WWI Papers Private Collections, WWI PC
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- WWI Papers Private Collections
- Call Number
- WWI PC
- Creator
- Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina
- Date
- 1916-2014
- Repository
- State Archives of North Carolina
Collection Overview
The Private Collections of the WWI Papers is a group of collections donated by military
veterans, their families, and others, documenting North Carolina military veterans'
World War I service. The materials also document North Carolina military installations,
and some miscellaneous research projects on various aspects of WWI. Titled originally
as the "Private Collection series," the majority of these materials were collected
from 1960 to 2014 as part of the active expansion of the Military Collection's existing
WWI home front collection. The term "Private Collections" was to indicate these materials
came from individuals, rather than sets of records already in the WWI Papers like
the North Carolina Council of Defense Records. However, due to there being the Private
Collections unit of the Special Collections Section of the State Archives of North
Carolina, it was determined in 2015 to reprocess all of the individual collections
in the WWI Papers "Private Collections" and eventually eliminate the group and its
title. Since 2015, the Military Collection has been reprocessing and assigning new
WWI Papers collection numbers to existing collections in the "Private Collection"
group. Any collection existing within this finding aid has not been reprocessed, and
the description of the collection was left in this older "Private Collections" grouping
until new collection numbers can be assigned.
The descriptions for these WWI Papers Private Collections are basic, and do not include
the correct box number. To locate the correct box number for where the collection(s)
is stored in the "Private Collections," check the old Private Collections series finding
aid (which is available in the State Archives Search Room and online as a PDF in the
Military Collection's WWI Papers finding aids page).
The WWI Papers Private Collections is composed of approximately 16 linear feet.
Contents of the Collection
Scope and Contents note:
Personal papers of two sisters from Asheville (Buncombe County). Elizabeth Earl Jones was an American Red Cross and Y.M.C.A. volunteer in London during the war, and May F. Jones was a Y.M.C.A worker with the 318th Machine Gun Battalion in France. The collection contains:
Elizabeth Earl Jones Papers - Ration card and paper; identity book; souvenir booklet from the Eagle Hut, American Y.M.C.A., London; program, Anglo-Saxon fellowship meeting, 1918; newspaper clippings; and a letter to Fred A. Olds, September 2, 1921, explaining her service in London during the war.
May F. Jones Papers - Letters, 1917-1919; postcards; identification card and tag; order (in French) to transport her locker; and a worker's permit.
Miscellaneous items include report of war work done by the Buncombe County Committee of the Colonial Dames, 1917-1918; song sheet and program of the reunion of the 30th Division in Asheville, 1920; two photographs of the Asheville Community Cannery; two letters to Mrs. Eliza Potter Settle and a newspaper clipping re. the Kiffin Rockwell ambulance, 1917; President Wilson's New Declaration of Freedom; a small American flag; and issues of five London newspapers: Daily Mail, June 2 (1 sheet) and June 30, 1919; Daily Mirror, April 14, 1917; Evening Standard, April 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, and 17, 1917, and November 12, 1918; The Globe, April 3, 1917; and The Times, April 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 16, 1917, and April 30, 1919 (1 sheet).
Scope and Contents note:
Contains a typescript of the diary of Pvt. Willard M. Newton of Charlotte (Mecklenburg County), May 18, 1918 - April 19, 1919, detailing his service in Co. F, 105th Engineers, 30th Division.
