NEWS: Blair County Soldiers, August 9, 1918, Blair County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja and Donna Thomas Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _______________________________________________ NEWS OF SERVICE MEN AT HOME AND ABROAD Albert Nicodemus, of the Eighth Ward, Wounded Fighting in France Albert Nicodemus, son of Mr. and Mrs. H. N. Nicodemus, of 304 Sixth avenue, is another Altoona boy that has been wounded fighting in France. His parents yesterday received word that he had been wounded in the engagement on July 19 but did not state the seriousness or extent of the wounds. He is a member of the 103rd Engineers, and has been in France for a couple of months. He enlisted on July 19, 1917 in the Sheridan troop and when it was disbanded at Camp Hancock, Ga., he was transferred to the engineer service. Mr. and Mrs. N. Langguth, of the East Side, have received the news that their son, John Langguth, of Company C., Fifty-third Engineers, now in France, has been promoted to the rank of corporal. Four letters have been received by the parents in which he tells of his work and some of the experiences. Samuel Festenstien has arrived safely overseas according to word received by his father, Jacob Festenstein, of Thirteenth avenue and Nineteenth street. He was trained at Camp Custer, Mich., and has been in the service for several months. William W. Nunemaker, formerly a clerk in the McCartney stationery store on Eleventh avenue, has arrived in France according to word received by friends in this city. He resides in Harrisburg but was called to the colors together with a number of Altoona boys some weeks ago. He is a member of the 146th regiment. For the first time since the arrival of his son in France, three months ago, William C. Gairth, custodian at Trainmen's hall, was yesterday gladdened by a letter from the soldier boy. William C. Gairth, jr. writes hopefully from the land of lilies - and of battle but does not mention the part he is playing as a soldier in Company G., One Hundred and Tenth regiment, U. S. N. G. The gallant lad who is somewhere in France was eighteen years of age on Feb. 4, 1917 and enlisted on March 18 of the same year. Altoona Tribune, Friday morning, August 9, 1918, page 5 MISS ANNA WRAY IN RED CROSS SERVICE Former Altoona Hospital Superintendent Now Located at Camp Dix Miss Anna Wray, of Bellwood, for several years the efficient superintendent of the Altoona hospital, has entered the Red Cross service. She decided that her knowledge of nursing could be utilized in assisting to care for the Americans that are fighting to help win the war and decided to enlist. She tendered her services several weeks ago and they were accepted. She departed last Monday from Philadelphia, where she has been located for some time for Camp Dix, where she will be in the service for a time. Her ambition is to make the trip across the Atlantic and to lend her aid to the boys Over There. Altoona Tribune, Friday morning, August 9, 1918, page 5 Altoona Girl Enlists. Miss Norma Mary Costlow, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Costlow, of 2307 Sixth avenue, has enlisted in the Red Cross service. She departed yesterday for her new field of duty and for the present will be located at Waynesville, N. C. She graduated from Mercy hospital with the class of 1915 and is ready and anxious to get to France to aid in winning the war by nursing the Americans and getting them back to the front. Altoona Tribune, Friday morning, August 9, 1918, page 5 ESCAPES JAIL SENTENCE Private Hemmaker Furnished Ticket To Camp. Albert Hemmaker, aged 48, of Lima, Ohio, wearing the uniform of Uncle Sam and attached to Company F, Fifth regiment, cavalry at Camp Humphries, Belvoir, Va., escaped a jail sentence in Blair county at a hearing yesterday but the soldier faces a guard-house sentence today as a result of the loss of his train ticket early Wednesday morning. Private Hemmaker was traveling on train No. 32, eastbound, due at Altoona at 4:17 o'clock Wednesday morning and en route to this city he had words with the train crew over his ticket. Arriving here he was turned over to Pennsy officers and given a hearing yesterday before Alderman John C. Gorsuch. Transportation was furnished the soldier so that he could get back to camp and sentence suspended. A guard house sentence faces the private, however, due to his delay in reaching the camp before the furlough expiration. Altoona Tribune, Friday morning, August 9, 1918, page 5 ALTOONA BOYS DEPART FOR CAMP WADSWORTH Thirty-three Young Men, Mostly Married, Entrained Yesterday Afternoon A big crowd of people assembled at the local station last evening and at 5:30 o'clock saw a special train pull away from the city that carried thirty-three Altoona boys off to war. It was a train of tourist sleepers, was made up in this city and was taken possession of by the local boys together with several hundred others from points along the Pittsburg division as far west and Pittsburg. The train was sent away with the cheers of the friends and admirers of the new soldier boys and were lustily returned by the departing lads. The selection of the thirty-three young men for training at Camp Wadsworth, Spartansburg, S. C. caught quite a number of young married men who took, unto themselves wives after the passage of the selective service law. They went away without and (sic) grumbling and all had the same cheerful spirit that makes Americanism. They will reach camp sometime this evening. Bernard R. Sillinger, of 1207 1/2 Seventh street, was among the registrants called to the colors by Local Board No. 1, of the West Side. Both he and his brother were traveling with the Hagenbeck- Wallace circus, wrecked at Hammond, Ind. Yesterday morning the board received word that Sillinger was among the victims of the fatal wreck. His place was filled by an alternate. The selected men from the West Side gathered at the headquarters in the federal building and at 4:30 o'clock they went to the station and there mingled with their friends until train time. The East Side soldier boys also assembled at their headquarters and marched to the station and mixed with the crowd until summoned for entrainment at 5:20 o'clock. The list of men departing follows: West Side Board No. 1. Edmund Levan Zeek, 304 Lexington avenue. Harry Francis Hetrick, 816 Chestnut avenue. Maurice Levine, 1817 Fifteenth avenue. Carl Melvin Grove, 916 Seventeenth street. Patrick O. Conrad, 1211 Sixteenth street. Saleem Shahabledin, 1908 Union avenue. Bernard J. Plunket, 129 Washington avenue. Harry A. Long, 308 Chestnut avenue Carl E. Landstorm, 1916 Twentieth street. Charles Conrad Ray, 1423 Thirteenth avenue. Edmund E. Arbuckle, Marshall, Ill. Nunzio Di Leo, 2009 I-2 Ninth avenue. John E. Shaffer, 1410 Seventeenth avenue. Joseph Hess, 1512 Nineteenth street. Clarence E. Weible, transferred here from Ft. Wayne, Ind. East Side No. 2. James W. Green, 216 Jaggard street. Paul C. Statler, 2018 Second avenue. Charles H. Ackerman, 319 Second avenue. James Croft, 522 Bell avenue. Charles M. Way, 929 Sixth avenue. William M. Roberts, 713 Second avenue. Charles N. McCarl of 227 Fifth avenue. William C. Bailey of 129 Sixth avenue. Frank L. Koelle of 2014 Third avenue. Perry J. Kanar of 228 Fifth avenue. Louis Neugebauer of 1717 Fourth avenue. Harvey Muselman of 507 Twenty-third street. Ralph E. Megahan of 809 Twenty-third street. Edgar A. Weyandt of 811 Fourteenth street. David Ira Dibert of 615 Second avenue Oliver E. Forsht, of 321 Second street. Christ G. Hauser of 805 Crawford avenue. Altoona Tribune, Friday morning, August 9, 1918, page 10