Cornellians in the World War–The Seal and Serpent Society Does Its Bit

James Patton (Cornell '68, '72)

Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, and New York, NY) is one of the Ivy League schools. However, it’s atypical of that group in several ways, including:

• It’s only 159 years old (the others are all pre-1776)

• It’s  been secular and co-educational since its founding 

• It’s a rare combination of a private university with a public one, as it’s the Land Grant institution for the state of New York, 

• It’s especially known for engineering and science and

• It’s the only Ivy that has always offered military officer training to its students. 

Cornell is named for its founder, a canny self-made millionaire named Ezra Cornell, who was born into a Quaker family. He endowed his university with his “farm,” which was some 1,600 acres, as well as the cash to acquire the first buildings. With the assistance of fellow state senator Andrew White, the two convinced the legislature to establish the state’s Land Grant College at Cornell’s new university. Since New York was the most populous state in 1860, it got the largest grant, and since they didn’t need federal land to build the university upon, they took valuable timber land in the upper Midwest instead, which yielded a steady income for decades. Ezra Cornell also cadged money for several buildings from other Upstate New York millionaires. 

Cornell’s record of service in the First World War is formidable. The university published Military Records of Cornell University in the World War (1930) which runs to 659 pages, and includes biographies of all who died, all awards and honors bestowed, and a brief summary of the service record of every Cornellian: 8,851 served and 264 died.  There was also one German casualty, Hans Wagner ’12, who was struck off the list by university President Livingston Farrand before publication. There were 4,598 officers who served, more than from any other collegiate institution, including West Point. 

As a Land Grant institution, Cornell had offered officer training from inception. In the years prior to the First World War, Cornell men were trained as artillery. Cornell was one of six university locations that hosted the aviation ground schools for pilots and observers. The war memorial referred to later is a dormitory complex.

Cornell's World War I Memorial Chapel (Detail)

Notable achievements of Cornellians in the Great War:

One Congressional Medal of Honor: Sgt. Alan L. Eggers ’19.  Read more about Eggers HERE. 

Five aviation aces: Laurence K. Callahan ‘16 and John O. Willson-Donaldson ‘21, both of whom flew for the British Royal Flying Corps,  Jesse O. Creech ’20, James A. Meissner ‘18, and Leslie J. Rummell ’16. 

48 Distinguished Service Crosses and 11 Navy Crosses.  

188 Division Citations (Silver Stars). 

British decorations: Six Distinguished Service Orders, 12 Military Crosses, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, and one Military Medal. 

French decorations: 23 Légion d’Honneurs, three Médaille Militaires, and 123 Croix de Guerres.  

Sergeant Alan Eggers, MOH

The Seal and Serpent Society (familiarly known as “Seal”) was founded at Cornell in 1905. The name is derived from as ancient Sanskrit source. Classified for decades by the university as a fraternity, Seal is actually an offshoot of the 19th century "Beneficial Societies" movement, which was defined in 1887 by former President Rutherford Hayes: “To gather under the same friendly roof in close intimacy persons differing widely in occupation, politics, religion and conditions of life and fuse them easily and naturally into complete harmony and cordial friendship.”

"The Lodge," Present-Day Seal and Serpent Quarters

Seal owns and operates a conveniently located Tudor-style building (built in 1927) that has living space for up to 29 persons and dining onsite. It isn’t controlled by any national, ethnic, or religious authority.  It isn’t an honorary, although most of its members have been high-achievers. It isn’t "secret"—there are no rituals, sacred texts, or clandestine gatherings. Originally for men only, as was the custom of both the times and university policy, eventually the rules changed, and in the 1980s women began to be included at Seal. Today the membership is open to all who have a connection to Cornell.

In 1917, Seal and Serpent’s members stepped up to meet the challenge of the war. Out of 121 in the relevant classes (1907–24), 62 served on active duty, 55 in the army, six in the navy and one in the marines. Of these 43 were officers, 10 were officer candidates, four were non-commissioned officers, and five were privates. Thirty men served overseas and three died while in service overseas. 

