100 years ago in The Record

Thursday, Nov. 22, 1917

“I would give a good deal to be permitted to pass sentence on the man who started the report that we had diphtheria in his regiment,” Col. James M. Andrews tells a Record reporter at Camp Wadsworth in Spartansburg SC.

Andrews commands the 105th U.S. Infantry regiment, formerly known as the Troy-based Second New York National Guard Infantry regiment. He’s still angry over a false report of diphtheria that resulted in the camp being placed under quarantine from November 18 until yesterday morning. Our reporter withheld news of the quarantine until lab tests proved that an early diagnosis had been mistaken.

“Severe punishment ought to be meted out to the man who started the report and caused the people back home so much anxiety,” Andrews says. Since local reporters sat on the news, it’s unclear how word got out.

Meanwhile, severe punishment may be meted out to Pvt. Harold Moore of Company C, who was arrested on November 20 after deserting the camp on September 8.

Moore took his chances in Spartansburg, becoming a hotel kitchen worker. He only got caught when he stole a box of meet from the hotel and tried to sell it to soldiers in camp. Our correspondent reports that Moore was sentenced to a $50 fine or 60 days on the rock pile in a civilian court yesterday.

“After the civil authorities get through with him he will be turned over to the military authorities and tried by courtmartial on the dual charge of desertion and larceny,” the reporter adds.

Ayer camp life

While Troy’s former militiamen receive training in trench warfare at Camp Wadsworth, the city’s draftees receive their training at Camp Devens in Ayer MA. Troy Chamber of Commerce president E. Harold Cluett recently visited Camp Devens and reports on his findings to the local Y.W.C. A. tonight.

“This place is about 9,000 acres which a few months ago was a wilderness but now is a town with 1,400 buildings, 20 miles of roads, miles of electric lights and many of the conveniences of a city with the exception of heat in the barracks, which is much needed,” Cluett says.

The Y.M.C. A. has built fourteen “huts” for the soldiers, as well as a “hostess house” for female visitors to Camp Devens.

“In most of the army camps no woman can meet a soldier in open camp,” Cluett explains, “The meeting place must be the hostess house where a safe and pleasant home like environment is provided.”

Many soldiers told Cluett that if not for the Y facilities, “the camp life would be intolerable.”