World War I

TOWN OF DOVER HONOR ROLL; World War I

Leon A. Bean
Herbert R. Bond
James J. Breagy
John J. Breagy
Richard T. Breagy
James H. Bradbury
Walter Channing, Jr.
Daniel L. Comiskey
Edward J. Comiskey
Elisha E. Converse
Parker Converse
Donald F. Cutler
Robert F. Dandrow
Reginald Dickens
Dr. Arthur B. Emmons, 2d
Joseph F. Erskine
S. Prescott Fay
* Robert Gorham Fuller
Henry Glassett
Walter J. Glassett
Arthur B. Glidden
Dr. Francis B. Grinnell
Michale Guiseppi
J. Philip Hartt
George E. Heard
Joseph R. Heard
James B. MacGregor
John B. MacGregor
Harold L. MacKenzie
J. Joseph McGarrigle
* William McHaskell
Charles McManus
W. Leo Maker
Crocker J. Mann
Wayland M. Minot
F. Russell Moseley
Axel E. Munson
Harry E. Neale
Orlando I. Paine
John Parkinson, Jr.
Arthur E. Poole
** George B. Preston
George L. Reynolds, Jr.
William B. Rice, 2d
Elmer E. Sanborn
Francis W. Sargent, Jr.
William H. Schaffner
Charles E. Sprunt
Willard F. Smith
Michael J. Sullivan
Robert M. Tappan
Charles B. Thompson
Eliot W. Higgins
J Russell Higgins
Frederick G. Hopkins
John R. Imbescheid
Charles Jackson
John A. Knowles
James Kelley
Louis Levy
D. Robert Locke
* William H. Locke
Settino Luttazi
Charles F. Lyman, Jr.
Bragdon MacGregor
Ernest F. Thulin
Ralph C. Thulin
Benjamin C. Tower
Carl E. Weiss
George Weiss
Howard A. Welch
Laurence A. Welch
Harold W. Wight
Peter J. Wilson
J. Loring Woodward
E. Payson Woodward
Arlan M. Wotton

United States Army Nurse:
Miss Addie A. Locke

Red Cross Service Overseas:
William Rodman Fay
Walter P. Henderson
Dr. William T. Porter
Mrs. William T. Porter
Miss Hildegarde Porter

** Killed in action
* Died in the service

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George B. Preston

George B. Preston of Dover was killed in action at Toul-Bourcq, France on April 20, 1918. When he was returned to Dover he was buried with military honors at Highland Cemetery. The Dover American Legion, founded in 1919, was named the George B. Preston Post in his honor.

The funeral procession formed in front of the Sanger School on Springdale Avenue before proceeding to the cemetery. Members of the Honor Guard included Edward Poole and Richard Breagy at the rear of the caisson and Harold MacKenzie on the lead horse.

Alger E. Eaton directed the interment ceremony at Highland Cemetery.

Photographs courtesy of Janet MacKenzie

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Some Dover Men Who Served in World War I

Note to Glenda: Again, a personal appeal by Dick Vara ends this section..... I've highlighted it in yellow.

Following is a listing of records of service for some of the Dover boys who served in World War I. It is not a complete list and is excerpted from "DOVER TIDINGS', a little newsletter published in Dover on October 20, 1919.

LEON A. BEAN

February 25, 1918, reported for service at Camp Devens which place he left July 8, 1918, in the 801st Regiment Mounted Police; went across via London, arriving in France August 25; on duty as M. P. for five months in Nevers, St. Armand and other places; transferred to Advanced General Headquarters, going forward to Trier, Germany; left Germany June 9, 1919, arriving in Camp Mills, N. Y., the 10th of July; demobilized July 16, 1919.

JOHN J. BREAGY

Entered infantry service September 4, 1918; trained at Camp Upton and Camp Mills, Long Island; sailed for Brest October 11, 1918; assigned to Toul sector in 82d Division; there till the armistice and then went to Rest Camp at Chaloncey and at Loupiac, Southern France; home June 6, 1919.