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of Brig. Gen. George W. McIver of Carthage (Moore County), who commanded the 161st Brigade of the 81st ("Wildcat") Division during World War I. General McIver was a West Point graduate, Class of 1882, and a veteran of thirty-five years of active military service when appointed to command the 161st. Included among the official correspondence, orders, and reports, 1918-1919, n.d., are operation reports; field orders; reports of regiments' changes of station; reports of patrols; casualty lists; inspection reports; reports of meritorious conduct by individual officers and soldiers; papers supporting the recommendation of Cpl. Winton E. Yerby for the Distinguished Service Cross; statement of PFC Edgar Lee Bell re. the death of Lt. Joseph H. Johnson; medical history of the 321st Regiment; report concerning division schools; and a report of the comparative weight of soldiers in several companies of the 321st from the time of entering service to February 1919. The collection also includes field map of the Douaumont-Eix sector showing lines of trenches, February 1918, and a map showing German lines and order of battle, Sommedieue Sector, November 1918 {removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Maps.197-198]; three maps showing positions of the 321st Infantry, November 9-11, 1918; twenty-five photographs, including several of Co. B, 321st Infantry, in France; eleven commercial postcards, including a photograph of General McIver and officers of the 161st; correspondence with Fred A. Olds re. obtaining a photograph of McIver, 1918; program, Wildcat Veterans National Reunion, 1941; typescript, "North Carolina at West Point before the Civil War," by McIver; typescript, chapter 15 of McIver's reminiscences, titled, "Service with the 81st Division at Camp Jackson, August 1917 to May 1918"; and newspaper clippings. [Sixteen other photos, larger in size, with a few notations, which came with this material are deposited with the Hall of History.]
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the military service of Col. Joseph Hyde Pratt of Chapel Hill (Orange County), commander of the 105th Engineers. A native of Connecticut, Pratt earned a bachelor of philosophy degree and a doctorate from Yale University. He moved to North Carolina in 1897 to join the Toxaway Company and to work as a mineralogist with the N.C. Geological Survey. Soon thereafter, he was appointed state mineralogist, a post he held until named state geologist in 1906. In these capacities, Pratt was credited with the discovery of several minerals. He was also active in the acquisition of land for state and national forests, and in the nascent State Highway Commission, serving as its secretary for a period. A member of the state guard since 1913, Pratt enlisted in the army on July 24, 1917, and was commissioned a major of engineers. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in November and assigned to command of the 1st Battalion of the 105th Engineer Regiment, which assembled for training at Camp Sevier, South Carolina.
On May 18, 1918, the 105th Engineers left Camp Sevier for Camp Mills, Long Island, preparatory for disembarking for service overseas. On June 1, Lieutenant Colonel Pratt commanded a detachment of the regiment that sailed for Europe aboard the Talthybius (the main body was transported on the Melita). Both vessels landed in Dover, and the regiment was reunited in Calais on June 14. Pratt assumed command of the 105th on June 19, when Col. Harley B. Ferguson was assigned the duties of American Second Corps engineer. The engineers received training from the British until July 10, when the regiment moved to the Ypres area. Here they trained with the 30th Division until August 17, when the division relieved a British division in the front lines of the Canal Sector. The 105th spent the next two weeks improving the fortifications, roads, and water supply in the area. On August 31, the 30th Division launched an attack on the German lines south of Ypres. After temporary assignments with the British First and Third armies, the 30th Division was permanently attached to the British Fourth Army on September 22 and relieved the Australian Corps in the trenches at Bellicourt. A week later, the division attacked the Hindenburg Line and achieved a breakthrough. From October 8 to 19, the 30th Division and its engineers were engaged in daily attacks that pushed back the German lines. The 105th remained in France until the first of April 1919, repairing roads and preparing defensive positions. Pratt was the officer in charge of troops aboard the U.S.S Martha Washington on the homeward voyage. He received the Distinguished Service Cross and was discharged from service on June 12, 1919. War service took a heavy toll on his health, forcing his resignation as state geologist in 1924. Pratt died in 1942.
