Armistice meant to most America back in 1918, the ending of a bloody and life-taking struggle, but to the soldier boys from Golconda it meant a great deal more. It meant coming home! After weeks in muddy, sloppy trenches or on unsafe, ill-equipped ships it meant good home cooked meals, seeing old friends.
And the Golconda boys "over there" really did get around, for when the Armistice was signed on the happiest November 11 the world has probably ever seen, the good news saw our boys in England, Scotland, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, on the firing lines in France, on Broadway in New York City, hospitals in France and England, Brussels, Belgium and many were stationed here in the United States-but none where they wanted to be, home.
Julius Layman heard the good news in a front line trench somewhere in France. The news that was passed on from the lips of General Pershing down the line.
When Leslie Wardrop heard that the armistice had been signed he was on the Manhata in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Elmer Futrell, with bullet holes in both his legs, both arms and chest was in a hospital at Portsmouth, England. It was December before he could sail for home. Both Futrell and Chester Polley received the Purple Heart, in recognition of "wounded in action." Mr. Polley lay in a hospital in South Hampton, England.
G. R. Wallace, having read travel literature of the Illinois Central, was basking in the warm sunshine at Cayey, Porto Rico while Donald McCormick sat on a mine-laying ship up in the Firth of Forth in Scotland, thousands of miles away.
But probably happier to hear the command of "cease firing" were the boys who shared their water filled trenches on the front lines with rats, lice and misery in various forms. Khaki-clad and cold sat J. V. Weeks in support behind the lines with shell whistling overhead. Hon. Abner Field was in LeMans, France; Frank Singer in the Argonne forest combat area with a field artillery battery. Bill Allen was in Bordeaux; A. W. Moore in France; Raymond Davis (Johnny Green) in Brussels, Belgium. Lockmaster Hollis was at the naval air station at the Panama Canal. O. L. Thorne was in Champagne, France, on the way to the front lines. Harold Wallace, after his boat had raced to shore November 9 on a false alarm, was on the great white way in New York, November 11.
Many of Pope's soldiers were stationed here in the United States doing specialized service. Will Walker was inspecting meat supplies in Nebraska; Lewis Buchanan was in the air service production unit at Detroit. Joe Shetler was at a submarine base in New London, Conn., Jim Walker and Robie Layman were in seaports at Norfolk, Va. Harry Kluge was in Fort Sevier, S. C.; American Legion Post Commander Kerley at Camp Grant, Elmer Cowsert at Fort McIntosh, Texas; Postmaster Elmer Randolph at Paris Island, S. C.; L.R.S. Barger in training at Lebanon, Ill.; Floyd James at Decatur, Ill.; Archie Wardrop at Camp Frusten, Kan.
_ Copied from Trampe's Pope County Historical Review page 257