A NEBRASKA CENTENNIAL
   A hundred years ago next September the advance guard of the sixth U. S. Infantry regiment reached a point on the Missouri river in Washington county, Nebraska, about two miles north of the present Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha railway station at the village of Fort Calhoun, and began to debark from the boats in which they had journeyed from Pittsburgh to St. Louis and from St. Louis to their Nebraska destination.
   It is a beautiful, wooded bottom where the landing was made, the soil rich, the grass abundant, wild animals and birds everywhere. A little stream came down from the prairie, a high bank on the west sheltered the spot selected for the first camp. At this day it is still one of the beauty spots of Nebraska.
   This was the beginning of white civilization in Nebraska.
   From the original records of the Sixth Infantry in my possession I quote the following:

Hdqrs. 9th Military Dept.   
Camp Missouri, Nov. 1, 1819.

Department orders:
   A military post is to be established and is to be called and officially known. as soon as the barracks are erected, by the name of Cantonment Missouri.
   In the hard winter which followed 157 men died out of 788 in this first Nebraska military camp. Their graves may still be seen on the hillside and the plow unit spade have already exposed more than one gray uniform and skeleton of the men of a hundred years ago.
   The next year the camp was moved two miles to the high bluff called Council Bluff - where Lewis and Clark held the first council with Nebraska Indians on August 3, 1804. Here arose Fort Atkinson - a military city of over 1,000 people, whose history covers the period 1820-27.
   This year is the Nebraska Centennial. A hundred years since organized white settlement began; since the first library, the first school, the first saw and grist mill, the first brick yard, the first agricultural experiment station - and as Mr. Watkins shows elsewhere - the first newspaper was published in Nebraska. An early organization will be made to fitly celebrate Nebraska's centennial on the banks of the Missouri.

May 14, 1919.

Dear Sir:
   You wrote me on Oct. 18th, 1918, making inquiry about the key

to the old blockhouse. Today I found a newspaper clipping concerning the key. There is no date on it, but it says "that Mr. Hill seat the key to Mrs. Thomas Morton, and she in turn loaned it to Mrs. Knotts, who was secretary, at that time, of the State Historical Society. It to be put on exhibition with other mementos of early days held by the Society." I understand the state built a building at Lincoln. The article also says that "at any time the local organization wanted the key it was to be returned." For my part I think the Society ought to have it. Perhaps by this you may be able to locate it. As to the arrows mentioned in the letters referred to I decided to bring them back rather than send them. I have not lost my love for Nebraska yet and hope to visit there many times. I would appreciate it very much if you would let me know if you find the key.

Very respectfully,   
MRS. JEAN E. HILL.
Los Angeles, Cal.

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(handwritten below photo - "See C 2399")