EDWARD J. COMISKEY

Ensign: May 12, 1917, enrolled seaman, 2d class, at Newport, and on July 18, 1917, was transferred to the Mine Detail at New London; again was transferred, February 16, 1918, to U. S. Submarine Chaser 238 at New York; April 5, 1918, the Chaser joined the Atlantic Fleet and ehgaged in patrol service; August 29, 1918, he was assigned to the Naval Academy with the rank of Ensign; then after the armistice was under orders for inactive duty and so, on February 4, 1919, ended his service.

ARTHUR B. EMMONS, 2D

Major: Entered medical service and on May 3O, 1917, left Dover to report at Fort Benjamin Harrison to the Medical Officers Training Camp; made First Lieutenant in Medical Reserve Corps and assigned to Instruction Company G at Evacuation Hospital 2; promoted to Captaincy August 6, 1917, and assigned to Camp Merritt, N. J.; went "across" reaching Bazoilles-sur-Meuse February 1, 1918, where his unit constructed hospital buildings for a large base; then to Baccarat and set up a hospital where he remained eight months working within six miles of the front line till after the armistice; after that to Coblentz with the Army of Occupation and there became the officer in charge of the chief hospital of the group of five evacuation hospitals in the area; some time before the armistice he was put in charge of the medical department of the hospital till relieved for home-coming; made Major February 17, 1919, and demobilized same month.

ELIOT WIGHT HIGGINS

First Lieutenant: Training Camp, Plattsburg, May 12, 1917, for two months; transferred to aviation service and went to Massachusetts Institute Technology Graduate School, August 1; graduated and sailed for France October 17, 1917, going directly to the large American Aviation Camp at Issoudun; from there February 10, 1918, ordered to Italian Government Aviation School at Foggia where he received the Italian flying brevet, also, commission as First Lieutenant, and after four months flying and propaganda work returned to France to engage in artillery observation; stationed at Tours and later assigned to advanced flying training at Issoudun on French planes; demobilized February 5, 1919.

J. RUSSELL HIGGINS

Sergeant: Entered Medical Corps December 19, 1917, and ordered to Fort Standish, Boston Harbor; there till October, 1918, when he changed to the infantry service and was transferred to the Central Officers Training School at Camp Gordon, Ga., there he continued till the armistice; demobilized December, 1919.

CHARLES JACKSON

Entered service October 22, 1918, in artillery and assigned to Camp Zachary Taylor, Army Officers Training Camp; demobilized December 3,1918.

WILLIAM LEO MAKER

Went to Camp Devens April 26, 1918, and went overseas with Company D, 804th Infantry July 8, 1918, arriving in London the 24th; thence to La Havre, arriving ;July 80; transferred to Company F. 116th Engineers August 28; trained with several other companies with outlook toward the front; sailed for home December 25 with the 109th Casual Company, and discharged February 8, 1919.

HAROLD L. MACKENZIE

Entered artillery service December 7, 1917, and sent to Fort Standish, Boston Harbor, then to Fort Banks, Winthrop, and to Camp Merritt, N. J.; sailed for Liverpool March 26, and after a brief stay in English camps was shipped to Havre and assigned to a light artillery training camp; thence on to the front in the Toul sector where he was taken ill and sent to hospital; upon recovery he rejoined his unit just before the Soissons drive and was in that and in the Argonne battles, where, as he said, "I got mine"; made whole in the hospital he was afterwards assigned to interior guard duty and on March 26, 1919, sailed for home; demobilized April 21.

WILLARD F. SMITH

Entered naval service May 28, 1917, and ordered to Newport and assigned to U.S.S. Massachusetts; then sent to submarine base at New London, Conn., and placed in the Listening School; sailed from Charleston, S.C., March, 1918, on board Submarine Chaser 851 to St. Nazaire and Brest; then with Portsmouth and Weymouth for base on patrol duty in the English Channel, and the same service from Plymouth as base till the armistice; on board ship in France till September 17, 1919, when he was mustered out.

