Camp Cody Post Office Does A Large Business

Camp Cody as a whole is a busy place but probably the most active place in camp is the big camp post office. The problem of handling mail for most 30,000 men is no small one and when one thinks of the elaborate equipment usually found for handling mail in a city of 30,000 compared with the equipment here more respect will be had for the mail system of Camp Cody, which has been doing such effective work for the soldiers.

The method of handling the mail at Camp Cody differs from that employed in civilian offices in that all mail is separated for the various larger organizations and place in big bins. Each unit has its orderly, who takes the mail to his unit’s headquarters, where it is separated to the minor divisions and then delivered to the individual. All mail, whether ordinary, registered or insured, is handled in this manner.

Camp Cody branch office is furnished with modern equipment and a new canceling machine is just being installed. It is expected that the clerks will be furnished with a uniform not unlike that of the soldiers and will wear a special insignia to distinguish them from the men of there military organization. It is being whispered about among the men that when the soldiers are moved to France from Camp Cody that the post office clerks will be taken right along, which may or may not be a mere rumor. – Camp Cody, Trench and Camp Newspaper – November 13, 1917

Camp Cody Post Office – Deming, New Mexico 1917 – 1918

Camp Cody in Deming, New Mexico Nearly Done

Major Charles H. Miller, construction quartermaster, stated here that this week would see completed all the building work in camp excepting the corrals for horses and the guardhouse stockade, for which the wire has not come, and the installation of heating apparatus in the baths and mess halls. Heating stoves are to be put in the latter temporarily.

The rifle range, about two miles out, is completed and the bath houses are enclosed. The construction work now going on is the building of the stables for the artillery and machine gun horses, and Major Miller says these will be finished this week. – Camp Cody, Trench and Camp Newspaper – November 6, 1917

Construction Work at Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918

Harry Ward Is Camp Cody Brigade Detachment Chief

Brigade detachment commander Captain Harry Ward is one of the most popular officers in Camp Cody. His recognized ability has already won him two positions and today he is looked upon as one of the best trained officers in the camp. He is considered the foremost rifle expert of the 34th division. – Camp Cody, Trench and Camp Newspaper – November 27, 1917

Brigade Detachment Chief – Captain Harry Ward

39 Camp Cody Men for Aviation

Non-Coms and Privates Picked for Officers’ Training School in Aviation

Complying with an order received from Washington, 39 non-coms and privates were picked from Camp Cody last week for aviation, and on Friday evening left in a special car for Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, to report there to the president of the examining board of the aviation section, signal officers’ reserve corps, for examination to determine their fitness for commissions in that branch of the service. – Camp Cody, Trench and Camp Newspaper – November 13, 1917

A Company Street – Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918

Edward F. Denison, Camp Cody Y. M. C. A. Secretary

There is probably no more interesting figure in the confines of Camp Cody then Edward F. Denison, camp general secretary, and who is a prominent figure in Y. M. C. A. work throughout the entire country.

The boys of Camp Cody can thank Mr. Denison and his assistants for the splendid cheer afforded them by the Christmas trees provided for each of the six buildings in the cantonment and also the splendid programs rendered in each of the halls.

Mr. Denison who, by the way, is endowed with one of those pleasing personalities that puts one at ease almost immediately was born at Atlantic, Iowa, 41 years ago, and his early education was secured in that vicinity. Although being of a modest disposition, it is a record of fact that during his early schools days Mr. Denison helped pay off a mortgage on his parents’ farm.

Graduating from Grinnell college, Grinnell, Iowa, in 1903, Mr. Denison took up Y. M. C. A. work and has been engaged in that pursuit ever since. His first position was as secretary of boys’ work in Omaha, gradually working himself up to the position which he holds at the present time.

Mr. Denison is absent from Omaha on a special leave and has been at Camp Cody since August 1. Mrs. Denison only recently arrived from Omaha and will remain with her husband during his stay at Camp Cody. – Camp Cody, Trench and Camp Newspaper – January 1, 1918

Edward F. Denison, Camp Cody Y. M. C. A. Secretary

126th Field Artillery Has Started Battalion Messes at Camp Cody

The officers of the 126th Field Artillery at Camp Cody have begun to get acquainted, in every sense of the term. Battalion messes have been started up in the regiment.

The wife and child of Major E. B. Bush, medical corps, have arrived here to join him.

Mrs. W. H. Mclain, wife of Lieut. McLain, regimental veterinarian, has arrived in Deming to be with her husband.

Headquarters company, to be sergeants: Corpls. C. R. Lyall, James L. Conadar, Pvt. 1st class Herbert Fedderson. To be corporals: Pvts. 1st class Roland O. Bohnson, Horace Ingwerson, Herluf H. Sahl, Andrew C. Swanson, Will I. Tufford, Edward K. Spaulding, Arthur C. Hamilton and Michael B. Burnett.

