PFC Carey J. Blythe of Battery F

Carey J. Blythe was born on November 4, 1897 in Hendersonville, North Carolina to Sewell Joshua and Sarah (Huntley) Blythe. Carey’s father Sewell was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains on November 11, 1862 to James J. and Therecia J. Blythe. Sewell was the eldest of 5 children. It is likely that Carey Blythe’s grandfather, James J. Blythe was a veteran of the Civil War but this is not confirmed.

By the summer of 1900 Carey J. Blythe was living in Cedar Creek Township of Henderson County, NC with his mother Sarah, sisters Jennie, Edith and Beatrice. On the 1900 Federal Census Sewell, the father was not listed on the census form. Sarah was listed as being married and had been married for 11-years so Sewell must have been living away at the time. The Blythe family lived on a farm and the occupation listed for Sarah was that of a farmer.

The family was living on 2nd Avenue in Hendersonville, NC in the spring of 1910. Sewell, Sarah M. and all four children were together again in the home. Sewell was working as a carpenter to support the family. When Carey Blythe was 19-years old he joined the army and before he turned 20 he would sail to France with the 54th Artillery, C.A.C., but before Carey went to France his father Sewell passed away on October 20, 1917.

While with the 54th Artillery his rank was Private First Class and was a member of Battery F of the 3rd Battalion. PFC Carey Blythe would have celebrated his 21st birthday while in France and with 7 seven days the war would end. PFC Blythe would have returned to the States with the 54th Artillery and after his discharge from the Army he returned back to North Carolina, his home state.

The gravestone of Carey J. Blythe as it is today in the Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville, NC. This was photographed by Ssg. Curtiss Poteat, U.S.A., Ret. It reads: Carey J. Blythe North Carolina PVT. 54th Regt. Coast Arty July 29, 1932

By January of 1920 Carey Blythe was living in Hendersonville, North Carolina with his mother Sarah. This was the same home they lived in back in 1910 located at 616 Second Avenue. According to the 1920 Federal Census Sarah who was now 49-years old, and Carey now 21-years old were the only ones living in the home. Sarah owned the home, which was free and clear as there was not a mortgage on it. Sarah would pass away on August 2, 1945. Carey was working as a house painter in January of 1920. At some point after 1920 Carey met and married a woman named Lillie E. At the time of Carey’s death he and Lillie were living in Hendersonville, NC and he was now working as an auto mechanic. On October 9, 1931 Carey Blythe became ill with Pulmonary Tuberculosis and was treated at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Oteen, NC. At the age of 34-years at 10:45 in the evening of July 29, 1932 Carey J. Blythe passed away from his Pulmonary Tuberculosis, which was far advanced. His body was released to the Brownell, Dunn Funeral home in Asheville, NC where he was buried on July 30 in the Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville, NC. Photo of Pvt. Blythe's stone provided by Ssg. Curtiss Proteat, U.S.A., Ret.

Corporal John Comer Hawkins, Service No. 724127, Battery E

John C. Hawkins (Texas) enlisted on May 3rd 1917 and received a honorable discharge March 24th 1919. Serial No. 724127. Served as a Corporal in the 54th Artillery, C.A.C., Battery "E"

Captain Floyd G. Brightbill, Battery B

2nd Lt. Floyd G. Brightbill

Floyd G. Brightbill was born on June 10, 1891 in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. At the time he entered into the army he lived at 675 Parkwood Drive, Cleveland, Ohio. He probably entered Officers' Candidate School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana on May 14, 1917. Upon graduation from officers' candidate School he was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in the Coast Artillery Corps and was assigned to Fort Monroe, Va. until August 15th 1917.

2nd Lt. Brightbill was assigned to the 54th Artillery, C.A.C. where he was a Battery officer in Battery B. March 7th 1918 he was advanced to 1st Lieutenant. On March 16th 1918 he sailed on the Baltic with 19 officers and 566 enlisted men of Supply Co., Batteries A and B, 54th Artillery, and arrived in LeHarve, France on April 6th 1918.

