TRANSCRIBED FROM THE JONESBORO WEEKLY SUN DECEMBER 5. 1917 p 6.
Somewhere in France.
October 25, 1917.
Dear Mr. Peterson:
We are all well and working. It has been a good experience and we have aa good deal to do here. We are the first engineers to run railroads and we have stepped in, taken the road off the French hands, and are operating it with less men, better than they did. We are using about 30 crews every 24 hours, so you can imagine we are busy.
We are having some nasty weather and it is getting cold. The French are gaining everyways.
We find that about 60 percent of our regiment are Masons, and have applied for a “floating charter” from the Illinois Grand Lodge so we can attend lodges here. We hope to have the lodge in working order by December. I attended lodge in Chicago several times but was not in England long enough; saw a “Free Masons’ Hotel” in London.
I have written Joyce and several Jonesboro people. I get letters from the states occasionally. Give my regards to No. 129 and also to K. P. 16 and say I will write them before long.
With kindest regards to your store and Mrs. Peterson. I am.
Yours sincerely,
Claude G. Stotts.
Company B, 13th Engineers Railway,
U. S. Army,
American Expeditionary Force,
France, via New York.
NOTES: Claude Stotts was writing to E. A. Peterson, a Jonesboro merchant. Stotts was the former secretary of the Jonesboro Merchant’s Association. When the Rock Island Railroad was recruiting men with RR experience for a military unit Stotts signed up and became a member of Co. B, 13th Engineers, Railway, the Lucky 13th. He was born November 3, 1890 and died June 27, 1965.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
Somewhere in France.
October 25, 1917.
Dear Mr. Peterson:
We are all well and working. It has been a good experience and we have aa good deal to do here. We are the first engineers to run railroads and we have stepped in, taken the road off the French hands, and are operating it with less men, better than they did. We are using about 30 crews every 24 hours, so you can imagine we are busy.
We are having some nasty weather and it is getting cold. The French are gaining everyways.
We find that about 60 percent of our regiment are Masons, and have applied for a “floating charter” from the Illinois Grand Lodge so we can attend lodges here. We hope to have the lodge in working order by December. I attended lodge in Chicago several times but was not in England long enough; saw a “Free Masons’ Hotel” in London.
I have written Joyce and several Jonesboro people. I get letters from the states occasionally. Give my regards to No. 129 and also to K. P. 16 and say I will write them before long.
With kindest regards to your store and Mrs. Peterson. I am.
Yours sincerely,
Claude G. Stotts.
Company B, 13th Engineers Railway,
U. S. Army,
American Expeditionary Force,
France, via New York.
NOTES: Claude Stotts was writing to E. A. Peterson, a Jonesboro merchant. Stotts was the former secretary of the Jonesboro Merchant’s Association. When the Rock Island Railroad was recruiting men with RR experience for a military unit Stotts signed up and became a member of Co. B, 13th Engineers, Railway, the Lucky 13th. He was born November 3, 1890 and died June 27, 1965.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT