Wooster in World War One

by Shannon Dade, revised by Spencer Gaitsch

On April 6, 1917 the United States declared war on Imperial Germany, tipping the balance of power in Europe in favor of the Allies. Although isolationist sentiment had dominated Wooster in the early years of the war, a combination of factors, including the sinking of the RMS Lusitania and the interception of the Zimmerman Telegram, had led to its decline and eventual disappearance. By 1917, American sentiment towards Germany had soured and many in Wooster were determined to see the Central Powers defeated. 

A poster that was published by Freelander's store that says "This store will assist you to do your 'bit' . Liberty Loan Bonds of $50 denomination can be bought here for $1 down and one dollar every week- No commission of any kind will be charged". The poster also features an image of a woman wearing a robe, holding a torch with a bald eagle and an American flag in the background.

On the home front, Wooster did all that it could to support the American war effort. Liberty Bond drives were organized, residents volunteered to serve in the United States Army, and farmers worked overtime to produce food for troops overseas. Local newspapers and leaders glorified young men going off to fight and made heroes of the men and women who stayed behind and did without to support them. In this way, World War One brought many people in Wooster together in a way that they had not previously been, yet it also pushed others away. War with Germany had created much anti-German sentiment, which led to discrimination towards members of Wooster’s German population as well as those of German heritage. 

Wooster Volunteers in France 

Excerpt from the Wooster Daily Republican with the headline "Farewells are said today and county sends first men to war."
This Wooster Daily Republican describes the emotional scene as families waved farewell to the first contingent of Wayne County soldiers departing for the war. 
Soldiers in uniform and carrying guns marching down the street.
Company D, led by Captain Redick, parades down High Street in Columbus
Portrait of a man in a military uniform wearing several medals.
Portrait of Captain Redick, visible are his American Distinguished Service Cross, French Croix de Geurre, and French Legion of Honor Medal.

As the first company of soldiers boarded a train and began to depart from Wooster on August 15, 1917, a crowd of townspeople waved them farewell. President Woodrow Wilson had called upon the 8th Regiment of the Ohio National Guard, amongst others, to serve in the American Expeditionary Force that was being deployed to France. Wooster volunteers serving in Company D of the 8th Regiment were led by Major Frank C. Gerlach and Captain Marcus R. Limb. Gerlach. The latter of whom would later be promoted to Colonel and command the entire 145th Ohio Regiment. Less than a year after its initial departure, Company D, led by Captain Fred Redick, participated in one of the most famous operations of World War One: the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. 

A certificate that says "United States Army: Distinguished service, cross citation"
Captain Redick won the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism at the capture of Montfaucon. He was wounded in the battle, but remained at the front to command his men. 
Portrait of a man wearing a military uniform and medals.
Portrait of Colonel Frank Gerlach, commander of the 146th and 145th Regiments, and Wooster’s most celebrated military officer. 
Excerpt from the Wooster Daily Republican with the headline, "Wooster Boys in Region of the New Drive"
This Wooster Daily Republican article announced Company D’s involvement in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. 

This, and other news from the front, made Company D the pride of Wooster. Wooster residents eagerly awaited the local paper’s weekly reports about “the boys” at the front. The Wooster Daily Republican frequently printed letters sent home by frontline men from Company D, painting a romanticized image of Company D in the process. Stories of the company’s heroics fueled Wooster’s enthusiasm towards its own wartime efforts, which ranged from the organization of Liberty Bond drives to the planting of victory gardens. 

1 Edward Harry Hauenstein, A History of Wayne County in the World War and in the Wars of the Past, (Wooster: Wayne County History Company, 1919), 104; See also: Colonel F.C. Gerlach binder, Wayne County Public Library Genealogy and Local History Department.

Anti-German Sentiment in Wooster 

A poster that says "Destroy this mad brute" with an image of a monkey-like creature with yellow eyes and sharp teeth, wearing a German helmet that says "Militarism" on the front of it holding a woman with her hands over her face.
This infamous propaganda poster from 1917 fueled the fire of anti-Germanism in America, even after the war. 

