Beckham County, OK - Obits: Harvey L. Conrad, 1920
13 July 2007
Submitted by: delma25@pldi.net (Delma Tindell)

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CONRAD, HARVEY L.
(Elk City newspaper, Elk City, Beckham Co, Ok, 11 March 1920)
SERGT. HARVEY L. CONRAD
Sergt. Harvey L. Conrad was born in Ray county, Mo., December 16th, 1874,
and died at Vinita, Okla., on February 25th 1920.
He leaves the following relatives:  Robt. P. Bales, brother, Elk City; and
six sisters: Mrs. Frank Rehorn, Berkeley, Calif.; Mrs. John G. Penn,
Seneca, Mo.; Mrs. R. Allen Davis, Portland, Ore.; Mrs. M. H. Royse; Mrs.
Newton Smithey and Mrs. Lucy Baber of Elk City.
Sergt. Conrad had served his country in various capacities for a number of
years and his career was marked by many thrilling events and narrow
escapes, only to meet death in time of peace, in a sad and tragic manner.
For some months since the close of the war, Sergt. Conrad was recruiting
officer at Albany, N. Y., also New York City, and received his discharge
only February 15th, immediately starting on an extended visit with friends
and relatives in Missouri and Oklahoma and would have arrived in Elk City
a few days hence had it not been for his sudden death .
Sergt. Conrad began his Government service on the U. S. Army Transport Dix
on Pacific waters, in September 1911, and was discharged in December of
the same year, on account of that vessel having been wrecked and placed
out of commission.  A portion of his letter pertaining to the manner in
which his ship was rendered helpless follows:  "We encountered a furious
storm after a few days out from the Chinese coast and in the course of a
few hours our upper deck was stripped completely, and we became a hapless,
drifting wreck for twenty-four hours, and I stood guard the entire time in
water above my waist.  After the storm abated we were soon sighted
however, and towed into port."
His enlistment for the war was on the first day of March, 1917 at Port
Royal, S. C., and he was assigned to the U. S. S. Seattle, a convoy ship,
on which he served about eighteen months.  It was on this ship he
sustained a number of broken ribs and several leg wounds, being thrown
into the sea and remaining for more than thirty minutes before being
rescued.  This was from the explosion of a magazine.  He assisted in the
transportation of many thousands of soldiers on this vessel.
On the twenty-eighth of November 1918, he was transferred to the U. S. S.
George Washington, which carried the President to France.  This was indeed
an honor, for he was selected one of sixty from the whole U. S. Marine
Corps; the duty of these Marines being that of a bodyguard to our
President while on foreign soil.
Just prior to his discharge, Sergt. Conrad received a number of flattering
offers for his civilian service, among them one from the Western Electric
Co., of New York City, as a representative in South America, and was
looking to the future in high hopes.
He was a man of rare ability, and in the point of accomplishment was a
decided success in all his undertakings.  He was kind, loyal and true; he
was patriotic to the core; and no man dared to lift a voice against the
"Land of the Free" in his presence.  After his fist trip to France, when
he had seen a glimpse of the awful tragedy, he exclaimed: "No man who is
half a man can see it without becoming a part of it" and he became a part
of it, a vital, and heroic and noble part of it to the end.
Sergt. Conrad was buried in East Fairlawn Cemetery, Monday, February 25th 
near his mother, Mrs. Walter Bales, and his brother, Mr. Ed N. Conrad.