George Patterson  The Denison Herald Saturday, August 2, 1919 pg. 9 COLORED SOLDIER MADE GOOD IN FRANCE The real dark colored boy who used to work at the Southern Garage for many months, has returned from overseas. George Patterson was one colored boy who did not worry much about the draft as he drank lye when he was a baby and he couldn't eat nothing much but oatmeal and milk, he claiming that Uncle Sam could not diet him, which the Army did to as nicely as they took George and gave him plenty of everything but oatmeal and milk, thereby adding two inches to his height and 24 pounds to his weight. George Patterson, perhaps for a colored soldier, has had as varied and important a service record of any of his kind. He had a varied experience working under Mr. Crook, as his first employe in Denison, and as such became very proficient as a machinist and driver. As soon as Uncle Sam found out his qualifications, rapid was his progress to France, and on the twenty-ninth day from the time he left Denison, George was on his way across. As soon as he got in France, he was given a liberty truck in the 332nd Service Battalion, 80th Division, and was engaged in transporting trench timbers up to the new trench construction and for weeks around the Meuse battlefields was under direct artillery fire, where he became a first-class mechanic, and the signing of the Armistice found him in Argonne Forest.  In
December he went on a special detached service and for two months he
nor his truck saw his company. On March 10 he was called in and
with his truck went into the grave registrations work in the
great Caberet Rouge British Cemetery
where 35,000 Americans are buried. While engaged in this service,
George began to long for home and Denison, and his old job and friends.
George has had a great experience and is distinctly and Army made
man.  African American Biography Index Biography Index Military Veterans Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
