TRANSCRIBED FROM THE DAILY ARKANSAS GAZETTE JANUARY 12, 1919 P. 10
Last Monday I was busy all day and until late at night unloading “Y” men and women and their baggage and getting them located in hotels. Tuesday morning at 8 o’clock I had my car loaded to go to Manchester, 38 miles away, when I received a telephone message that they wanted to open up our new Lincoln lodge for enlisted men that night, so I had to unload the car and get busy. Everything was in chaos. The 130 beds did not arrive until 10 o’clock that morning and if I had not gone to the hotel and secured the help of 40 of our “Y” women we never would have been able to open. As it is we were ready for the public’s gaze at 7 o’clock, when we had an opening ceremony, followed by a program by entertainers who landed that day. All the beds were taken by enlisted men and the next morning I had 50 beds added, some carpenter work done, and was on duty until 1 o’clock the next morning. I worked again Thursday and Friday morning started on my trip to Manchester to start work on the building there.
Saturday I got a message that the construction secretary from London was in Liverpool and wanted me to come back and go over some construction work with him. So I returned at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, went out to camp to look over the situation, came back to the office and conferred with him until 10:30 that night, when he returned to London.
Today we had to forward 66 “Y” women on to London. They have been accumulating here for the past week along with their baggage. I never thought that I would make a good baggage smasher, but they tell me I am an expert. We are getting such a fine bunch of women and men they are doing great work in the camps.
I went to the hospital the other day to see a friend and the first thing I saw in the reception room was an Arkansas Gazette. You should have seen me grab it.
Tell the children to make an apple pie for dad, even if they have to eat it. You have no idea how “fed up” I am on this cooking over here. It will be a happy day when I can see old 2923 Gains again and its inmates.
NOTES: Harry Mansur Hobson was writing to his wife, Mrs. H.M. Hobson. He was serving as a construction secretary for the Y.M.C.A. stationed at Liverpool. He was an assistant civil engineer for the Missouri Pacific railroad in Little Rock, Arkansas before going overseas. He departed the U.S. on September 4, 1918. He was born on Oct. 9, 1881 in Island Pond, Vermont and died on October 19, 1943. He is buried Old Protestant Cemetery in Essex County, Vermont.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
Last Monday I was busy all day and until late at night unloading “Y” men and women and their baggage and getting them located in hotels. Tuesday morning at 8 o’clock I had my car loaded to go to Manchester, 38 miles away, when I received a telephone message that they wanted to open up our new Lincoln lodge for enlisted men that night, so I had to unload the car and get busy. Everything was in chaos. The 130 beds did not arrive until 10 o’clock that morning and if I had not gone to the hotel and secured the help of 40 of our “Y” women we never would have been able to open. As it is we were ready for the public’s gaze at 7 o’clock, when we had an opening ceremony, followed by a program by entertainers who landed that day. All the beds were taken by enlisted men and the next morning I had 50 beds added, some carpenter work done, and was on duty until 1 o’clock the next morning. I worked again Thursday and Friday morning started on my trip to Manchester to start work on the building there.
Saturday I got a message that the construction secretary from London was in Liverpool and wanted me to come back and go over some construction work with him. So I returned at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, went out to camp to look over the situation, came back to the office and conferred with him until 10:30 that night, when he returned to London.
Today we had to forward 66 “Y” women on to London. They have been accumulating here for the past week along with their baggage. I never thought that I would make a good baggage smasher, but they tell me I am an expert. We are getting such a fine bunch of women and men they are doing great work in the camps.
I went to the hospital the other day to see a friend and the first thing I saw in the reception room was an Arkansas Gazette. You should have seen me grab it.
Tell the children to make an apple pie for dad, even if they have to eat it. You have no idea how “fed up” I am on this cooking over here. It will be a happy day when I can see old 2923 Gains again and its inmates.
NOTES: Harry Mansur Hobson was writing to his wife, Mrs. H.M. Hobson. He was serving as a construction secretary for the Y.M.C.A. stationed at Liverpool. He was an assistant civil engineer for the Missouri Pacific railroad in Little Rock, Arkansas before going overseas. He departed the U.S. on September 4, 1918. He was born on Oct. 9, 1881 in Island Pond, Vermont and died on October 19, 1943. He is buried Old Protestant Cemetery in Essex County, Vermont.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT