Ahhhh, maybe not fighting for humanitarian reasons....

I may have gotten this letter out of order - I will need to spend more time reflecting upon the content to figure out where it goes in sequence.

I don't know what a statistician is doing working on the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. - though maybe they desire to issue bonds, so Herb is working on that. The NYC subway was privately owned until June 1940, and this was the private company which built the system which opened in 1904. Wow, can you imagine what the subway was like when it was clean and new?

Fred Judson, remember, is on the letterhead of the company and has joined the Mosquito Fleet. Though not a family member, it might be fun to learn more about him.


Sunday – date unknown, but perhaps May 1917

Dear Family,

Kimber and I have just returned from a stroll through the park. It’s a beautiful day and the park was lovely – but the people. Honestly, we felt like foreigners. The place was full of Jews who come with their lunches and spend the day.

Well, the draft is coming. I won’t register because I won’t have to, but if we really are going to send troops across and it certainly looks like it, I’m going to enlist.

Mr. Friedman and I have been working until after eleven o’clock at night this week finishing up a study of the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. I certainly was glad when we finished it yesterday.

Fred Judson went to join his crew Tuesday. He was in for a while Saturday, looking very much sunburned. The boat hasn’t put to sea yet. They were only getting things in shape and taking on supplies.

I haven’t seen much of Charlie the past week – only once or twice for a few minutes chat. He has been very busy, too.

Jane Parker has a position with Banker’s Trust Co. She starts work tomorrow.

Charlie and Grace have been scouring the country lately looking for a house but haven’t had any luck yet.

I haven’t been up to see Edith in a long time so I think I’ll try to get up some night this week.

I think the reason why I didn’t get in on Plattsburgh is my age. Steve Lee was a year back of me in college but he is twenty-four. Phike Morris is twenty-five.

That’s the only reason I can think of because I was pronounced physically fit and I think I’m intelligent enough.

Friedman tells me to wait but he’s one of these people who think there won’t be any fighting for America to do. Anyway you couldn’t expect much else from him because he hasn’t any red blood in his veins any way.

I won’t do anything for a couple of weeks anyway and before I do I’ll come up and stay a few days.

Love to all,
Herbert

OohRah

And now we need to figure out who Mr. Rankin is.....

It seems that Jane Parker is living with her mother.... That might give me a clue as to who she is, as I am doubting my assumption that she is Russell's sister.

I am going to assume that Karolyn is graduating from college, not high school given how much traveling and running around she is doing; seems too much for a highschooler.

I asked the folks at Syracuse University what these Corpse and Coffin things were; I got an answer, but I can't claim that I understood it:

These organization were different class societies. The Corpse & Coffin was a Junior Society founded at Syracuse University in 1889. The Skull & Serpent was a Sophomore Society founded in 1902.

What is a class society?

I went to New York City on Friday to get some marriage, birth and death certificates from the NYC Municipal Archives. I was successful and will eventually share, but I had an opportunity to walk to 60 Wall Street to see where Herb worked. As we can assume, it looks nothing like it did in 1917, though the address still exists. Now it is the Deutsche Bank building. I chatted up the guard at the entrance and he indicated that the current enormous tower was built in the 1960s by, he believed, Banker's Trust. According to Deutsche Bank's web site, they acquired Banker's Trust in 1999 making Deutsche Bank a real mover and shaker in the US. So, our connection remains with the address 60 Wall Street.

Huntington is a town on the northern side of Long Island about an hour from Penn Station. Clearly by the Federal Census record I have noted, there are large estates there - and people who work on those estates....

Investigating further we learn from their web site:

History: The Town is located at the western end of Suffolk County adjacent to the Nassau-Suffolk County boundary. It is approximately 40 miles from Manhattan and 40 miles from Riverhead, the Suffolk County seat. The History of Huntington is closely associated with the early development of the American colonies. The community was originally settled in 1653, well within the lifetime of the earliest New England colonist. In the beginning, water-borne transportation gave life to the community. The natural harbors offered ready access to the farmlands of the Long Island interior. The harbor was the setting for the early Huntington community which became the focal point for the movement of agricultural products into the commerce of the colonies. Although agriculture was its mainstay and water-borne transportation its lifeline for two centuries, in later years the whaling industry and expanded manufacturing activity broadened the local economy and gave impetus to the expansion of the harbor communities of Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington, and Northport.

By the early twentieth century thousands of acres of productive farmland were laying fallow because the land had been appropriated for large estates. Marshall Field, Robert DeForest, Otto Kahn, Charles Gould, August Heckscher, George McKesson Brown, Walter Jennings, Roland Conklin and many others extended Long Island’s Gold Coast into Huntington. The middle class was also attracted to Huntington. Summer bungalow communities developed along the shores of Centerport Harbor, Huntington Bay and Huntington Harbor during the 1920s.

From 1920 to 1930, Huntington’s population increased 84% from 13,893 to 25,582. Huntington village began to take shape with one large building project after another along New York Avenue: The Palace Theatre in 1917, the Huntington Theatre and Huntington Office Building in 1927, The Huntington Mortgage Building in 1928 and the Hotel Huntington in 1929.

I can imagine that Herb, Charlie and Grace stopped to watch the construction of the Palace Theater when they went to visit Aunt/Mom Ida.

