During World War I, despite American neutrality, military mobilization was already underway. North Dakotans answered the call when President Wilson mobilized the National Guard for duty along the Mexican border in response to turmoil from the Mexican Revolution and Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in March 1916. The Guardsmen garrisoned the border, freeing Regular Army troops to pursue Villa and his allies.
On this date in 1916, Judson resident Joe Harris was hailed as “the ‘Paul Revere’ of 1916” by the Bismarck Daily Tribune for riding out to alert fellow Guardsmen of their mobilization orders. Born in England in 1885, Harris immigrated to America in 1901, first settling in Kansas before homesteading near Judson in 1912.
With one squad member living seven miles from town and others four miles away in the opposite direction, Harris rode into the countryside to deliver the news. By the time the train pulled into Mandan, the squad was on board. The Judson squad included Corporal Joe Harris, Walter Toepke, William Toepke, Bernard Toepke, Paul Just, Nathaniel Starck, Hugo Dettmann, and Henry Koeller.
The New Salem Journal reported that Captain G. I. Solum of Company F wired Harris to assemble the men. The squad members were farmers and, “at Harris’ call they dropped the handles and left the plows in the field, drove seeder teams to barns, and hurried to the railroad.” Even though five of the men had completed their enlistments, “that made no difference to them. They came anyway.”
Several members of the Judson squad later served in World War I. Dettmann served overseas with the 357th Infantry Regiment and was severely wounded in battle. Starck served in the machine gun company of the 362nd Infantry Regiment, while Walter Toepke joined the Students Army Training Corps at the University of Minnesota.
Though Harris never served overseas in the Great War, he instead led a quiet farming life before retiring to New Salem with his wife, Martha, in October 1959.
While the war in Europe overshadowed the situation with Mexico, it served as a first test for several North Dakotans who later served “over there” and joined the ranks of the millions called to serve our nation over the last 250 years.
Dakota Datebook by Daniel Sauerwein
Sources:
- “On the Border: The National Guard Mobilizes for War in 1916.” 2016. www.army.mil. 2016. https://www.army.mil/article/162413/on_the_border_the_national_guard_mobilizes_for_war_in_1916.
- Bismarck Daily Tribune. (Bismarck, ND), June 22, 1916. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85042242/1916-06-22/ed-1/.
- The New Salem Journal. (New Salem, ND), June 23, 1916.
- The New Salem Journal. (New Salem, ND), November 8, 1961.
- North Dakota. Roster of the Men and Women Who Served in the Army or Naval Service (Including the Marine Corps) of the United States or Its Allies from the State of North Dakota in the World War, 1917-1918. Vol. 1. Bismarck, ND: The Bismarck Tribune Co., State printers and binders, 1931, 713.
- North Dakota. Roster of the Men and Women Who Served in the Army or Naval Service (Including the Marine Corps) of the United States or Its Allies from the State of North Dakota in the World War, 1917-1918. Vol. 4. Bismarck, ND: The Bismarck Tribune Co., State printers and binders, 1931, 3075.
- North Dakota. Roster of the Men and Women Who Served in the Army or Naval Service (Including the Marine Corps) of the United States or Its Allies from the State of North Dakota in the World War, 1917-1918. Vol. 4. Bismarck, ND: The Bismarck Tribune Co., State printers and binders, 1931, 3257.