At an unknown date (possibly during April, 1918 as a large number of officers, most of who were 1st and 2nd Lieutenants, were transferred into the 56th Artillery) 1st Lt. Brightbill was transferred to the 56th Artillery, C.A.C. and participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive with the 56th Artillery. He was advanced to the rank of Captain on November 11th 1918. Captain Brightbill did not return with the 56th Artillery to the United States. Captain Brightbill on January 23, 1919 was ordered to return to Ft. Monroe, Virginia, and on February 2,boarded the SS La France at Brest, France. She reached New York City on February 9 and unloaded her passengers. Captain Brightbill was honorably discharged on February 13th 1919.

After his discharge from the army Floyd Brightbill lived in Cleveland, Ohio on West 114th Street, where he was an electrician with a Bolt and Nut Manfacturing Company. At the time of the 1920 Federal Census he was not married. Sometime in 1923 he married and her name was Florence, who was 23 years old in 1923. Florence and Floyd according to the 1930 Federal Census had two children, Ruth E. age 7 and Barbara J. age 3 years. In 1930 the family was living in a rented house at 1433 Maile Avenue in Lakewood, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. At the time Floyd was an electrician in a auto factory. Floyd survived his wife who died at an unknown date and on November 5, 1958 Floyd G. Brightbill died in Lakewood, Ohio at the age of 67.

Pvt. Russell G. Waters, Service No. 581630, Battery B

Relatively speaking America’s part during WWI was short in duration of time, but in terms of the outcome was one of the factors that helped secure the Victory against the German Empire. America was a latecomer in this war and during the last 6-months of the war America was just then getting her troop levels up to full strength. Should the war have continued into the Spring Offensive of 1919 as many of the top military minds of that time believed, that many of the newly arrived American soldiers would have been in the thick of this new offensive. One such soldier was Private Russell G. Waters Service No. 581630 and this is his story.

Russell George Waters was the third child born on August 12 of 1892 to Charlotte “Lotte” M. and George A. Waters of Wiscasset, Maine. To support his family of six children George A. Waters worked as a bridge architect likely for the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway or the Wiscasset and Quebec Railroad. Russell George Waters was the third child and the only son born to “Lotte” and George, his sisters were Inez, Madeline, Muriel and Cecile.

As the new year of 1917 began, Russell Waters was in his 25th year and was working as a clerk at the Clarence Irving Dickinson, Sr., Grocery Story in Wiscasset. In June of 1917 the United States Government began its first call-up for the draft during the war. And it was on June 5th in Wiscasset, Maine that Russell registered. He listed that he was single, working for the Dickinson Grocery store, and was a short medium built man with blue eyes and brown hair.

Also, that summer Russell had met and became in love with Albertine Marie Gamache of Waterville, Maine which was about 45-miles north of Wiscasset. Albertine was two-years younger than Russell and was working as a clerk in Waterville during the summer of 1917. As 1917 was drawing to a close Russell enlisted into the Maine National Guard at Ft. Williams located along the southern Maine coast in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. On Friday December 14, 1917 Russell Waters reported for duty at Ft. Williams as a Private, and was place into the 18th Company Maine Coast Artillery National Guard. This was a unit based out of Portland, Maine.

By that Monday, December 17, 1917, Russell had asked Albertine to marry him, she said yes and on Sunday December 30, 1917 he and Albertine were married by Frank B. W. Welch a Justice of the Peace in Portland, Maine.

There were many changes in the life of Russell Waters during December of 1917, from his enlistment into the National Guard, his engagement and marriage, and also the federalization of the Maine National Guard. Pvt. Waters company had now been called into Federal Service for the war and the 18th Company, Portland was renamed Battery B of the 54th Artillery Regiment, CAC then forming for duty overseas.

Pvt. Russell G. Waters, photo was taken before he sailed for France, aboard the Baltic.

Back at Ft. Williams they were busy removing the 10-inch and 6-inch guns from the fort so that they could be sent to France and have new mobile mounts put under them to be used during the war. Of the four guns at Battery Garesché in Ft. Williams only one of the 6-inch guns was actually sent to France. None of the American Coast Artillery Corps regiments in France equipped with this type 6-inch gun completed training in time to see action on the front before the war ended.