  On December 7, 1918, I was upon a French railway express train on route from Paris, by way of Dijon, for the American hospital center at Allereye and particularly for Base Hospital 49, the Nebraska representative among the hospital units in Europe. Allereye is a little French village of perhaps 400 people, about 150 miles southeast of Paris and 40 miles from the frontier of Switzerland. Upon the slightly rolling, partly wooded, plain adjoining the village the U. S. army engineers had laid out a great hospital center covering about eighty acres of ground. Ten hospital units were in this center, seven of them regular army hospitals, one from the University of Minnesota, one from the University of Cincinnati and one from the University of Nebraska. Special railroad tracks had been made running through the heart of the camp. Twenty thousand beds were included in the plans for this center.
   It was July, 1918, when this was done. The air was filled with rumors of a great movement by the American army against the German lines. The various hospital units were hurried to this center. Doctors, hospital attendants and nurses worked night and day making drainage ditches, building hospital huts, installing beds and laboratories, setting in order all the appliances and instruments for modern hospital work. No one knew how soon the camp would be flooded with the trainloads of broken and maimed American boys from the battle front.
   It was August 7th when the men of Nebraska base hospital arrived at Allereye. The first wounded man arrived August 26. A great concentration at American divisions was already forward. This was the preparation for the St. Mihiel drive, which took place September 12-14. On September 14 the nurses, 100 in number, belonging to the Nebraska unit, arrived at Allereye. It had been estimated that it might cost 60,000 in killed and wounded to capture the St. Mihiel salient. But the American artillery so thoroughly deluged the German trenches with shell fire that the actual losses to the American army were less than one-fourth the estimates.
   Meanwhile the great attack in the Argonne Forest and along the Meuse north of Verdun want forward. Here the losses were greater than expected. The Allereye hospital center was so situated that it received more wounded men during the Argonne battle than any other of the American hospitals. Altogether there were received here over 40,000 casualties. Of these 4,844 were cared for in the Nebraska unit, the highest number of cases at any one time being 1,934. As the unit was intended to furnish beds for 1,000 patients, the extent of its overcrowding may be surmised.
   The day I arrived at Allereye there were about 1,100 cases in the hospital. It was three weeks after the last trainload of wounded had reached the center. The next morning was Sunday. At the invitation of Major Stokes I accompanied him on a four hours inspection of all the wards in the Nebraska unit. The memories of that morning will always be among the most vivid of the war. In scores of cases I saw the wounds dressed. Many of these men were so torn with frightful lacerating projectiles that it seemed impossible for them to survive. Yet nearly all of them were hopeful and clear-eyed. Almost all made recovery.
   The ingenious devices of the surgeons to hold together a shattered human being while nature restored the broken bones, recreated the tissues and knit together the mangled flesh, commanded my continuous admiration. A soldier's arm had been broken by a shell in two or three places, both legs were shattered, several ribs fractured, much of his flesh reduced to pulp. Yet there he was, three weeks after he had been picked up at the front, swinging in a kind of cat's cradle which took all the weight from the broken bones

and tissues, smiling and smoking a cigarette while the nurse carefully and tenderly removed the old dressings and supplied new ones.
   It was the aim of the Nebraska surgeons to save the limb if possible. in dozens of cases men went out of the Nebraska hospital, homeward, on two legs, where a first examination seemed to indicate amputation necessary. I remember one man in particular who had fought a month's battle inside the hospital to save his leg. His skin was clear, his eye bright and his voice cheerful. He had won the victory with the help of the hospital.
   Along the line of the Meuse a month before I had seen the waste and the wreck of war--dead soldiers and horses scattered over tile field, broken trucks and caissons, wounded men in ambulances going to the rear. Here was the salvage station. The men and women of the hospital corps constituted the redemption arm of the military service. No heroism or sacrifice at war times seemed to me so worthy of highest praise as that of the hospital corps.
   Colonel J. H. Ford, commander of the Allereye center, said to me when I called upon him Monday: "The people of Nebraska may justly be proud of Base Hospital Unit 49. The official report just out shows that it has the lowest percentage of mortality of any hospital unit in the American army."
   Sunday afternoon, December 8, we had a Nebraska rally in the Red Cross ball. Major Stokes presided. Most of what was said was about Nebraska. No one can know without experience how far away home seems in at foreign land, particularly when you are under orders and do not know how long the homeward bound order may be delayed. So a tender sentiment pervaded the meeting and the handclasps were warm, for the hearts were full.

The 0. P. L. Club.
   I was invited to a smoker held by the 0. P. L. Club. I had no more idea what. the 0. P. L. Club was than it rabbit with its eyes shut, but I found out. It was a live wire organization. Translated its initials meant "Order of Permanent Lieutenants,' and it held frequent celebrations over the significance of its name. All the members were young doctors having the rank of lieutenant. Most of them had hoped to become captains or majors or something while in the military service. All of them had bumped up against headquarters and realized there were no further prospects for their ambitious. So they organized the order of the 0. P. L. They had a class song. It was a mile long, but two stanzas will suffice:

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A. C. STOKES, Major M. C.