Shortly after America’s entry into World War One, President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information to bolster domestic support for the war effort. The Committee made extensive use of anti-German propaganda, which made Germans out to be great brutes that would, if unhindered, find their way to America’s shores. While this propaganda did succeed in motivating the average American to do their part for the war effort, it also created anger and paranoia towards German-Americans and German communities throughout the United States, including those located in Wooster. At The College of Wooster, students vandalized classrooms in the German Department, destroying a portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm II in the process. (1) At the same time, men working on the construction of the Federal Savings and Loan building in downtown Wooster allegedly planted a German flag atop the construction site and took pot shots at it. (2) 

A poster that says "Beat back the hun" with an image of a man with yellow eyes, dark skin, a German helmet, and blood on his hands and the end of his bayonet.
Designed to support the campaign for Liberty Bonds, this poster depicts a German soldier, dripping with blood, peering across the ruins of Europe towards America.  
An advertisement for Liberty bonds that features an image of a scowling Keiser Willhelm II that says "Will you buy Liberty Bonds to keep those fiends of hell from coming over here?"
The Wooster Weekly News printed this Liberty Bonds advertisement in 1917. It claims to report German war atrocities such as “nailing a babe to a barn door.” 

Despite the air of hostility that was directed towards Imperial Germany, Wooster’s German-American community was largely able to evade mistreatment for various reasons. Many of Wooster’s civic leaders were of German descent and most of the institutions that set Wooster’s German community apart from the rest, such as the town’s German newspaper, had disappeared by the time that the United States had entered the war. Despite their successful integration, World War One still marked a critical juncture for German-Americans living in Wooster, but, like most German-Americans living throughout the United States, they chose to identify themselves as Americans first and foremost. 

An excerpt from a newspaper with the headline "Looked like a spy, was harmless hobo"
In Rittman, police shot at a man they feared was a German spy, only to discover that he was a “harmless hobo.”
Excerpt from the Wooster Daily Republican with the headline "Kaiser's Head in Photo Gone"
This Wooster Daily Republican article describes an incident in which College of Wooster students vandalized a portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm 
Excerpt from a newspaper with the headline "Woman talked pro-hun, charge"
An elderly woman in Wooster was arrested after the American Protective League accused her of “pro-German talk.”

Other groups in Wooster were not as lucky and suffered discrimination based upon their association with German culture or German traditions, regardless of whether or not these associations were justified. Wooster’s Amish and Mennonite communities, which predominantly spoke German, experienced persecution for their vocal opposition to the war and their status as conscientious objectors. The Wayne County branch of the American Protective League, a nationwide organization dedicated to rooting out German sympathizers, specifically targeted Amish and Mennonite communities. (3) Local pressure towards Mennonites was so strong that in some cases Mennonites violated their pacifist beliefs and purchased Liberty Bonds. In one case Wooster residents kidnapped a Mennonite man whilst harassing him. (4) Samuel H. Miller, the editor of an Amish newspaper from nearby Holmes County, was tried and jailed for sedition after his paper printed pacifist literature. (5) Although most Mennonite churches supported the efforts of relief organizations like the Red Cross, their refusal to fully support the war effort was at odds with Wooster’s nationalistic zeitgeist. 

1 “Kaiser’s Head in Photo Gone,” The Wooster Daily Republican, Apr. 7, 1917.
2 McClarran, 252.
3 Hauenstein, 186.
4 “World War I and Reconstruction Work,” Mennonite Church USA Archives, http://www.mcusa-archives.org/library/omh/pdf/3.11.pdf, 181.
5 Levi Miller. “Miller, Samuel H. (1862-1928),” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, March 2009, http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Miller,_Samuel_H._(1862-1928)&oldid=113525.

Wooster’s Total War 

Poster featuring a basket of fruits and vegetables that says "Food is ammunition, don't waste it."
This Food Administration poster, which features the slogan “Food is Ammunition – Don’t Waste It!” reminded Americans of the importance of food conservation. 
Political cartoon with the heading "Reason Enough". In the first panel shows uncle Sam saying "by observing this" and pointing to a blackboard that says "Tuesday- meatless days, Wednesday- wheatless days in America". In the second panel he is saying, "We prevent that" and pointing to a blackboard that says "Tuesday- eatless days, Wednesday- eatless days among our allies".
This political cartoon stresses the importance of the Food Administration initiatives “Meatless Mondays” and “Wheatless Wednesdays,” designed to limit domestic food consumption. 

