Optimism in the Great War (1917-10-13)

My sister-in-law twice sent me a few letters that my mother's uncle, Myron F. Greed, sent to his brother and our grandfather, Arthur C. Greed.  I think she and my brother were given them by my grandfather or were found by them among his possessions after he died.  He was living in a retirement home near them in central Ohio.   I finally scanned both sets so that I can pass them on to other family members.

Myron F. Greed enlisted or was drafted into the U.S. Army in or before October 1917.  He was in the Sanitary Corps, a group that provided administrative and technical services to military physicians.  Myron spent most of his time in Camp McClellan, Anniston AL.

For the most part, his letters are upbeat and he seems to be enjoying camp life.

I will let his words speak for themselves.  I will only add commentary about people and places he mentions.

Note the postmark is Oct. 17, 1917, Myron wrote what looks like 1915 on his letter.  Note also the addresses of my grandfather on the various envelopes.  My grandfather moved a lot all of his life.

"Mother" is Eva Didham Greed Brainard; a widow, she had married for the second time that summer.

"The baby" is my mother, Martha Marie, born April 7.

Others in this series are:

Optimism in the Great War (1918-04-03)

Optimism in the Great War (1918 Spring)

Optimism in the Great War (Summer 1918)

Optimism in the Great War (1918-04-03)

 I don't know how many letters Myron wrote since October or if any of them are still around.

"Wife" is my grandfather's wife, Marie Schack Greed.  Yes, that is a German name.  She supposedly ran away from home because she didn't want to speak German.  I have some letters to her from a cousin who married a well-off man and lived on Long Island.  The cousin complains about some of the shortages.

"Gertrude" is Myron's and Arthur's sister.  I don't know if she had married yet.

"little Martha" is my mother.

"nigger" - sigh!  What would they think of how multi-hued his brother's descendants have become or may become?  And what would they think of their buddies in future wars?

Others in this series are:

Optimism in the Great War (1917-10-13)

Optimism in the Great War (1918 Spring)

Optimism in the Great War (Summer 1918)

Optimism in the Great War (Spring 1918)

"next Wed - the 11 or 12" - his "previous" letter was written on Wednesday, April 3.  He gives the day of the week for this letter as Tuesday with no day of the month.  I'll let you figure out the actual day he wrote this letter and whether this letter was before or after the letter of April 3.  It's too confusing to explain my own thoughts about this.

The names of the first group of people are not familiar to me, but A.C. Crocker was considered a cousin of my great-grandmother or great-grandfather.  His funeral was the first that I remember going to, probably in the late 1940s.  His longer name is Alfred C. Crocker.  He was born in England in 1896; his wife Minnie A Didham was born in Chagrin Falls in 1873.  She is either a niece of cousin of my great-grandmother.  Her given name may have been Mary, and her father was William Didham.

The name Fred Didham is not familiar to me, but he is probably a nephew of my great-grandmother.  He was born in Ohio in 1886 or 1887.

Martha was his niece who became my mother twenty years later.

Others in this series are:

Optimism in the Great War (1917-10-13)

Optimism in the Great War (1918-04-03)

Optimism in the Great War (Summer 1918)