100 years ago in The Saratogian
Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1918. As the war in Europe approaches a climax, Saratoga County soldiers are apparently involved in the thick of the fighting.
The Saratogian reports that five county men, including two brothers, appear on today’s official casualty list from the American Expeditionary Force in France. Seven have been reported wounded or missing in action in the last 48 hours.
“‘Missing in action’ – the message from the war department that arouses more anxiety than perhaps any other because of the fact that it may mean one of several fates has befallen our soldier boys – has again been the word sent to Saratoga Springs,” a reporter writes after Mr. and Mrs. M. J. Tierney of 246 Nelson Avenue are notified that Private William M. Tierney of Company C, 310th Infantry, has been missing since September 22. Tierney was drafted last May and trained at Camp Dix, New Jersey, before going overseas. He last wrote home on August 14.
George Lee of Ballston Spa learns today that his brothers, Sergeant Everett W. Lee and Corporal James V. Lee of Company L, 105th U.S. Infantry, are in military hospitals. Sgt. Lee, a ten-year veteran of the local National Guard company, was wounded by shrapnel while Cpl. Lee, a three-year veteran, suffers from shell shock after surviving a mine explosion. In civilian life, both live at 211 Nelson Avenue in the Spa City.
Corporal Daniel Moriarty of Company L was wounded slightly on August 2, according to a telegram received today by his mother, Mary Moriarty of 121 Middle Avenue. Hours earlier, she’d received a letter dated October 8, in which Cpl. Moriarty didn’t mention his wound.
Corporal Patrick D. Burns, a member of Company L since its border-patrol duty in Texas in 1916, is recuperating from a poison gas attack in an English hospital.
Denied Wife, Now He’s Draft Evader
Clarence Hill is arraigned in federal court this morning on a charge of draft evasion after repudiating his marriage exemption in city court last night.
Hill married Dolly Hill without a license in 1913, in a ceremony performed by a blind minister. He was arrested last Monday for failure to support Dolly and their child. At his arraignment, he testified that they were never legally married, even though he had claimed exemption from the draft on the basis of his marriage. He told Judge Michael McTygue that he only claimed the exemption to “help these people out,” feeling certain that the draft board “wouldn’t take me nohow, ‘cause I got a bad eye.”
McTygue “differed from that opinion and told Hill so in no uncertain terms,” The Saratogian reports.
— Kevin Gilbert