Richard Riedler September 13, 1901 – August 9, 1986
Everywhere in
General, (in England now), Oct. 25th, 1918
Dear Folks:
Well all I can
say is that Columbus had a lot of nerve when he crossed the ocean in his little
row-boat. I’m not coming back until they build a bridge across, or else walk
back. I didn’t get sick at all but there isn’t enough change of scenery to suit
me.
Nothing
exciting happened except one day I was carrying a pan of apple sauce down
stairs and when I got half way down the ship gave a lurch and down I went with
the pan above my head doing my best to save all I could because apple sauce
sure was scarce on that boat. I het every step too and you can imagine how I
felt when I hit the bottom. Murphy was going down ahead of me with another pan
of sauce hugging the rail for dear life. I just hollered “lookout Murphy” and I
got “right of way” without any argument whatever. Since then I was nicknamed
‘apple sauce.” I never spilled a bit though so I think I have “served by
saving.” Hereafter I carry nothing but bread.
England surely
is a beautiful country. All the farms are divided by hedges, so you can imagine
how beautiful it is. We traveled way across England in a thing they call a
train over here. The coaches are divided into apartments with a capacity of
eight persons. There are no aisles running through the cars and how they manage
to collect fares I haven’t figured out yet. At each station there is a platform
the same height as the doors of the apartments so one can step from his
apartment on to the platform. The wheels look like a small wagon wheel or a
wheelbarrow, and the locomotives are about the size of those I used to get for
Christmas. They sure can travel though, even though they are small.
“2 and four,”
and then we get a bunch of great big coins the size of an American dollar but
only worth two cents in U.S. money. By “2 and 4” they mean 2 shillings and six
pence, equal to 58 cents in our money. I have laughed more today than I have
for a long time over the money proposition.
Don’t worry
about me, because I am having the best time ever. Slept on three boards last
night and I never slept better during the time I have been in the army. We
didn’t go to bed until about 3:30 A.M. and slept until 9:00. I feel fine and
feel as though I can call myself a soldier now. I hope we can get right into it
and help. I talked to an English soldier last night who had served three years
in France and he said you, you “bloody” chaps are doing fine especially when it
comes to going forward because they want a position they generally get it.” That’s
the old football “pep” and as long as there is “pep” nothing can stop a yank.
Met some
American Red Cross ladies on the way last night and they gave us coffee and
cookies. Oh boy! That coffee sure was good. The Red Cross surely is a wonderful
organization. Every place a troop train stops they are there with coffee and
other eats.
Dont worry
about me folks because if old “apple sauce” can fall down a flight of stairs
he’s not going to let a little Hun army stop him. Write often and let’s hear
all the news. “Hello to all the gang and tell everybody to write when they get
a chance.
With love, Your
loving son, Richard Riedler, M.G. Co. 135 U.S., Infantry, A.E.F.
Dear Mother: –
Well here I am safely across the ocean. We had a real good trip although the
water was rather rough at times. I thought I would be about the first one to
get sea-sick, but I did not get sick, felt fine all the time. It certainly
seems funny to think that I am here. Things are so different from back in the states.
Things are a lot higher in price too. Can hardly get cigarettes and things like
that.
We came out to
camp in a train and say the trains are the funniest things you ever saw. The
cars are little short things divided into sections. The box cars look like farm
wagons. The wheels all have spokes in them and they go rattling along over the
tract like some little express wagon. You never see any real big buildings
here, are all one and two stories, and they have about two hundred chimneys on
each one. They certainly look queer to us fellows that are used to the states.
It’s the
hardest thing to understand them fellows. They talk so fast and funny but we
can make it out though. It will be a lot worse when we get to France where they
talk a different language altogether. Well, I guess we will have to get along
as best we can and what we can’t understand won’t hurt us.
You can’t write
a whole lot as it is all censored and what they don’t want they cross out. I’ll
close for this time and write a little later from France.
With love from, Donald C. Hogenson, Battery E – 125 F. A.
Editor’s Note: We do not have a photograph of Donald C. Hogenson.
This week the United War Work Campaign is to be essentially completed so far as concerns the soliciting of subscriptions. In some communities the people are coming across gladly and liberally, in others much reluctance is being encountered. The aim has been to allot to each person what he can relatively afford to pay – but what’s a few dollars when you are giving to a patriotic cause that demands our united support. Come across with you whole allotment and then put on an extra $5.00 bill and see if you don’t feel better when you go to bed at night. The committee is working for nothing so don’t make them wear their jaws out.
We don’t know
how many of the towns and villages are coming but we happen to know that the
village of Hector had its allotment oversubscribed by $150.00 Monday night. The
farmers in Hector township came in with $1100.00 on Monday and by this time the
whole allotment will have been subscribed.
