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| Wyomingites on the Front Served Principally in the 91st "Wild West" Division and the 148th Field Artillery Regiment |
On March 26, 1917, the Wyoming National Guard was ordered up to federal service. After war was declared, the Wyoming troops trained on the East Coast and were sent to France beginning in December 1917. 11,393 Wyoming men served in the war, about 6-7 per cent of the estimated population—a rate well above the national average. Not all fought overseas, but those who did were stationed in France. Many were part of the 148th Field Artillery; others served in the 91st Division. The capitol rotunda in Cheyenne holds a bronze tablet listing the state's fallen in the war. There are 468 names on the tablet, which is slightly inaccurate since Navy personnel were not included, and a number of non-Wyomingites were, An additional 881 Wyoming men were wounded in the war. After the Armistice, thousands of Americans, including many from Wyoming, were demobilized near Cheyenne through Fort D. A. Russell, which had also served as a major mobilization point at the start of the war.
Before America's Entry
From Aug. 3, 1914, when German forces invaded Belgium and declared war on France, until April 6, 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany, the prevailing attitude in Wyoming and the United States was neutral and isolationist. The majority of citizens apparently felt that since the United States was not seriously threatened, the nation should stay out of the conflict.
Still, war news flooded the country. Wyoming citizens participated in relief efforts, especially for Belgium. In the "flour relief program," from November 1914 to January 1915, residents of the state donated money to purchase flour from local mills to be shipped to starving Belgian women and children. Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyo., together provided 32 tons of flour.
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| Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard of the Univ. of Wyoming Worked Tirelessly to Build Support for the War |
The Red Cross also was active. The Wyoming Tribune in Cheyenne reported Nov. 25, 1914 that "ragged little waifs contributed their pennies” at a fundraiser and “wore a Red Cross bedecked pin with as great a pride as the plutocrat who gave his greenbacks." By noon, “eager girls and their chaperones, stationed all over the city”, had collected $400.
Many citizens followed war news with interest. On Aug. 29, 1914, The Wyoming Tribune mentioned a "long and ardent discussion of the European war" at the recent meeting of the Young Men's Literary Club in Cheyenne. About a year later, two men were arrested after a fist-and-knife fight in Sheridan, Wyo., over which side would win the war.
America Joins the War
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| Men of the 148th Field Artillery in France |
The Wyoming Legislature, though, eagerly supported the declaration of war. Even before Congress had acted on military conscription, Wyoming’s legislature passed a resolution supporting a draft and commending Wilson for severing diplomatic relations with Germany. On March 26, 1917, the Wyoming National Guard was ordered up to federal service. After war was declared, the Wyoming troops trained on the East Coast and were sent to France beginning in December 1917. All told, about 12,000 Wyoming men served—about 6-7 per cent of the estimated population—a rate well above the national average.
Wyoming, along with the rest of the country, exploded into super-patriotism. Newspapers throughout the state exhorted citizens to buy Liberty Loan Bonds. The May 24, 1917, Pine Bluffs Post reported that bonds, maturing in 30 years, paid 3.5 percent interest and were available in denominations from $50 through $100,000.
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| French Soldiers Join Wyoming Red Cross Workers and Doughboys at a Liberty Loan Event |
Reports of mass meetings, flag displays, and resolutions in support of President Wilson filled the newspapers. Waves of propaganda washed over the nation and the state. Along with the rest of the nation, most Wyomingites responded to the call to support the war effort.
Social pressure to join in patriotic displays and to buy war bonds intensified. War bonds were a way for people to lend money to the government to fight the war. People with German names came under the suspicion of their neighbors. In an extreme display, war supporters burned all of the German texts at Lander High School at an intersection in the center of town.
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| Helen Svenson in Her Victory Garden in Laramie |
At the same time, people ate less and grew more of their own food. Women were central to the efforts on the home front in Wyoming. They worked in jobs that were once dominated by men, pledged to conserve food, devoted time to knitting wool hats and socks for soldiers, prepared bandages for the Red Cross and collected tens of thousands of books for the servicemen serving in France.
Wyoming Life on the Homefront
Life at home was nonstop work, especially for farmers and ranchers who had lost much of their labor force when young men were drafted or volunteered. At the same time, prices for agricultural goods had skyrocketed. Demand was high because war-ravaged Europe could not provide food for itself.
Wheat prices tripled, from 76 cents a bushel in 1912 to $2.49 in June 1917. In August of that year, the government set prices at $2.20 per bushel for the following year's crop. The price of beef also rose dramatically, and the U.S. Food Administration granted ranchers a partial exemption from the prohibition on grain hoarding so they could store feed for the winter.
