Thought you'd enjoy seeing one of the articles as we get ready to honor the women in our lives. After reading this article, check out the other 50 or so we have found at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~paallent/
You're sure to be needing your hanky, or at the least, an American Flag to salute and a mama to hug!
THE GAZETTE TIMES
Jan. 19, 1919
Charles
J. Doyle
Special Correspondent of The
Gazette Times in France
NURSING
IN FRANCE MORE ATTRACTIVE THAN SOCIETY TO THIS PITTSBURGH WOMAN
Mrs.
William Bacon Schiller Works Every Day in Hospital – Many of Her Patients
Heroes of Old Eighteenth Who Fell in Terrific Combats.
Paris,
Jan. 17. – (Delayed) – Fifteen months of tireless work nursing American
doughboys finds one of Pittsburgh’s most prominent women, Mrs. William Bacon
Schiller, still smiling at her post in France. But her labors of mercy are almost finished now, and she is
planning to leave for home in a few weeks.
That was
and suffering bring out the finest qualities is strikingly shown in the case of
Mrs. Schiller. She is the wife of
the president of the National Tube Company, a subsidiary of the United States
Steel Corporation.
About 18
months ago Uncle Sam issued an urgent call for volunteer nurses. Among the patriotic women and girls who
heard and heeded that call was Mrs. Schiller. Although she always had been accustomed to every comfort
that ample means and an assured social position could give, this mother of
three fine boys volunteered and was accepted.
Mrs.
Schiller knew nothing about nursing when she placed herself at the disposal of
her country. In fact, she knew
practically nothing about hospital work.
But all this has been changed, and when I saw her today in her
strikingly becoming nurse’s garb, almost engulfed in bandages, dressings and
other surgical paraphernalia, it was quite evident that her capability had been
developed into splendid harmony with her devotion.
She was
busily engaged arranging medicines for the morning round of the hospital as I
entered and we had our talk while she worked. I tried to induce Mrs. Schiller to tell me some of her
remarkable experiences during her long term in France, but she evaded any
personal touches and insisted on dwelling exclusively on the great work done by
others.
Mrs.
Schiller, I learned, has been “on the job” for six days a week since she came
to France, sometimes seven, but she evidently feels fully repaid by the appreciation
shown by the gallant Yankees. She
spoke of having attended a number of Pittsburghers, mostly members of the
Eightieth Division. While she
avoids allusions to her own part of the work being done at the hospital, she is
ready enough to talk of “the boys.”
A visitor
to the hospital who sees Mrs. Schiller as she goes about her work, looking in
every way the typical Red Cross nurse, finds it hard to realize that she has a
son old enough to be in the service.
This is the case, however, Morgan Schiller being an ensign in the Naval
Aviation Corps. The mother had
hopes that her boy would be sent to France and they could enjoy a happy
reunion, but he was instead detailed to Seattle.
The
hospital where Mrs. Schiller has been giving her time and labor is one of the
finest operated by the American Red Cross in France. It is known as No. 1, and is located about three miles from
the center of Paris. It is an
imposing structure, designed to house a magnificent college, but had not been
completed when the war started, and the building was turned over to the Red
Cross.
While
walking along a corridor of the big building I noticed a ward furnished by the
Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company.
One of the many comfortable cots was donated by Mrs. Henry W. Oliver of
Pittsburgh, whose name appears on a neat plate above the bed. Lying on this cot was a smiling
doughboy, Private Harry Seymour, who told me he was a farmer from New York
state. He has been occupying this
cot since October 28. He received
a severe shell wound in the leg, but has so far recovered that he is able to
walk on crutches.
Although
the government changed the designation of the old Eighteenth Regiment, N.G.P.,
to the One Hundred and Eleventh Infantry, there is a sentiment and pride in the
old organization that leads to the use of the old name by the thousands of
Pittsburghers over there who have followed the career of the regiment during
the past year. The old Eighteenth
say great fighting at a number of critical points, and the importance of the
achievements of the Pittsburghers and the whole Twenty-Eighth Division is
partly indicated by the long list of heroes who gave their lives in France
under the Stars and Stripes and the flags of the Allies.
IN DESPERATE FIGHTS
Among the
good people of France, particularly the surviving defenders, the memory of the
Pittsburgh fighters will be forever recalled by the names of Chateau Thierry,
Fismes, St. Mihiel and the Argonne Forest, all desperate conflicts where the
sterling Keystone State guardsmen contended and fell in valorous exploits. At present the infantry and artillery
are divided by hundreds of miles.
The doughboys are, with the division headquarters, billeted near Toul,
200 miles east of Paris, while the artillery, which recently operated in the
Belgian sector, has been moved to the area between Paris and the seacoast.
About a
month ago the Twenty-eighth Division was ordered into Germany to form part of
the army of the occupation. One
regiment was already on its way to Luxemburg when the first orders were
countermanded and it was brought back.
Sergt.
Allen McCombs, 927 Beech avenue, North Side, Pittsburgh, an athletic youngster
who was a member of the old Eighteenth, is a fine specimen of the type of
soldiers that constituted the regiment.
Almost fully recovered from a machine gun wound in the leg, Sergt.
McCombs and I met in the beautiful Red Cross hospital where, he said, “a man
couldn’t be sick if he wanted to and didn’t want to leave when he got well.”
BROUGHT DOWN BY A BULLET
Sergt.
McCombs is a graduate of the Scottdale High School, where he played on the
football eleven. After leaving
school he took a position with the Pennsylvania Railroad and joined the
Eighteenth as soon as he was old enough.
He was leading a platoon of Company I in rushing a nest of machine guns
during the terrible fighting in the Argonne woods when he went down with a
bullet in his leg.
“But one
day’s treatment since I was struck is worth all the hardships we went through,”
said the sergeant, who has all sorts of vivid tales of the actions of his
division. When he recovered
sufficiently he was given clerical work in the hospital, where he seems to be a
prime favorite with patients and nurses.
In the parlance of the doughboys, the handsome soldier “has it pretty
soft.”
Private
John Danknichy, aged 21, a flaxen-haired Slavish boy of McKees Rocks and
Esplen, is another who is manfully upholding the traditions of the old
Eighteenth. He is recovering from
a severe machine gun wound in the thigh received near the Aisne River. It was an exceedingly ugly wound. When located by the stretcher bearers
it was found difficult to get him to a first-aid station, but because of the
seriousness of the case they started back through a heavy shell fire. For a time he lay between life and
death, but the wound is now healing and he is able to walk with a cane. John was an employee of the Pressed
Steel Car Company.
Ahh, genealogy. Here's to you, Mrs. Schiller, and all the other women who have served America and our veterans. I like to think you were there nursing my grandfather when he was wounded and gassed in France.
©2012 AS Eldredge