One farmer was
asked for $25.00 and replied that he didn’t think it was right. “Why?” he said
“I haven’t any boys in the army and anyhow it ought to be a little higher.” So
he compromised on $35.00. His neighbor came in and asked how much his allotment
was and also what George, the first man had paid. When told that his was the
same he said “I’m worth just as much as George is and maybe more and besides
I’ve got a boy in the army. Make it $35.00 and I’ll pay it.
It looks now as
if our boys would soon be coming home, many of them at least. We won’t have
many more chances to do something for them so let’s get into the game now and
then when the smoke of battle has blown away we can look back with pride in our
hearts knowing that we helped the Great Cause gladly and to the best of our
ability.
Charles Leroy Nelson June 30, 1895 – Oct. 21, 1918
Here are two letters addressed to Mr. Nelson regarding the death of his son, Charles Leroy Nelson.
U.S.S. Oklahoma, Marine Detachment October 22, 1918
My dear Mr. Nelson:
Please pardon the liberty we take in sending this letter in
the hour of your bereavement, but as your son was friend and comrade alike to
all members of the detachment, we wish to join in expressing to his family our
sincerest and heartfelt sympathies for an irreparable loss.
Although your son was with us only a few short weeks, he became
as one of us, sharing our food, our quarters, our hard ships and pleasures with
a true spirit of comradeship that, with his bright congenial spirit, soon
endeared him to al his companions and won for him many warm friends who mourn his
loss.
Enclosed we are sending two money orders to the amount of
one hundred fifty-one dollars and fifty cents which was sacredly contributed in
small amounts, each one of his comrades giving part, and it is their wish that
this money be used to purchase a headstone for him and that it bears on some part
of the stone the following inscription. “Dedicated to Charles Leroy Nelson, our
comrade and friend, by his comrades and friends, The Officers and Men of the
Marine Detachment U.S.S. Oklahoma, October 22, 1918.” Of course, Mr. Nelson the
above inscription is purely optional and if you see fit to leave it off for any
reason whatever, we shall not feel offended.
Expressing again our sincere regret at the loss of your son and our comrade and earnestly sympathizing with yourself, family and relatives, we are, sir, Your true friends, The Officers and Men of Marine Detachment, U.S.S. Oklahoma, W.H. Davis, commanding Capt. U.S.M.C.
U.S.S. Oklahoma, October 22, 1918
My dear Mr. Nelson,
While the Navy Department has informed you of your son’s death, I wish
to write you and offer my sympathy and that of the officers and crew.
We are one large family and the loss of one of our members is felt by
each.
Your son gave his life for our country while serving at the front, no
one can do more. His last hours were peaceful and I can assure you that every
possible attention was given him. All of us attended the funeral services conducted
aboard and two of his friends will accompany his body to Queenstown.
In other correspondence will be given details of his estate and it is
pleasing to me hat he was so thoughtful as to take out the full amount of insurance,
$10,000, in your behalf.
Again, offering you and yours my sympathy, I am Very respectfully
yours, Chas. B. McVay, Jr., Capt. U.S.N. Commanding
I
will write a few lines to you and put it in my pocket as I don’t expect to get
it mailed until after we go over the top again, but if I am bumped maybe someone
will mail it for me. If we get back soon again I will write a little more and
mail it then. I am well. I have not received any mail from you for two weeks
and wonder how you are getting on. I hope to be home next fall; I am just as
anxious to get back to you as you are to have me, but we are all here for a
vital purpose and must do our very best. Things look pretty good now and I
believe Germany will soon be whipped.
It
was cloudy this a.m. and rained last night but is a beautiful p.m., makes me
think of an autumn day at home as I look at the dahlias and other garden
flowers. Winter does not start over here for some weeks yet.
The
roads back of the front along here are as crowded with traffic as Hennepin Ave.
Horses, wagons, auto trucks, guns, autos, motorcycles all going like sixty, no
speed limit. The air is full of planes all the time, sometimes as yesterday
p.m. could see 50 planes at once.
We
will move toward the front tonight. I must close now. Write often do.
Your
loving son, Pvt. Carl O. Potter.
P.S.
The writer was wounded in action by shell fire about Oct. 8th or 9th
to my knowledge not serious. W. H. Prather, 2nd Lieut. U.S.M.C.
P.S.S.
I am a friend of Carl and beside him at the front when he got wounded. He was
wounded in the stomach by a piece of high explosive. He will get all right
before long though I think.
Last Updated: February 21, 2019 by Renville County Historical Society Leave a Comment
Letter from Richard Riedler, Renville Star Farmer, 11-14-1918
September 13, 1901 – August 9, 1986
Everywhere in General, (in England now), Oct. 25th, 1918
Dear Folks:
Well all I can say is that Columbus had a lot of nerve when he crossed the ocean in his little row-boat. I’m not coming back until they build a bridge across, or else walk back. I didn’t get sick at all but there isn’t enough change of scenery to suit me.