Bastain, Henry E., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Bauer, Peter L., Private 1cl., Scribner, Nebr.
Blair, Peter J., Private 1cl., Mondamin, Iowa.
Blome, Ernest R., Private 1cl., Fremont, Nebr.
Brown, Joe R., Barber, Wahoo, Nebr.
Buffington, George M., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Burley, Robert 0., Private 1cl., Chicago, Ills.
Burnham, Phillip S., Private 1cl., Lincoln, Nebr.
Conner, Paul, Private 1cl., Stratton, Nebr.
Conrad, Paul E., Private 1cl., Sabetha, Kan.
Copeland, Harold T., Private 1cl., Deaver City, Nebr.
Connolly, James J., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Dally, Mike H., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Davies, Stanley B., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Davison, Almond D., Private 1cl., Dorchester, Nebr.
Drake, Marlin K., Private 1cl., Lincoln, Nebr.
Driver, George D., Private 1cl., Battle Crack, Iowa.
Dillon, Edward M., Private 1cl., Perry, Iowa.
Ericksen, Edward M.. Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Falck, Paulus P., Private 1cl., Lincoln, Nebr.
Fitzgerald, Roger, Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Fuchs, Gustavo 0., Private 1cl., Stanton, Nebr.
Goddin, Gilbert W., Private 1cl., Richmond, Va.
Grant, Richard S., Private 1cl., Beatrice, Nebr.
Hardy, William H., Private 1cl., Lodgepole, Nebr.
Harrington, Lewis A., Private 1cl., Lincoln, Nebr.
Hauser, Byron T., Private 1cl., Hooper, Nebr.
Henning, G. Russell, Private 1cl., Omaha. Nebr.
Housh, Charles R., Private 1cl., Harrah, Okla.
Hunt, Loren E., Private 1cl., Rock Rapids, Iowa.
Hunter, James D., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Jewett, Lawrence B., Private 1cl., Lodgepole, Nebr.
Johnson, Leland A., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Jungclaus, William N., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Judgenson, Nohne C., Private 1cl., Belleview, Nebr.
Kantor, Dominik B., Private 1cl., Lorna, Nebr.
Kohn, Frank, Private 1cl., Deaver City, Nebr.
Korach, Leo, Private 1cl., Chicago, Ills.
Kraybill, Harold M., Private 1cl., Abilene, Kan.
Kring, Orlon A., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Lawrie, Mason C., Private 1cl., Pawnee City, Nebr.
Lesh, Charles W., Private 1cl., Lincoln, Nebr.
Loomis, Gilbert C., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Loomis, Maurice, AT., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
McCall, Henry B., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
McClintick, Howard B., Private 1cl., Albion, Nebr.
McMillian, John H., Private 1cl., Hunnewell, Mo.
Meadows, James W., Private 1cl., Fremont, Nebr.
Meduna, Lloyd R., Private 1cl., Wahoo, Nebr.
Morey. Claris B., Private 1cl., College View, Nebr.
Morris, George E., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Manger, Alfred C., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Neal, John D., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Newcomb, Arthur P., Private 1cl., Indianola, Iowa.
Nicholson, Clyde G., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Nystom, Harry R., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Nelson, Jesse W., Private 1cl., Plainview, Nebr.
Nilson, Gustave, Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Olson, Fred, Private 1cl., Deaver, Colo.
Ostertag, Frank S., Private 1cl., Lincoln, Nebr.
Peace, Charles P., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Peterson, Alvin A., Private 1cl., Lyons, Nebr.
Prouty, Edgar L., Private lei., Alva, Nebr.
Redfels, John W., Private 1cl., Lincoln, Nebr.
Reed, Sanford P., Private 1cl., Weeping Water, Nebr.
Reese, Alfred L., Private 1cl., Randolph, Nebr.
Root, Ralph R., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Rubin, Lewis A., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Ruth, Gordon A., Private 1cl., Holdrege, Nebr.
Rutherford, Charles. Private 1cl., Aurora, Nebr.
Sauer, Leslie E., Private 1cl., Strang, Nebr.
Schlosser, Cecil T., Private 1cl., South Wayne, Wis.
Sherman, Rollin C., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Simanek, Edward J., Private 1cl., Prague, Nebr.
Steavenson, Leigh C., Private 1cl., 0maha, Nebr.
Stocktill, Henry D., Private 1cl., Washington, Del.
Smith, Carl W., Private 1cl., Weeping Water, Nebr.
Schmidt, Henry J., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Truelson, Emil E., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Wandborg, Carl M., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Warshawsky, Morris M., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Webb, Walter E., Private 1cl., Table Rock, Nebr.
Wertman, Willard L., Private 1cl., Milford, Nebr.
Wetherby, Harlow F., Private 1cl., Lincoln, Nebr.
Yard, Wilbur M., Private 1cl., Omaha. Nebr.
Frew, James V., Private 1cl., Hiteman, Iowa.
Fluhr, Robert, Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Johnson, Julius, Corporal, College View, Nebr.
Arkin, Julius, Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Hoffman, Paul, Private 1cl., Asbury, New Jersey.
Little, Ralph B., Private 1cl., Omaha, Nebr.
Barbati, Philip, Private, Keota, Mo.
Black, Benjamin H., Private, Chicago, Ills.
Bramon, Marcus D., Jr., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Bowen, Charles R., Private, Columbus, Nebr.
Brennan, Thomas J., Private, O'Neill, Nebr.
Brown, Jesse P., Private, Lincoln, Nebr.
Carlson, Carl, Private, Gillette, Wyo.
Connolly, Charles R., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Czeslawskl, Casimer, Private, Chicago, Ills.
Dana, Irving R., Private, Lincoln, Nebr.