Tablet in Honor of the Three Fallen Members Mounted in the Gallery of the Seal and Serpent Residence 

As recorded in the Cornell history, the three who fell were:

Frank W. McCullough: of Belle Mead, NJ, entered the College of Engineering in 1916 after preparation at the Bound Brook High School. His college career ended in July 1917 when he enlisted in the coast artillery section of the National Guard at Washington. With the federalization of his unit he went into active service as a private at Ft. Washington. He sailed for France on 22 April 1918. 

After a six-week course in a French tractor school at Vincennes, he rejoined his regiment, the 60th Coast Artillery. As a member of the headquarters company of the 2nd battalion he participated in the St. Mihiel offensive. Part of this regiment next undertook a four days convoy to the Verdun front in preparation for the battle of the Meuse-Argonne. A member of his battalion writes: "We traveled over dangerous ground, our position being three miles beyond the trenches which the Germans had held the day before. Every nook and corner was known to them. We located just behind the town of Mountblainville, near Aprémont. On the night of 2 October he was in a former German dugout with others members of the headquarters company. At one o’clock in the morning a seven inch shell made to a direct hit on the air opening of the dugout. All of the officers and men rushed out and when they came back some one said 'Look at Mac, why does he sit so quietly?' They went to him and he was dead."

A private in Battery D of the regiment afterwards wrote to McCullough’s parents: “I want to give you some notion of his life over here. Frank, as you know, was engaged in the dangerous work of determining the positions from which the guns were to be fired. In such work he was constantly obliged to go before the battery into new ground, yet unoccupied by the infantry and light artillery, and was closely attached to the major’s person. Frank was a great favorite with all the men of the regiment. To us he showed his great qualities of heart. He was generous in the extreme, full of open-hearted kindness, and ready sympathy. A man never went without when Mac had any. Never a man lacked for food or money that he couldn’t get it from Mac, if Mac had it. Besides he was quick and intelligent. He was handy at rigging up things, at contriving those comforts which make life bearable for us in the field. Beyond all these things we have to thank him for, it seems to me that Mac possessed to the full all that joyful irresponsibility and sunny optimism of youth which give out pleasure on those nearby.” McCullough was buried at Varennes. The university named him a War Alumnus [equivalent of a graduate].’ 

Joseph J. Mason: from Pittsburgh, PA, entered Cornell in 1909 for the course in arts and sciences. He left Cornell in 1911 and received the Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh the following year. He afterwards engaged in business at Boston.

Mason enlisted in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, 30 May 1917, and having graduated from the School of Military Aeronautics at Austin, went to the Eighth Aviation Instruction Center at Fogia, Italy, for flying training. He was commissioned First Lieutenant, Air Service, 2 March 1918. An assignment to active duty then took him to Issoudun where he became a member of the 213th Pursuit Squadron [this unit had lost a number of members in the sinking of the SS Tuscania]. Before he had an opportunity of serving at the front he was killed 19 July in an airplane accident. The circumstances of his death are given in a letter written by his intimate friend and instructor, Captain Howard C. Smith: “Mason was close to the end of his Chasse training at which point in the course of instruction a small amount of night flying is given. The machine was a small Nieuport and a very sensitive plane. He left the ground, circled the field, and came down to land. Whether or not he had motor trouble is not known, but as he landed outside the stream of light from the searchlight I am led to believe that he did, otherwise he would have been able to reach the light and to land safely.” The Class of 1913, commemorating their dead, gave a room in the War Memorial building. His name is there inscribed. The university named him a War Alumnus.

Edward Tinkham: Student, Ambulance Volunteer, and
Naval Aviator

Edward I. Tinkham: from Montclair NJ. Prepared at the Montclair Military Academy [now Montclair Kimberley Academy]. Entered Cornell in 1912. He first registered for the course in arts and sciences but later transferred to forestry and received the Bachelor of Science degree… In February 1916 he secured a leave of absence from the university in order to enlist in the American Ambulance Field Service [later known as the American Field Service]. He left for France soon afterward. The account of him, written for the memorial volume of the Field Service, states: ”He spent the late winter and early spring with Section Three in Lorraine, and in June, after the section joined the battle at Verdun, he distinguished himself for bravery and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In the fall, on the departure of Section Three for the Orient [the Salonika Front] he was transferred to Section Four where he remained until late in November.”

