Miles Fry and John Worthington - 1918-1919 - Pages 178-181
I'm very lucky to have several of my grandmother Evelyn Clara Call's (1895-1962) photo albums. And perhaps even luckier that she labeled many of the photos - so I know roughly when and where they were taken, and who was in the photos.
My
grandmother attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in
1915-1916, and then Cornell University in Ithaca, New York from 1916-1919.
Pages
178-181 in the album are unique. I do not believe any of the photographs on
these pages were taken by my grandmother. The photos all seem to relate to the 1918-1919
World War I military service of her friend Miles William Fry. .
Page
178 is titled At the “Red
Rose”
Page
179 is titled “Along the Severn”
Page
180 has photographs of Miles William Fry and John Alexander Worthington at Camp
Hancock, Georgia
Lt. Worthington
Ready for Bayonet School
Page
181 has photographs from Camp Beauregard, Louisiana
Miles
William Fry and John Alexander Worthington likely met at either Camp Meade or
Camp Hancock. However, they took very different life paths to get there.
Miles
Fry was a friend of my grandmother, Evelyn Clara Call. He appears in several
photographs in the album. He was born 13 March 1898 in Ephrata, Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania.[1] He grew up in Ephrata, the
son of Jacob M Fry and Margaret Ruth. He graduated from Ephrata High School in
1916.[2] After high school, Miles
enrolled at Cornell University where he met my grandmother. He graduated from
the Cornell School of Agriculture in 1920.[3]
World War I interrupted Fry’s
education, as it did many other young men of his generation. On 15 May 1918, he
enlisted in the U.S. National Army as a Private First Class at Camp Meade in Maryland.[4] He was assigned to the 79th
Division at Camp Meade from May 15 - June 20, when he transferred to Camp
Hancock, Georgia.[5] At Camp Hancock, he attended
the first Machine Gun Officer Training School at the Machine Gun Training
Center[6]. On September 15, 1918, Fry was honorably
discharged from the Army to accept a commission as a Second Lieutenant.[7] At Camp Hancock, he served
in the 50th Machine Gun Battalion.[8]
On
November 1st, 1918, Fry was transferred to Camp Beauregard, Louisiana where he
served in the 49th Machine Gun Battalion until he was discharged from the Army
on 4 February 1919.[9]
Fry’s World War I military service was
mentioned in his obituary. “During World War
I, Mr. Fry served in the 50th Machine Gun Battalion, and graduated from the
first machine gun school, conducted at Camp Hancock, Ga. At this time the gun
was a new weapon, and he spent his Army career as an instructor, serving in six
other Army camps. After the war, he was discharged as a second
lieutenant.”[10]
After
the war, Fry returned to Cornell University, and his life in Ephrata. He
married Babette Ruppin in 1923, farmed, and raised his family of two sons and
two daughters. During the Roosevelt administration he worked for the Farm
Security Administration as a farm debt adjustor. In 1955, he started in the
nursery business, eventually owning the Miles W. Fry and Son, Inc, Nursery. Fry
died in Ephrata on 26 December 1982. [11]
John
Worthington was born in Annapolis, Maryland on 5 July 1897 to Joseph Muse
Worthington and Margaret Taylor Randall.[12] He grew
up in Annapolis where he attended local schools including St. John’s College. He left St. John’s in 1913 to manage
the family farm. In 1915, he went to work for a local manufacturing company,
Bartlett-Hayward Company. In 1916, Worthington joined the 1st Regiment of the
Maryland National Guard, where as a sergeant, he served in a machine gun
company along the Mexican border. After his National Guard Service, he returned
to work at Bartlett-Hayward. [13]
On May 15, 1918, Worthington enlisted in the U.S. Army at Camp Meade in
Maryland as a private first class. In June, he was transferred to Camp Hancock,
likely at the same time as Miles Fry. He attended the Machine Gun Training
School at Camp Hancock. On September 15, 1918, he was discharged from the Army,
rejoining as a second lieutenant in the 51st Machine Gun Battalion. At the end
of October, he transferred to Camp
Beauregard in Louisiana, where he served until being honorably discharged on 18
March 1919.[14]
After
the war, Worthington returned to Maryland, resuming work at Bartlett-Hayward.
He continued to work there, and at its
successor company, the Koppers Company, for the rest of his career. He married
Elizabeth Crum, and they had two daughters. Worthington was active in many
professional and social organizations until his death in Ruxton, Maryland on 11
October 1975. [15]
I
don’t know if Miles Fry and John
Worthington stayed in touch after serving together during World War I at Camps
Hancock and Beauregard. I’d like to hope they did, but even if they didn’t I’m
glad hints of their friendship and service together is memorialized in my
grandmother’s photo album.
I’d like to thank Kimberly Powell for help identifying John Alexander
Worthington and information about both men’s military service.
[1] Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Reamstown, Salem
Lutheran Church, Baptisms, 23 March 1899, Miles William Fry; digital image, “Pennsylvania and New Jersey, U.S. Church
and town Records, 1669-2013,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2454341:2451 : accessed 3 April 2023). Fry’s baptismal record indicates he was born in 1898. He was listed in
his obituary as being age 84 in 1982, which is consistent with an 1898 birth.