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Fuller, Edgar M., Private, Omaha. Nebr.
Graper, Frank, Private, Chicago, Ills.
Hervey, David S., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Higgins, John M., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Hoffman, Wayne W., Private. Omaha, Nebr.
Herbert, Walter M., Private, Lincoln, Nebr.
Hrbek, Cyril J., Private, Lincoln, Nebr.
Hull, Everett B.. Private, Omaha, Nebr.
James, Louis A., Private, Omaha. Nebr.
Johnson, Myron V., Private, Lincoln, Nebr.
Kenney, James, Private, Chicago, Ills.
Kirschenbaum, Jacob, Private, Philadelphia, Pa.
Lewis, Carl A., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Lang, Mathew S., Private, San Francisco, Calif.
Lundholm, Martin C. 0., Private, Lincoln, Nebr.
McGrath, Matthew P., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
McNamara. Gerald A.. Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Minikus, Edward, Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Moylan, Joseph, Private, Chicago, Ills.
Newman, Julius, Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Peterson, Royal P., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Pierce, Russell K., Private, Fremont, Nebr.
Purcupile, Benjamin H., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Remillard, Louis 0., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Reus, John, Private, Chicago. Ills.
Rhodes. Frank V., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Roberts, Harry W., Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Robinson. Richard, Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Scott, Wallace M., Private, Stromsburg, Nebr.
Shirey, Ralph W., Private, Daykin, Nebr.
Sickinger, Charles E., Private, Chicago, Ills.
Spiegel, Emil R.. Private, Chicago. Ills.
Starkey, Roy D., Private, Wheeling, W. Va.
Swanbom, Alarac R., Private, Walton, Nebr.
Way, Chester F., Private, College View, Nebr.
Wegner, Andrew J., Private, Chicago, Ills.
Werner, Walter A., Adams, Wis.
Wohlner, Paul, Private, Omaha, Nebr.
Worley, Ivan H., Private, Lincoln, Nebr.
Worrall, Lowell D., Private, Wahoo, Nebr.
Zeiger, Alfred G., Private, Omaha, Nebr.

BASE HOSPITAL NO. 49, NURSING PERSONNEL.

Ida L. Gerding, Chief Nurse, 2403 Patee Street, St. Joseph, Missouri.
Albrecht, Lillian, Morgan, Minnesota.
Albrecht, Florence M., 406 South 11th Street, Beatrice, Nebraska.
Amgwert, Anna, Murdock, Nebraska.
Anderson, Sadie L., Pequot, Minnesota.
Andrews, Katherine B., 996 Albermarle Street, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Anson, Bessie M., 2122 Locust Street, Omaha, Nebraska.
Arthur, Beatrice E., Norfolk, Nebraska.
Baker, Clare, Dwight, Illinois.
Banwell, Edith, "Oakdale Farm", Fort Dodge, Iowa.
Batie, Lelia E., Ord, Nebraska.
Beachly, V. Belle, R. R. No. 4, Box 228, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Bixby, Alice M., College View, Nebraska.
Blome, Emma A., 627 E. 2nd Street, Fremont, Nebraska.
Blomberg, Mabel C., 1616 12 Ave., Moline, Illinois.
Brandt, Thyra L., Omaha, Nebraska.
Brannian, Edith M., Randolph, Iowa.
Braun, Josephine C. Humphrey, Nebraska.
Braun, Minnie K., Humphrey, Nebraska.
Brecks, Ida A., Arapahoe, Nebraska.
Brenenstall, Harriet M., Creighton, Nebraska.