Scope and Contents note:
Scrapbook reflecting the service of Pvt. Joseph Dixon Rountree of Kinston (Lenoir County) in Co. F, 28th Regiment, First Division. Rountree enlisted at age eighteen in April 1917. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cantigny and died on May 31, 1918, the first soldier from Lenoir County to die in service. He was buried in France, but in 1921 his body was reinterred at Kinston. The scrapbook was collected by his aunt, Lucy Rountree L. Cobb, who raised Joseph and two siblings after the death of their mother. The scrapbook contains transcripts of letters from Rountree, May 17, 1917, to May 12, 1918; family photographs; newspaper clippings and illustrations; official correspondence concerning his death; a letter from Pvt. Claude L. Koonce to L. A. Cobb, May 21, 1919, relating the wounding and death of Rountree; pages from an undated National Geographic Magazine concerning a memorial to American troops at Cantigny; two souvenir handkerchiefs from France; and a small flag. Five oversized items, including three U.S. memorial certificates, a U.S. citation for gallantry, and a French memorial certificate, were removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Misc.Cit.2-6.
Scope and Contents note:
Contains notice to Adams from the Harnett County Draft Board to appear for physical examination, July 31, 1917.
Scope and Contents note:
Contains certificate in lieu of lost or destroyed discharge certificate, 1944, for Connard Cole of Rockingham (Richmond County), a cook in Co. H, 324th Infantry, 81st Division; and section two of the Rockingham Post-Dispatch, May 27, 1954, including photograph and names of 124 selectees/draftees from Richmond County, 1918.
Scope and Contents note:
Contains typescript, "Reminiscences of World War I," by Hamilton C. Horton.
Scope and Contents note:
Includes photograph of Raymond Daniel Hewitt of Catawba County while in service with the Medical Department, Camp Greenleaf, Ga., ca. 1918; group photograph of noncommissioned officers, including Cpl. Isaac F. Cook of Alexander (Buncombe County), taken at Camp Pullman, France, ca. 1918-1919; Christmas dinner menu for Co. K, 35th Infantry, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, 1929 (on reverse are two photographs, one of the barracks and the other of the Hawaiian Division on review); Army and Navy pocket edition of American Bible Society tract, The Gospel According to Saint John, 1917; and dog tag of Pvt. Daniel H. Seagle, Co. C, 35th Engineers.
Scope and Contents note:
Hardbound volume, Drill Regulations and Service Manual for Sanitary Troops, United States Army, originally published in 1914, corrected to April 15, 1917 (Washington: Government Printing Office); inscribed, "Lieut. H. M. Vann, M. C. Base Hosp. 89."
Scope and Contents note:
Letter from Cpl. John W. Hendricks of Cana (Davie County), Co. L, 56th Pioneer Infantry, to his sister Sarah, March 1, 1919, relating his visit to Coblenz, Germany.
Scope and Contents note:
Photograph, February 16, 1935, of Dr. Thel Hooks of Smithfield (Johnston County), who served as a captain in the 117th Infantry and the 105th Engineers.
Scope and Contents note:
Collection consists of photograph of four soldiers of the 58th Field Artillery at Camp Jackson, S.C.: Pvt. Carl R. Gaines of Chatham County, Battery C; Pvt. Allen W. Andrews of Chatham County, Battery F; Pvt. John Miller Robinson of Battery F; and Pvt. Leonard Thomas; and appointment as corporal and honorable discharge of Joseph E. Percifull, U.S. Marine Corps, 1923.
Scope and Contents note:
Consists of program, menu, and dance card from the farewell banquet and ball given by enlisted personnel of the camp supply office, Camp Greene, and held at the Selwyn Hotel in Charlotte, February 15, 1919.
Scope and Contents note:
Contains letters to Florence (Mrs. L. D.) Swindell of Lake Landing (Hyde County), 1917-1923, n.d., concerning her activities as county chairperson for Liberty Loan campaigns and as county collector of war records for the State Normal College and later the North Carolina Historical Commission.
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of Pvt. Thomas F. Jackson of Hallsboro (Columbus County) in the 20th Engineers, including honorable discharge, 1919; letter from the U.S. Veterans Bureau enclosing an adjusted service certificate, 1925; and large oval photograph of Jackson [removed to XII. Photographs and Postcards, Aerial and Other Oversized Photographs, Box 2]. Also contains a certificate of award of the Cross of Military Service from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, issued to Jackson as a lineal descendant of Pvt. Warren Haynes, 51st N.C.S.T.
