Hamilton Letters
“My country calls for me and I must answer the call. But I will be
back to you someday and I won’t be happy until I’m with you for good
and I hope it won’t be long.’ Cpl. George Hamilton wrote these words to his bride, Evie, in May,
1918, just before being shipped out to France during World War I.
But they could just as easily have been written today by any of the
servicemen and servicewomen being activated now in the war against
terrorism.
“Those words ring true today,’ said Cheryl Hamilton, the couple’s
granddaughter, and a Dunbar Township native now living in Mount
Pleasant Township. “Ninety years later, everything is there again.’
The couple had known each other only a short time before they married
on March 18, 1918. George was a native of Twiggtown, Md., who worked
at a lumber camp before enlisting in the Army in July, 1917, just
three months after the United States entered the war.
Evie Mae Oliver of Atlanta, Ga., was a high school graduate and the
daughter of a railroad engineer. She worked in a candy store not far
from where George was stationed at Camp Gordon in Georgia. He was 27
when they married; she was 18.
Evie lovingly saved those letters from the couple’s courtship and
separation while her husband was sent to Europe for the “War to End
All Wars.”
Serving as a baker in the Army, George wrote to his “Dear Little
Wife’ delightful letters about his job, about being lonesome for
home, worrying that she was receiving his military pay and warning
against influenza, as well as suggestions on what to name the baby
they were expecting.
Twenty-five years ago, Cheryl discovered the letters while
housecleaning with her mother, Sara, in the Dunbar Township home where
the couple moved in 1947.
By the time the letters were discovered, Cheryl’s grandparents were
deceased: Evie died in 1948 at age 49 and George died in 1968 at age
76. George later married Alice Lowery of Cumberland, Md., in 1956; she
is also deceased.
Cheryl was 10 when her grandfather died. She never knew her
grandmother. So, reading the letters was sometimes difficult. “It’s
hard to imagine them being madly in love,’ she commented.
But Cheryl, who enjoys history, found the letters intriguing. “There’s
so much in there,’ she said.
Cheryl and her sister, Donna, who still lives in Dunbar Township, are
the daughters of George, the second of nine children born to George
and Evie.
A 1976 graduate of Connellsville Area High School, Cheryl is a
substitute teacher in the Connellsville Area School District. She is
married to Richard Roble, a tax auditor with the state Department of
Revenue. They have two children: Renee, 13, who attends eighth grade
at Mount Pleasant Junior-Senior High School, and Colin, 9, who is in
the fourth grade at St. John the Baptist Elementary School in
Scottdale.
Cheryl treasures the memory of her grandparents, proudly showing off
the couple’s wedding photo. George looks handsome in his Army uniform
and Evie, of course, is beautiful in a green dress with pearls.
Besides the wedding photos, Cheryl reveals her grandfather’s Army
enlistment papers, a 1916 manual for army bakers – and the letters.
There are a few from the couple’s courtship, including letters from
George to Evie and from Evie to George. Evie was then living at home,
while George was stationed at Camp Gordon.
Oct. 15, 1917: “Dear Friend, I’m awful sorry I could not leave camp to
come by Sunday to see you. .I wish I was with you tonight. It would
not be so lonesome. .I sure do love my Georgie Girl. Your true friend,
George W. Hamilton.’
Oct. 30, 1917: “My Dear Friend, . There are not many boys who would
have treated me with as much respect as you have after I flirted with
them. I sure appreciate it, too, for I see how easy I was to lead. I
have swore that off now entirely. I am going to be my own leader now.
Don’t write anything in your letters about my ever flirting with you
for I let Mama read all my mail. I still have her trust and I want to
keep it.Evie.’
After their wedding, the couple had some time together before George
was sent to France. Assigned the job of baker, he wrote to Evie that
he was far from the front lines, but he was lonesome for her.
–
Below are some excerpts from approximately 30 letters that were saved:
June 23, 1918: “Dear Little Wife, I will take the pleasure to write
you a few lines to let you know that I am well and in the best of
health and enjoying myself fine and dandy. I have arrived in France.
Sure is a fine country, what I have seen of it, sweetheart. The
weather is almost as cold here as it is in Georgia in the wintertime.
