Illinois mobilized for World War I effort

Few Americans know much about World War I. The state of Illinois, however, has plenty of stories to tell.

The first World War created one of the largest mobilizations for a military effort in Illinois history, part of an efficient, highly organized effort that lifted the state into national leadership on a variety of fronts.

Some 314,504 Illinois men served in the conflict, in which America participated for just over a year. By comparison, over 259,000 Illinois men fought in the four years of the Civil War.

About 46.6% of Illinois men in World War I were volunteers. They were spread across many units, most notably the 33rd Division, comprised heavily of Illinois National Guard recruits.

About 91% of Illinois troops were in the Army. The number of total enlistments trailed only New York and Pennsylvania. One of every 12 men in the Army was from the Land of Lincoln.

Illinois ranked second in the number of men who earned the Medal of Honor in World War I. An estimated 5,000 men from the state lost their lives in the conflict.

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Dozens of area men were among the deaths, including Pvt. Harry Carlson of Crystal Lake, a Swedish immigrant who participated in the massive Somme and Meuse-Argonne offensives.

Carlson enlisted on June 5, 1917, and was shipped to Europe on May 18, 1918. That fall, he contracted pneumonia and died at age 24 on Nov. 11 – the same day the armistice was signed.

He now rests in St. Mihiel American Cemetery in France, one of eight American military cemeteries for World War I soldiers in Europe.

Another area man resting in St. Mihiel is Cpl. Harry Fulton, a Lake County native who also was from Crystal Lake. Fulton, 25, died three days after Carlson, on Nov. 14, 1918.

The bodies of many Americans were brought back to the States for reburial, including Pvt. August “Gus” Gross of DeKalb, who died in France at age 25 on Oct. 11, 1918. He was later reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Pvt. Charles Crane of Joliet was an infantryman who died on Oct. 14, 1918, and was buried in two separate American cemeteries in France before being disinterred once again on July 20, 1921. Exactly one month later, his remains arrived in New Jersey before his journey ended on Sept. 15 back home in Joliet, where he now rests.

As in most wars, many spouses and parents waited for the dreaded news that their loved one had died. In Harvard, the parents of Pvt. George Ratzlaff received a telegram from the War Department in the early evening of June 24, 1918, that their son had been killed in battle. The date of death was given as May 28.

George had moved with his parents to South Dakota as one of 10 children. The parents later returned to Harvard, but George remained in the region and enlisted in the fall of 1917 at Ellendale, North Dakota. A machine gunner, he arrived in France five months before his death.

In McHenry, George Schreiner, a wagoner, was 30 years old when he died on Nov. 10, 1918, one day before the armistice. He came from a military family, as his father, Peter, was a German immigrant who had served in the Civil War. Both father and son now lie in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in McHenry.

Karl Gregg of Ottawa likewise hailed from a proud military family. His father had also served in the Civil War, while his grandmother won acclaim as a Civil War nurse.

A lifelong resident of Ottawa, Gregg was the victim of a gas attack in early October 1918. His mother, who lived on Congress Street in Ottawa, received a letter from a comrade that her son was recovering, only to receive word days later that he had perished.

Gregg, 37, was one of two brothers in American service in France. A local newspaper reported his mother was “terribly grieved over the death of her son, but glories in the fact that he gave his life for his country.”

The Gregg family was one of many with multiple members in service. Elsewhere in Ottawa, the Zeller family, who lived on West Main Street, received word that their son, Fred, was killed in action at Meuse-Argonne on Oct. 11, 1918. Another son, August, who served in the same company as Fred, had suffered a gas attack on Oct. 1, 10 days before his brother’s death.

The family also received a letter written by Fred on Oct. 8, three days before his death. A local news account reported that Fred wrote “he was in the trenches and would write more soon.”

Fred Zeller died on the same day as another young Ottawa man, Ettore Vignochi, who was just 21 years old. Days before, Vignochi’s brother, Primo, had been wounded in service.

Nearly every community of any size in the area suffered at least one death from World War I service. Thirty-eight men from Joliet died in the war, while LaSalle lost 21 and Streator lost 12. Eleven from Ottawa lost their lives in the war. There were also nine deaths each from Peru and Princeton, eight from DeKalb, seven from Morris, and four from the Crystal Lake area.

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Preparation for the war resulted in several Illinois military installations, some of which remain today. To train pilots, Chanute Field and Scott Field, which later became key Air Force bases, were established in 1917.

Camp Grant, near Rockford, was also opened as an Army training facility, while Fort Sheridan, north of Chicago, became a foremost training base for officers. Nearby, the Great Lakes Naval Station, which opened in 1911, was expanded into the largest training center in the world.

To coordinate the homefront, Gov. Frank Lowden founded the State Council of Defense, a 15-member council of state leaders that served as a “clearinghouse” for public and private agencies.

The SCD featured committees on practically all aspects of the effort and kept in touch on even the smallest details. In one instance, the SCD urged bakeries not to take back day-old bread. As one commentator aptly noted, the SCD “ran the home front.”

The chair of the SCD was Samuel Insull, the energetic president of Commonwealth Edison, who oversaw a remarkable change in business relations. Though labor strife was rampant in the previous decades, the unity of the war effort won out, and corporate interests and labor worked in harmony.

Lowden set the tone by declaring “This war can be won by neither labor nor capital alone. Gentlemen, you have got to work together.”

One of the many accomplishments of the SCD was the “Four-Minute Men,” an army of some 5,000 volunteers who delivered short speeches promoting the war effort to theaters, churches, civic groups and other gatherings. Some 800,000 residents heard the “Four-Minute Men” each week.

The slogan “food will win the war” emanated from Washington, and Illinois took it to heart. Despite severe farm labor shortages, Illinois managed to produce the largest crop yield ever grown by any state in 1917. The next year’s crop was, in turn, the most valuable ever grown by a state.

Illinois also produced $6 billion in manufactured products in 1918, a third of which were war contracts. Residents of the state also bought $1.65 billion in Liberty Bonds and war service stamps, a higher percentage than the general population.

Not everything was perfect, however. Illinois had over one million residents of German origin, the highest of any state, and Chicago was the sixth-largest German city in the world. Though many German-Americans supported the cause, there was ample sentiment against the war among these groups.

Some Germans were harassed based on their last name. Many Illinoisans distanced themselves from their German heritage, and Insull and Lowden both fanned the propaganda.

The renowned Jane Addams was ostracized for her pacifist beliefs, and sauerkraut and frankfurters became known as “liberty cabbage” and “liberty sausages.”

The end of the war sparked wild celebrations across Illinois, and today, memorials to World War I are found around the state. Locally, there are monuments to the war in DeKalb, Crystal Lake, Ottawa, Streator, Ransom, Oglesby and Ladd, among many other places.

• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.