Anna Marie Pracht
Anna M Bracht was born 7 October 1893 in Cincinnati, the daughter
of Adam Pracht, who died in 1898 in Cincinnati and Mary Catherine Schmuesezer,
who died in April 1900 in Cincinnati. She was put in the German Protestant
Orphan Home until she was of age and then lived with her father's sister, Susan.
She moved to Dayton Ky. to complete the training for a nurse at the Speers
Hospital. She graduated in April 1918.
She was working as a nurse at Speers Hospital in Dayton when World War I started. She was called into active service as a Nurse Apr 6, 1918. She served overseas from July 11, 1918 until May 5, 1919. She was honorably discharged June 11, 1919 and was relieved from active duty but was then a Reserve Nurse.
Anna died 4 September 1950 in Newport and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery with full military honors.
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Kentucky Post, Monday, 4 March 1918, page 1
Exercises will be held Wednesday, March 20, for graduates of Speers Hospital, Dayton, instead of May 8, because several members of the class are to go to France with Kentucky Base Hospital Unit No 40, now being mobilized at Camp Zachary Taylor, Louisville.
Anna Pracht, Delila Sparks and Marie Simon, members of the 1918 class will go to France for service with the Kentucky unit. Josephine Sullivan, graduate nurse, will also go. Bertha McClain and Rose Neiser, graduates left with a Cincinnati unit several weeks ago. Christine Fortlage and Charlotte Willis, members of this years graduating class are not contemplating foreign service because they expect to do cantonment work in this country.
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Kentucky Post, Friday, 5 April 1918, page 1
Three 1918 graduate nurses of Speers Hospital, Dayton, will leave Sunday noon over C&O RR for Camp Upton, Yaphank, Long Island, NY from which port they will board transports to sail for France. The nurses are Delia Sparks, Anna Pracht and Marie Simon. They graduated several weeks ago and were notified of their sailing time Friday.
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Kentucky Post, Monday, 3 February 1919,
page 1
Miss Anna Pracht, Red Cross nurse of Newport, who is over there
helping minister to the needs of the Yanks wounded in battle or suffering from
illness, is regarded by the doughboys as a veritable angel, according to a
letter written by one of them to Louisville Red Cross headquarters. He wrote to
Louisville because when Miss Pracht was transferred from the hospital he lost
her address.
Corporal Robert E Bond of Ward Va. US General Hospital No 6 Ft McPherson Ga. wrote as follows:
"I was under care of a nurse from your town and let me say she is one you can be proud of. Her names is Miss Anna Pracht and she was just like a sister to all of us and I want to write to her people. She gave me her address but I have lost it and I want you to get it again for me. I am not acquainted with Louisville and know that if I ask you to send the address I will be sure to get it. I would like so much for Miss Pracht's family to know we boys think of her."
Miss Pracht graduated from the training class at Speers Hospital last April and left immediately for the foreign services. She was stationed in England.
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Kentucky Post, Tuesday, 16 September 1919, page 4
The date of Dayton's homecoming celebration has been changed from Sept 27 to Oct 1, the committee announced Monday. The names of the girls who served in France with the Red Cross, either as nurses or canteen workers, will adorn the tablet along with the names of the soldiers.
They are, Anna Pracht, Marie Simmons, Delilah Sparks, Josephine Sullivan, Olive Soden, Etta Haverkamp, Susie Salt, Gertrude Buch, Rose Neiser, Eliza K Thomas and Mary Kreidler.
Page 1-Picture: left to right, top; Anna Pracht, Delilah Sparks and Marie Simon; center, Pearl Hoffman; below, Rose Neiser and Etta Kaverkamp.
When the 450 men in Dayton enlisted at the outbreak of the war, 18 girls, too, heard the call of their country and enlisted to go across with these men. They duty was to wait behind the lines, within earshot of the "big Bertha" and howitzers, to administer relief to those stricken men. As stretcher after stretcher came up laden with desperately wounded and dying men these brave girls dressed their wounds an cheered them with talk of home, tho each one feared they would never return.
War veterans and brave nurses said they were satisfied with the warm welcome given them by their families and friends, but no so residents of Dayton. Such service as these young people performed cannot be too greatly landed, so a handsome bronze tablet, ornamented with a giant eagle and two battle scenes, was purchased and on this table will be emblazoned the names of all the men and women who left Dayton to give their service to their country.
Miss Delilah Sparks, upon landing in New York re-enlisted immediately for further government service; Marie Simon is on duty in a Cincinnati hospital; Etta Haverkamp and Pearl Hoffman are on duty at Speers Hospital.
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Kentucky Post, Monday, 22 September 1919, page 4
The bronze tablet which will be unveiled in Dayton public square Oct 4, will bear the names of soldiers, sailors, marines and nurses who went out from Dayton to do their bit in the war.
Anna Pracht