Weekend, October 30-31, 2021 – These mothers had the opportunity to visit their son’s graves in France

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Sometimes  a story brings history to life and this is one. It is a story when the government did the right thing for mothers who had lost their sons in the Great War.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

WEEKEND, OCTOBER 30-31, 2021

THE  508th EDITION

GOLD STAR MOTHERS

VISIT SONS’ GRAVES

IN FRANCE

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, 1999

World War I Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimages, Part I

Summer 1999, Vol. 31, No. 2 | Genealogy Notes

By Constance Potter

On the evening of August 14, 1930, Katherine Bell Holley, an African American schoolteacher from Hedgesville, West Virginia, boarded the train at the Baltimore and Ohio station at North Mountain, outside the small town. At Martinsburg, she transferred to a train to New York, where she boarded the SS American Merchant for France. She arrived by train at Les Invalides in Paris on August 26.1 Holley traveled to France as part of a Gold Star Mothers pilgrimage, a United States government program that paid the travel expenses to the grave sites for mothers and widows whose sons and husbands had died overseas as members of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during the war.

Katherine Holley made the journey to France to visit the grave of her husband, Pvt. Lewis A. Holley. Twelve years earlier, on October 4, 1918, Private Holley, Company B, 542d Engineers, United States Expeditionary Force, France, had died of pneumonia. Holley died at the Naval Base Hospital #65 at or near Brest, France.2 He had enlisted only two months earlier, on August 5, 1918, and had arrived in Brest just seven days before on the troop ship USS American. The troops debarked on October 1, just three days before Holley’s death.3 Holley was one of the 53,000 American soldiers who died in France during the First World War. He was buried on October 7 in the American Cemetery in Lambezellac, France, northwest of Brest. On June 10, 1920, the Graves Registration Service of the Quartermaster Office reburied Holley in a different site in the cemetery at Lambezellac, and on October 25, 1921, the GRS moved his remains to the American Cemetery in Oise-Aisne.4

The records that describe Katherine Holley’s trip to France and her husband’s death and interment are among the Burial Files and Graves Registration records in the Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General (Record Group 92).

“From 1930 to 1933, more than 6,000 women participated in the Gold Star Mothers and Widows pilgrimages to visit the graves of their loved ones who sacrificed

World War I Graves Registration

5 During the Civil War, the military first developed procedures to identify and bury the dead, both Union and Confederate. With the Spanish-American War in 1898, the first foreign war following the Civil War, the War Department expanded these procedures to include the return of the bodies of the men who died overseas.

The problem of burying the dead only expanded with U.S. entry into World War I on April 6, 1917. As soon as the AEF landed in France in June, the problem of caring for the dead became an immediate concern. On August 7, 1917, War Department General Order 104 authorized the organization of a Graves Registration Service.6 The first Graves Registration unit reached France on October 31, 1917.

The GRS was not responsible for the original burial. The individual combat units had the responsibility of burying the dead as soon as possible. Most men killed in battle were buried within twenty-four hours, although it sometimes took a week or longer. Battlefield conditions made immediate and proper burial difficult after the troops advanced, but great care was taken to ensure that the graves were properly marked.

The GRS eventually moved the bodies to an American military cemetery in Europe or shipped them back to the United States. France, in particular, asked that the burial sites be consolidated. Throughout the process, the GRS continued to care for the bodies and kept identification records.

The work of the Graves Registration Service continued until the summer of 1919. It was not until after the war that the Office of the Quartermaster General asked each family if it would like the body to be brought back to the United States for final burial in a family plot, nonmilitary cemetery, or National Cemetery (such as Arlington) or buried in an American military cemetery in Europe.