Nothing exciting happened except one day I was carrying a pan of apple sauce down stairs and when I got half way down the ship gave a lurch and down I went with the pan above my head doing my best to save all I could because apple sauce sure was scarce on that boat. I het every step too and you can imagine how I felt when I hit the bottom. Murphy was going down ahead of me with another pan of sauce hugging the rail for dear life. I just hollered “lookout Murphy” and I got “right of way” without any argument whatever. Since then I was nicknamed ‘apple sauce.” I never spilled a bit though so I think I have “served by saving.” Hereafter I carry nothing but bread.
England surely is a beautiful country. All the farms are divided by hedges, so you can imagine how beautiful it is. We traveled way across England in a thing they call a train over here. The coaches are divided into apartments with a capacity of eight persons. There are no aisles running through the cars and how they manage to collect fares I haven’t figured out yet. At each station there is a platform the same height as the doors of the apartments so one can step from his apartment on to the platform. The wheels look like a small wagon wheel or a wheelbarrow, and the locomotives are about the size of those I used to get for Christmas. They sure can travel though, even though they are small.
“2 and four,” and then we get a bunch of great big coins the size of an American dollar but only worth two cents in U.S. money. By “2 and 4” they mean 2 shillings and six pence, equal to 58 cents in our money. I have laughed more today than I have for a long time over the money proposition.
Don’t worry about me, because I am having the best time ever. Slept on three boards last night and I never slept better during the time I have been in the army. We didn’t go to bed until about 3:30 A.M. and slept until 9:00. I feel fine and feel as though I can call myself a soldier now. I hope we can get right into it and help. I talked to an English soldier last night who had served three years in France and he said you, you “bloody” chaps are doing fine especially when it comes to going forward because they want a position they generally get it.” That’s the old football “pep” and as long as there is “pep” nothing can stop a yank.
Met some American Red Cross ladies on the way last night and they gave us coffee and cookies. Oh boy! That coffee sure was good. The Red Cross surely is a wonderful organization. Every place a troop train stops they are there with coffee and other eats.
Dont worry about me folks because if old “apple sauce” can fall down a flight of stairs he’s not going to let a little Hun army stop him. Write often and let’s hear all the news. “Hello to all the gang and tell everybody to write when they get a chance.
With love, Your loving son, Richard Riedler, M.G. Co. 135 U.S., Infantry, A.E.F.
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Posted: February 21, 2019 by Renville County Historical Society Leave a Comment
Letter From Donald Hogenson, Renville Star Farmer, 11-14-1918
Somewhere in England, Oct. 8th.
Dear Mother: – Well here I am safely across the ocean. We had a real good trip although the water was rather rough at times. I thought I would be about the first one to get sea-sick, but I did not get sick, felt fine all the time. It certainly seems funny to think that I am here. Things are so different from back in the states. Things are a lot higher in price too. Can hardly get cigarettes and things like that.
We came out to camp in a train and say the trains are the funniest things you ever saw. The cars are little short things divided into sections. The box cars look like farm wagons. The wheels all have spokes in them and they go rattling along over the tract like some little express wagon. You never see any real big buildings here, are all one and two stories, and they have about two hundred chimneys on each one. They certainly look queer to us fellows that are used to the states.
It’s the hardest thing to understand them fellows. They talk so fast and funny but we can make it out though. It will be a lot worse when we get to France where they talk a different language altogether. Well, I guess we will have to get along as best we can and what we can’t understand won’t hurt us.
You can’t write a whole lot as it is all censored and what they don’t want they cross out. I’ll close for this time and write a little later from France.
With love from, Donald C. Hogenson, Battery E – 125 F. A.
Editor’s Note: We do not have a photograph of Donald C. Hogenson.
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Posted: February 21, 2019 by Renville County Historical Society Leave a Comment
War Work Drive Under Way, Buffalo Lake News, 11-15-1918
President Wilson’s United War Work Campaign
This week the United War Work Campaign is to be essentially completed so far as concerns the soliciting of subscriptions. In some communities the people are coming across gladly and liberally, in others much reluctance is being encountered. The aim has been to allot to each person what he can relatively afford to pay – but what’s a few dollars when you are giving to a patriotic cause that demands our united support. Come across with you whole allotment and then put on an extra $5.00 bill and see if you don’t feel better when you go to bed at night. The committee is working for nothing so don’t make them wear their jaws out.
We don’t know how many of the towns and villages are coming but we happen to know that the village of Hector had its allotment oversubscribed by $150.00 Monday night. The farmers in Hector township came in with $1100.00 on Monday and by this time the whole allotment will have been subscribed.