On March 16, 1918 part of the 54th Artillery CAC was ready to sail to France. The Headquarters Company, Medical Detachment, Supply Company and Batteries A and B of which Pvt. Waters was a member of were aboard the SS Baltic and steamed out of New York Harbor for France.

There were five officers and 240 enlisted men in Battery B that went aboard the Baltic. The Battery was under the command of Captain Harry Ewald Heeren. The other Battery officers were 1st Lt. Chester H. Pierce, 1st Lt. Floyd G. Brightbill, 2nd Lt. Frederick William Hogan, 2nd Lt. Charles N. Liley. On the sailing manifest of the SS Baltic, Pvt. Waters listed as the person to contact in case of an emergency, his wife Albertine, of No. 5 ½ Temple Street in Waterville, Maine. Every man aboard the Baltic knew that the “person to contact in case of an emergency” really meant who to contact if the ship was sunk. As each man went aboard they were handed a card to fill out which was addressed to someone back home on one side and the back side was printed “The ship I sailed upon has arrived safely” and the soldier was only permitted to write his name and unit. These cards would then be collected and stored ashore and mailed once they had arrived, “over there.”

In France the 54th Artillery underwent a change as did all of the American Coast Artillery units. The 54th Artillery would be changed to become a training regiment, and not be used on the front in combat. The Army did this so that as artillery units on the line needed replacement men they would be pulled from the 54th Artillery and that man would be fully trained ready to go the moment he arrived in his new unit thereby always ensuring fully trained men were ready all the time.

It was on August 5, 1918 that Pvt. Waters was pulled from the 54th Artillery for new duty. A relative new kind of weapon during the First World War had become part of the fighting, and that was the airplane. At first, they were used as visual observers but quickly grew into something the enemy used against ground troops once machine guns were mounted to the planes. As such the armies had to develop new defenses against this new weapon. The answer to this was the formation of Anti-Aircraft Artillery units. The American Army created Anti-Aircraft Artillery Sectors consisting of separate Anti-aircraft Batteries usually using the French 75mm gun fixed in a new high elevation mount as the weapon against the airplane threat. As such the 4th Anti-Aircraft Battery, CAC was formed and Private Russell G. Waters was then assigned to this new unit.

These new AA Batteries began their training and getting familiar with the new weapons, but do to the lateness in the war were not actually used in combat when the war had ended on November 11, 1918.

Family stories are told of how years after the war back home, Russell used to tell stories of his experiences in France. Elizabeth Bjornen, Russell’s granddaughter, recalls some of those stories.

“I remember my grandfather’s stories about WWI. He was on the French 75’s so he had great memories and stories about the war. There was a story of how he got lost in the forest in France and spent the night with a peasant couple deep in the forest who mended his uniform and gave him rabbit stew. He could speak and write French so he made extra money writing love letters to the local girls for his fellow soldiers. And there was one story of the night they all put their gas masks on thinking it was a gas attack, but it was actually a bomb that had blown up the latrine. And once he almost lost a finger when his wedding ring got caught in the recoil of the 75mm gun.”

After the war these AA Batteries were not required and were some of the first units to be returned back home. It was on December 31, 1918 that the American Armored Cruiser USS Seattle had anchored in Brest, France. She loaded troops aboard and among them were the 4th AA Battery, and Pvt. Russell Waters. About 13-days later on January 12, 1919, Pvt. Waters was once again back on United States soil.

The 4th AA Battery was then sent to Ft. Totten in New York and were demobilized from Active Service. Pvt. Waters was Honorably Discharged from service on January 25, 1919.

Now back in civilian life Russell headed home to his wife and in January of 1920 they were living in Waterville, Maine. There in Waterville they lived on Barnet Ave. where Russell was working for the American Railway Express Company as a clerk.

By the spring of 1930 the Waters family which now consisted of two daughters lived an No. 7 Park Place in Waterville. The house was at the end of Park Place and is a two-story wood framed duplex apartment house. The Waters family had one side and the Charles Davis family had the other side. The house has on the second story a round peaked roof of a Queen Anne Style home and still stands in Waterville today. The two daughters were Madeline A. born about November of 1923 and Joan A. born about December of 1925. During 1940 Russell and Albertine’s eldest daughter Madeline was going to school to become a nurse.

