THIS DAY IN 1918 IN THERECORD

Thursday, May 23, 1918. Corporal James Gordon Bennet Lighthall is the first soldier from Cohoes to be killed in action during the war against Germany, The Record reports. Lighthall’s sister, Mrs. Eugene Hubert, receives notification this morning that he died somewhere in France on April 28. American forces are fighting alongside French and British troops against a massive German offensive on the western front. In April 1917 Lighthall moved with his wife and son to North Adams to take a job there. He volunteered for military service last June and was deployed to Europe that September. He is also survived by his father, John Lighthall, and a brother who lives in Lawyersville. Mrs. Hubert had not heard from Lighthall since he was in a New Jersey training camp. She shares part of that letter today. “If I don’t return you will know that I died fighting for America and the Stars and Stripes, the greatest country and the greatest flag in the world,” Lighthall wrote. He was 22 years old when he died. Troy Evening Line “Troy came back into her own in river transportation to- day,” The Record reports after the Troy Evening Line steamer Clermont arrives from New York City this morning. Regular river service between Troy and the metrop-

olis resumes when the Clermont docks at the Broadway steamboat landing at 5:45 a.m. “The rebuilding of the dock and the passenger dock and the passenger and freight sheds at the old location was rushed to completion for the arrival of the first boat of the new line,” our reporter writes.

The Clermont’s arrival is heralded with “the ringing of bells and tooting of friendly whistles” on both sides of the Hudson. Captain Grant Lazell and his staff are greeted by officials from the Troy Chamber of Commerce, who treat them to breakfast at the Troy Club.

Albany Day Line president E. E. Olcott tells the gathering that “It is now up to Troy to show that direct water service between here and New York is appreciated by giving it paying support. We must, as Ben Franklin once said, all hang together, or we will hang separately.”

The Clermont is one of two Troy Evening Line vessels, along with the Oneonta. The Chamber leadership will travel to New York on board the Clermont tonight, while the Oneonta leaves New York tonight to arrive in Troy tomorrow morning.

As the Clermont takes on “a great load of freight” today, Trojans who tour the boat “express themselves delighted with her appearance and accommodations, her 18 first class state rooms being especially admired.”

-- Kevin Gilbert