One farmer was asked for $25.00 and replied that he didn’t think it was right. “Why?” he said “I haven’t any boys in the army and anyhow it ought to be a little higher.” So he compromised on $35.00. His neighbor came in and asked how much his allotment was and also what George, the first man had paid. When told that his was the same he said “I’m worth just as much as George is and maybe more and besides I’ve got a boy in the army. Make it $35.00 and I’ll pay it.
It looks now as if our boys would soon be coming home, many of them at least. We won’t have many more chances to do something for them so let’s get into the game now and then when the smoke of battle has blown away we can look back with pride in our hearts knowing that we helped the Great Cause gladly and to the best of our ability.
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Last Updated: February 21, 2019 by Renville County Historical Society Leave a Comment
Hector Mirror November 14, 1918, Charles Leroy Nelson
Charles Leroy Nelson
June 30, 1895 – Oct. 21, 1918
Here are two letters addressed to Mr. Nelson regarding the death of his son, Charles Leroy Nelson.
U.S.S. Oklahoma, Marine Detachment October 22, 1918
My dear Mr. Nelson:
Please pardon the liberty we take in sending this letter in the hour of your bereavement, but as your son was friend and comrade alike to all members of the detachment, we wish to join in expressing to his family our sincerest and heartfelt sympathies for an irreparable loss.
Although your son was with us only a few short weeks, he became as one of us, sharing our food, our quarters, our hard ships and pleasures with a true spirit of comradeship that, with his bright congenial spirit, soon endeared him to al his companions and won for him many warm friends who mourn his loss.
Enclosed we are sending two money orders to the amount of one hundred fifty-one dollars and fifty cents which was sacredly contributed in small amounts, each one of his comrades giving part, and it is their wish that this money be used to purchase a headstone for him and that it bears on some part of the stone the following inscription. “Dedicated to Charles Leroy Nelson, our comrade and friend, by his comrades and friends, The Officers and Men of the Marine Detachment U.S.S. Oklahoma, October 22, 1918.” Of course, Mr. Nelson the above inscription is purely optional and if you see fit to leave it off for any reason whatever, we shall not feel offended.
Expressing again our sincere regret at the loss of your son and our comrade and earnestly sympathizing with yourself, family and relatives, we are, sir, Your true friends, The Officers and Men of Marine Detachment, U.S.S. Oklahoma, W.H. Davis, commanding Capt. U.S.M.C.
U.S.S. Oklahoma, October 22, 1918
My dear Mr. Nelson,
While the Navy Department has informed you of your son’s death, I wish to write you and offer my sympathy and that of the officers and crew.
We are one large family and the loss of one of our members is felt by each.
Your son gave his life for our country while serving at the front, no one can do more. His last hours were peaceful and I can assure you that every possible attention was given him. All of us attended the funeral services conducted aboard and two of his friends will accompany his body to Queenstown.
In other correspondence will be given details of his estate and it is pleasing to me hat he was so thoughtful as to take out the full amount of insurance, $10,000, in your behalf.
Again, offering you and yours my sympathy, I am Very respectfully yours, Chas. B. McVay, Jr., Capt. U.S.N. Commanding
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Last Updated: February 19, 2019 by Renville County Historical Society Leave a Comment
Letter From Carl Potter, Hector Mirror, 11-14-1918
Somewhere in France, Sunday, Sept. 19, 1918
My dear mother,
I will write a few lines to you and put it in my pocket as I don’t expect to get it mailed until after we go over the top again, but if I am bumped maybe someone will mail it for me. If we get back soon again I will write a little more and mail it then. I am well. I have not received any mail from you for two weeks and wonder how you are getting on. I hope to be home next fall; I am just as anxious to get back to you as you are to have me, but we are all here for a vital purpose and must do our very best. Things look pretty good now and I believe Germany will soon be whipped.
It was cloudy this a.m. and rained last night but is a beautiful p.m., makes me think of an autumn day at home as I look at the dahlias and other garden flowers. Winter does not start over here for some weeks yet.
The roads back of the front along here are as crowded with traffic as Hennepin Ave. Horses, wagons, auto trucks, guns, autos, motorcycles all going like sixty, no speed limit. The air is full of planes all the time, sometimes as yesterday p.m. could see 50 planes at once.
We will move toward the front tonight. I must close now. Write often do.
Your loving son, Pvt. Carl O. Potter.
P.S. The writer was wounded in action by shell fire about Oct. 8th or 9th to my knowledge not serious. W. H. Prather, 2nd Lieut. U.S.M.C.
P.S.S. I am a friend of Carl and beside him at the front when he got wounded. He was wounded in the stomach by a piece of high explosive. He will get all right before long though I think.
Hobart Blake
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