Henry Boyenga

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Military Service
War: WWI

Personal Details
Born: 26 August 1887
Died: 17 April 1955
Parents: Seede and Rendeltje nee Murra Boyenga
Spouse: Bertha Swieter

Buried: St. Peter's United Reformed Church Cemetery
German Township, Grundy County, Iowa

Henry Boyenga writes his brother Ed here that November 14th found him all safe and sound. He is in France in the telegraph branch of the signal service. The other brother, Abe, is at Camp Pike, Arkansas.

--Grundy County Dispatch (Grundy Center, Iowa), 25 December 1918

From Henry Boyenga
Somewhere in France
November 14th, 1918

My Dear Bertha:
How are you getting along? I am fine and dandy. I surely have a right to feel good as the war, the way it looks now, has come to an end, which surely fills me with thankfulness to the Almighty God and I know that He will help us in the future if we ask for His help. You folks at home will likely wonder when we will get home and this of course is hard to say. I do not think we will get home before next April or May, but don't know. I may be home for Christmas, but chances are that I won't. You should have seen the scenes when the armistice was reported to have been signed. The people and the United States soldiers nearly went wild with joy.

I had been working late nights and did not have to go in the morning, so I went out into the hills and timber to get some fresh air and when I returned, the streets were all decorated with flags, and the people cheered. They were surely happy.

The weather is fine at present, and I surely do enjoy to go out in my spare hours and climb hills and overlook parts of the country. It surely is pretty, but hope that I will soon be able to go back to the good old U.S.A., as there is no place like home and there isn't a place I would rather be than there. I guess I will have to wait for my turn. I suppose that chances are good for me to see old Germany once more because I can handle the lingo. but hope that I am passed up as I have seen enough foreign country to satisfy me for the rest of my life.

Please let me know how Abe is getting along, whether he is still in the army and in the hospital. If he is, he will likely be sent home pretty soon. I surely do hope he is home by the time you get this letter.

I don't know much to write, so will close. Be good, old kid, and write some long, long letters. I am going to write home today or tomorrow. Tell Ed and Lizzie hello for me and tell them to write once in a while.

With Love as ever,
Yours,
Henry

Pvt. Henry W. Boyenga, 12th Service Co., A.P.O. 706, Amer. Exped. Force, Via New York.

--Grundy County Dispatch (Grundy Center, Iowa), 25 December 1918

From Henry Boyenga
Somewhere in France
November 2nd, 1918

Dear Brother and Sister:
It has been some since I have written to you last and as I have a little time this evening, will let you now that I'm still in the land of the living and feel fine and hope the same of you folks, for when a person is healthy, he can overcome a good many things.

The weather is still very nice here and surely hope it will stay this way for some time. We had a little frost here a few days ago but it did not do much harm, only to the leaves of the trees, and they are beginning to fall very rapidly. The frost does not seem to injure the gardens as quickly here as in Iowa as there is lots of stuff out ? yet and has not suffered in the least and even flowers, that is some of them, are in full bloom.

Today was Decoration Day for the French, and all the graves were fixed up in great shape. I took a visit out to one of the cemeteries today and surely was deeply impressed by the way all the graves are fixed up. The graves of the French soldiers all have a cross and a little flag nailed on each one of them, also flowers on each of them.

The graves of the American soldiers are the same only, that the stars and stripes are nailed to each cross and a very nice white flower (something like an aster) on each grave. At the end of the cemetery there is a monument, decorated with four flags; the French, United States, English, and Italian, the flags o the republics in the center and one of the others on each side. When a fellow looks at all this, ware is driven home to him and he understands its meaning clearer than those away from it.

It surely is very nice of the French people to remember the boys in that way, of course we know it does the dead no good but it makes a good impression on those that are in a position to visit their graves and even if those to whom the dead were all, are not in the position to visit the loved ones' graves, they may rest assured that they are well taken care of.

Let us hope and pray that it will soon be over with, it sure will be a great day when we can consider it all settled. Well, I must close for tonight. Be sure and write once in a while.

As Ever,
Henry

--Grundy County Dispatch (Grundy Center, Iowa), 1 January 1919