Trenches For Camp Cody Men Will Be Built Within a Few Weeks.

Col. E. H. Shultz, division engineer, said that engineers would be sent out this week to lay out the trench system which is to be used in training the men at Camp Cody. These trenches will be located about eight miles north of camp. – Camp Cody, Trench and Camp Newspaper – November 27, 1917

Camp Cody Soldiers In Trenches – Deming, New Mexico – 1917 thru 1918

Camp Cody Loses General A. P. Blocksom to Hawaiian Post

Blocksom Will Be in Charge of the Entire Hawaiian Department.

Camp Cody’s “grand old man,” beloved by every man in the Deming camp and a dynamic leader in American military Circles for years, is to leave his command in the 34th division, the camp which he has guided and directed since its inception and institution among the foothills of the New Mexico desert, for a broader range of activities in the great American possessions in the Pacific.

In a telegram received at division headquarters from major general McCain, adjutant general of the United States army, Washington, D. C., Major General Augustus P. Blocksom has been transferred from the national army to the regular army, with rank of brigadier general. The order requested that the Camp Cody commander report as soon as possible at the Pacific division and proceed to Honolulu, Hawaii, there to assume commander of the Hawaiian department.

Regret Over Departure

In leaving Camp Cody for his new post, brigadier general Blocksom leaves as many friends and devoted well wishers as there are men in camp, besides his wide circle of friends in civilian life. During his connection with the Deming camp he has been popular with both officers and enlisted men and many expressions of regret at the transfer are heard in all sides. – Camp Cody, Trench and Camp Newspaper – April 25, 1918

General Blocksom – Camp Cody, Deming, NM 1918

Base Hospital “Y” House is Practically Completed

Contractor W. W. Barracks reports the practical completion of the new Y. M. C. A. building at the base hospital, which is the finest “Y” building at any camp in the southwest. It would be an ornament to any city.

The main building is 38×96 feet with a wind 30×30 feet. In one end of the main building a fine stage has been erected, the moving picture machine being in the opposite end. The social room, with its attractive fireplace and appropriate furniture, is one of the beauty spots in camp. There are two class rooms, two bedrooms and a comfortable ladies’ rest room with lavatory and toilet. There is also a house toilet, lavatory and shower.

The big building is painted in a most becoming manner and the inside furnishings and fixings are something “swell.” The reading and writing tables are of the very latest design and are comfortable and lounge enough to make the boys all thing of “home, sweet home.”

The structure will be formally dedicated in the course of a short time. It will “set the Y back” $10,000 in round numbers, but will set it ahead in human esteem $100,000. – Camp Cody, Trench and Camp Newspaper – September 26, 1918

                          Camp Cody YMCA – Deming, New Mexico – Jan 1917

War Romance Ends At Camp Cody in a Marriage

First Lieutenant “2” Smith Weds Miss Ruth Agnes Merritt, “Sweetest Girl In Iowa.”

The Y. W. C. A. hostess house was the scene of a charming wedding Thursday afternoon, the result of a real war romance, the contracting parties being Lieutenant O. Martin Smith, of Camp Cody, and Miss Ruth Agness Merritt, who gave up the position of domestic art instructor in the public schools of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and journeyed all the way to Camp Cody, New Mexico, to wed the man with whom she had been corresponding as private, corporal, sergeant and second and first lieutenant. The bride was accompanied to Deming by an aunt, who came this way on her journey to California.

The ring ceremony was performed by chaplain M. O. Stockland, of the 366th machine gun battalion, and as the vows were plighted Miss Helen Holt played softly “Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.” – Camp Cody, Trench and Camp Newspaper – November 21, 1918

Camp Cody Wedding, Deming, New Mexico

Y. W. C. A. Hostess House Deming, New Mexico, 1917 – 1918

Y. M. C. A. Will Raise A Million In Army Department

E. F. Denison, chief camp secretary of the Y. M. C. A., is back from Dallas, where he attended a meeting of secretaries of that organization from the military camps in the southern department. Also he attended there a meeting with business men from all the states in the southern department to plan the campaign which is to be made between November 11 and November 19 next to raise a part of the $35,000,000 for Y. M. C. A. work up to July 1, 1918.

This money is from work among American soldiers in the United States and France, and the soldiers of France, Italy and Russia and allies prisoners in hands of the enemy. The southern department has to raise $1,000,000 of this fund. Mr. Denison is lending two of his camp secretaries, L. R. Smith and L. C. Goodwin, for 30 days to work with business men of New Mexico.

Mr. Denison will leave Wednesday for is home in Omaha, Nebraska to help organize the Nebraska campaign for this fund. – El Paso Herald Newspaper – Monday, Oct 15, 1917

4th Nebraska And 3rd Minnesota At Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico, 1917-1918