Holley’s burial was not typical. Because Lewis Holley was a noncombatant and died on a naval base rather than in a combat zone, he was buried within four days of his death in an American cemetery. When the GRS first reburied the body on October 25, 1921, they found it buried in a pine box but under a cross marked “Paul Schur.” The identification tag on the body, however, identified it as Lewis A. Holley.7 When the GRS moved Holley’s remains the final time, the unit found the correct identification disc on both his body and grave marker. The GRS also found a reburial bottle in the coffin that gave Holley’s name, service number, rank, and unit. Because the bodies were usually “badly decomposed, features unrecognizable,” the examination report included detailed dental records.8

In an undated telegram to the Graves Registration Service, Katherine Holley indicated that she wanted the remains brought back to the United States. In a letter dated April 20, 1920, however, Katherine asked that the “remains to Private Louis A. Holley Co. B 542 Engineer Corps [be] left in France.” There is nothing in the file that explains why she later changed her mind.9 In many cases, however, the family left the body as a reminder to the Europeans of the sacrifice their son or husband had made. Some families who originally asked that the body be brought back to the United States changed their minds when they received pictures of the graves of their sons or husbands and realized that they could visit the grave. Many families, however, could not afford the trip.

Whether a man was buried in Europe or returned to the United States, the GRS prepared a “Report of Disinterment and Reburial,” which listed the soldier’s name, serial number, rank, and organization.10 The form also showed where the soldier was originally interred and where he was finally buried. The GRS reburied the bodies as much as two to three years after the war, and report after report notes that the features were unrecognizable. No photographs of the bodies are in the reports. The GRS identified the bodies through dental records, identification tags, grave markers, or other means of identification.

Gold Star Mothers’ Pilgrimage

Description

A group of Gold Star mothers visits the St. Mihiel Memorial commemorating the capture of the St. Mihiel salient by the American First Army, the operations of the American Second Army on November 9-11, 1918, and other combat services of the American Division, located on the high isolated hill of Montsec, France. A. Robert Ginsburgh is in the group, along with other Army officers, who accompanied the group on their visit to the graves of their sons and several monuments.
Date(s)
June 11, 1932


Gold Star Mothers’ Pilgrimage

During the 1920s, the Gold Star Mothers’ Association lobbied for a federally sponsored pilgrimage to Europe for mothers with sons buried overseas. Although many of the women who belonged to the organization had visited their sons’ graves, they realized that women often could not afford the trip to Europe. In their testimony, these women placed great emphasis on the bond between a mother and son. The bond between wife and husband seemed almost secondary in the congressional debates. The bond between fathers and sons was barely considered–the association maintained that the maternal bond surpassed that of the paternal bond.

In 1929 Congress enacted legislation that authorized the secretary of war to arrange for pilgrimages to the European cemeteries “by mothers and widows of members of military and naval forces of the United States who died in the service at any time between April 5, 1917, and July 1, 1921, and whose remains are now interred in such cemeteries.” Congress later extended eligibility for pilgrimages to mothers and widows of men who died and were buried at sea or who died at sea or overseas and whose places of burial were unknown. The Office of the Quartermaster General determined that 17,389 women were eligible. By October 31, 1933, when the project ended, 6,693 women had made the pilgrimage. Once the quartermaster determined a woman was eligible, she was sent a questionnaire.

Katherine Holley was eligible because Holley’s mother had died May 12, 1919, and Katherine had not remarried. In a letter to the quartermaster’s office, she asked if her daughter, Louise Elizabeth Holley, born April 10, 1919, could accompany her. Capt. A. D. Hughes, replied:

As the Act of March 2, 1929, does not contain any provision for any member of the family to make the trip except the mother or unmarried widow, nor does it permit the mother or widow being accompanied by any member of the family, it is regretted to have to inform you that while your feelings with regard to taking your little daughter to her father’s grave are appreciated, she is not eligible to make the pilgrimage.

Once Katherine Holley accepted the offer to go on the pilgrimage, she received carefully written and detailed instructions on what to do and what to expect. The government paid all of her expenses. As Col. Richard T. Ellis, Officer in Charge of the American Pilgrimage Gold State Mothers and Widows in Paris, wrote, the quartermaster had to develop an organization that could create and operate simultaneously as a hotel, travel, steamship, and welfare bureau.11 In 1930 alone, the quartermaster general provided these services for 3,653 mothers and widows between May 16 and September 22, with each trip lasting approximately two weeks. Whenever possible, the quartermaster wanted to organize the pilgrimage with as little disturbance “to the way of living of the Pilgrims as possible” and considered both physical and psychological comforts.