At the end of nine months service on the front line in France, he returned to Cornell to complete his work for a degree. Filled with intense enthusiasm for the ambulance service and endowed with a personality which made young men instantly accept his leadership, he at once sought recruits among Cornell undergraduates. Prior to our declaration of war he had enrolled 35 students for a new ambulance unit and on the first available date, 14 April 1917, sailed for France with this Cornell group. A comrade wrote: “Tinkham is the recognized leader of the unit and whatever he says goes. No one could be more devoted to our welfare, and there is something about the quiet way that he handles things and looks after us that makes everyone love and respect him.”

Upon their arrival overseas, the men found that the French Army had then a greater need of drivers of ammunition trucks than of ambulance men. The group volunteered for this service, and Tinkham’s splendid qualities were promptly recognized by his appointment as chief of T.M.U. 526, the official designation of the Cornell unit. The men left for the Aisne front 24 May. They had the high honor of being the first group of combatants to carry the American flag in the war. 

Three weeks after his return to France Tinkham wrote to friends in Ithaca: “The section has just finished loading the cars at one of the big depots and is on the road toward the lines. It is early in the afternoon and they can only go to a certain point along the road and wait there until nightfall before continuing to the more advanced posts. The load consists of various trench materials – walks, poles, wires, screens and so on. It is not our task to carry such things, but during slack intervals the Réserve do not always carry ammunition. Before six months are up the men will have accomplished a lot of really hard physical work. Much more, I think, than in an ambulance section. But the work isn’t nearly so appealing, so it will take more courage to see it through. We go about as far up as the ambulances, and take the same risks – in fact on every trip some of the cars have run through shelling.”

When his service with the Field Service had expired in September 1917 he enrolled in the aviation branch of the navy. He trained in France, received his flight ensign’s commission in July 1918 and immediately thereafter went to the air station at Porto Corsini, Italy, for patrol duty in the Adriatic. During the ensuing months before the Armistice he participated in raids on the Istrian port of Pola and in general reconnoitering over the Adriatic.

For his service there he was awarded the Croce al Merito di Guerra by the Italian government, and the Navy Cross by our own government. He remained on duty in Italy after the cessation of hostilities but in the winter fell ill and was placed in the Italian Military Hospital at Ravenna. He died there 30 March 1919 of spinal meningitis at the end of a three-month illness. One of his professors said of him: “Tinkham returned to us from France with an almost holy zeal for the cause of the sufferers in the war. He was a man who seemed to have laid aside his youth in order to fulfill his mission. He spoke again and again to groups of students, talking in the simplest of language and by his unselfish fervor carrying convictions to all who heard him. Each time he ended, there was a deep silence, and then someone would say: ‘Count me in, Tinkham’ or ‘Would I be good enough for the job?’ When Cornell gave him to the war, she gave of her very best. He was of the stuff of which heroes are made.”

Tinkham’s name was inscribed on the Charles A. Fuller memorial tablet erected in Montclair, NJ, in memory of those graduates of the Montclair Academy who gave their lives in the war. In Caldwell Hall, the forestry building at Cornell [no longer], a tablet has been placed to his memory. The class of 1916, commemorating their dead, gave a room in the war memorial building. His name is also inscribed there.

Tinkham’s complete story has also been covered in Roads to the Great War as a multi-part feature. You can read more HERE.

The complete war records of the Seal and Serpent Society are shown below:

Last First  Class Branch    Rank              Duty assignment

Albright Charles 1913 Army 1st Lt. Inf. Various stateside

Allen Edwin 1920 Army 2nd Lt. Sig. 304th  Signal Bn.

Andrus Clift         1912 Army Lt. Col. Arty. Camp McClellan, AL

Andrus Cowles 1916 Army 1st Lt. Arty. Ft. Sill, OK

Armstrong  Donald 1914 Army Cap.t Inf.         104th  MG Bn.

Babcock Howard O. 1914 Army 2nd Lt.             AvS. HQ AEF

Babcock Howard P. 1917 Army 2nd Lt.            AvS. Gerstner Field, LA

Bailey Roger 1919 Army 2nd Lt. Inf. 62nd Pioneer Bn.