Brown, Mildred I., Orient, Iowa.
Budler, Marie T., Hampton, Nebraska.
Chamberlain, Josephine, No. 7 Troy Apts., Omaha, Nebraska.
Chalmers, Mary, 131 Rosebank Street, Dundee, Scotland (enlisted at Winston Salem, North Carolina).
Chapin, Mildred, Columbus, Nebraska.
Champney, Cecile R., Fremont, Nebraska.
Cherry, Juliet E., Diller, Nebraska.
Conway, Margaret F., 3339 North 20th Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Conley, Anna M., Broken Dow, Nebraska.
Crouse, Clara, Thompson, Nebraska.
Crowell, Eva L., Walthill, Nebraska.
Culp, Pearl R., 3125 E Street, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Dickinson, Edna 0., 144 South 29th St., Lincoln, Nebraska.
Dill, Alberta E., Blue Springs, Nebraska.
Doege, Martha C., Titonka, Iowa.
Duguay, Emma M., Washburn, Wisconsin.
Eckstrom, Mabel, Newman Grove, Nebraska.
Edgecumbe, Florence E., Salix, Iowa.
Ellison, Irena M., Route No. 1, Geneva, Nebraska.
Elliott, May, Elwood, Nebraska.
Fleetwood, Hilda C., Wakefield, Nebraska.
Glammeier, Carolyn A., 815 West Summit Ave., Shenandoah, Iowa.
Hammerland, Myrtle H., Box 28, West Point, Nebraska.
Hawk, Nell E., Ida Grove, Iowa.
Jamison, Sarah E., Butte, Nebraska.
Johnson, Emily A., flax 431, Oakland, Nebraska.
Johnson, Ellen Marie, Broken Dow, Nebraska.
Johnson, Huldah D., Mead, Nebraska.
Johnson, Lillian R., 1689 E. 9th Street, Portland, Oregon.
Kalal, Elizabeth, Burke, South Dakota.
Kavon, E. Georgia, Wahoo, Nebraska.
Kolle, Carrie May, Florence, Nebraska.
Krausnick, Martha M., Lincoln, Nebraska.
Larson, Pearl W., Maple City, Michigan.
Lindstedt, Hildegard, Havelock, Nebraska.
Lippincott, Maybelle, Niwot, Colo.
MacLaughlan, Mildred, 654 School Street, Lowell, Massachusetts.
MacRae, Gertrude B., Bangor, Maine.
McKinnon, Nellie It., Ashtabula, Ohio.
McKay, Mary Coball, Ontario, Canada.
Mang, Lillian M., 424 First Street. Albany, New York.
Marshall, Mary Jane, Benkleman, Nebraska.
Martin, Selma M., Oakland, Nebraska.
Meiklejohn, Pearle, 2229 7th Ave., Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Morisette, Mayo G., 628 Grant Street, Wausau, Wisconsin.
Murray, Ethel, Lexington, Nebraska.
Nasstrom, Anna C., Fremont, Nebraska.
Nicholson, Martha, Sebright, Ontario, Canada.
Oliver, Margaret E., Elroy, Wisconsin.
Olson, Lilly, Rock Springs, Wyoming.
O'Malley, Mollie, Omaha, Nebraska.
Polansky, Bess, Clarkson, Nebraska.
Pugh, Elizabeth, Scofield, Utah.
Quist, Esther, Gothenburg, Nebraska.
Rogers, Eva M., Ord, Nebraska.
Roggensees, Anna L., Holbrook, Nebraska.
Rudat, Emma H., North Platte, Nebraska.
Sandman, Elizabeth H., 1403 11 Street, Fairbury, Nebraska.
Schurman, Alma L., Scribner. Nebraska.
Sconce, Ethel M., Hoyt, Kansas.
Sheibley, Anna I., 915 West 2nd Street, Grand Island, Nebraska.
Seeck, Elfrieda L., Brunswick, Nebraska.