing at rather long range.
Other Arkansas names on the list were as follows:
L. E. Pounders, Helena, Company B. Headquarters.
T. F. Wright, Fayetteville, Company C. Headquarters.
M. H. Edelman, Fort Smith, Company C. Headquarters.
J. W. Trout, Mist, Company C. Headquarters.
M. Isom, Morrilton, Company C. Headquarters.
C. R. Frard, Paragould, Company C. Headquarters.
I. C. Cornelison, Fayetteville, Provisional Infantry.
S. E. Davis, Stamps, Provisional Infantry.
J. M. Hunt, Lunsford, Provisional Infantry.
E. F. Robbins, Dunham, Headquarters Company.
J. F. McMaster, Silver Springs, Company A. Headquarters.
E. A. Hardke, Hazen, Company C. Headquarters.
W. M. Morley, Camden, Company A.
Robert L. Nailing, Lake City, Provisional Infantry.
Robert M. Cooper, Osceola, Company B. Headquarters.
H. I. Anderson, Conway, Headquarters Company.
O. G. Anderson, Conway.
John A. Harper, Pine Bluff.
Willie A. Harper, Pine Bluff, M. P.
C. E. Stephenson, Marshall.
Ward Sanford, Helena, Company D.
Frank J. King, Postile, M. P.
Jesse Ray Tunnell, Fayetteville, Provisional Infantry.
Ray Brown, Newport.
James L. Ellis, Argenta, Company B.
L. C. Thompson, Little Rock, band.
Bradford E. Anderson, Paragould, Company C.
Ernest McGuire, Mountain Home, Company A.
M. H. Pearson, Company A., Springdale.
These are rather trying days in France for the “Y,” but we have a fine bunch of men, and they are doing their very best to give the men real service. The army is taking over so much of the work formerly headed up by the “Y” that we are rather in the assistant class just now, and while the army will get the credit for all the successes, I fear we shall have to stand for most of the failures. But that is a part of the “Y” game over here, and there is no use worrying about the matter of credit.
ERWIN C. FUNK,
Editor of the Rogers Democrat.
NOTES: Erwin Charles Funk was writing to the Arkansas Democrat staff about his experiences serving with the Y.M.C.A. in France. He was born on January 5, 1877 in Deep River, Iowa. He moved with his family to Northwest Arkansas in 1896. His father purchased the Rogers Democrat newspaper in Rogers, Arkansas and he became a reporter. He eventually became editor and owner of the paper. January 1918 found him publicity director at Camp Pike, Arkansas and from there he became associated with the “Y” and spent 18 months in France. He died on February 1, 1960 in Rogers and is buried in the Rogers Cemetery. He was described as being tall and of medium build with brown eyes and dark brown hair.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
Bourbonne-les-Bains,
February 10, 1919.
Editor Arkansas Democrat,
Little Rock, Ark., U S.A:
It has never been my good fortune to be assigned to a sector where there are any considerable number of Arkansas boys, although I find them scattered all over France. Since leaving Paris the last of December, I have been in eastern France, south of Verdun, in the foothills of the Vosges mountains. My regional headquarters have been at Chaumont, which is the general headquarters of the A. E. F., and the official headquarters for General Pershing.
My first assignment was as Y athletic director for the 51st Artillery brigade of the famous 26 th division, better known over here as the Yankee division, composed of National Guard troops from the New England States. It was the first complete division to reach France and landed here in September, 1917. It fought on four of the most important battle fronts and was under shell fire for nearly nine months, suffering 12,000 casualties. It was the 26th that drove the Germans back after the marines stopped them at the battle at Chateau Thierry.
When the 26th was ordered to the coast the last of January to prepare for return to the United States, I returned to Chaumont for a few days, awaiting reassignment. While with the 51st brigade I also had charge of a canteen at Vicq with the 103rd F.A., and spent a most enjoyable month living in the barracks and messing with the men. It was fairly warm weather and the only disagreeable feature was the mud and the rain—it rained almost every day. Our men were billeted in the various little French villages and the three artillery regiments were scattered around in 14 towns.
I made the hike through to the railroad at Vitrey with Battery B of the 103rd and carried a pack and rifle with the enlisted men. We left camp in the morning at 4 o’clock and reached Vitrey at 10, a distance of 32 kilometers, or a little over 20 miles. Ten-minutes stops every hour, but I confess that I have lost all by appetite for hiking with full packs. My feet were about all in when we arrived and my arms and back were good and tired. The rifle bothers one more than the pack, for there is no good way of handling it save on the point of the shoulder, and you have to grab the sling pretty tight to keep it from slipping off.
The walking isn’t so bad in France for the roads are rock, and as a rule are in good condition, save where the heavy trucks of the army have cut them into deep ruts. These ruts are promptly filled, but the small stones and or rocks used in filling them make it hard on the pedestrian soldier, who has to stick to the column formation and cannot take advantage of footpaths by the side of road. During my stay at Vicq I walked 125 miles after “Y” supplies, and so was in pretty good condition for the last hike.
