If you look up 1225 Meadow Lane Road in Dunwoody on Google maps, you end up in the middle of the road between Walton Ashford Apartments Homes and Target near Perimeter Mall. This is where Country Squire Farm was located, the home of Arthur King Adams and Marie Butler Adams.
Read moreSoldiers inducted at Lexington, GA destined for Camp Gordon
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.
Read moreCaptain Peter Carey and the WWI Norcross Rifle Range
New posts each Monday.
I recently came across an article about WWI Norcross Rifle Range that mentions Captain Peter Carey. I was fortunate to communicate with Carey’s son Chris in 2018. Chris Carey shared several documents and photographs of his father.
The August 20, 1918, Atlanta Constitution article I stumbled on is titled, “Rifle Range Men Doing Great Work at Camp Gordon” with the subtitle, “Operate 300-Acre Farm and Help to Feed Gordon in Addition to Supplying Own Messes.” It describes how the soldiers at Norcross rifle range are constructing a farm of between 250 and 300 acres and supporting themselves in fresh food.
They are growing vegetables in addition to their training under the leadership of Captain Peter Carey who is described as “one of the most efficient and hardworking officers at Gordon.”
The Norcross Rifle Range was constructed in 1917 near the U. S. Army’s World War I encampment Camp Gordon, located in Chamblee, Georgia. There were two rifle ranges near Atlanta, one in Norcross and another in Marietta.
Captain Peter Thaddeus Carey was commander of the Norcross Rifle Range from November of 1917 through January of 1919. His job was to prepare recruits for rifle duty in combat companies. Most of the recruits had no military experience.
Captain Peter Carey demonstrates his shooting skills at Norcross Rifle Range, 1918.
Peter Carey had already fought in the Spanish-American War, was a bugler for the New Jersey National Guard, and rose through the Army ranks as sergeant, commissary sergeant, 1st sergeant, 1st Lieutenant, and Captain through 1910.
In 1917, when men across the United States were called to register for service, he reported to Officers Training at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia. That same year, he was recommissioned and reported to Camp Gordon as a Captain in the 82nd Division, then to Norcross Rifle Range in March of 1918.
Captain Carey of Norcross Rifle Range was set to become a Major in October of 1918, but his commission did not come through before the war ended on November 11th. He received glowing recommendations from his superiors but took his discharge in January of 1919 and moved to California to pursue new opportunities.
In November of 1937, Captain Carey married Mary Catherine Terhune of Burley, Idaho. She was a graduate of Lake Erie Women’s College and the University of Idaho. She taught school in Edinburg, Texas and then in San Francisco, where the couple met. Their son Chris was born in 1946. Peter Carey died just four years later.
Chris Carey shared this story passed down by his mom as told by Peter Carey. “When he (Captain Carey) was training the American Expeditionary Forces destined to join General Pershing’s command in Europe, one of his recruits was Alvin York, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery. He had substantial skill as a dead-eyed squirrel shooter but lacked any vestige of discipline requisite to becoming a skillful soldier. This he quickly set in order, since York was already a natural-born sharpshooter and expert rifleman from his years in Tennessee’s hill region.”
According to “Atlanta’s Camp Gordon,” by James Knettel, “the (Norcross Rifle) range pits were approximately seven miles northeast of Camp Gordon and occupied 700 acres. The federal, state and DeKalb County governments joined together to pay for paving the road to the range pits.” The land that was once Norcross Rifle Range is today the location of Sheffield Forest neighborhood, located off Norcross-Tucker Road.
In addition to starting a vegetable garden, I know the soldiers picked peaches somewhere nearby, because it is documented in the photographs below. Since the war ended soon after the August 1918 article, I wonder what became of their farming efforts.
Captain Carey is identified in this peach picking photograph as number 17.
Norcross Rifle Range recruits after a peach picking expedition.
How Atlanta Celebrated the end of WWI
“Germans Sign Armistice, World War Comes to End.” This was the Atlanta Constitution headline on November 11, 1918 and the good news was celebrated all over Atlanta and in the surrounding communities.
Teachers led school children in patriotic songs and then dismissed them early. Boys from Tech High School marched through town as they celebrated and cheered. Atlanta city offices were ordered closed by Mayor Asa Candler. Students of the Southern Shorthand and Business School on Whitehall Street in downtown Atlanta gathered in the street and sang “America.”
Read moreFlorence Barnard Boykin, the "mother of Camp Gordon"
World War I training camp Camp Gordon was established in 1917 in Chamblee, Georgia. Boykin recruited women volunteers to welcome soldiers to the YMCA Hostess House and make them feel at home. She also organized entertainment activities each week for the soldiers, sometimes up to 25 activities in a week. Her volunteers were part of the Woman’s Division of the Young Man’s Christian Association and the Overseas Canteen Service.
Read moreList of WWI draftees from Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, and Chamblee, Georgia 1917
A list of men from Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, and Chamblee who were drafted for World War I in 1917 was among the documents found in a box of Dunwoody postal records. The box of historic documents was donated for preservation by the granddaughter of Sentell Spruill. Spruill was postmaster of Dunwoody, Georgia from 1949 until 1969 and his home sat where Dunwoody Baptist Church is now located at the corner of Mount Vernon Road and Ashford Dunwoody Road.
