Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society Vol. XXX — No. 4 — November-December 2018 John Hatheway Marguerite Sullivan Fred Walton Charles Mulligan Connecticut’s Irish in World War I his 16-page issue of our newsletter commemorates the New London. She was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania, in 1892. In T 100th anniversary of the armistice which ended World War I April 1917, the month the United States entered the war, she vol- just 100 years ago. The United States was in the war for less than unteered in the Reserve Army Nurse corps. She cared for sick and two years, but the mobilization of the nation was so huge that al- wounded service men and women as a Red Cross nurse for 10 most every family was involved in some way. The different stories months at the U.S. General Hospital in New York City. After the war, of the four Connecticut Irish-Americans pictured here are typical. she returned to New London and four more decades of nursing. The rest of this issue tells similar stories of several dozen of the Fred Walton, 23, was a son of Julius E. and Nora O’Connell Walton state’s thousands of Irish men and women who were involved. of Chatham. Fred was a railroad fireman on the New York, New John Hatheway, 28, of Ellington was the son of Dwight Hatheway, Haven & Hartford. He enlisted in December 1917 and was in com- a farmer, and his Irish wife Hannah Donnally. John was mustered bat at St Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. In June 1919, into the 328th U.S. Infantry in October 1917. He was killed in action he was transferred to the 3rd Army Composite Regiment which in the Argonne Forest on Oct. 18, 1918. In a letter to his parents, his marched in victory parades in Paris, London and New York. commander wrote: “With a reckless disregard for his own safety, he Charles Mulligan. 22, lived in Hamden and was the son of James took charge of a section when its sergeant was killed and at the risk and Maire Mulligan of New Haven. He was an employee of the New of his own life organized his group and consolidated its position.” Haven Gas Light Co. He enlisted in the Navy in April 1917, and was Marguerite Sullivan, 27, the daughter of William and Mary Gilli- a gunner’s mate on the USS Aeolus making six voyages in convoys to gan Sullivan, was a night nurse supervisor at Lawrence Hospital in (Please turn to page 2) Hartford Red Cross nurse served amid bombardments ong before the United States went to patients had to be moved to a place of safe- L war, a Hartford nurse was in the ty until the bombardment was ended. thick of the fighting in France. Born in “The hospital is often busy far beyond its 1884, Agnes M. Ward was the daughter of capacity and after a heavy engagement, the Michael T. And Mary Ward, both natives of doctors and nurses are able to do little ex- Ireland. Michael rose to the rank of captain cept give first aid treatment. It is so near of Hook and Ladder Co. 1 in the Hartford the fighting lines that the soldiers are often Fire Department. brought there with their wounds still gap- Agnes graduated from the St. Francis ing.” Hospital Training School for nurses in Hart- In May of 1918, the Courant commented ford and took postgraduate courses in on the fact that more than three years after nursing at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York arriving in the war zone, Ward remained City. on duty. “The group of nurses and doctors In April 1915, she was with a group of had contracted to serve for an interval of about 30 nurses and doctors who sailed for six months,” the Courant explained. The France. Upon arrival, she was assigned to a nurses “gradually dropped away until Miss field hospital in De Panne, Belgium. Ward alone remained.” Located on the coast of the North Sea At the end of one year, Ward traveled near the French border, De Panne was rav- across France. Later she joined the Ameri- aged during the war. A nearby cemetery can Ambulance Corps in which she served contains the remains of almost 4,000 sol- Agnes M. Ward for the rest of the war. When the war ended diers killed in that area. she was stationed at Neuilly near Paris. In an article on Nov. 14, 1915, about “Miss Ward and others in her hospital could In the summer of 1916, she went on leave American Red Cross wartime activities, the hear the shells shrieking high overhead with two other nurses and traveled to Paris Hartford Courant commented: “Ward has with half of their 20-mile trip completed. and Rome, where they had an audience had more than her share of thrilling experi- The town of De Panne has been bombarded with Pope Benedict XV. several times and many of the shells have ences, as she has been under fire a number On Feb. 26, 1919, the Hartford Courant found their way to points close to the hos- of times and has long since grown so used reported, “Capt. M.T. Ward of No. 261 Park pital in which the American nurses are to the sound of heavy guns in action that Street announces the marriage of his serving. they do not disturb her.” daughter, Miss Agnes M. Ward, to Lt. Roger During the war, Germany bombarded “In one of the last bombardments a shell Petler of the Lafayette Escadrille in Paris on nearby Dunkirk with its “Lange Max,” the fell within 150 feet of the hospital and tore Feb. 13. Madame Petler sailed for France on largest artillery weapon in the world at that a hole large enough to serve as the founda- April 17, 1916.” tion of an ordinary dwelling house. The time. “When the Germans bombarded Dun- Sources: Hartford Courant, Nov. 14, 1915, May 10, rush of air which followed the explosion kirk with 42-centimeter shells recently at a 1918, Feb. 26, 1919; www.ancestry.com: 1900 U.S. range of 20 miles,” reported the Courant, broke every window in the hospital. The Census, Hartford; 1920 U.S. Census, Hartford.. State library has large collection of World War I records (Continued from page 1) war, an index was created of all state resi- pated. The library has the original collec- France. He was at sea 363 days. He died of dents who served, including their dates of tion, but it can be found also on ances- spinal meningitis in the Naval Hospital at induction, their units and dates of dis- try.com. On ancestry, the names are sorted Norfolk, Virginia on Aug. 16, 1918. charge.. The state library has all three vol- alphabetically by towns. Over the past sev- Records of Connecticut soldiers, sailors, umes of the index. They can be viewed also eral years, the library has sponsored a cen- airmen and nurses in Word War l are nu- on www.archive.org, free of charge. tennial project titled, Remembering World merous and available in many town and After the war, the state library put togeth- War One. The centerpiece of the project is city libraries and museums. The Connecti- er a collection of those who served. The the compilation of similar records and pic- cut State Library has a large collection. As library encouraged all veterans, men and tures provided by descendants, relatives the war began, the state compiled an index women alike, to participate by filling out a and acquaintances of World War I partici- of nurses and of men who might be availa- brief summary of their service and includ- pants. ble to serve. In addition, at the end of the ing photographs. Many thousands partici- For information: www.ctstatelibrary.org 2 Sgt. Stubby and Cpl. Conroy went off to war homeless dog who hung around the Stubby was taken aboard a day or two be- them with his barking. A Yale football stadium in New Haven fore departure and hidden in the ship’s coal Conroy wrote that during combat, in the summer of 1917 became a national bin. When the ship reached France, Conroy “Stubby was always on his own, never tied hero with the help of his comrade, an Irish- tucked Stubby in his overcoat and carried up. He seemed to know that no one could American recruit from New Britain. him successfully down the gang plank with bother with him during action and that he The doughboy was James Robert Conroy, some of his buddies huddled around him. had to stay quietly under cover.” one of thousands of recruits who spent that Soon after reaching Europe, according to On April 20, 1918, at Seicheprey, Stubby summer in basic training in a city of tents author Ann Bausum who wrote a biography was wounded in his breast and leg by scattered in the fields around the Yale Bowl of Stubby, the powers that be admitted shrapnel. An ambulance took him to a field on the western edge of New Haven. what they probably already knew was go- hospital and he recovered. Into that bustling scene ing on and decided to put In the Meuse-Argonne campaign in late of drilling, marching, tar- an end to it. But, she wrote, September, when the enemy was reeling get practice and inspec- “before Conroy or his furry from allied attacks, Stubby captured a Ger- tions, there wandered a friend could be reprimand- man soldier.