After leaving the 26th I was assigned to the 29th Division as “Y” Division athletic director, with headquarters at Bourbonne les Bains, a town of some 8,000 people and famous in this particular section for hot sulphur baths, which were under the control of the city. They have a big public bath house, and the charge for a bath is 30 cents, which does not, however, include soap or towels, which are extras. I am associated here with Lieut. Col. Minnigerode, division athletic officer, and his assistant, Chaplain Withrington, famous as an all-American Harvard fullback.
Friday the 29th’s football team won the 5th Army Corps championship in a game at Nogent by a score of 7 to 0. Chaplain Withrington played at left tackle, and is captain of the team. The game was played in a regular blizzard, for we have been having some fierce weather here the past two weeks; ice and snow everywhere, and the thermometer hovering for several days now close to the zero mark. Within the next week the 29th will play the 8th Army Corps’ championship team for the army honors, and a chance to get into the A.E F. finals for the championship of France.
We also have a strong string of boxers who are out for championship honors, under the tutelage of Spike Webb, well known in Eastern fighting circles. A few nights ago Spike took nine boxers to a meet, won nine bouts with as many French fighters. Football and boxing is the only athletic events we can push this kind of weather. The Eastern men like soccer ball, and it is much easier to play on muddy fields than Rubgy, so we push it all we can.
During my stay in Claumont I found a North Little Rock man, Prof. J. E. Talbott, in the division “Y” headquarters, where he is employed as an accountant. He formerly taught in the business department of the North Little Rock High School.
On the wall of the big “Y” hut at Claumont there are lists of men and the States from which they come. These lists are incomplete, of course, but they enabled me to find several friends from Arkansas, among them Ross Hall of Rogers, a former Western Union employe, who is pounding a key in G H.Q. In the printing department of the G.H.Q. I met Will Plank, former editor of the Benton County Record of Bentonville, and one of my strongest rivals for the honor of having the best paper in Northwest Arkansas. It is fine to know he isn’t getting any lead on me these days, as we both have to do our editing at rather long range.
Other Arkansas names on the list were as follows:
L. E. Pounders, Helena, Company B. Headquarters.
T. F. Wright, Fayetteville, Company C. Headquarters.
M. H. Edelman, Fort Smith, Company C. Headquarters.
J. W. Trout, Mist, Company C. Headquarters.
M. Isom, Morrilton, Company C. Headquarters.
C. R. Frard, Paragould, Company C. Headquarters.
I. C. Cornelison, Fayetteville, Provisional Infantry.
S. E. Davis, Stamps, Provisional Infantry.
J. M. Hunt, Lunsford, Provisional Infantry.
E. F. Robbins, Dunham, Headquarters Company.
J. F. McMaster, Silver Springs, Company A. Headquarters.
E. A. Hardke, Hazen, Company C. Headquarters.
W. M. Morley, Camden, Company A.
Robert L. Nailing, Lake City, Provisional Infantry.
Robert M. Cooper, Osceola, Company B. Headquarters.
H. I. Anderson, Conway, Headquarters Company.
O. G. Anderson, Conway.
John A. Harper, Pine Bluff.
Willie A. Harper, Pine Bluff, M. P.
C. E. Stephenson, Marshall.
Ward Sanford, Helena, Company D.
Frank J. King, Postile, M. P.
Jesse Ray Tunnell, Fayetteville, Provisional Infantry.
Ray Brown, Newport.
James L. Ellis, Argenta, Company B.
L. C. Thompson, Little Rock, band.
Bradford E. Anderson, Paragould, Company C.
Ernest McGuire, Mountain Home, Company A.
M. H. Pearson, Company A., Springdale.
These are rather trying days in France for the “Y,” but we have a fine bunch of men, and they are doing their very best to give the men real service. The army is taking over so much of the work formerly headed up by the “Y” that we are rather in the assistant class just now, and while the army will get the credit for all the successes, I fear we shall have to stand for most of the failures. But that is a part of the “Y” game over here, and there is no use worrying about the matter of credit.
ERWIN C. FUNK,
Editor of the Rogers Democrat.
NOTES: Erwin Charles Funk was writing to the Arkansas Democrat staff about his experiences serving with the Y.M.C.A. in France. He was born on January 5, 1877 in Deep River, Iowa. He moved with his family to Northwest Arkansas in 1896. His father purchased the Rogers Democrat newspaper in Rogers, Arkansas and he became a reporter. He eventually became editor and owner of the paper. January 1918 found him publicity director at Camp Pike, Arkansas and from there he became associated with the “Y” and spent 18 months in France. He died on February 1, 1960 in Rogers and is buried in the Rogers Cemetery. He was described as being tall and of medium build with brown eyes and dark brown hair.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT