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Sat. May 18 – 1918
. Got
a letter from Tena yesterday.
She said the baby was far.
Well I sure would like to see her.
What does Eleonora say about it.
I hope the baby is good so you will have time to write me as you
have been doing better than the rest and it sure seems good to get a
letter from home.
I also got a letter from Mrs. Dick yesterday.
She wants me to have the photographer make some more of Emil’s
pictures. Mrs. Bonney and
I were over to Flagler Thursday afternoon.
Bonney has been K.P. all week.
They get a week at a time in the 13th Co. so he just
got off till 4 o’clock, and Herbert had to go on guard at 4.
So Mrs. & I walked around the Fort by ourselves from 4 till 6
o’clock. One has to keep moving around as there is no place for a woman
to go to over there and it was so cold we nearly froze.
So we walked around and watched them go on guard mount.
They have to go through a lot of well I don’t know what to call
it. Their guns are
examined and they have to be dressed up and shaved and have their shoes
polished and they have to line up and march a ways.
There were about 50 I guess altogether.
Herbert got the post around the guard house.
That’s one of the hardest posts because the officers try to
sneak up on the guards or Sentury [sic] as they are called.
I went over again yesterday and took some laundry
over as this has been a rainy week and I did not get them dry to take
over Thursday and thought they would be needed for inspection this
morning. I told Herbert I
would bring them over and leave them at the Post Exchange.
So of course the guard house is only a little ways from that and
he could see me so he got permission to go to the P.X. and met me and
he had his hours put in but he had to stay around the guard house till
the new ones went on. So
we visited there a while and then he told me where to go as he had to
take something to the office.
So we walked up there together, and he gave me the key to get
the mail as he did not dare go himself till after five.
So I got a letter from Mrs. Dick, one from Lena & 1 from Tena
and then I put in the rest of the time walking till Herbert was off and
he went to the dock with me and waited for the boat.
The water was pretty rough but I didn’t get sick.
Herbert is on K.P. today so won’t get over till tomorrow
forenoon sometime.
It rained all night, but I think the sun will
shine pretty soon now.
Herbert has not been called for oversea examination yet but he said
they called a pile of them out of the First Co. and nearly every one
passed. Well I pray they
won’t call him. He told me the other night that the Chaplain was
transferred to the 69th and will go across with them so I
guess I won’t get that job.
Well I don’t care.
So they find a place for us over there.
Mrs. Bonney and I will be together and the boys can be with us
every night then when they are not on guard.
But of course Herbert said he would wait till this blew over.
Mrs. Dick said in her letter they heard Herbert was gone.
Well I wonder where they get all those things out there.
What do the people think I would be staying out here for if
Herbert was gone. They
might know as long as I am here Herbert is here also.
She wrote about Emil’s Ins. again.
Well we can do nothing.
Don’t even know where Herbert’s are.
I should think she knew how little we can do, she had the
experience when she was here.
I wrote them, Emil’s Lieut. Address, and perhaps you could tell
Dick to have Lynch write to him about it.
We can do nothing.
I went to the photographer right away yesterday and told them to print
the pictures. And I will
write to Wedemeyers, and send the pictures just as soon as they are
finished. They are $1.00 a
doz. And if they want some Flagler views I can get them some.
They are 5 cents a piece.
She wrote me a German letter but I will write the other kind
when I ans. It. If you get
to see them you can tell them what I wrote or phone them as it will be
a few days before I write to them and as Herbert says, a fellow don’t
know anything for sure in the army.
Well I am not working for that Catholic Mrs.
anymore. She wanted me to
stay all [the] time, nights, Sundays and all.
And I told her I would do no such thing as I came out here to be
with Herb. And I wouldn’t
let any work keep me from it.
She was so darn nice anyway and thought she had a greenhorn that
she could just work to a finish.
Well she kept a person going every minute and then in the
afternoon instead of getting a little rest I had to take the 3 kids for
a walk. And I had to eat
in the pantry but that part didn’t bother me.
I did not want to eat with them, but she just kept telling how
she wanted things done and I got all worked up about it.
And Herbert said every time he came over here I had the headache
and the first thing I’d be down sick and he did not get me out here to
be some one’s dog, and especially a Catholic. So he made me promise
that I wouldn’t go back or he would go there himself and tell, so I
quit. And she said she had
a girl coming from Seattle to stay with her all the time so I guess it
was just as good. Don’t
tell this over the phone though or there will be more stories.
Well when I get back I can tell you how to be
clean. I guess they would
think the farmers belonged in the pig pens.
Ha! Ha!
Well don’t blue the childrens’ diapers and change their whole
outfits twice a day, stockings and all, and of course you don’t want
anything but white on them.
Well I guess I’ll quit or you will get to [sic] clean.
Ha! Ha!
Gee but I would like to get her in the cow yard about this time
of the year and accidently give her a shove.
Well George wrote me how Eleonora shut the
chickens up the Sunday they were there.
That’s like her alright.
So you took the feather beds off.
Well I guess it don’t get that warm here.
Of course we have no feather beds, but they tell me it is always
cool here evenings. A
person has about the same amt. of covers on all the year round.
I nearly froze yesterday over at Flagler, and I have a fire this
morning. The climate
agrees with me alright.
Well tomorrow is Pentecost day but I guess I won’t
hear any sermon. That sure
was an expensive joy ride for Otto.
Well mabey [sic] they will think of what I told them last
winter. Of course Sallie
thought it pretty cute and I told her they would let those kids run the
cars until they run them into a ditch.
There hasn’t any of them wrote anything about it.
Well in fact the Hocamps are all pretty slow in writing.
You have been doing fine, hope you will continue.
I will enclose a picture of the big gun that Herbert took the
examination on.
Do you think he would shoot rocks off the big hill with it.
You don’t need to tell the Hocamps about these pictures I am
sending you. They don’t
hurt themselves doing things for us either.
Just tell them you got a letter or card which ever it is and
what they don’t know won’t hurt them.
I made Herbert pretty angry when I told him how
they acted all winter. He
wanted to write to them and tell them a few things, but I would not let
him. Herb got a letter
from Sallie just a few days before I arrived here and she said, “We
understand Emma let Fred have the Ford for what you gave for it.”
Believe me the first letter I wrote to her I explained a few
things to her and asked her what she thought I had a sale for and the
expense of having it, if I intended handing the money back and I told
her there wasn’t anyone handing me $100.00 checks.
I was left to see how I could get along.
Thought perhaps she would get sore but she never said anything
about it since.
The sun is shining again.
Now I wanted to get this off this morning but I think the mail
man has been around.
Well I guess I’ve written about everything I know
this morning so will draw to a close and I hope to hear from you again
soon. And may these lines
find you all well as they leave us.
Have you named the baby yet.
John Immel must be in bad shape.
Well I guess the big stout people can get sick just as easy as
the weaker ones. How is
your pig crop coming. You
will be all fixed up when we get back, we won’t know you.
Well just so we get back.
I’ll risk the rest.
May the Lord help us to be reunited soon.
Am glad pa is feeling better.
As ever your sister & brother,
H. & Em.
-source: Cheryl Siebrass. Letters from her
Grandmother's sister Emma and Herbert (brother-in-law) while
stationed stationed at Fort Worden, WA.
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