Scope and Contents note:
Contains hardback volume, The People's War Book: History, Cyclopaedia and Chronology of the Great World War, by James Martin Miller and H. S. Canfield (Cleveland: The R. C. Barnum Company, 1919). Removed and filed in Military Collection Library, 5-22-2012.
Scope and Contents note:
Materials reflecting the service of Pvt. Charles E. Lowder of Albemarle (Stanly County) in Co. K, 110th Infantry, 28th Division, including bound volume of Stars and Stripes, February 8, 1918 - June 13, 1919; panoramic photograph of Co. K, 110th Infantry, Allain, France, March 12, 1919 (Lowder identified as #133) [removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Panoramas.74]; and two prints: "President Woodrow Wilson," by E. G. Renesch, Chicago, 1918); and "An Old Chateau," by Julien CeLof, reprint by Brown E. Bigelow, 1934) [removed and filed in XII. Photographs and Postcards, Aerial and Other Oversized Photographs, Box 2.]
Scope and Contents note:
Contains two French picture postcards from C. F. Reilly Jr., 109th Field Artillery, to Miss Frances V. Price, Greensboro, 1919, n.d.
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of James Carlos Seymour, including draft registration card, 1917; pass to enter Camp Jackson, 1917; letter from draft board of Columbia, S.C., certifying that Seymour was registered there, 1917; draft registration card, City of Columbia, 1918; and certificates of appointment as corporal (temporary) and sergeant clerk (temporary) in the Quartermaster Corps, Camp Jackson, 1918.
Scope and Contents note:
Soldier's individual pay record book reflecting the service of Sgt. Gales G. Sauls of Raleigh (Wake County) in the 120th Infantry Regiment, 1918-1919.
Scope and Contents note:
Materials reflecting the service of Samuel E. Leonard in the Army Educational Corps, including pocket-sized New Testament, the "Daily Portion" New Testament, Readings from the Holy Scriptures for Jewish Soldiers and Sailors, and The Pocket Treasury of Bible chapters and hymns; three booklets issued by the Committee on Public Information: "War Cyclopedia," "Conquest and Kultur," and "German War Practices"; issue of Red Triangle Overseas, April 19, 1919; issue of Comrades in Service, April 19, 1919; issue of Stars and Stripes, April 25, 1919; panoramic photograph of 137th Aero Squadron, "just back from France" [removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Panoramas.75]; six unidentified family photographs; World War II ration book; and miscellaneous items.
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of Pvt. Claude Petteway of Snow Hill (Greene County), who served in the 365th Infantry, 92nd Division, and was killed in action, September 10, 1918. Papers include a presidential memorial certificate signed by George Bush, and a certificate of reservation on the Liberty Memorial Walk of Honor, n.d.
Scope and Contents note:
Hardbound volume, The First World War: A Photographic History, edited by Laurence Stallings (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1933). Removed and filed in Military Collection Library, 5-22-2012.
Scope and Contents note:
Pocket New Testament issued to Rufus N. Simmons of Stokes (Pitt County) as member of the 114th Machine Gun Battalion, 30th Division.
Scope and Contents note:
Consists of photograph (ca. 1920), mounted, of World War I veterans, seventy-six men and one female. Photograph made by Wm. A. Roberts Film Company, Greensboro.
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of PFC Paul Ernest Brauer of Ridgeway (Warren County) in the 324th Infantry, 81st Division, including honorable discharge, 1919; form letter from Col. G. W. Moses to his command on the eve of demobilization, Camp Jackson, S.C., June 20, 1919; and instructions relative to applying for adjusted compensation, n.d.
Scope and Contents note:
Includes seven panoramic photographs [removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Panoramas.84-90]; oversized photographic print of Woodrow Wilson [removed and filed in World War I Papers, Photographs and Postcards, Box 2]; and "Soldier's Memorial-The War of 1917 Certificate, Company C, North Carolina Engineers" [removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Misc.Cit.36].