WARREN SULLIVAN

A good sailor-man; applied for enlistment but was directed to the merchant marine; went in February 28, 1917, and spent eighteen months on ships chiefly engaged in carrying munitions the while "dodging submarines"; quit for good October 30, 1918.

CHARLES BUSH THOMPSON

Upon entering the service he went into training at Camp Devens which he left July 7, 1918, and arrived in France July 28; was assigned to police duty in several small towns in central France till December, 1918; then went to Trier, Germany, with the Army of Occupation; March 6, 1919, he was selected to go to the A. E. F. University at Beaume where he engaged in several studies till ordered home to be demobilized.

WILLIAM JOSEPH WALL

Was also in the merchant marine doing his part. He was stationed chiefly in Boston.

HOWARD A. WELCH

Sergeant: Assigned to 101st Engineers and sailed from the States September 26, 1917; in battles at Chemin des Dames, Xirray Defensives, Pas Thierry sector, Champagne-Marne defensive, Aisne Marne offensive, St. Mihiel offensive, Meuse Argonne offensive; gunshot wound at Belleau July 20, 1918, and in May, 1918, cited for a successful " Coup de main " on the enemy's lines; promoted Sergeant First Class April 3, 1919, and demobilized April 28.

The following article was written by Rev. Daniel Monro Wilson, Managing Editor of "DOVER TIDINGS" and included in the publication of October 20, 1919:

'In this issue there is begun a "Record of our Crusaders." A brief statement is made of the more important experiences of those who were in service. This cannot be done for all in a single issue of the TIDINGS, but in a succeeding number the record may be completed.

Of only a few of the Crusaders do we know where they went, of only a few do we know the fine things they did. We should like to know everything. Personally we may on auspicious occasions draw from our rather reserved participants in the Great War a satisfying story of things done, things attempted and things dreamed of.

How good it would be if such free utterances could be set down for future generations to read. That, however, is much beyond the scope of our most sanguine hopes.

A little we may save from oblivion. Our indefatigable town bookkeeper, Miss Clara P. Atkinson, is trying hard to secure the complete record for which the State calls. But in spite of her sympathetic interest in this task she is finding it difficult to win even the most meagre details from but a few.

Please respond more speedily and heartily! And as to the TIDINGS, is the dream of a still larger response to be realized? Note what in this issue we are printing and let us have your record at an early date.'

THE SAME GOES FOR NOW TOO....

If you have any information about other Dover people who served in World War I
please respond speedily and heartily. Send me the info and I'll be happy to add it here.

Click the blue Link to send E-MAIL - To Dick Vara

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DOVER'S MEMORIAL DAY - May 31, 1920

In 1920 memories of the Great World War were still fresh in the minds and hearts of Dover people and there was a feeling of great patriotism in the land. The following description shows how the town celebrated Memorial Day that year. Copied from the Dover Town Report:

A beautiful spring day with Dover foliage at its very best graced the occasion. At ten o'clock the exercises began in the Town Hall. Rev. Mr.Kendall gave the opening prayer. Then followed music by the Brass Sextette. Mrs. Elwell's brother, Mr. Henry Taylor, leading tenor of the New York Hippodrome, sang 'The Long, Long Trail.' Those who heard him will long remember his fine voice and beautiful rendering of his appropriate selections. Mr. Taylor then sang the words, everyone joining in the chorus, of 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic.'

Dr. William T. Porter, the orator of the day, made a very careful analysis of our present stage of civilization, reviewing the history of our country's wars and our part in the World War, which is technically not yet closed. He then gave the signs of the times which give us hopes for future peace. The keynote was a better understanding among men and among nations.

The chairman, Dr. Emmons, formerly in the Army Medical Corps, told the townspeople that since returning to Dover he had been decorated and that he wore his decoration proudly. He took this public occasion to thank the people.of Dover for the handsome medal which Dover had generously given to all men in the service.