Russell owned and ran a local dairy creamery known as the Home Dairy Company in Waterville from the mid 1920’s throughout World War II. The dairy was located on the southwest corner of Temple and Front Streets in Waterville. Today the buildings have been torn down and it is a city parking lot.

After the Second World War and Russell retired from and sold the dairy, he and Albertine moved to Oakland, Maine, which is just a short distance west of Waterville, where they became antique dealers. The Waters home on Belgrade Ave. in Oakland was filled with antiques, which they were always buying and selling. They were both self-taught in the antique business, reading books and then buying antiques. They were well known antique dealers in the 50's and 60's.

Albertine and Russell Waters would live in the Oakland, Maine area until his death on July 14 of 1970. Russell was then buried in the Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Augusta, Maine. Albertine would pass away on July 10, 1983 and she was buried next to Russell.

Gravestone of Pvt. Russell G. Waters	Gravestone of Albertine the wife of Pvt. Russell G. Waters

Private Edwin C. Williams, Service No. 581060, Battery B

Many of the young men who served during the First World War would also go on to serve during the Second World War, 24-years after the first war ended. One such man was Edwin Chester Williams, and he would serve in France in the Army at the rank of Private and end up serving again on the European continent 24-years later at the rank of Major.

The story of Edwin Chester Williams begins on December 30, 1898, which is his birthday. On that next to last day in December of 1898 Edwin was born in Natick, Massachusetts to Lizzie J. Maynard (1867-1949) and Walter W. (William) Williams, who was born about 1856-1860 in Oxford, England and passed away in 1942 in Massachusetts.

On October 25, 1869 aboard the Cunard liner SS Palmyra sailing from Liverpool, England, Walter and his younger brother Frederick and their mother Sarah Williams arrived in Boston, Massachusetts. Sarah Williams was then 32-years old, Walter was 9-years old and Fredrick was then 7-years old. William Watson was the Master of the Palmyra which was a 1,389-ton steamship that ran the Liverpool-Boston run.

Sarah Williams may have been coming to America to join her husband George Williams. It is known from the 1880 Federal Census that George and Sarah Williams were together living in Natick, Massachusetts along with their sons William (Walter) and Frederick. William (Walter) was listed as a house painter and his father George was listed as a painter and window glazer. It appears that Sarah and the two boys travelled to America together and George may have come before but this is unknown when he may have come to America. Family stories are told that in England the family name was Stone and for some reason when the family arrived in America that used the last name of Williams. But it is fair to say that George and Sarah (Stone) Williams are the beginnings of the Williams family of Natick, Massachusetts.

The Sarah Williams family settled in Natick, Massachusetts, where Frederick became a photographer and Walter began a house painting company in Natick known as Williams and Brown Painters, Llewellyn Brown was his partner. Walter began his naturalization process to gain his citizenship and by at least 1898 he had become a United States citizen. Walter first married Eleanor Taylor in 1881 and gave birth to a son named Percy in September of 1883. Eleanor died in Natick on March 18, 1886. He then remarried to Lizzie Jane Maynard on May 12, 1892. Walter and Lizzie first had a daughter Lucille Williams who died October 24, 1897 at 3-days old and is buried in the family plot at Dell Park Cemetery. And then on December 30, 1898 Lizzie gave birth to Edwin Chester Williams, the subject of this history.

Edwin would grow up in Natick and attend the Natick High School. Edwin’s older step-brother Percy, studied agriculture at the Massachusetts Agricultural College in Amherst and would go on to become a Professor at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute and became the Alabama state horticulturist.

In the summer of Edwin’s seventeenth year, America was at war and as such Edwin while a student at Northeastern University enlisted into the Coast Artillery Corps of the Army on June 12, 1918 at Fort Banks, Boston. Edwin was assigned to the 9th Company, Boston, which at the time was stationed at Fort Strong. At that time there were eight Coast Artillery fortifications that protected the Boston Harbor area from seaward attacks. The eight forts were; Fort Banks, Heath, Winthrop, Strong, Andrews, Revere, Warren and Ft. Standish.

