Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa
Thursday, June 30, l898

San Francisco, Camp Merritt, June 2l, l898.

Editor Reporter: We left Creston about l2:30 p.m. after loading our hard tack. We took our dinner with us. The first hard tack was ate at Lincoln, Neb. for supper. We were promised breakfast at Denver, Colo., at 7:30 a.m. June l2. When we got there the Ladies Aid and Emergency Society had a good breakfast for us in the depot sheds; when we had ate we marched out in the train yards, the ladies came out and gave us books, papers, postal cards, postage stamps, flowers, badges and everything imagionable. We arrived in Denver at 8:20 a.m., 50 minutes late and departed at l0:l5 a.m. I must say for the Y.P.S.C.E. that they did everything for us they could, they got aboard our train at Denver (The D. & R.G.) and sang for us, in fact we had a real good meeting. One lady, Miss G.E. Finch said she would send me a Bible. I promised to read some each evening. It was the same thing at Colorado Springs, only we did not stay so long. At Pueblo the first thing we saw was the coal palace building, a fine building at the depot. We lined up and marched to the Y.P.S.C.E. building and got a nice box of lunch. We was supposed to get one apiece but some got three and four boxes, nearly every one that went up had a friend on guard. One lady remarked that there must be more on guard than came up for a lunch. It is funny what the boys get at the stations from the girls. They get hat pins, hair pins, pieces of ribbon sashes, locks of hair, flowers, some give us pennies to buy chewing gum. At each station we get addresses of girls to write to when we get to San Francisco, Honolulu and the Islands.

If the boys were to employ a type writer it would take him thirty days to answer all of them.

The next place we stopped was Canon City, Colo. The boys in stripes seemed to be loyal, they had their cells decorated.

We got supper at a small place below Leadville (did not learn the name) the women did not know we was going to miss Leadville until about two hours before the train was due. They then loaded up their things and drove four miles and had everything ready for us. We lived fine in Colorado. When we were going over the divide some of the boys got sick, the air being so light.

The next morning June l8 we woke up in Utah. We could see nothing but rocks, sage bushes and sand. We passed one smelter at work. Nothing to break the monotony but going through tunnels. I think we went through three. We arrived in Salt Lake City at l:30 p.m. we only got ice cream, sandwiches and oranges. The next place we stopped was in Ogden, we arrived at 3:30 p.m. They marched us out for exercise, the people would not give us a pleasant look.

Lieutenant Gaines gave strict orders to allow no drinking, but while in Ogden we got strangers to rush the can. Of course we always get coffee. We traveled along the west side of the great American desert. It looks white with just a little vegetation scattered over it. We crossed the Nevada line about 7:30 p.m. June l8. There are no towns along the railroad. When we woke the next morning we were in a worse desert than while in Utah. Nothing to be seen but alkili. No more vegetation than in Main Street. The first town in Nevada we went through was Wadsworth, here we left the alkili country. People who have never been through it cannot imagine what a relief it was to get through it. The cars looked as though they had been given a coat of white paint. At Wadsworth Indians and Chinamen are plentiful. The squaws had their papooses strapped to their backs.

The next stop was at Reno, Nev., a fine town. We crossed into California about l2:50 p.m. We were in the pine country about 3 p.m., it was the finest scenery we have seen. We followed the Truckee River all morning, a small mountain stream clear as a crystal. At Truckee we got some California cherries which were the finest we ever saw, they were about four times as large as our cherries at home and of a dark red color. When we left Truckee, California, we passed through about forty-five miles of snow sheds and tunnels. This afternoon the news agent got smart and the boys held him up and relieved him of about a dollar's worth of gum.

We went along sides of mountains where it was fully 3,000 feet to the bottom and some places it is almost perpendicular.

The first town in California to treat us was Colfax, they gave us apricots and cherries. We reached Sacramento about 7:30 p.m., the Red Cross Society gave us our supper. We reached Sacramento River about l0:30 and were ferried across on the Solona, a ferry boat said to be the largest in the world. The sacramento River is a little over a mile wide. We stayed overnight in Oakland, was ferried across the bay on the Piedmont. The Red Cross Society gave us our breakfast, the first we have gotten. The 5lst regiment band was down to meet us; it is the finest band in Camp Merritt. The boys missed considerable by not coming to join it. We then marched out to camp about five miles. We stopped at Jefferson square, a fine, large park. The first one of the boys we met was Vick Bedier. We got our dinner at the hotel and came back to camp to see where we were going to be signed. The boys give us full instructions how to hold up pie wagons, in picket line and all the necessaries to live good and get off duty. The boys are all in good spirits and anxious to sail for Manilla.

The Astor battery unloaded as we did this morning, they are a fine looking lot of men. There is one hundred and two in the company, they carry six Hotchkiss guns and are armed with six-shooters.

I didn't learn how many mules they carried. It is for mountain work, they carry the guns on mules through the mountains, each mule carries 250 pounds. They were the first of about l5,000 soldiers that have come through here to snub the Red Cross Society. The papers roasted them in good style. The boys in camp have all got it in for them. They seem to be stuck up and that don't go here.

The 5lst is the only regiment. We get to go where we please until ll:30 p.m. In some of the regiments the boys have to run the picket line both day and night. It is death for pie wagons to come around camp.

Camp Merritt is located on the west side hill and bottom, the sand is only about four inches deep all through it. The ocean is about two miles to the west, Catholic hill to the south and some mansions of the city on the east, and it is scattered over about forty acres of land, each regiment to itself and the companies lined up in streets. Only four or five of our boys got in Co. I., but we got in as good a company, Co. K. Our captain's name is Pierce. We was out for drill yesterday and some lady came up to the saloon and paid for one hundred drinks, Co. K. and Co. I. went in and got a drink of steamed beer, the most rotten beer ever made. Pennies is something never seen here. Go to postoffices and buy two two cent stamps and they give you a one cent stamp for change.

The Chutes is the place of amusement for the soldiers. A free show each night for the soldiers. The Zoological garden is a fine place. The Golden Gate Park is the largest in the U.S. and about as fine. The boys say there are bison in it. I never got to see them. Camp Presidio is where the regular soldiers are camped. On the bay is the finest place to bathe, a crowd go over every night to bathe. Well I will close for this time. The boys that showed the white feather missed the trip of their life.

Yours Truly,
W.R. HAMM.

Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
"With permission from the Leon Journal Reporter"
January 25, 2003