Although many young men from Wooster volunteered to fight in France, this may not have been the greatest contribution made by Wooster to the American war effort. As large sections of European farmland were replaced by elaborate trench networks, American farmers stepped in to fill food production gaps in Europe. Shortly after the United States entered World War One, Charles Thorne, the director of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station (OAES), which helped to organize American food production for both civilian and military purposes, said: 

What is the duty of the Ohio farmer in this terrible catastrophe? He is remote from the scene of the conflict; he has no military training; but he has been trained in the production of food, and in this work he can perform a service not less important and necessary than that of the soldier in the trenches. (1) 

A cartoon that shows a man and two horses pulling a plow that says "The man behind the plow is the man behind the man behind the gun".
U.S. Department of Agriculture propaganda, which appeared in the Wooster Daily Republican on October 31, 1918.

New challenges faced the OAES now that many of the men who normally labored on local farms were off fighting over seas and the demand for agricultural products had only grown. The OAES guided the expansion of local farm production throughout the war and branched out into other war-related areas as well. For instance, it taught women on the home front how to better stretch their budgets and conserve food for the good of the war effort. Mabel Corbould, a baking specialist at the OAES, pioneered several cooking techniques designed to reduce waste, which she then shared at OAES meetings and had published in local newspapers. (2) As is true in all economies that are mobilized for total war, food production became as crucial to victory as those serving on the frontline, which further enhanced the role that Wooster played in the American war effort. 

Excerpt from the Wooster Daily Republican with the headline "Station Helps in Food Crisis, Eleven station men helping Ohio bend every energy to get big crops this year"
This 1917 Wooster Daily Republican article describes the ways in which the experiment station helped Ohio farmers increase production during the food crisis. 
Excerpt from the Wooster Daily Republican that says "Way to lesson cost of bread: Some recipes in which substitutes for wheat flour form ingredients."
This Wooster Daily Republican article relayed Mabel Corbould’s advice for limiting the use of wheat flour, and instead using substitute flour, to limit the cost of bread. 

1 Official Bulletin of the Board of Agriculture in Ohio Vol. VII No. I (February 1916), 69.
2 Hauenstein, 213-220.

Wooster Women in World War One 

A poster with illustrations of four women, a nurse, a factory worker, a farmer, and a mother and the words "The Women: this war has produced many heroes, but none greater than the women. Whether in the hospitals often within reach of the guns and bombs of the Hun, whether in the field or factory, in Red Cross work, in keeping the home together, the women of America, like the women of the Allies, have been the wonders of the civilized world. Just as the martyred Edith Cavell laid down her life fearlessly, so thousands of our women are ready at a moment's notice to sacrifice everything for the great cause of civilization. Are you doing your share to back up the splendid work which the women of America are doing? Money is needed and needed in great quantities to carry on. this work and that is why you are asked to buy LIBERTY BONDS and buy them freely. For the sake of the wonderful women of America don't go home today until you have bought at least one more Liberty Bond. Go to any bank today and buy your liberty bonds.

Although women did not play as large a role in World War One as they would later play in World War Two, they were integral to the American war effort. Women farmed in fields and worked in factories across the United States, filling in for their male counterparts who were now fighting in France. In addition to their labor roles, women also organized a myriad of wartime charities. Mere days after the United States declared war on Germany, Mrs. R.J. Smith of the Wooster Women’s Temperance Union began a campaign to create “comfort bags” for American soldiers fighting overseas. Each of these bags would include a Bible, a book on health and illness prevention in the trenches, antiseptic cotton, soap, a washcloth, a candle, a handkerchief, a sewing kit, and a “mother’s letter.” Women also worked tirelessly for the Red Cross, creating three “Women’s Divisions” – Knitting, Sewing, and Surgical Dressing – as well as a Home Division dedicated to aiding the families of men serving overseas.(1) 

Portrait of Mrs. R.J. Smith

Mrs. R.J. Smith of Wooster organized the local campaign to create “comfort bags” for departing soldiers.
Advertisement that says "Women must find the time to help the nation" from Wooster electric company.
This 1917 advertisement for the Wooster Electric Company suggests that using electric lights in the home will provide women more time to act as “the mothers of a nation.”
Portrait of Mrs. Sweeney in a nurse's uniform.
Mrs. Sweeney was Superintendent of the Red Cross Surgical Dressings Department and the Chairman of the Public Square “Conservation Market.”  