I have seen lots of French girls over here but there is none as pretty
as the Georgia girls. We haven’t went to war yet. We have never set up
our bakery yet and I don’t know when we will. Dear, don’t worry about
me, for I think I will be back to you sometime. I will be back by the
time I told you I would. We are getting plenty to eat over here and I
always will as long as Uncle Sam is over us. Uncle Sam is taking good
care of his boys over here. Evie, you can write anything to me that
you want to and if the censor doesn’t like it, he can rub it out. I
don’t know if your letters have to be censored or not when they come
over. When you write, don’t forget to tell me if you have got your
allotment yet and write me two or three letters a week and tell me in
every one if you have got your allotment or not. Write often or I may
not get all your letters. While I was on the boat, we came over on one
of Germany’s big boats that Uncle Sam had taken away from her at the
beginning of the war. Evie, I am going to send you one of the
newspapers that was printed on the boat that we came over on. They
printed one every day. Dear, write and tell my people where I am. As
soon as we get settled down, I will write to them. I sent you a
service flag and three dollars and a picture from Hempstead, N.Y. I
hope you got them all right. . Hope this letter finds you and all the
rest the same. My love and best wishes to you and all. . Hoping to
hear from you soon. Goodbye, dear little wife, from husband.’
Oct. 9, 1918: “Dear Little Wife, ..(He writes about the baby they are
expecting.) If it is a little soldier, name it Woodrow Washington.
President Washington was a good man and I am sure there isn’t a better
man in the world than President Wilson. Name it after two good men and
I am sure it will make a good man. .Sweetheart, you asked me if I
would be home in 1919. Yes, I will be home with you before 1919 is
half gone. Things are looking good and I guess you are getting some
good news in the papers by this time. We get newspapers here every day
from Paris. It is the New York Herald. It tells us about the war. We
are so far behind the firing line, we would not know the war is going
on if it wasn’t for the papers. Sweetheart, don’t worry about me. I’m
getting along fine and dandy, and will be back to you safe and sound
before long. You said you were afraid I wouldn’t be back to you if I
liked this country over here so good. I do like this country over here
but France hasn’t got enough money to keep me away from you after the
war is over. The quickest way for me to get to Atlanta is too slow for
me.’
Oct. 27, 1918: “.I am running the mixer mixing dough. I mixed 18,000
lbs. of dough today and you can bet I’m a little bit tired.’
Nov. 13, 1918: “Dear Little Wife, .I only hope you don’t get that old
Spanish influenza for it may go bad with you.’
Dec. 25, 1918: “My Dear Little Wife, .I was glad to hear from my dear
little wife. It was the greatest Christmas present I ever received for
it was the only letter I have received from you in three weeks and I
was getting anxious to hear from you. I had begun to think you had
died or had gotten yourself another man. . Your letter found me fine
and dandy, but almost crazy for a letter from you and I will be
worried until I hear from you in January or the first of February. . I
was feeling very blue but when I read your letter I felt like a new
man. I was thinking where I was last year this time and where I am
today. Sweetheart, we are 5,000 miles apart but it won’t take long to
make the 5,000 miles when we get started back to the dear old USA. .
We are ready to leave and excited to get orders to leave for the
States any day now. I know we are coming home soon, but I just can’t
tell you how soon the day will come. Just as soon as all the soldiers
get out of this camp, we will be ready to come home. There isn’t many
more left here to leave. Most of the soldiers that were back in camp
are already back in the States this time. (Keep writing, he told her.)
Now is the time I want to hear from you. . We know the war is over and
the time is getting nearer every day for us to be together and that
will be a happy day for me. . Hope you are having a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year. . Thousands of kisses and a million hugs for
you. My love and best wishes to all. Goodbye little dear. Answer soon.
From Husband.’
–
That was the last letter.
The couple’s first child was a girl they named Annie Maybelle. George
eventually returned home and was discharged from the Army in July,
1919. The couple stayed in Atlanta for a short time before moving to
Cumberland, Md. The family moved to Dunbar Township in 1947, when
George received a transfer from his job as a brakeman with the B&O
Railroad.
The couple’s nine children included Annie Maybelle; George Washington
(Cheryl and Donna’s father, who was born on Washington’s birthday and
also worked on the railroad); Andrew Wesley; Charles Thomas; Robert
Curtis; Evie Virginia; Betty Jane; Dorothy; and Mary. Three are still
living:
Robert, who retired as a railroad engineer, lives in Connellsville.
Betty Jane lives in Morrisville.
Mary lives outside Reading.
Nearly a century has gone by since George wrote his letters to Evie.
They are filled with love, concern and a simple patriotism that has
endured.
While the world waged war, two people found each other. They fell in
love, married and supported each other in an overseas separation
through simple letters that continue to mean so much today.
Perhaps they’re only words on paper to some – but the letters provide
a time portal for those who respect the past and care to see how much
George Hamilton loved his “Dear Little Wife.’