Scope and Contents note:
Consists of collage of materials associated with the military service of Corporal Youman Z. Weeks (originally from Walterboro, S.C., later of Carteret County) in the 118th Infantry, including a narrative of his bravery at the Battle of Bellicourt, France, September 30, 1918, and a photograph of his Distinguished Service Cross and British Military Medal.
Scope and Contents note:
Contains Broughton's certificate of appointment to corporal in the 1st Co., N.C. Coast Artillery, August 11, 1917.
Scope and Contents note:
Contains two photographs: "Chateau Mormont, where lived Marshall Joffre and Staff during the famous Battle of the Marne in Sept. 1914" (showing Gen. Andrew Moses, commander, 156th Field Artillery Brigade, and his staff: Capt. W. G. Burgess, brigade intelligence officer, First Lt. W. B. Jones, aide-de-camp, of Raleigh, and Sergeant Hammel of California, chauffeur, seated in staff car); and "81st Division ready to pass in Review 1. The King of the Belgians, 2. General Pershing, 3. The Queen of the Belgians, 4. Major General Allen, 8th Corps com., Chatillon-sur-Seine, France, March 19, 1919."
Scope and Contents note:
Newspaper clipping ("Home Guards Return Here from Charlotte; Capt. Stith Commends His Men For Their Loyalty and Service - To Be Discharged"), and June 1918 photograph of three officers and fifty-six enlisted men of Co. G, North Carolina Reserve Militia, taken on grounds of West End School (Wylie), Winston-Salem. Subjects identified as follows (left to right, front row): Sgt. Wylie Hicks; Pvts. Arthur Cook; John Q. Adams Sr.; John Q. Adams Jr.; T. S. Kiser; Willard; Ollie Denney; Marshall; (second row): Everett Denney; Harry Rogers; Robert Hicks; Officers: J. C. Bessent, U.S. Army Ret.; Julian Stith, 1 Lt.; Hamilton Horton, 2 Lt.
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of Lt. Owen Woodfin Leonard of Statesville (Iredell County), including photograph of Leonard as a member of Co. E, 1st Regiment, N.C. National Guard, at Camp Glenn, September 1916; letter from Southford Martin, private secretary to the governor, to J. Paul Leonard of Statesville, regarding a commission for his brother, Owen W. Leonard, 1917; notice of settlement of claim from the General Accounting Office to Lydia L. Wolfersheim, daughter of Owen W. Leonard, deceased, 1953; and letter from the Veterans Administration to Lydia L. Wolversheim concerning her father's disability and insurance benefits, 1964.
Scope and Contents note:
Includes two letters to his mother and two greeting cards from Pvt. Joseph Johnnie Dement of Gupton (Franklin County), Co. A, 322nd Infantry, 81st Division, 1919; two photographs of Private Dement; two photographs of Pvt. Ernest G. Cooper of Gupton; photographs of North Carolinians Pvt. Lewis M. Grady, Pvt. Arthur P. Gupton, and Boyd Westmoreland; four group photographs of soldiers, including Dement, Gupton, and North Carolinians Buzz Collins, Pvt. John W. Frost, and Pvt. Sidney L. Hale; photograph of USS Matsonia, the ship on which Dement returned from Europe in 1919; and photograph of unknown woman.
Scope and Contents note:
Consists of hardbound book in German, Der Krieg 1914/1918 in Wort und Bild [The War 1914/1918 in Word and Picture], volume 1 [1914-1915] (Berlin: Deutiches Berlagshaus Bong & Co., 1916).
