New history post every Monday.

I was recently told that Ed Labon of Woodville, Greene County, Georgia, a Black soldier who reported to Camp Gordon in 1917, is buried at Wilson Cemetery in Penfield, Georgia. He died April 13, 1940. Like many Black recruits, Labon was in the 157th Depot Brigade during World War I.

Camp Gordon was a World War I encampment in Chamblee, Georgia. built in 1917 on land that is part of DeKalb Peachtree Airport today.

The first Black men arrived at Camp Gordon on October 3, 1917.  The men were housed in a separate area of the camp, known as Block 1.  Segregation and discrimination made life difficult at World War I camps, including Camp Gordon.   

A form called the U. S. Lists of Men Ordered to Report to Local Board for Military Duty, 1917-1918 shows the men who reported to Lexington, Georgia in Oglethorpe County on June 20,1918. This list consists of Black men who were recently recruited and were sent to Camp Gordon.

Labon’s service card reads 157th Depot Brigade July 1918, Co. D 406 Res Labor until Oct 1918, Co B 702 Stev Bn to Nov 1919, Co C and indicates he was a Private First Class. I am not familiar with all the abbreviations for his service, but will do some research on that subject.

When he died in 1940, Labon’s widow Daisy applied for a military headstone. They lived at 202 Haygood Avenue SE Atlanta, GA. The marker she applied for is at his gravesite at Wilson Cemetery in Penfield.

Also on the list of men who were inducted in Lexington, Georgia is Carlton Jewell, born 1890 in Hutching, GA. In 1918, he was living in Crawford, Oglethorpe County GA . He also went into the 157th Depot Brigade until Sep 1918, then Co D 540 engineers until his discharge. Private First Class Jewell served overseas from October 1918 to June 1919, traveling overseas in 1918 and returning on the ship Britannia from Marseilles France.

Luther Yancy of Colbert, Georgia was inducted in Lexington, Georgia and eventually became a Corporal. His service card shows that he was in Company B 314 Labor Battalion, leaving to serve overseas July 26, 1918 from Newport News, VA on the ship Pocahontas. He was originally from Carlton, Georgia and was born in 1891. The 1920 census shows Yancy working as a farm laborer in Oglethorpe County.

Yancy’s Georgia Service Card shows 157th Depot Brigade to March 1918 then Co. B 314 Labor Battalion, serving overseas from July 26, 1918 until July 27, 1919. An application for the USA Victory Medal was filed in his name on May 7, 1921. A copy of the application is on file with ancestry.com, however I don’t have verification that he every received the medal.

Among the other men on the list of those inducted in Lexington, Georgia in 1918 are Haron Thornton, George Fortson, Fred Finch, Oscar Echols, Willie Collins, James Jennings, Wyley Callaway, Hutson Finch, and Jimmie Mattos.