3/8/2012:
When the US entered into the First World War on April 6, 1917, many citizens back home did everything they could to help. As men enlisted and were drafted, their friends and family bought and sold war bonds, held drives, tried to get by on less. They waited to receive news from their soldiers, who were fighting in foreign lands.
At the beginning of March in 1918, Daniel Brew, who lived about eight miles south of Fayette, received some unwelcome news: a telegram from the government informing him that his son had died “from wounds received in an encounter with the German troops on March 1.”
Matt Brew was just a few months short of turning 21.He had enlisted in the Dickinson Machine Gun Company. He was born in Dickinson, and had been living on his parents’ ranch. His brother also had been trying to enlist, but was unable to get in because of an eye defect.
Matt Brew’s death was especially touching to people in the area because he was the first man from their area to fall in action. The Dickinson Press wrote: “The soldier’s death, which occurred near the Toul sector in France, brings the war close to us. It is like the dropping of a bomb in our midst. It will have the effect of awakening us to a realization that we are now subject to such intelligence any day and we should bend every energy toward hearty cooperation with the boys at the front.”
That battle claimed another life in North Dakota, that of Fred “Red” Gard, who was the first man from Crosby to give his life in the fight. Gard was “of a happy, genial disposition, well known and liked by all with whom he came in contact,” wrote the Crosby Review, “and was accounted as one of the most industrious young men in this section at whatever he found himself engaged in.” Gard also was 20 when he enlisted, and just the year before had begun the paperwork to become a naturalized citizen.
Around two million American soldiers fought during World War I, and many would fall in battle. Those deaths were no less difficult than any others—and each would surely be “like the dropping of a bomb” in the midst of family and friends.
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
The Dickinson Press, March 9, 1918
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/jazz/jb_jazz_wwi_1.html
The Crosby Review, March 8, 1918