100 years ago
Thursday, Sept. 12, 1918. The first Stillwater soldier to die in service to his country during the world war meets his end far from the European front lines, The Saratogian reports.
George Waterbury enlisted in the army medical corps last February 7. He received basic training at Fort Slocum before being transferred to the Panama Canal Zone. The last letter received from him was dated August 11.
Today, Waterbury’s parents are notified by cablegram that George died of influenza on September 5 and was buried the following day. “His mother is prostrated with grief,” a Stillwater correspondent writes. City Jail in Good Condition The state prison commission inspected the Saratoga Springs jail last August 8. The commission publishes its findings and recommendations today.
The report notes that the force under superintendent James H. King consists of 28 officers during the summer but shrinks to eleven men during the winter. That reflects the fluctuation of population from a norm of about 14,000 people to a racingseason peak of more than 30,000.
The jail “is in good condition in point of construction and equipment and adequate for the needs of the city.” However, “Attention has been called in previous reports to the careless manner in which the jail is kept by the janitor. Not much improvement in this respect was evident on the day of the inspection.
“A large quantity of whiskey [presumably confiscated from excise violators] has been stored for a long time in the children’s room. This whiskey should be stored elsewhere and the room maintained for the purpose intended.” In addition, the report recommends that “the jail be cleaned and kept clean.”
Letters From the Boys
Today’s selection of letters from Saratoga County soldiers includes a missive from James W. Grooms of Company L, 105th U.S. Infantry, to his mother, Mrs. Charles Grooms of 14 E. Harrison Street. James enclosed a German one-mark coin with his letter.
“While up on the firing line we had a rough time of it,” James wrote on August 18, “I have got some German money and buttons off a dead German’s clothes. You have read about ‘No-Man’s Land,’ well this company would go over the top in the daytime to get souvenirs.”
James wrote from ten miles behind the lines. “You would not know that there was a war one,” he comments, “the only thing that looks like war is that you can hear the big guns talking to the Germans.”
Convinced that “the American soldiers have got the Germans on the run now,” James writes that “I don’t think the war will last much longer than this fall.”