In his service records, his birthdate is listed as March 13, 1897. He may have
added year to his age to facilitate entering the Army in 1918. For 1897
birthdate see Washington, D.C, War Department, The Adjutant General’s Office,
Form No. 724-2 1/2, Application No. 325633, Fry, Miles W.; digital image,
“Pennsylvania, U.S. World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files,
1917-1919, 1934-1938,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/758625:60884 : accessed 3 April 2023), images 3420-21 of 3855.
[2] “Miles Fry,
Hybrid Tree Pioneer of Frysville, Dies at Age 84”, The Ephrata Review (Pennsylvania), 28 Oct 1982, page 1, column 1, and page 3, column 4; digital images,
Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/742923150 and https://www.newspapers.com/image/742923171 : accessed 4 April 2023).
[3] “Miles Fry,
Hybrid Tree Pioneer of Frysville, Dies at Age 84”, The Ephrata Review (Pennsylvania), 28 Oct 1982, page 1, column 1, and page 3, column 4; digital images,
Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/742923150 and https://www.newspapers.com/image/742923171 : accessed 4 April 2023).
[4] Washington, D.C, War Department, The Adjutant
General’s Office, Form
No. 724-2 1/2, Application No. 325633, Fry, Miles W.; digital image,
“Pennsylvania, U.S. World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files,
1917-1919, 1934-1938,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/758625:60884 : accessed 3 April 2023), images 3420-21 of 3855. Fry later stated on
his Pennsylvania Veteran’s Compensation
Application that he enlisted in Ithaca, New York where Cornell University is
located on 15 May 1918. See Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Veteran’s Compensation
Application, Number 325633, Miles William Fry; digital images, “Pennsylvania,
U.S. World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919,
1934-1938,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/758627:60884 : accessed 3 April 2023), images 3422-23 of 3855.
[5] Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Veteran’s Compensation Application, Number
325633, Miles William Fry; digital images, “Pennsylvania, U.S. World War I
Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919, 1934-1938,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/758627:60884 : accessed 3 April 2023), images 3422-23 of 3855. Fry was likely one
of the 69 candidates who reported to Camp Hancock from Camp Meade on 20 June
1918. Georgia, Camp Hancock, 3rd Company, Central Machine Gun Officers Training
School, 20 June 1918; digital images, “U.S. Morning Reports, 1912-1939,” Fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/image/709139570 : accessed 3 April 2023).
[6] Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Veteran’s Compensation Application, Number
325633, Miles William Fry; digital images, “Pennsylvania, U.S. World War I
Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919, 1934-1938,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/758627:60884 : accessed 3 April 2023), images 3422-23 of 3855.
[7] Washington, D.C, War Department, The Adjutant
General’s Office, Form
No. 724-2 1/2, Application No. 325633, Fry, Miles W.; digital image,
“Pennsylvania, U.S. World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files,
1917-1919, 1934-1938,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/758625:60884 : accessed 3 April 2023), images 3420-21 of 3855.
[8] Washington, D.C, War Department, The Adjutant
General’s Office, Form
No. S4d-1, Application No. 325633, Fry, Miles W.; digital image, “Pennsylvania,
U.S. World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919,
1934-1938,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/758623:60884 : accessed 3 April 2023), images 3418-19 of 3855.
[9] Washington, D.C, War Department, The Adjutant
General’s Office, Form
No. S4d-1, Application No. 325633, Fry, Miles W.; digital image, “Pennsylvania,
U.S. World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919,
1934-1938,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/758623:60884 : accessed 3 April 2023), images 3418-19 of 3855.
[10] “Miles Fry,
Hybrid Tree Pioneer of Frysville, Dies at Age 84”, The Ephrata Review (Pennsylvania), 28 Oct 1982, page 1, column 1, and page 3, column 4; digital images,
Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/742923150 and https://www.newspapers.com/image/742923171 : accessed 4 April 2023). No other source mentions Fry’s service as an instruct, or his service
anywhere other than Camp Hancock and Camp Beauregard.
[11] “Miles Fry,
Hybrid Tree Pioneer of Frysville, Dies at Age 84”, The Ephrata Review (Pennsylvania), 28 Oct 1982, page 1, column 1, and page 3, column 4; digital images,
Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/742923150 and https://www.newspapers.com/image/742923171 : accessed 4 April 2023).
[12] Maryland, Anne Arundel County, Annapolis, Saint
Anne’s Cemetery,
Memorial 7315598, John Alexander Worthington,
FindAGrave,
(https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74315598/john-alexander-worthington : accessed 4 April 2023), memorial created by Dave Crouse, 2 Aug
2011, photograph of gravestone Dave Crouse 2 Aug 2011.
[13] “Memorial
Services Planned for John A. Worthington,” The Evening Sun, (Baltimore, MD), 13 October 1975, page A6, column 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/371926747/ : accessed 4 April 2023).
[14] “Maryland
Military Men, 1917-1918,” John Alexander Worthington; database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/72230:4545 : accessed 3 April 2023). For discharge on 16 September 1918, see
Georgia, Camp Hancock, 3rd Company, Central Machine Gun Officers Training
School, 16 September 1918; digital images, “U.S. Morning Reports, 1912-1939,” Fold3 (https://www.fold3.com/image/709139591 : accessed 3 April 2023).
[15] “Memorial
Services Planned for John A. Worthington,” The Evening Sun, (Baltimore, MD), 13 October 1975, page A6, column 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/371926747/ : accessed 4 April 2023).
Previous pages in the album: The Call Family
Next pages in the album: Wells College, Aurora, New York
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