At this point in the exercises an easel, draped with the Stars and Stripes, was brought forward from the rear of the stage, and Miss Hildegarde Porter, who gave years of her life to nursing in France during the war, a member of the Memorial Day Committee, drew back the flag, disclosing a large oil painting.

To the right is an image of the Memorial Day Painting by R. Farrington Elwell

The scene typifies Memorial Day, two American soldiers, a sailor, and a nurse grouped about a grave in war-torn France. In the background appears a large caliber cannon, over which flies an aeroplane. On the other side of the canvas is the distant blue ocean, on which is seen a battleship, protected hy two destroyers, and an observation balloon.

The sailor is placing a wreath on the rough wooden cross. A golden glow is radiated about the grave, lighting up the distant cloud in which is faintly seen a winged angel, bearing an olive branch, and in the other hand the Stars and Stripes. The whole is executed with skill and taste, a real creation of art.

Mr. R. Farrington Elwell, the artist, is a resident Dover. For a number of years Mr. Elwell was with William Cody, "Buffalo Bill." Dramatic art, especially life in the open, is his field. Many will recognize him through the cover pictures of the "Literary Digest" and other magazines. Cowboys, horses, animal life in the woods and mountains furnish him dramatic expression of manly adventure and daring exploit. It is this dramatic expression, with careful attention to minute detail, added to a vivid imagination with command of color, which has produced this striking picture. The attention is arrested, the sympathy aroused, pride in our brave dead is kindled.

Mr. Elwell has laid Dover under a heavy debt in this generous gift. We congratulate Dover on its gem. We wish we had an appropriate setting for it in the Town Hall. We also congratulate Mr. Elwell on the excellence of his artistic work and on his happy example of great generosity to his adopted home town. It must be a source of deep satisfaction to him to be able to give such a gift, to create such a permanent monument. Few communities, large or small, are fortunate enough to own such an art treasure.

The announcement of the artist giver was greeted with heartfelt applause. Mr. Elwell, by his quiet good fellowship and loyal good citizenship, has endeared himself to Dover.

Another song by Mr. Taylor, entitled "Let Me Like a Soldier Die," was encored by "Dear Old Pal o' Mine."

After the benediction by Rev. Mr. Wilson, all sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Then the assembly proceeded across the street, before the school, and there planted three trees to the boys who went out from Dover into serviee but did not return. William McHaskell was serving on a mine-sweeper in the North Sea when killed by an accident, May 9, 1919. William Henry Locke died in France, Jan. 3, 1919. George Bernard Preston was killed in action in France, May 3, 1918.

The three trees planted were slips from the Washington Elm in Cambridge. The Arnold Arboretum made these slips, which were later given to Mrs. William T. Porter, who generously gave them to the town for the permanent memorial to our men who died in service.

The first to the right of the school entrance was planted to the memory of William Locke, his mother holding the tree; the one to the left of the entrance, to George B.Preston; the third, opposite the watering trough, to William McHaskell.

It has since been learned that to these three names must be added that of Capt. R. Gorham Fuller, who died Feb. 12, 1919, soon after being discharged from the United States Army.

The assemblage then formed in line, the Dover Post of the American Legion leading with their beautiful silk flag. Mr. Austin S. Kenney, a veteran of the Civil War, in his blue uniform marched with the olive drab legion. Then followed the music, and lastly several hundred men, women and children, all bearing flowers.

Long will linger the memory of that solemn procession, as it slowly approached the cemetery to the sound of the military funeral march.

Around the circle of flags to the unknown dead, the group formed. A short prayer was said, taps was sounded. Back in the distant hills the echo was repeated. These ceremonies were thus concluded, and everyone dispersed to lay flowers by the side of the flag on each soldier's grave.

ARTHUR B. EMMONS, 2d - Chairman,
ROBERT R. KENDALL,
HILDEGARDE PORTER,
Memorial Day Committee.

Jan. 15, 1921

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