Even after the armistice was signed, the relief work that women did continued as the Spanish Influenza swept across the country in the fall of 1918. It is estimated that the Spanish Flu killed some 675,000 Americans. As the first cases began to appear in Wooster, the Home Division of the Wooster Red Cross transformed into the Influenza Committee. These brave female volunteers entered the homes of those who were stricken with the flu to provide healthcare and support for bereaved families. (2) Women played a key role in both World War One and the global pandemic that followed, which in turn expanded both the expectations that society had for women and the expectations that women had for society. 

Advertisement that says "Can you Sleep Tonight?" featuring a picture of a wounded solider, a nurse, and a mother in front of the red cross symbol.
This advertisement from the Wooster Daily Republican asks the men and women of Wayne County who have not pledged a donation to the Red Cross, “Can you sleep tonight?”
Excerpt from the Wooster Republican with the headline "Death Harvest Large in Day in this City"
According to this Wooster Daily Republican article, six men and women in Wooster died of Spanish influenza in one day in October 1918.
Excerpt from the Wooster Daily Republican with the headline "Young Ladies Brave Flu to Help Families"
This 1918 Wooster Daily Republican article commends the bravery of the women who volunteered to care for influenza patients. 

1 Hauenstein, 298-203. See also: “Comfort Bags,” Wooster Daily Republican, Oct. 18, 1917.
2 Hauenstein, 203. See also: “Ladies Brave Flu to Help Families,” Wooster Daily Republican, Oct. 30, 1918.

Armistice Day 

Excerpt from a newspaper with the headline. "1,600 dough boys parade" with a photograph of several young men posing in military uniforms on a city street.

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, World War One came to an end. News of the armistice did not reach Wooster until 2:30 a.m. when Emmett Dix, an editor at the Wooster Daily Republican, awoke to the sound of his telephone ringing. (1) By 4:00 a.m., news of the Allied victory and the end of the Great War had spread throughout the entire town. (2) The bells of the courthouse rang continuously throughout the day, schools and factories were closed, and, at 8:00 a.m., the first parade took place, yet the streets remained flooded with jubilant townsfolk until well after midnight. (1) 

Excerpt from the Akron Beakon Journal with the headline "War ends, enemy signs armistice, effective 11 A.M."
The front page of the Akron Beacon Journal on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918.
Excerpt from the Wooster Daily Republican with the headline "Great throng participates in Wayne County's 'welcome home'"
This Wooster Daily Republican article describes the festivities of July 4, 1919, as Wayne County welcomed home its enlisted men.

World War One and the pandemic that followed closely on its heels had taken their toll of the Wayne County area where seventy enlisted men had been killed overseas and nearly one hundred lives had been lost to the Spanish Flu since September of 1918. Despite these grim statistics, the people of Wooster managed to look eagerly ahead towards the return of nearly 1,500 American servicemen. These troops were welcomed home with parades, fireworks, two bands, and an extravagant banquet. The Wooster Daily Republican wrote: “With the mammoth crowd, the good music, the races, the rabbit show, the dirigible balloon, and the fireworks display, who is there that can say Wayne County’s homecoming celebration was not a brilliant success?” (2) 

1 Hauenstein, 198.
2 “Great Throng Participates in Wayne County’s Welcome Home,” the Wooster Daily Republican, July 5, 1919. 

How to cite this page:

MLA: “Wooster in World War One.” stories.woosterhistory.org, http://stories.woosterhistory.org/wooster-in-world-war-one/. Accessed [Today’s Date].

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