Local writer Sarah St. John pulls from the Journal-World archives to compile reports of what it was like to be in Lawrence decades ago.
On the eve of the nationwide Red Cross campaign, a group of Douglas County citizens were reported to have informally agreed to cut out “luxuries” during the week-long fund drive. Under the headline “CUT OUT SHORTCAKE FOR COUNTRY’S SAKE,” the Lawrence Journal-World wrote, “War is no ...
Rosie French doesn't know whether her great-great-grandfather, Rev. Francis Barker, ever had a proper gravestone. He was buried in 1863 at Lakeview Cemetery, but, when the Kansas River changed course in 1871, threatening his and others’ graves at Lakeview, Barker was moved to his final ...
The Red Cross in June 1917 was preparing for its first national war fund drive (held June 18-25, 1917). The U.S. goal for the week-long drive was $100 million, with Douglas County pledging to raise $35,000 of the total. Kansas organizer Prof. J. N. Van der Vries told a Journal-World reporter at ...
In spite of a big storm affecting the western part of Douglas County, the Journal-World reported that 1,621 men had turned out for the military draft registration on June 5. It was considered possible that a few in the storm-affected area had missed the registration, but all in all, the event ...
More information became available in late May, 1917, on the draft registration day scheduled for June 6. According to an official front-page announcement in the Journal-World, “EVERY MAN between his twenty-first and thirty-first birthdays, MARRIED or SINGLE, except those actually in the army, ...
Military recruitment following the U.S. entry into the war had been slow but steady in the Lawrence area. On May 14, 1917, the Journal-World reported that all Lawrence National Guard organizations had been ordered to recruit to war strength, giving companies authority to recruit 50 more men in ...