Read moreMilo Burglund is actually Nils Berglund: 325th Infantry at Norcross Rifle Range 1917
The new search resulted in his World War I draft registration card, completed under the name of Nils Edwin Burton Berglund. He worked as a pattern maker at a shoe factory. A quick search of shoe factories in Brockton, Massachusetts around the time of WWI shows that the town was known for its shoe manufacturing companies. He was born May 15, 1896. This was slightly off from my usual guess of 1895 for the birth year of WWI soldiers.
Then I hit the jackpot on newspapers.com! I came across the small piece below about Berglund written in April of 1919. Note how the spelling of his name is once again an issue.
Read moreWorld War I postcard, eight soldiers of the 325th at Norcross Rifle Range
Men of the 325th Infantry, 82nd Division while training at Norcross Rifle Range. The 325th went overseas April 25, 1918.
I recently came across this postcard of a group of soldiers at Norcross Rifle Range and have been researching their names to learn who they were. They are from Company B, 325th Infantry, 82nd Division. I’ll return to this postcard later as more information is discovered, but for now I want to share what I’ve found about three of the men.
Read moreReligion at WWI Camp Gordon
According to the December 1917 issue of The City Builder, a publication of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, a Commission on Training Camp Activities was formed for World War I encampment Camp Gordon in Chamblee, Georgia, Fort McPherson, and the aviation program at Georgia Tech. The purpose of the committee was to “organize the social life of the communities…which will mean a healthy reaction upon the camps.” (The City Builder is available online as part of the Atlanta History Center archives)
Read moreWorld War I Camp Gordon Thanksgiving 1917
In 1917, the soldiers of Camp Gordon were having a Thanksgiving different than any other they ever experienced. Camp Gordon was a World War I encampment built earlier that year in Chamblee, Georgia. The soldiers missed their family and friends, but the camp made it a special occasion by planning a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast and printing a program with the menu.
Read moreMore Norcross Rifle Range Photos
Captain Peter Carey stands at the entrance monument for Norcross Rifle Range. (1918)
My Past Tense column in the Dunwoody Crier this week features Part 2 of the story of Captain Peter Thaddeus Carey, who commanded the Norcross Rifle Range during World War I.
The two photos above are from the collection of James Knettel. The photo to the right was shared by Chris Carey.
You can find the article here.
Captain Peter Carey and Sergeant Boyle with the Norcross Rifle Range car. (1918)
Mary Carey, Chris Carey, and Captain Peter Carey in 1950.
World War I Norcross Rifle Range photographs
Captain Carey in his Norcross Rifle Range office.
This week’s Past Tense column in the Dunwoody Crier newspaper features the story of Captain Peter Thaddeus Carey who commanded the Norcross Rifle Range during World War I. There will be a second part to the story in a future edition.
These are some of the Norcross Rifle Range photos from Chris Carey and James Knettel. More photos will be available next week.
You can find the article here.
Captain Peter Thaddeus Carey with his horse Aphrodite at World War I Norcross Rifle Range.
A group of trainees from the Norcross Rifle Range go peach picking in Georgia. This photo is from the collection of James Knettel. The back identifies each man by his nickname and his home state. Captain Carey is identified as #17.
Meet Camp Gordon Soldiers Julius Lombardi and Edward Mauney
This is the story of two soldiers stationed at Camp Gordon in Chamblee, Georgia during World War I. They are Julius Lombardi of New York City and Edward Mauney of Blairsville, Georgia. Thank you to their families for sharing this history.
Julius Lombardi’s granddaughter shared his journey. He first came to New York City from San Marino with his family in 1907, at the age of fourteen. Ten years later, he was drafted and sent to New York’s Camp Upton and soon after to Camp Gordon.
Read moreMeet Camp Gordon Soldiers Mabry Lunceford and George Shevenock
Men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one across the United States registered at their local draft board on June 5, 1917 and those who turned twenty-one after the first draft registered on June 5, 1918. Mabry Lunceford, a farmer from Camp Hill, Alabama turned twenty-one December 8, 1917.
George Shevenock was part of Company C, 326th Infantry, 82nd Division. From Camp Dix he was sent to Camp Gordon and on March 15, 1918 he was promoted to Corporal. He departed the U. S. along with the 326th on April 29, 1918 from New York headed to Southampton, England and then to LeHavre, France and eventually Toul, France on June 25, 1918.
Read moreSpanish Flu of 1918 Hits Camp Gordon
On September 29, 1918, The Atlanta Constitution reported that 1,893 cases of Spanish Flu had been reported at Camp Gordon. 962 soldiers were sent to the camp hospital.
Read moreLetters from Camp Gordon: Chamblee 1918
“I can hardly stand the separation, but then I think what it is all about and then I realize that when the war is over we will both see that it has all been for the best, even if I have to go across to France.” These are the words of my grandfather, James T. Mathis, writing home to his new wife in Fitzgerald, Georgia. The year was 1918, and he was one of thousands of soldiers who trained at Camp Gordon, along Dresden Drive and Clairmont Road in Chamblee.
Read more