Humboldt's First World War
A century ago, the term “The War” meant “the Great War” or what was optimistically called “The War to End All Wars.” This was the event which we now must sadly call World War I.
Although in Humboldt County there was some initial resistance to getting involved in European squabbles, by the time President Wilson declared war in 1917, Humboldt was all in.
Local boys flocked to the colors. The Fifth Division of the Naval Militia was mobilized here, and after a farewell dance was held at the Sequoia Auditorium, 100 men took ship for San Francisco and eventually for France. The dance raised money to help the soldiers’ families, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union presented each new soldier with a “comfort bag” containing bandages, sewing items and Bibles.
On the home front, women’s groups urged home canning and food conservation, and knit socks and sweaters for the soldiers. War Bond drives and parades were held. Citizens volunteered for coastal patrols, and U.S. warplanes used the airfield north of Eureka. Some citizens of German heritage publically declared their American loyalty while some even changed their Germanic sounding names.
On the bay, shipyards that for decades had turned out wooden sailing ships and steamers switched gears and built among the last of the nation’s wooden warships. Eureka’s fourth Liberty Bond Drive raised enough money to win us the honor of naming a new navy ship which was then christened “The City of Eureka”. Some perhaps felt that all this helped compensate for Humboldt’s role in the sinking of the new US warship, the Milwaukee, off our shores in 1917.
When the war ended and the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, Humboldt celebrated. The news was telegraphed to the local papers, which printed banner headline extras and had delivery cars drive around honking and flinging out the good news. Spontaneous celebrations erupted on our streets with more honking, flag waving and parades.
Interestingly, some of the photographs of these celebrations show civilians and soldiers wearing masks. 1918 was also the height of the flu epidemic which movement during the war had helped to spread worldwide. Many Humboldters suffered or died from the disease. Some Humboldt soldiers who died in France or in training did so, not from gunfire, but from the virus.
Eventually the epidemic and the victory elation moved into the rest of the 20th century. But the war veterans and casualties continued to be commemorated locally in Veterans’ Day events and in the selling of red paper poppies to be worn on lapels. The Veteran’s Memorial Building on Eureka’s H Street and its cornerstone plaque were dedicated to honor the 53 Humboldt men lost in the war.
History moves on – sometimes eerily repeating bits of itself, and the preservation and dissemination of this history is the task of the Humboldt County Historical Society. The public is urged to use its resources to learn more of Humboldt’s varied past.