Company K at the border — ‘A convincing telegram’

This is the latest in a series of posts about the deployment of National Guard Company K of Glens Falls during the Mexican border conflict of 1916.

“Captain (Robert) Hall received a convincing telegram last evening from Carl R. Rogers of Montreal, Canada,” The Post-Star reported. “It contained only one word: ‘Coming.’”

Herbert D. Allen of Saratoga and Tracey Cowen of Batavia also telegraphed messages that they were coming to enlist.

Frank Serge returned from Jersey City to re-enlist.

Dr. C.R. Hoffman would boast that Serge was “the most perfect specimen of man he had ever examined.”

Hall was scampering to enlist or re-enlist another 49 “men of good physique and intellect” in National Guard Company K, to bring the company to 150 men when it would soon be mobilized in the Mexican border conflict.

Thirty-eight men volunteered the first day after President Woodrow Wilson announced he had asked governors to activate the National Guard.

Of those, 28 men were rejected.

Those accepted included Donald B. Jenkins, Edward D. Winchell, Edgar S. Eggleton, James M. Reed, Leo LaRoche, Edward C. Lang, Fred J. Whann, and Charles N Gurnsey.

Prospective new recruits continued to show up the next day.

“If any man doubts that men are applying with great rapidity to enlist in K Company, have a conversation with Dr. C.R. Hoffman who is making the physical examinations of the applicants and the physician left the armory at 11 o’clock last after one of the busiest days of his career,” The Post-Star reported. “He was forced to call a halt in the stream of applicants and a few were told to come back today for examination.”

About 45 applicants were examined, of which 15 were accepted.

Company K members remained on stand by at the armory on Warren Street in Glens Falls.

“There were no frills to the dinner,” The Post-Star reported. “No ice cream was served, the fare of the men being simply what they will get on duty at the Mexican border.”

On the third day, Captain Hall put the men through an arduous drill.

“Hard work was again made the order of the day yesterday at the armory,” The Post-Star reported.

“The rain of the afternoon did not interfere with the program and promptly at 2 o’clock Captain Hall took his men to a large lot on Dix Avenue where they were put through two hours of drill in a downpour. It is his argument that they will be subjected to all kinds of weather when they reach camp and they might just as well get used to it before they start.”

Employers were getting used to operating without key manpower.

Captain Hall was a senior clerk at Glens Falls post office.

Major John H. Barker was city attorney.

Lieutenant Vincent C. Welsh was assistant superintendent of Prudential Insurance Co.

Lieutenant Leonard J. Howard was manager of the shoe department at C.V. Peter’s department store.

Sources: The Post-Star June 20, 21, 22, July 5, 1916.

Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.