100 years ago in The Record
Monday, May 27, 1918
Sergeant James E. De Lee of 2337 Seventh Avenue, a soldier since December 1914, is the latest Troy man reported killed in action in Europe.
It’s unclear when exactly De Lee died, but his name appears in today’s official casualty list from the war department. He served in Battery A in the 7th Field Artillery, which reportedly had the distinction of being the first American unit to fire shells on German forces.
The 27 year old De Lee worked as an iron moulder in the Bussey Foundry before enlisting in the U.S. Cavalry in Albany. After transferring to the artillery, he was among the first Americans to join the action across the Atlantic after the U.S. declaration of war against Germany last year. His aunt, Mrs. James Little of 260 Hoosick Street, last received a letter from him in January. Two uncles also survive him.
Mr. Wellington Settles Doubt
State senator George B. Wellington tells The Record today that “I have not been and am not a candidate for attorney general. I have been and am a candidate for renomination to the State Senate.” Earlier this month, rumors in Republican circles claimed that Wellington would be tapped to fill the vacancy caused by attorney general Merton E. Lewis’s primary challenge to Governor Charles S. Whitman. Whitman’s camp reportedly wanted Wellington on the primary ticket to shore up the governor’s support in Rensselaer County, while anti-prohibition Republicans wanted to kick the senator upstairs to keep him from harming their friends’ interests.
Wellington claims that the governor has never approached him about the attorney generalship. “If the governor should desire me to go on the ticket with him I should consider the matter seriously,” he says, “Geographical reasons, if there were no other reasons, would make such a result most unlikely.”
Under state law, Wellington “could not be a candidate for nomination to two offices, and so failing in one cling to the other.”
Mark Mystery
After additional German currency is found in yesterday’s collections for the Red Cross at Seminary Park, the Troy police are determined to get to the bottom of the scandal hy would someone give marks instead of American money? “While it is uncertain whether the act of giving such coins was good or bad, it is regarded as an insult to patriotism and every effort will be made to ascertain what persons were to blame in the matter,” The Record reports. Investigators say that “it is time some stringent action was taken to see that such persons are brought to justice rather than go about their work of pro- Germanism at will.”