Iowa
Old Press
Nashua Reporter
Nashua, Chickasaw co., Iowa
December 13, 1917
CAMP DODGE COMPLETED
Army Concentration Camp Turned Over to War Department Last Week.
(By J.W. Jarnigan)
Camp Dodge is completed. It required 5,967 men 126 days to do the
work. It took 5,916 cars of building material to construct the
3,200 buildings. There are accommodations for 50,280 men. The
complete cantonment covers 7,600 acres of land. The state of Iowa
owns part of this ground and the government owns a few hundred
acres, but the greater part of it is leased from the farmers who
receive an acre yearly rental of $14. In addition to the land
used for buildings must be added 4,000 acres more that are used
for the artillery range. This fan shaped piece of ground extends
five miles northwest of the cantonment proper. Farmers have all
moved out of their homes and soon 3-inch shells, explosives of
various designs and trench warfare will make it a dangerous place
for tresspassers. The remount covers 85 acres of land and affords
accommodations for 35,000 horses and mules. The base hospital
comprises 80 buildings and covers 45 acres of land. There are 12
warehouses, 60 by 160 feet with a carrying capacity of 500 pounds
to the square foot; five ordinance warehouses and an incinerator
that will burn 15 tons of garbage per hour; and a bakery that
will bake 40,000 loaves of bread a day. It is a finished city.
Its main street is nearly five miles long and most of it is
paved. Parallel highways or streets have been graded and given a
top dressing of either gravel or oil. Paved cross streets make
over eight miles of concrete paving. There are 30 miles of sewer,
30 miles of water pipe line, a telephone system and electric
lighting system. It will require 3,500,000 gallons of water to
run the camp a day and an average of 1500 kilowatts of
electricity will be required to light it. Seven miles of railroad
track has been laid in the camp. In taking over the buildings
from the contractors every detail was given careful attention.
The complete cost of the camp as near as Major Butler can make
it, from his reports is about $6,000,000, this including building
material and labor only. Major Butler and staff will remain at
the camp a few days longer to complete some of the routine work
and turn the construction over to Roy Johnson who will take over
the general utility department of the camp.
Captain Quigley, whose duty it is to run down all slanderous
statements that are given publicity as relating to alleged
conditions at Camp Dodge, has been trying to trace the source of
some ugly rumors. Some of these have been located in different
cantonments but they all fit alike. The story goes thus: A poor,
hard working mother with a boy in camp first sewed a $10 bill in
the collar of a sweater and sent it to her son thru the Red
Cross. Soon after she saw an officer wearing the sweater on the
streets down town. Morther approaches, jerks a secret string and
out drops the bill. The officer declares he bought the sweater
from the Red Cross. Captain Quigley recently returned from a trip
east and declares he heard the very same story in Washington,
Baltimore and Chicago, which would seem to plainly prove it is a
scheme of German agents. Officers do not wear sweaters on the
outside of uniforms and this of itself gives the lie to the whole
story. A woman in southern Iowa told a number of women in her
community details of a very juicy bit of scandal relating to
conduct at Camp Dodge. Captain Quigley interviewed a number of
women who had been repeating the story and he finally traced it
to its original source and the woman who started it has been
called to appear before the federal jury.
The officers of the American Red Cross, with headquarters in
Washington, have issued a disclaimer to chain letters. They state
very positively that the Red Cross does not countenance these
letters and the public is warned against them. All kinds of
frauds and surupers are working the donation graft. Aid to the
American Red Cross should always be furnished through recognized
channels if the donor wishes to be assured that his gift is to
reach the object intended. Red Cross representatives are in every
community and there is no occasion for the chain letter stunt.
A very versatile fellow named John Ebert was a waiter in a dining
hall at Camp Dodge. He claimed to be an expert stenographer and
was unable to give a history of his wanderings that suited
authorities. He came here from Kansas City and had previously
been employed in a brewery in Milwaukee. Ebert, according to
Federal Agent Sherwood admitted he has four brothers in the
German army. He came to the United States in 1913, the Federal
Agent says. He is accused of giving information to his relatives
in Lorraine relative to military activities in this country. It
is believed that he is using his opportunity as a waiter at Camp
Dodge to get inside information as to military movements. He will
be interned at a prison camp in Georgia.
Felix Thornton, of Hammond, Ind., who was arrested at Devils
Lake, N. Dak., recently and charged with failing to report for
duty at Camp Dodge after being drafted, was sentenced to ten
years' imprisonment at Fort Leavenworth by decision of the court
martial at Camp Dodge. The sentence as pronounced, besides giving
Thornton ten years at hard labor orders that he be given a
dishonorable discharge from the service and all pay and allowance
be forfeited.
Hold Unique Reunion
Last Monday's Des Moines Register contained the following
article concerning one who is known by many of the Reporter
readers:
For the past six years four veterans of the civil war have been
holding reunions of an unusual type. Three were in the same
company and the fourth in the same regiment and their birthdays
were each one on the first day of April. The four are John
Troutner, of Charles City, 76 years old; C.M. Ransom of
Clarksville, 77 years old; Jacob Boehmier of Cedar Falls, 75
years old, and G.H. Hemenway, of Cedar Falls, 87 years old. They
call themselves the April Fools and meet each April fools day at
the home of each one in different years to celebrate their
birthdays. Their combined ages are 315 years, but they don't feel
old nor do they act old. Mr. Troutner was with a large number of
other soldiers at the Ford theater the night Lincoln was
assassinated and was one of the soldiers that formed a line from
the door across the street when Lincoln was carried out. He was
also one among those who formed a chain about that part of
Washington when Booth was being hunted. He was with his regiment
which was one that attended the trial and execution of Mrs.
Surratt. Mr. Boehmier had four brothers in the civil war at the
same time he was. Mr. Troutner has had since the date issued the
copy of the New York Herald giving the full account of
Lincoln's assassination.
[Mr. Boehmier died about a month ago, Mr. Troutner going to Cedar
Falls to attend his funeral- Ed.]
[transcribed by C.J.L., August 2005]