The age of the women created problems. Their average age was between sixty-one and sixty-five, which “reduced the speed with which almost all operations of the Pilgrimage could have been conducted.” The methods of travel, the food, and everyday living conditions were different from those to which the women were accustomed. The pilgrims visited not only Paris, a large city with all modern conveniences and medical facilities, but also small country towns where many of the graves were located. To do this in a country with different laws and customs, the quartermaster needed to obtain special permission to do things that were not customary. Where the quartermaster general thought it would not be possible to get such permission, they tried to make such adjustments and compromises that would least disturb the women’s morale. The majority of the woman did not speak French, and provisions had to be made for bilingual field personnel. The nature of the visit also presented problems. Col. Ellis wrote that the trip “was in no sense a holiday or a pleasure trip but on the other hand it was necessary to prevent over-emphasis of the sentimental side in order to prevent morbidness or hysteria.”12

In Remembering War the American Way, G. Kurt Piehler writes that the pilgrimage united different women: “Socialites and farm women; Catholics, Protestants, and Jews; native born and foreign born.”13 There was one difference, however–race. Membership in the Gold Star Mothers Association was limited to white women. African American women who made the pilgrimage were segregated from the white pilgrims. For example, white women traveled on luxury liners; African American women, in commercial steamers.

The War Department and quartermaster general received letters of complaint, although the original letters do not appear to have survived in the records. In response to a complaint letter from Mrs. M. E. Mallette, president of the Keith Improvement Association in Chicago, F. H. Payne, the assistant secretary of war, wrote:

I regret that you protest against that part of the pilgrimage regulations of the War Department which provides for the formation of groups of colored gold star mothers and widows. The large number of mothers and widows who will make the pilgrimage, together with the necessity of providing suitable accommodations for all, made impracticable the sending of the pilgrims in one body, and made the organization of groups necessary.

Payne defended the War Departments decisions:

After thorough study, the conclusion was reached that the formation of white and colored groups of mothers and widows would best assure the contentment and comfort of the pilgrims themselves. No discrimination as between the various groups is contemplated. All groups will receive like accommodations at hotels and on steamships, and the representatives of the War Department will, at all times, be as solicitous of the welfare of the colored mothers and widows as they will be of the welfare of those of the white race. . . . It would seem natural to assume that these mothers and widows would prefer to seek solace in their grief from companions of their own race.14

By July 7, 1930, seven African American women had declined to take the pilgrimage because of segregation; however, Katherine Holley chose to make the pilgrimage to her husband’s grave.

Mothers traveled ocean liners to and from France

World War I Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimages, Part 2

Fall 1999, Vol. 31, No. 3 | Genealogy Notes

By Constance Potter

Between 1930 and 1933, many of the eligible mothers and widows of U.S. soldiers who died overseas during World War I sailed to Europe to see the graves of their sons and husbands. The federal government paid the expenses of these Gold Star Pilgrims. The Gold Star Pilgrimage files are among the records of the Graves Registration Service (GRS) in the Records of the Quartermaster General (Record Group 92).1 The GRS files, which contain information on men who died overseas during World War I, are arranged alphabetically by the name of the soldier. The records of each Gold Star mother or widow are in the folders of her son or husband.

Part 1 of this article in the Summer 1999 issue described how the Graves Registration Service cared for the bodies of the soldiers and told the story of how one woman, Katherine B. Holley from Hedgesville, West Virginia, prepared for the trip. This article describes her trip to Paris as well as how the Office of the Quartermaster General organized the pilgrimage.

Born in Berkeley County, West Virginia, on July 31, 1893,2 Katherine Brown married Lewis Holley sometime in 1918 in Berkeley County. Lewis Holley arrived in Cherbourg on October 5, 1918, and died of pneumonia on October 14. The World War I monument in Martinsburg, the county seat, lists Lewis Holley as one of the soldiers who served from Berkeley County. Louise, their daughter, was born on April 6, 1919, six months after her father died. By 1920 Katherine was teaching school in Hedgesville.3 Katherine Holley was the only woman from the area to go on the Gold Star Pilgrimage.4

The quartermaster’s intent was “to conduct the Pilgrimage with as little disturbance to the way of living of the Pilgrims as was possible.” The details of the trip survive both in the files of the individual Gold Star Mothers files and among the administrative records of the Gold Star Pilgrimage.5 Although the files do not contain letters that the women may have written to their families about their trips, researchers can get a good idea of what sites the women visited as well as how the army organized the trip.

