Company K at the border — Spiders and snakes

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.

The first rattle snake that members of Company K killed at Mission, Texas was crafted into a watch fob sent home to Glens Falls to show appreciation to Homer Daley, the Bank Square tobacco dealer who spearheaded a collection of “barrels of necessary items” sent to the local soldiers, The Glens Falls Times and Messenger reported on July 21, 1916.

“There are ten rattles in the mounting and the fob is being exhibited in the Daley window along with the tobacco,” the Times reported. “Captain Hall sent a letter thanking Mr. Daley for his thoroughness.”

Snakes were not the only creature Company K encountered at the southern border.

“One night while on guard duty we captured a prisoner,” an unidentified member of Company K wrote in a letter published Aug. 1, 1916 in the Times. “He had evidently penetrated our center lines and was within fifty yards of General Caster’s camp when taken. He was evidently a native, had six or eight legs, and his name was ‘Tarantula.’”

“We had him overnight in an iron cell, namely a tomato soup can — it fitted him quite well — and delivered him for execution in the morning. Such as he are rather scarce, for which we are thankful.”

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