Baird George 1919 Army Capt. Inf.         Camp Dix, NJ

Betts Furman 1912 Army Pvt.                 SSU649

Bishop Jerome 1912 Army Pvt.                 Camp Taylor, KY

Blair     George 1910       Army      Maj. Ord. Ordnance Inspector, DC

Blair    Bard       1916        Army     2nd Lt. Arty.    342nd  Arty 

Blunt Stanhope 1909 Army Capt. Ord. HQ Sup. of Arsenals, DC

Cady Donald 1916 Army Ofc. Cand. SATC NYU, NY

Crabtree George 1916 Navy Ens.                 HQ  Bur. of Ord.,  DC

Crippen Theodore 1914 Army Ofc. Cand. Camp Taylor, KY

Drabelle Philip 1917 Navy Ens.                 HQ Naval Comms.

Gavett Joseph 1911 Army Capt. Eng. HQ 2nd Army

Gavett T.O.         1914 Navy Ens.                 Newport Patrol

Gavett Robert 1918 Navy Ens.(A)         NAS Bayshore, NY

Gibbs Leland 1913 Army Sgt.          HQ AEF SOS

Gibson Richard 1913 Army 1st Lt.             Chem CWS Inspector Ohio

Hildreth    Alan     1919        Army        2nd Lt. Arty. Camp Taylor, KY

Hodges Earl         1917 Army 1st Lt. Inf. CO SATC B’ham So.  AL

Hopkins Frank 1919        Army Sgt. Maj.         23rd Engineer Bn.

Hopkins Ralph 1912 Army 1st Lt.              AvS. 307th Aero  Sqdn.

Ingalls Robert 1917 Army Capt. Eng. 5th Engineer Bn.

Knight Andrew 1912 Army Maj. Inf.         Camp Grant, IL

Koehler Herbert 1915 Army 1st Lt.             AvS. 168th  Aero Sqdn.

Koenig Frederick 1916 Army Pvt.          Aero Mech. School, MN

Lardner James 1914 Army 1st Lt. Eng. 309th  Engineer Bn.

Lowes James 1922 Army Ofc.  Cand. SATC Cornell

Maguire James 1916 Army Cpl.          101st Ord. Repair Bn.

Marlow Francis 1910 Army Maj. QMC. HQ Construction Div, DC

Mason Joseph 1913 Army 1st Lt. AvS.     213th Aero. Sqdn.

Mattes Philip 1910 Army Ofc. Cand. Ft. Monroe, VA

McCullough Frank  1920 Army Pvt.                 60th Arty. Coast

Muench Hugo 1915 Army 1st Lt.  Med. 1st Stationary  Hosp.

Murphy Robert 1923 Army Ofc. Cand. SATC Cornell

Pollard George 1920 Army Ofc. Cand. Camp Taylor, KY

Ripley Ralph 1921 Army Sgt.                 816th  Aero Sqdn.

Robbins Alfred 1911 USMC Maj.                 HQ Recruiting 

Roberts Cameron 1920 Army 2nd Lt. AvS. Rich Field, TX

Rometsch  William 1921 Army Ofc. Cand. SATC Cornell

Ruhlen George 1907 Army Lt. Col. Arty. 64th Arty.

Scott  Thirlestone 1912 Army Capt. Engr. 15th Engineer Bn.

Senecal James 1914 Army 1st Lt. Arty. 304th and 341st  Arty.

Senecal Henry 1918 Army 1st Lt. Arty. 37th Arty.

Smith Fabian 1917 Army 1st Lt. Inf. Various stateside

Stibult Victor 1911 Army Capt. Ord. Rock Island Arsenal, IL

Sullivan W. Leo 1919 Army PFC          CWS Nela Park, OH

Taylor Edward 1912 Army Capt. Engr. HQ AEF

Thiele Claude 1911 Army Maj. Arty C. HQ AEF

Tinkham Edward 1916 Navy Ens. (A)         NAS Porto Corsini Italy

Tinkham Norman 1918 Navy Ens.                 USS Virginia

Vietor Hermann 1921 Army Ofc. Cand. SATC Cornell

Vietor Hans 1915 Army Sgt. Maj.  306th  Arty

Wellenkamp  Paul 1924 Army Ofc. Cand. SATC Cornell

Wilkins Sidney 1923 Army Ofc. Cand. SATC Cornell

Williams Edgar 1914 Army 2nd Lt. Arty. 137th Arty.

Wood Frank 1915 Army Capt. Arty C. 52nd  Arty. Coast