Thursday – date unknown, May 1917
Dear Family,

I’m glad you’ve told me just how you feel about the question of my enlisting. I’ve thought it over very carefully and I won’t enlist for a month or two yet.

And now I’ll try to answer all your questions about the different branches of the service.

I think the marines – from what I’ve seen of them – are a mighty fine bunch of men. I’ve talked with several Marine Corps recruiting sergeants and they certainly are men to be admired – husky brown and yet very well bred + courteous and seemingly pretty well educated. If I do decide that I really should enlist I want to be with some men who have seen service and have been under fire. Most of the marines have. And the marine officers are all well-seasoned men who will know how to look after the men under them. That’s my objection to the National Guard and the Mosquito fleet. They’re too blamed amateurish – and it will go awfully hard with amateurs if there’s any fighting.

I’ve quite given up all hope of Plattsburgh. I think I was turned down on account of my youth – Fike says most of the men up there are twenty-eight or over. I’m confident that Mr. Rankin would intercede for me if he could but it’s a strictly military matter and he would have no influence.

I was up to see Jane last night. She says she enjoys working. She doesn’t have to work but there isn’t enough work around a small apartment to keep her and her mother both busy.

This place Charlie has in mind is in Hasbrouk Heights, New Jersey. They still expect to go down to Huntingdon for a while I think but they want to get a house if they can and have it all ready when they want to come back. Someone has an option on the place to buy it until June 15th but the owner told them he didn’t think the party would take it.

I was thinking of coming home in a couple of weeks but Karolyn wants me to come up June 12th because she graduates then.

Love to all,
Herbert

Disappointment

I suppose my readers already suspected Herb did not make it in to the Reserve Corps, given we originally found him in the Ambulance Corps. I am glad 'horribly disappointed' was not suicidal as for this other broker, Walter Scheftel. What was this guy thinking in late May 1917?

I wrote Syracuse University and look what they kindly provided:

This is Harold Kimber, from East Syracuse, NY. He was a very active guy, being associated with several Greek organizations, the Assistant Manager of Track, Chemical Club, Manager of Freshman Baseball, Manager of Varsity Track, Member of the Athletic Governing Board, Treasurer Class, Executive Committee, President Senior Council, and Senior Ball Committee.

And here we find Oliver Wolcott Morris:

Ole Phike was also associated with several Greek organizations, Senior Dinner Club, Corpse and Coffin, Baseball Squad, and the Athletic Dinner Committee. He hails from Long Beach, NJ.

What is Corpse and Coffin, I wonder. It's not Yale, so not the Skull and Crossbones.... Hmmm.

Paul Tracy Crosby, from Seneca Falls, NY, is associated with the Skull and Serpent.... as well as Baseball and Class Team.

The kind folks at Syracuse tell me Steve Lee is Stephen M. Lee, but they could find no photos of him, (Herb was also very camera shy.... maybe because of those front teeth!)


Wednesday evening – date unknown, May 1917

Dear Mother,

Well I wasn’t elected. I feel horribly disappointed. I did so want to get out and do something worthwhile. There doesn’t seem much else left to do. The term of enlistment in the navy + marines is four years – that’s too long. The National Guard – well I don’t like to guard bridges. So I guess I’ll have to sit tight for a couple of weeks.

Phike Morris + Steve Lee were lucky. They leave for Plattsburgh this week. And by a rather remarkable chance both are listed for the same company. They both felt bad because I wasn’t going along – almost as bad as I felt myself. So all there are left of the Phi Delts are Doc Crosby who will be a regular navy doctor in a couple of weeks and Kimber, who seems to be the conscientious objector. I think rather that he is yellow.

I have three nice new front teeth now. They look better than the others but I have not quite become accustomed to them yet. Guess what the bill was. Two dollars. I accused the dentist of cooking up a deal on me with Fred Judson but he stood pat. I don’t know whether to accuse Fred of it or not. It was a very generous offer, made freely, and perhaps I should not say anything.

Charley, Grace, Jane and I were to the movies last night. The wedding is more or less in the air, awaiting developments.

Love to all,
Herbert

Put in his application

It looks like perhaps Herb waited a day or two to get down to the recruiting office - he was examined on May 2nd.

That Fred Judson is pretty brave given that the Mosquito fleet was also - perhaps only after the war - the Suicide Fleet. According to Wikipedia, the Mosquito fleet was:

A fleet of converted yachts used by the US Navy during World War I off the Atlantic Coast of France to patrol for U-boats and provide support for convoys into Brest, France.

Friday Noon (May 4, 1917)

Dear Mother,

I have put in my application, been examined and have sworn to serve the government when needed, to report at Plattsburgh when and if ordered, and to accept whatever commission may be offered me. On or before next Tuesday I will receive word whether or not I am to report at Plattsburgh. Camp is expected to be opened May 14. I got by the physical very nicely. I am just the minimum weight (135 pounds for five feet 10 inches) but the doctor said that was all right because I am well built. When he examined my teeth he called in three other doctors to admire the work the dentist did. He said he had never seen better. The dentist told me that that swelling wasn’t due to my tooth. It’s all disappeared now and that tooth which I thought might have caused it is filled now anyway.

Don’t worry Mother. I couldn’t do anything else, you know. A year from now you’ll be glad to think I did volunteer rather than wait to be drafted.

Fred Judson is accepted for the mosquito fleet and expects to be called in two or three weeks for service.
Love to all,
Herbert