On October 1, 1929, Col. Richard T. Ellis, officer in charge of the Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimage in Paris,6 recommended that the Office of the Quartermaster General contact the French authorities responsible for various aspects of the trip. The American embassy in Paris contacted the French Foreign Office through Baron de Vitrolle, chief of the American Section of the Foreign Office. De Vitrolle subsequently agreed that direct contact with the various branches of the French government would be the most useful approach.7

The quartermaster made contact with the following French offices: Customs, Ministry of War, Administration of Public Hygiene and Assistance, Administration of Fine Arts, Prefect of Police and the Prefect of the Department of the Seine, Department of Touring, Quartermaster Corps of the French Army (which included the Ministry of Pensions), the Federation of Veterans’ Societies in France, French State Railroads, and postal authorities.8 These contacts show the breadth of issues that the quartermaster had to work with to make the pilgrimage run as smoothly as possible.

Before the women left home, the quartermaster sent each a list of what to pack and gave detailed travel arrangements.. The War Department warned the women to wear “somewhat heavier clothing” to protect them against “the cold and dampness.”9 Because of the lack of laundry facilities, the quartermaster urged them to pack “sufficient underwear, nightgowns, stockings, and handkerchiefs.”10 The travel arrangements included dates and times of travel as well as berth, seat, or room number for the ship, trains, and hotel rooms.

The Quartermaster assigned a letter of the alphabet to each party. Katherine Holley was assigned to Party Q, the Oise-Aisne group, which was composed of African American women. The white and African American women had the same itineraries; however, they were segregated. In many instances the accommodations were different. For example, white women traveled on luxury liners; African American women, in commercial steamers. Katherine Holley sailed from New York on August 16 on the American Merchant. Col. Benjamin O. Davis was the officer in charge.11 Mrs. B. J. Runner and Miss N. Bost, nurses, and Mrs. N. Brown, hostess, also accompanied the party.

Colonel Ellis, along with a staff of ten that included two nurses, met the ship when it docked at Cherbourg on August 15. The War Department had made special arrangements with the French authorities to get the women off the boats as quickly as possible. Although French law required that baggage be checked carefully, the director general of Customs issued instructions that reduced the customs formalities to a minimum.

The Operations Division worked with the International Dining and Sleeping Car Co. to provide meals for the women on their way to Paris. To avoid the congestion of the St. Lazare Station, special arrangements were made for the trains to arrive at Les Invalides, which was usually reserved for state occasions.12 The executive officer and his staff, nurses, and interpreters met the party at Les Invalides. Among the party that greeted the women of Q party were Noble Sissle and his band.13

The women stayed at the Hotel Imperator at 70, rue Beaubourg. The accommodations consisted of double rooms with twin beds and a bath. Traditionally, the police controlled registration at hotels in France and throughout Europe. Rather than have each woman provide the necessary information to the police, the Quartermaster’s Office was permitted to submit the forms containing the names and room assignments of each woman as well as home address, date of birth, nationality, occupation, and the authority and purpose of the visit.14

Each party selected an “honor pilgrim,” who laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe.15 Mrs. Louise Kimbro, the mother of Martin Kimbro, was Party Q’s honor pilgrim. The Ministry of Pensions arranged with the Federation of Veterans Societies in France to have representatives at each wreath laying. Following the wreath laying the women had tea and reception at the Restaurant Laurent at the other end of the Champs Elysees. Aside from a trip to Fontainebleau, the women were free to see Paris, or be with their thoughts, until they left for the cemetery on the morning of August 29.16

On the twenty-ninth, the party left at 8 a.m. for Soissons17 via La Forte, with a rest stop at Hotel de la Terrassee at the Chateau Thierry,18 where they lunched at the Hostellerie du Bonhomme. At Soissons the party had dinner and spent the night at the Lion Rouge hotel. The itinerary for August 30 notes the women were to have “breakfast at the hotel.” Even this apparently simple part of the day had required negotiations between the War Department and the French hotels. To provide an American breakfast, the hotel had to add kitchen staff. After negotiating with the seven hotels, the hotels and quartermaster agreed on a price per pilgrim per day.