Scope and Contents note:
Seven volumes from the library of Brig. Gen. Samson L. Faison of Duplin County, including History of the Fifty-fifth Field Artillery Brigade, ed. by William J. Bacon (1920); Panama Canal: What It Is, What It Means, by John Barrett (1913); History of the Thirteenth Regiment United States Infantry, by U. G. McAlexander (1905); The Thirtieth Division in the World War, by Elmer A. Murphy and Robert S. Thomas (1936); American Decorations: A List of Awards . . . Awarded under Authority of the Congress of the United States, 1862-1926, comp. by the Office of the Adjutant General of the Army (1927); Diary of Colonel Joseph Hyde Pratt Commanding 105th Engineers, A.E.F. (1926); and Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War: American Expeditionary Forces, prepared by the Historical Section, Army War College (1931) [filed in Military Collection Library].
Scope and Contents note:
Softbound volume, The Recruit's Handy Book, United States Navy, 1913, which belonged to Seaman Earl Byron Adams.
Scope and Contents note:
Panoramic photograph of Company I, 3rd Regiment, North Carolina National Guard, Camp Glenn, 1916. [removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Panoramas.91]
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of Pvt. Ernest Lee Estes of Statesville (Iredell County) in Co. E, 321st Infantry, 81st Division, including hardback book, The History of the 321st Infantry, by Clarence Walton Johnson (Columbia, S.C.: R. L. Bryan Company, 1919); five photographs of Grenoble, France; picture postcards, including souvenir booklets from Verdun and Saint-Mihiel; songbook (cover and several pages missing); sheet music to "Forty Homies and Eight Chevos," by Sgt. Bob Cohn; three issues of The Wildcat, May 10, 17, and 29, 1919; pocket atlas, The World's Battle Fronts at a Glance, published by the YMCA; and two maps: "Environs de Verdun" and "Nouvelle Carte de France" [removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Maps.411-412].
Scope and Contents note:
Panoramic photograph of Company A, 324th Infantry, 81st Division, St. Nazaire, France, May 1919. [removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Panoramas.92]
Scope and Contents note:
Photograph of Cpl. Walter Scott Green of Wing (Mitchell County) in uniform.
Scope and Contents note:
Scrapbook of clippings from magazines kept by Mrs. A. G. King of Albemarle (Stanly County) during World War I.
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of Pvt. Vernon Lee Everett of Mackeys (Washington County) in the U.S. Marine Corps, including certificate of medical discharge, 1918; statement of final settlement on discharge, 1918; presidential memorial certificate signed by Lyndon B. Johnson, n.d.; and delayed birth certificate for Everett, 1945.
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of Pvt. Paul Bennett Smith of Fremont (Wayne County) in the 317th Ambulance Co., 305th Sanitary Train, 80th Division. Includes draft registration card, 1917; receipt for money deposited with Y.M.C.A. in France, 1918; life and disability insurance certificate, 1918; special order authorizing Smith to wear service ribbon with a bronze star and two service chevrons, 1919; copy of form letter from Gen. John J. Pershing to "My fellow soldiers," February 28, 1919; honorable discharge, 1919; seven French and Dutch coins; Smith's dog tags; photograph (black and white, 11" x 14") of members of the 317th Ambulance Co. singing in a bombed French church (Wagoner Jake Goodman Mayo of Fremont is identified in left margin) [removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Panoramas.69]; and panoramic photograph of 317th Ambulance Co. taken in Marigne, France, May 1919 [identified North Carolina soldiers now buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Fremont: Wagoner Paul B. Smith [row 2, eighth from left], Pvt. Thaddeus C. Hill [row 1, eleventh from right], man thought to be Cpl. John Burt Exum [row 3, eleventh from left], and Wagoner Jake Goodman Mayo [row 3, fourth from right] [removed and filed as MilColl.WWI.Panoramas.70].
Scope and Contents note:
Consists of honorable discharge of Pvt. George A. Sharpe of Greensboro (Guilford County), who served stateside in the 31st Recruit Co., U.S. Army.
Scope and Contents note:
Papers reflecting the service of Pvt. Ellis B. Hatcher of Chinquapin (Duplin County) in the 6th Company, Provisional Labor Battalion, U.S. Army, including a postcard to his mother, Sallie Hatcher, from Camp Jackson, 1919; and a photograph of Private Hatcher in uniform.