Troop D Brings Out the Big Gun - 1/6/1917

El Paso, Tex., 

Jan. 6, 1917

My Dear Mother: - 

Your New Year's letter received. It was quite a treat with all the short ones. They were all gladly received.

I'm glad to hear that Arthur Junior Tatum has at last received some sight out of his eyes. He certainly was willing to do anything which would enable him to see.

I rec. a letter from cous. Mildred Sprout, Malcom Good, and Dick Rohn, thanking me for the pictures. Who all did you send them to?

We worked hard all day Friday & today preparing our equipment for our Efficiency Test. Monday. All day Sunday I shall clean harness, etc.

I hope we pass it with a high average.

I rec. a letter from Mrs. Rivers also.

I guess Billy Jacobs who is now down at the Fire Sta. intends to come to Toledo next month to accept a position which he has offered to him.

Old Capt. Sullivan is just the same as ever. Did Dad send him the 7&B&S Co's 1917 calendar yet, which he told me he was going to send him He has not rec. it yet.

The 8th Reg. turn in their animals the 13th & prepare to return to their home station at Akron, Ohio

From what I hear, Troop D. is going to put a piece in Toledo papers to rectify the ones which have been in lately about them. They are sore to think that some things have been printed which knocked the Troop, in that they were not as bad off as they pretended to be.

Got a letter from Leona today, bawling me out for the short letters I have been sending her of late. Evidently, a page & a half does not suit her, so I will close & write her a nice long one to make up for the short ones I have been sending.

Am feeling fine as silk

Love to All
Howard

Although it didn't allude directly to Troop D, I found this article in the January 18, 1917 edition of the Toledo News-Bee that possibly could be related to what Howard writes about. The article was an exclusive interview between a Toledo reporter and General John J. Pershing. The reporter states,  "I had brought a personal letter from a very intimate friend in the states, and I expect that it was because of this that the general granted me the first exclusive interview since he has been in been France." She also says, "I had been at many of the training camps in the states, and I ventured that even he would be astonished at the splendid morale and wonderful physical hardihood of the American selective army." Perhaps one of Troop D's captains had a convenient friendship with the reporter and/or Pershing and was able to put in a good word about the morale of the troops?

On a more personal note to Howard, a quick ancestry search shows that Malcom Good was the son of Howard's father's brother, Noah. Howard and Malcom were about the same age and the family lived in Cleveland. Mildred was the daughter of Howard's father's sister, Emma. Mildred was also around Howard's age and lived in south central Michigan in Branch county. Dick Rohn was the son of Howard's mother's sister Mabel. He was just 10 years old and lived in Lima, Ohio with his family. It sounds like Effie was very proud of her son and sent his picture to pretty much the entire family!

Scandal in the Press - 1/3/1917

El Paso, Tex.
Jan. 3, 1917

My Dear Mother: - 

We rec. the Toledo Blade today with the parts of my letter, referring to Troop D. Our fellows & our Captains think the write-up is a peach, but the officers & men of the troop are all up in the air over it. They haven't denied any of it, though they are all angry because it was printed.

Capt. Greenhalgh told the men, as we have heard that he wanted anyone with a medical hat-cord on kicked out of their Co. street. He also said that they could "settle it" with the guy, who sent that letter home, or that he would carry it up himself.

One of their serg't and I had a peach of an argument about it.

I spoke to our capt. about it & he said that I shouldn't tell Greenhalgh to take it up if he wanted to, but he said if he did he would add some more on to my story.

When Capt. Souder went home on his furlough he gave Troop D. an awful knock in a speech he made at the Rotary Club. 

One of our serge. told me that Capt. Watson wrote a hot letter to Toledo Commerce Club roasting the Troop.

Our bunch take it as a joke & some said that if they kept up with the "soft soap" stuff they would also write a similar letter & tell some more.

As for myself, I'm not worrying over it, for if their capt. takes it up I have 71 men & our officers to provide my statements, and Capt Wilson is anxious to get a chance at them. 

Everything is going along just the same in our outfit, and we still think we will be ready to leave about the last of March. 

Wouldn't advise you to stick any more in the paper until we see how they are going to digest the big mouthful they now have.

Love to All
Howard

Well, I came up short on the letters I was hoping to get. The Toledo Blade and the (now defunct) Toledo News-Bee have some editions online, but the one with Howard's letter was not available. Perhaps someday I'll make it up to pour through microfilm at the University of Toledo to see what exactly what was so scandalous about Troop D. Above is a version of the Blade to give you an idea of what it looked like in the time period, but it's not the version. It was still a pretty interesting read to see the build-up in Europe to World War I and the coverage on Villa in Mexico. Check out the Google Archives for the Toledo News-Bee and the Toledo Blade. Just be aware that someone misplaced a bunch of 1946 newspapers in the Blade in December 1916.

I did find a little about the warm-and-fuzzy Capt. Greenhalgh from onlinebiographies.info. Although the Captain was a midwestern boy (born in St. Louis, raised in Indiana/Illinois), he graduated from Yale and Harvard Law and was Lucas county's assistant prosecutor before being ordered into Federal service in El Paso.  Doesn't exactly sound like the type that would be entirely relatable to the boys. He went on to become a Colonel in Europe and after the war became president of the Toledo Automatic Brush Machine Company. There are also mentions of him showing his polo ponies in various texts on Google...oh the charmed life of ol' Greenhalgh.