The same day, the women visited Chateau Thierry. In the afternoon, they saw Belleau Wood,19 Aisne Marne Cemetery, Monument Hill 204, and the grave of Quentin Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt’s son). Before returning to Soissons for dinner, the women had tea at the Oise-Aisne Cemetery.

The towns near the Meuse-Argonne, Oise-Aisne, and St. Mihiel cemeteries did not have restrooms or cafes that could efficiently serve the groups. The quartermaster therefore built, within ninety days, rest houses at each of these cemeteries. The rest houses had tables, comfortable chairs, and restrooms as well as kitchen facilities. Each rest house had a shady porch for the hot weather and a large, open fireplace for the cooler days.20

On the morning of August 31 they visited the Oise-Aisne cemetery. The quartermaster very carefully planned the reception at the cemeteries. To make the visit as personal as possible, they did not permit any ceremonies but focused on each woman’s visit. The cemetery superintendent gave each pilgrim a grave locator card, and cemetery staff guided each woman to the grave. The guide then gave the woman flowers or a wreath to put on the grave and took a photograph.21

On September 1 the women were free to sightsee or visit the cemetery. After lunch at the hotel, they left for Reims where they spent the night at the Hotel Bristol Crystal.22 The following day they toured the cathedral as well as the Fort de la Pompelle. After lunch the party left for Compiegne, where they spent the night.23

The party arrived back in Paris the next day around 6 p.m. They had dinner at the hotel and spent the rest of their time in Paris visiting such sites as the Louvre, Versailles, Sacre Couer, Notre Dame, and Napoleon’s Tomb and took a nighttime tour of the city. Although the purpose of the trip was serious, the women were still permitted time to see and enjoy Paris.

On September 7 Katherine Holley and her party sailed for home on the American Merchant.24 Ten days later, on September 16, they arrived at the port of New York and then returned to their homes.

The Gold Star Pilgrimage provided the chance for 6,693 women who might otherwise not have been able to visit their loved ones’ graves to travel to France. Some of the women wrote to the War Department thanking them for the trip. Mrs. Kimbro wrote in part:

Dear Sir:
. . . As for myself I never will get through talking about the grand time we had. Everyone was happy over the way Col. Maroney and his wife treated us so nice. Also Mr. Ellis and his wife. . . . How can anyone forget such a trip . . . we never can. . . . I want to thank the whole War Department and every one concerned for the courtesy and kindness shown to the Gold Star Mothers and Widows. Yours very sincerely Mrs. Louise Kimbro President of Party Q.25

Mrs. G. A. Buckley of Grand Rapids, Michigan, wrote to Col A. E. Williams on October 2, 1930:

Since my return home I have talked to six different organizations, and am writing for the Daily paper about my Pilgrimage. I am telling of the very excellent way in which it was carried out from beginning to the ver[y] end. I am going to write to our United States Senator of how the Gold Star Mothers appreciate this great thing the Government is doing for them. I feel that a gap has been filled, and that now that I have seen my dear son’s resting place, and know that it will for ever be kept beautiful, I am more contented. [emphasis added].26

TO SEE CREDITS AND FOOTNOTES PLEASE SEE:

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/fall/gold-star-mothers.html

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CORRECTION

Good morning, this is Andy Sparberg.

If I may take the liberty, you need to correct the directions for riding through the old IRT City Hall Station.   The #6 train (Lexington Ave. Local) goes through the old station when it turns around going from downtown to uptown.   The #5 train never goes through City Hall.  If you stay on the #5 after Brooklyn Bridge you’ll end up in Brooklyn!  Please post a correction.  Thank you.

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