As America increased the men she was sending to France during the war, each month men of the Coast Artillery Corps were automatically selected for service in France as replacements for Coast Artillery Regiments in France. Private Edwin Chester Williams, Service No. 581060 along with his friend at the time, Pvt. Raymond H. Thurlow Service No. 581039, were among the 216 enlisted men selected from the eight forts in the Boston Coast Defenses for the September draft to be sent to France as replacements. On September 23, 1918 at Hoboken, New Jersey the 216 enlisted men of the Ft. Andrews September Automatic Draft Company No. 7 boarded the USS Mongolia which would be their transportation to France.

Once in France the 216 men of the Ft. Andrews Automatic Draft went to the 54th Artillery Regiment, CAC. This was a training and replacement regiment. The 54th Artillery was set up with fully trained men and anytime a Coast Artillery Regiment on the line in combat needed a replacement man that man would come from the 54th Artillery, fully trained and ready to step into his job without any loss of efficiency to the regiment on the line in combat.

Both Privates Williams and Thurlow were assigned to Battery B of the 54th Artillery and they remained together in Battery B through the end of the war, never having been selected to go to an artillery regiment on the front line. During the time Pvt. Williams was with Battery B they were with the 1st Battalion consisting of Battery A and B and were stationed at Angers (Marne-et-Loire), France. The 2nd Battalion consisting of Battery C and D, was stationed at Doulevant-le-Chateau (Hauts Marne) and the 3rd Battalion consisting of Battery E and F, remained at Haussimont and Angers, France

After the war ended then the three battalions of the 54th were re-assembled and they made their way to the west coast of France at the port city of Brest. But they had to wait their turn for shipping space to become available for the return trip. Part of the 54th Artillery, which consisted of Battery B, sailed on February 23, 1919 on the SS Vedic where they arrived in Boston on March 7, 1919. The remaining part of the 54th Artillery sailed for Boston on February 25th, 1919 aboard the Battleship USS Nebraska and went to Camp Devens, Mass., March 6, 1919. The regiment was demobilized March 13, 1919 at Camp Devens, Massachusetts.

After his Honorable Discharge from the Army on April 13, 1919, Edwin C. Williams said goodbye to his army buddy Raymond Thurlow and headed for home in Natick. Now back at his parents’ home in the two-story house on the northeast corner of Harvard Street and David Drive at 15 Harvard Street in Natick, Edwin began his life after the war.

Edwin continued at the Civil Engineering school at Northeastern University in Boston and was in the class of 1922. Edwin was active in school life and in his senior year was the president of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, Northeastern Section.

On August 30, 1922 Edwin Chester Williams married Wilhelmina Iona ‘Billy’ Johnsen in the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. This was the first marriage in the new church building located at 39 East Central Street in Natick. Wilhelmina was born on September 13, 1899 in Salt Kettle, Paget Parish, Bermuda of Bermudian and Danish parents, Mary Louisa Trounsell ‘Meme’ Harriott (1868-1960) and Ludwig A. Johnsen (1866-1950), and they had emigrated to the United States about 1916 when Wilhelmina was about 17-years old. The Johnsen family moved to 13 Harvard Street in Natick, which was right next door to Walter and Lizzie Williams and this was how Edwin and Wilhelmina met each other.

We don’t know when Edwin and Wilhelmina had travelled to Bermuda but it is a known fact that Edwin and Wilhelmina had left Bermuda on the SS Araguaya on January 9, 1923 bound for New York City. The Araguaya was a Royal Mail Steam Packet Company Ship then on the New York to Bermuda route carrying vacationing passengers out to Bermuda. On the passenger manifest for this voyage Wilhelmina is listed as being related to Edwin “By Marriage” and they have the same address of Natick, Massachusetts listed. So, it is likely that Edwin and Wilhelmina had traveled there to see family that may have still been in Bermuda.

Back in Natick Edwin and Wilhelmina made their home at 13 Hammond Road, and in 1925 they began their family by the birth of their first child, a son they named Edwin Chester, Jr. When young Edwin was two years old the Williams family again travelled back to Bermuda. This is known from the passenger manifest of the SS Fort St. George, a Furness Bermuda Line passenger ship then on the Bermuda to New York route. On March 29, 1927 the Fort St. George left Hamilton, Bermuda bound for New York City where she reached the latter on March 31, 1927. The manifest lists Edwin, Wilhelmina and 2-year old Edwin, Jr. as passengers. Wilhelmina is listed as “Husband of U. S. Citizen” so, she may not have been naturalized by then.

