Finding Aid for the Elizabeth Johnson First World War correspondence 2018.171.w.r
Andrew Harman
Center for American War Letters Archives
5/20/2019
Leatherby Libraries
Chapman University
Orange, CA 92866
speccoll@chapman.edu
Contributing Institution:
Center for American War Letters Archives
Title: Elizabeth Johnson First World War correspondence
source:
Dailey, Elizabeth A.
source:
Anderson, Peter A.
Identifier/Call Number: 2018.171.w.r
Physical Description:
.08 Linear Feet
(1 folder)
Date (inclusive): 1917 August 11 - 1918 July 5
Abstract: This collection contains five letters that were sent to Elizabeth Johnson, written by different servicemen during the First
World War.
Language of Material:
English
.
Container: WWI 13
Container: 15
Container: 1
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of the Anderson family, via Elizabeth A. Dailey.
This collection is arranged chronologically.
Edna Elizabeth Johnson was born in 1901 in Elmwood, Connecticut and during the First World War was engaged to a soldier, whom
she would later marry, named Gabriel Anderson. While he was away during the war, Elizabeth or "Betty" volunteered with the
American Red Cross and wrote friends and acquaintances to help their morale. The materials in this collection are their responses.
[Item title / description; Box "n" / Folder "n"], Elizabeth Johnson First World War correspondence (2018.171.w.r), Center
for American War Letters Archives, Chapman University, CA.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this
collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
This collection contains five letters that were sent to Elizabeth Johnson by different servicemen in response to her correspondence
during the First World War.
The servicemen include (in order):
- Corporal Francis J. Cassidy from Fort H.G. Wright in New York, August 11, 1917
- Goodwin Sternberg, Troop F, Seventh Cavalry in Ysleta, Texas, September 27, 1917
- First Sergeant "Ivan" from Camp Meade, Maryland, December 21, 1917 and July 5, 1918
- Sgt. Crotinger from Camp Meade, March 20, 1918.
Most of the letters discuss the weather and the locations or bases at from which the soldiers are writing. Cpl. Cassidy and
Goodwin Sternberg both mention Sgt. Crotinger as being the reason they are in contact with Elizabeth. Ivan met Elizabeth at
Fort Wright and she knows his mother.
Sternberg discusses hunting on a sort of vacation from Fort Bliss, as well as baseball games with a "fine class of Mexicans"
where they are training near the Rio Grande River. He also tells Elizabeth to thank all of the girls that are knitting socks
and being patriotic. Sgt. Crotinger discusses writing shorthand and typewriting, as well as the drunken soldiers of Fort Meade
becoming a problem for the locals in Baltimore.
In Ivan's first letter he talks about the weather and Christmas, and his second letter discusses his impending departure for
France. He was at one time with a coast artillery unit, then a finance office, and has since been promoted to First Sergeant
of Company D, 304th Division Supply Train.
There are no restrictions on the use of this material except where previously copyrighted material is concerned. It is the
responsibility of the researcher to obtain all permissions.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Correspondence -- World War, 1914-1918
World War (1914-1918)
Maryland -- Fort George G. Meade
Dailey, Elizabeth A.
Anderson, Peter A.
Johnson, Edna Elizabeth, b. 1901