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Temple experienced several losses from the very beginning: Thomas J. Silva, 26, died on the Lusitania when a German submarine torpedoed it on May 7, 1915. Silva, a cotton trader for Parrish & Co., sailed frequently to Europe. He was among the nearly 1,200 lost that day. His frantic family appealed to Gov. Jim Ferguson, also of Temple, and Mayor J.B. Watters to help locate him when his name did not appear on survivor lists. Silva’s body was later identified by his tattoos.
By April 1916, when the U.S. formally joined the conflict, Bell County residents were ready to support the effort with patriotic efforts. Women’s groups - Caucasian and African-Americans alike - formed bandage rolling clubs and knitting circles to provide socks and scarves for troops; farmers proudly publicized their increased food production for the war effort; others gathered donations of cigarettes to send to soldiers, dubbed “Send Sammie a Smoke.”
Then, in November 1917, respected Dr. Dudley Queen, house surgeon for King’s Daughters Hospital and officer in the Navy Reserve Medical Corps, died after Germans torpedoed his ship off the Ireland coast.
“Sorrow was brought to the hearts of many Temple people,” the Telegram reported. Queen was recognized as the first Texas physician to die in World War I. Then, on Feb. 18, 1918, Dr. Queen’s casket was brought back to Georgetown, his hometown, for burial. A large contingent of Bell County colleagues and friends attended his funeral.
Barely two weeks before Dr. Queen’s funeral, on Feb. 5, 1918, German U-boats torpedoed the USS Tuscania, and 230 American soldiers and the ship’s crew died in the attack. The attack brought horror and outrage. Not since the Civil War had the U.S. incurred so many casualties on a single day, and newspapers - especially those in Texas - were saturated with stories and firsthand accounts.
The Tuscania, once an Anchor luxury liner, had been retooled for military convoy at the war’s beginning, but it was not armed. Several hundred eager Central Texas soldiers were among the 2,100 soldiers on board. They had recently dispatched from Camp MacArthur in Waco, where they had trained. The soldiers sailed out of New York’s Pier on Jan. 24, the same pier the Lusitania sailed from on her final voyage.
Fourteen days into Tuscania’s voyage, just as she was within sight of the Scottish Hebrides, German subs sent exploding torpedoes into the starboard boilers. In all, 230 U.S. servicemen died, among them 25 Texans. As soldiers’ bodies washed ashore, nearby residents on the island of Islay, Scotland, buried them on the hillside and faithfully attended their unmarked graves for nearly two years. They also kept meticulous records of the bodies that washed ashore - some only identifiable by tattoos or name tags. And, as U.S. families tried to find their lost sons, Scottish villagers responded to each agonizing inquiry. The American Red Cross later erected a cross to mark the site.
On Feb. 7, the Temple Telegram blasted a banner headline on the Tuscania’s sinking: “Horrors of war brought home to us in the feared and long expected loss of soldier boys in transit to France.” As the Telegram ran front-page stories on the survivors, Bell County families anguished for more than two weeks before receiving official word that their sons were lost. The newspaper ran daily updates as many readers reported having sons, nephews, uncles, brothers or cousins on the Tuscania.
As news of survivors trickled through the local telegraph office, families were heartened. Finally, after more than two weeks of waiting, those who survived the torpedo attack - all privates from Camp MacArthur - were accounted for: George W. Dunlap of Little River; Milton T. Blankenship of Rogers; William E. Mann of Salado; Robert Holley, Lewis M. McCann and Barney H. Ray, all of Temple; Charles F. Billings and Joseph Mynar, both of Rosebud.
Each day for nearly three weeks the Daily Telegram listed the names of survivors and those still missing. Finally, the terrible news came home - killed was Pvt. George A. Altwein of Temple, attached to 165th Depot Brigade, 36th Company, Camp Travis Detachment 2. His parents, Fred and Ella, both German immigrants, had moved to Temple when he was 3 years old. Their last name was sometimes spelled differently, including “Altwien” on his gravestone.
Among those who also died on the Tuscania was Norman G. Crocker of Center, a private with 20th Engineer, 6th Battalion, Company D. Crocker was the first Texas A&M alumnus to die in the war. Crocker Residence Hall bears his name.
Not until late October 1920 could the Red Cross arrange for Altwein’s metal casket to return home for burial in the family lot in Hillcrest Cemetery. Also brought home at the same time was Pvt. Jesse Hoover of Rogers, who died of influenza in October 1918 in Scotland.
Both Altwein’s and Hoover’s flag-draped caskets were at Hewitt Funeral Home for viewing. Representatives from American Legion posts in surrounding counties volunteered to serve as round-the-clock honor guards as long lines of mourners formed outside to pay respects.
On Oct. 24, 1920, Temple paused to remember that terrible February 1918 one more time with double funerals. Altwein’s service was first, with the funeral cortege traveling a mile north from the funeral home to the cemetery. Then the entourage returned to the funeral home for Hoover’s rites and a second procession to the Rogers cemetery.
Bell County paid a heavy price. Of the 198,000 Texans who saw service in the armed forces, more than 1,100 were from Bell County, according to draft registration records in the Railroad and Heritage Museum’s archives. In all, 16 Bell County men were killed in action, 12 died in accidents, 44 were wounded and five permanently disabled. And 42 died of disease - mostly from the influenza pandemic of late 1918.
The sinking of the Tuscania was the first U.S. mass military casualty since the Civil War. The outrage of the Tuscania’s sinking soon faded as other horrors followed - Pearl Harbor and the later horrors of World War II. Bell County monuments, especially one at the Temple City Hall, honor the soldiers who were injured and died in all conflicts. Perhaps that is fitting because subsequent wars and sacrifices have overshadowed the now muted stories of 90 years ago.