Charles Edward Dilkes

Submitted by: Georgia Dilkes Harris and Virginia Dilkes {daughters}

Charles Edward Dilkes served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The dates of service are: Known May 1, 1917 to September 25, 1919.

Charles Edward Dilkes

OUR FATHER, CHARLES EDWARD DILKES, kept a DAILY DIARY of his military service. His memoir, based on this diary, begins with the night of him leaving America. He wrote: "I wish you could share my anticipation with me when on August 6, 1917, at 6:30 p.m. all men were assembled with full field equipment and at 7:00 p.m. we marched through the huge iron gates...full of spirit and hope." Finally arriving in Hoboken, New Jersey, he boarded the transport Finland, dropped down the bay off Tomkinsville, New York, while the "throbbing of engines acquainted us with our departure from the shores of America." It did not take long for the situation to change. A few weeks later on August 20, 1917, his fleet was within the danger zone. "I was coming on deck when a big explosion occurred, shaking the ship...The Captain from the bridge shouted out, "Why the hell don't you shoot that submarine!...Immediately our fore gun blazed away sending forth its deadly shell..."

When the U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917, our father’s patriotic spirit rose within him; he volunteered on the 1st of May. With an engineering background, he was assigned to Company F as a combat engineer in the 1st Division of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and fought under the command of General John J. Pershing. He earned the rank of sergeant, and was consistently called upon to lead his men to build first aid stations, communication trenches, and stables; to repair roads and parapets of the trenches; and to prepare the terrain for battle. This work was often done while he and his men were under enemy fire, which often meant putting down the shovel and picking up the rifle. His recordings of daily and significant enemy encounters stand out not only as consistent with history, but offered great personal insight into the rigors of war. He did not complain. He did not shirk his duties EVER in War, in his work, or with his family.

Mary Alice Lamb

Submitted by: Mary Rohrer Dexter

Mary Alice Lamb square

Mary Alice Lamb served in World War 1 with a non-government service organization. The dates of service are: Known 1918-1928.

“Those who go forth ministering to the wants and necessities of their fellow beings experience a rich return, their souls being as a watered garden, and a spring that faileth not…”

– Lucretia Mott

Tucked away in the South West corner of Miami County, Indiana is the small community of Amboy where in 1844, the first Friends Worship service was held in Miami County and six years later, a log church was erected at a location that would later be next to Amboy Friends Cemetery. Until a school was built in 1872, the church doubled as a school. In 1867, the Panhandle Railroad was completed through Miami County and the small town of Amboy was platted as the location of the train station.

When, in 1871, Benjamin B. Lamb laid an addition to the original Amboy platt, his son Ezra must have been living in the area, for on July 28, 1878, Ezra Lamb and his wife Eliza were holding a beautiful baby girl in their arms whom they named Mary Alice.

As she grew, Mary Alice probably attended school in Amboy at a building known as The Academy. The years flew by and soon Mary Alice Lamb was attending school at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. She graduated in 1901 with a teaching degree. By this time, she was a young woman, 5’4 1/2” tall, sporting brown hair and brown eyes. Known to her friends as Alice, her first teaching job was at Stit School, four miles from the home in which she grew up. Every morning she would drive to school in a two-wheel cart pulled by a horse. If it rained, she would wear water proof garments or pull into the nearest barn lot until the rain let up. Sometimes, if the weather was very bad she would stay with the Stit family, on whose land the school was located.