Wool, 27 and a half cents a pound in 1915—already a high price compared with the previous 30 years—jumped to approximately 50 cents in 1917 and was fixed by the War Industries Board at 55 cents a pound for 1918. Producers of these agricultural goods prospered, but also had to pay higher prices for the items they purchased: clothing, groceries, machinery and equipment.
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| Wyoming Women Stepped Up to Keep the Railroads Running |
Coal and oil extraction also boomed. Between 1916 and 1918, oil production in Wyoming doubled, from 6 million barrels to more than 12 million. The state’s coal production mounted from 8.8 million tons in 1917 to more than 9 million in 1918.
Democratic Gov. John B. Kendrick, elected in 1914, ran for the U.S. Senate in 1916 and won. He did not resign the governorship, however, until after the end of the 1917 session of the state legislature. He took his Senate seat March 4, 1917, just five weeks before the nation entered the war. Secretary of State Frank L. Houx became acting governor, serving through January 1919, the entire duration of U.S. involvement in the war. Following the dictates of the federal government, as did all the other governors, Houx oversaw the activities of the state's Council of National Defense. Houx also supervised county draft boards and recruitment for the National Guard.
Patriotic Fever
[As in every other state in the Union,] patriotic organizations proliferated. The One Hundred Percent American Society had a chapter in almost every Wyoming town. The Cheyenne chapter's constitution, article three, stated, "The object of the Society shall be to promote patriotism and to aid and assist the United States Government in the prosecution of the war against Germany and its allies to the fullest extent, and to discountenance and suppress all disloyalty, and to aid and encourage the vigorous prosecution and punishment of all persons seeking to interfere with or hamper the successful prosecution of the war."
Prior to the declaration of war, on Feb. 14, 1917, Congress had passed the Espionage Act to allow for prosecution of spies. On May 16, 1918, 13 months after America entered the war, President Wilson signed the Sedition Act, aimed at suppressing German sympathizers and unpatriotic talk in general. U.S. attorneys' offices in each state received reports of suspected spies or seditious activity and had to investigate each complaint and decide whether it was valid. During World War I, there were concerns that immigrants from enemy countries would sabotage the national war effort or assist their home countries in attacking the United States from within its borders. For this reason, German nationals (German citizens) were required to register with federal officials and carry identification cards.
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| Enemy Alien Registration of Henry Schroeder of Prarie Dog Ranch, Sheridan County |
In late November 1917, seven months after the United States entered World War I, a high school teacher in Powell, Wyo., was asked to resign because she was a pacifist. The Nov. 22, 1917, Powell Leader reported that members of the community had been complaining to the school board that Miss Georgiana Youngs had been making "unpatriotic expressions" in the classroom. The article did not identify those who complained. The message was clear: In the patriotic fervor sweeping Wyoming and the nation in wartime, dissenting views were not tolerated.
Many Wyoming citizens reported the suspicious behavior of their neighbors and community members to their county attorneys, who in turn reported to C.L. Rigdon, U.S. attorney for Wyoming. Despite hundreds of reports, however, few cases were prosecuted.
Sometimes people took advantage of the espionage and sedition laws to take revenge on a neighbor in an ongoing dispute, or to even up a score. In one case, a woman caught her husband cheating on her, had him arrested for adultery and reported him as a spy.
Wyoming's Bucking Bronco Heritage
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| Doughboy Artist Sgt. George Ostrom |
A Wyoming soldier who served in France, George Ostrom, was the bugler of CompanyA of the 148th Field Artillery. During his World War I service, a contest was held to design a distinctive unit emblem. George created what may be the earliest rendition of Wyoming’s famed “bucking broncho,” that is shown above. When George showed up with his drawing, the contest was immediately terminated, and he was declared the unanimous winner. Ostrom’s iconic emblem, used on 148th Field Artillery guns and vehicles during WWI, eventually would be redrawn in 1935 by artist Allen True at the direction of Wyoming Secretary of State Lester Hunt for use on Wyoming’s license plates. The first plates were issued in 1936 and the state has used the image ever since.
Throughout his military service on the Mexican border and in France, Ostrom prepared nearly 20 drawings of military life—in combat and behind the lines. He originally made these sketches in pencil in the field, on whatever paper he could scrounge. His son, George Ostrom Jr., recalls that after he returned home, his father would spend his evenings inking in the pencil sketches on the family’s kitchen table. We will feature George's drawings in a future issue of Roads to the Great War.
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| World War I Memorial, Laramie |
Sources: The Wyoming Historical Society's Online Encyclopedia WYOHISTORY.ORG; Wyoming National Guard; Wyoming State Library; Wyoming Veterans Memorial Museum
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