Great Lakes Naval Training Station
Both today and
in 1918, Great Lakes Naval Training Station sailors like to visit Chicago while
on leave. During World War I, the number of sailors at Great Lakes increased
dramatically. Many of these sailors were young and far from home, some for the
first time. Frances Glessner Lee recognized the morale raising potential of
entertainment in a private home. With her friends Henry E. Voegeli, Assistant
Manager of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and his wife, Mrs. Lee invited
sailors to her home at 1700 S. Prairie Avenue on Sunday evenings for a good
meal, music or lecture, and friendship.
In order to
assist the sailors as best she could, Mrs. Lee created a file for each sailor
that she entertained. The files recorded the dates of their visits, dates of
correspondence sent and received, gifts she sent, a physical description, their
mother’s address, and her overall impression of the young man. Mrs. Lee also
attached letters, postcards, and photos she received from the sailors and their
families to her records and marked the records of the sailors she liked best
with gold star stickers. Given the large number of gold star records, Mrs. Lee seemed
to greatly enjoy her evenings with the Great Lakes sailors.
Notes on Roy Cotterill
After leaving
Great Lakes, Mrs. Lee’s sailors scattered across the United States and Europe.
Many of the sailors wrote to Mrs. Lee after leaving Great Lakes, but five sailors
were particularly devoted correspondents. Charles Young and Talmage Wilson both
belonged to the Great Lakes band. After Great Lakes, the Navy assigned Talmage
Wilson to play with the U.S.S. Alabama band.
U.S.S. Alabama band on deck
Talmage Wilson
Charles Young remained at Great
Lakes for most of the war as a member of a touring naval band led by John
Philip Sousa. He sent Mrs. Lee letters and postcards from the band’s Midwestern
Liberty Loan tour stops.
Charles Young
Herbert Wilson (no relation to Talmage Wilson) sent
lighthearted letters from the Naval Radio School at Harvard University. He and
Mrs. Lee penned a series of humorous exchanges between “I.M.A. Fish,” “Ananias
Johnson,” and “Captain Blowhard.” Joseph McCarthy’s letters were far more
serious than the other sailors. McCarthy frequently declared that he loved Mrs.
Lee as much as his own mother. He sailed with the U.S.S. Kentucky and wrote
Mrs. Lee dozens of letters, several of which detailed the dangers of German U-Boats
to Allied Atlantic convoys.
U.S.S. Kentucky
Joseph McCarthy
Fred. M. Wolfe
was a particular favorite of Mrs. Lee’s. A Colorado Springs native, Wolfe’s heart
trouble and shy nature also concerned Mrs. Lee when they met in 1918. Mrs. Lee
corresponded both with Wolfe’s mother and his younger brother Lawrence, a
soldier in France. According to the letters, Mrs. Wolfe even visited Mrs. Lee
in Chicago in 1918. After Great Lakes, the Navy sent Wolfe to the radio
training school at Harvard University. Unlike the other Great Lakes sailors,
Wolfe continued his friendship with Mrs. Lee after the war and visited her often
at Wendell House in Boston.
Fred Wolfe
Mrs. Lee fell
out of touch with many of her sailors during the fall of 1918. Several of her
correspondents worried that Mrs. Lee was a victim of the flu epidemic. Mrs. Lee
was not ill, but busy with a new endeavor in Boston.
Mrs. Lee wanted
to do more for sailors than simply provide them dinner and an evening’s
entertainment. She wanted to give them a home away from home. As early as
February 1918, Mrs. Lee’s letters expressed an interest in starting a dormitory
for servicemen on leave. In November, 1918, this dormitory became a reality.
Mrs. Lee accepted the position of Resident Manager at Wendell House, a home for
enlisted men and non-commissioned officers in adjoining houses at 31 Mt. Vernon
St. and 75 Hancock St. in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. The Massachusetts
Branch for Women of the Special Aid Society for American Preparedness funded
Wendell House. Though other servicemen’s homes operated in Beacon Hill at the
time, Wendell House was unique as Mrs. Lee actually lived at Wendell House and
conducted the house less like a servicemen’s club and more like a private home.
The Special Aid Society even furnished Wendell House with used, donated furniture
in order to achieve a “lived in” atmosphere. According to Mrs. Lee, the
servicemen approved of Wendell House. On December 14, 1918 she wrote to her mother's Monday Morning Reading Class that “the boys all say ‘well ma’am, this is the
only place we have ever struck that is just like home.’ They settle down
as contentedly as cats.”
Wendell House parlor
Wendell House
offered servicemen lodging in dormitories or a private room. A bed in a private
room cost $0.50 per night and a bed in a dormitory room cost $0.35 a night. Each
bed, dormitory room, or private room was sponsored by an individual donor or
branch of the Special Aid Society. Though Wendell House had a capacity for one
hundred men, the couches were sometimes rented out and cots put up to
accommodate as many servicemen as possible. Breakfast was available for a nominal
fee in the Wendell House cafeteria. Mrs. Glessner and the Monday Morning
Reading Class provided the necessary funds to outfit this cafeteria. By April
17, 1919, Wendell House hosted 1,212 different servicemen since opening in
December 1918. Wendell House had a high number of repeat or long-term guests as
7,733 beds were occupied in this same period.
A dance at Wendell House
Mrs. Lee
corresponded with fewer Wendell House servicemen, but still took an interest
and tried to help them when she could. Several letters indicate she counseled soldier
Joseph Hemmes throughout his court-martial and helped unemployed veterans
secure jobs. In April 1919, Mrs. Lee described the appreciation of a down and
out veteran to the Monday Morning Reading Class:
“His clothes
were so forlorn & he had such a hopeless, lost-dog sort of look that we
decided he would never get a job so long as he looked that way. I have a little
fund of $10.00 a month given by the Winchester Branch to relieve any cases of
financial distress. So I took a $10.00 bill and gave it to Charlie (one of our
guard) & told him to take this boy out & get him new clothes…Then I
gave him a dollar & sent him forth for a job. Wednesday he got one &
has gone there today. He said ‘I was ashamed to look anyone in the face, but
now I’m all right. I’m going to pay you for all dem tings soon’s I get some
pay. I don’t see how you done all dis fer me. It sure wuz my lucky day win I
come here.’” Mrs. Lee received similarly warm and appreciative thanks in
letters from many Wendell House servicemen and their families.
Soldiers in front of Wendell House
According to
Mrs. Lee, “Wendell House has the reputation throughout this naval district of
being ‘the best place in Boston’ and all the canteens and service houses and
hostess rooms know ‘Wendell House Boys’ to be the pick of the three services.” Wendell
House was a great success. By July 1919, Mrs. Lee resigned from her position as
Resident Manager and returned to The Rocks. Though gone, Mrs. Lee’s hospitality
and kindness were not forgotten by the soldiers and sailors she befriended from
Great Lakes and Wendell House.
ABOUT OUR GUEST AUTHOR:
Siobhan Heraty was an intern this fall
at Glessner House Museum. She is a master’s student in the public history
program at Loyola University Chicago. Siobhan developed an interest in World
War I as an undergraduate history major and continues to explore this interest
as a graduate student through research projects related to American memory of
World War I. Given her research interests, working with the Great Lakes and Wendell
House collection was an interesting and enjoyable experience for Siobhan.
No comments:
Post a Comment