1917: Hudson goes to war

Ever since the beginning of the city, when there has been a war, Hudson's young men marched off to it.

It's doubtful that Hudsonians  ever approached a war more enthusiastically than they did World War I. When the US entered World War I on April 6, 1917, there were many Hudsonians ready to troop to the colors. When the recruiting officer arrived, 25 young men enlisted at once. "More recruits were secured in twenty-four hours than in two months in the rest of Lenawee County," says Reflections on The Bean.

    According to the article in the Hudson Gazette of April 26, 1917, about 1,500 to 2,000 people were on hand when the train left at 7:30 AM Saturday, April 20. Preceding their departure the band played at the main four corners and a huge parade wound its way to the depot. As the train was about to depart, Hiram (Buck) Payne reportedly asked the recruiting captain, "What's cheering about?" Replied the captain, "Cause they aren't going along."



ON APRIL 20, 1917, the first group of volunteers to serve in World War I paraded through Downtown Hudson to the train depot.


   
   Sadly, some of those young men didn't return. Local records for World War I are actually better than in some wars since. Out of 144 men from Hudson that went to the colors, nine never made it home.

When the war ended on November 11, 1918, Hudson turned out to celebrate; the high point of the celebration was a parade where the Kaiser was, in effigy, loaded into a hearse, taken down to the old mill race west of Tiffin Street, and dumped in.

OFF TO THE GREAT WAR: A group of men leaving the LS&MS Depot in World War I in April, 1917.

Back Row, left to right are Don Pittenger, Elwin Goodsell, Clair Gardner, Ora Terrill, Leland Drake, Carl Smith, Tom Galland, Don Murphy, Joe McGill, Charles Dunnigan, Homer Leisenring, unknown officer believed to be the recruiting captain, Ed Frensdorf and Will O'Reilly. Front row, Clyde Taylor, Howard Mosel, Paul Way, Hiram Payne, William Beard, Cecil Kelly and Floyd Derr.

     Records from World War II aren't as clear; record keeping was done differently, but several hundred from the area served; several died. At least 35 served in Korea, and five died. At least fifty, and probably more, from the area served in Vietnam, and four died. The Persian Gulf War in 1991 was the only one in which all Hudsonians that served came back.

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