Edwin and Wilhelmina had added to the family on October 30, 1928 with the birth of another son named David M. Williams. Still in the home on Hammond Road, Edwin was then working as a civil engineer for the Massachusetts Department of Public Works. Edwin became a Freemason with the Meridian Lodge in Natick on June 26, 1937 and again in 1939 the family was added to again with the birth of Walter Ian ‘Wally’ Williams on October 27. In the home at 13 Hammond Road in Natick the Williams family would live for many years.

It was at that home in the garage that father and son put their engineering skills to the test as young Edwin, Jr. was into soapbox derby racing. The 1939 Massachusetts State Soap Box Derby champion was eleven-year old Edwin Chester Williams, Jr., from Natick.

It would be from the front door of this house that Edwin would once again put on a uniform in the defense of his country, but this time it would be the uniform of an officer. Edwin enlisted in July of 1942 when he was commissioned as a Captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was said that Edwin felt like he needed to do his part and could not sit this out. His original orders were to work on construction projects state side but within two-weeks the orders were changed and he was sent to the Eastern European theatre and served in North Africa and Italy where he served for 26-months. On June 9, 1945, for the second time in his life, Major Edwin Williams was Honorably Discharged from Active Duty at camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts

Edwin’s eldest son, Edwin, Jr. enlisted in the Coast Guard when he was 17-years old and he served in Salem, Massachusetts during WWII as a flight mechanic on PBM flying boats conducting anti-submarine missions in the Atlantic. Edwin’s second son, David M. Williams also served in the period directly after the end of WWII. There was haste after the surrender of Japan in 1945 to bring all of the servicemen home and discharge them, this put a real strain on the military so, in 1946 the government offered an 18-month enlistment with full WWII benefits. David M. Williams took this offer and enlisted and served in Korea after the end of WWII and before the Korean War. And the third son Walter, served in the United States Marine Corps starting in 1957.

After the end of the Second World War, Edwin, Sr. returned once again to Natick where Edwin and Wilhelmina would live the rest of their lives in Natick and Cape Cod. Edwin was a very active member of the Natick American Legion, even acting as the commander for a one-year period. With a great sense of honor Edwin painstakingly mapped the graves of veterans in the local town cemeteries for the placing of flags on the graves during Memorial Day. Edwin Williams had a great sense of service which he passed on to his three sons, Edwin, Jr., David, and Walter who all served their Country in the military. The family is filled with honored service to our Country as Edwin’s grandfather on his mother’s side, William C. Maynard served in the Civil War in the Union Army with the Connecticut 11th Infantry.

Edwin would pass away on December 21, 1973 in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts and was buried in the Dell Park Cemetery in Natick. Wilhelmina would live on until her death on July 22, 1990 and she was buried next to Edwin.

Private Edwin Chester Williams, 1918 during WWI	Major Edwin Chester Williams during WWII
Dog tags from WWII on the upper left and from WWI on the lower right. The WWI dog tags were hand stamped into aluminum disks each letter at a time, making now two dog tags exactly the same. They also had a cloth stringer. The WWII dog tags were machine stamped into a thin steel blank, which were issued with the metal “BB” stringer so often seen.	The medals and collar pins of Edwin C. Williams.

This photo is identified as being Battery B, 54th Artillery, CAC on a barge in France. Pvt. Williams is identified with the red arrow above his head.

This is a French photo card taken at the Maximin Photo Studio in Angouleme, France. On the left is identified as Pvt. Raymond Thurlow and on the right is Pvt. Edwin C. Williams. It is dated November 18, 1918 and at the bottom under the date it says “Pals from Northeastern.” It is assumed from this statement that Thurlow and Williams may have gone to college together at Northeastern in Boston before the war, but this is not confirmed. Thurlow was from Newburyport, Massachussetts and could have attended Northeastern and this might explain why they were Army buddies together.

Edwin C. Williams in 1938 leading a Memorial Day Parade as the Natick American Legion Post Commander.

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