The Scout and the Soldier/Doctor

Whose Scout ? Well, you all did well on that one - yes, it's Pop-Pops - W. Owings Stone. I Asked "whose" because the first word scrawled on the back seemed to be "my" and the last word - which I intentionally left out - was "Owings."

This was the first decade of Scouting in America and I did find one web site with a lot of images of Scouts from that era. I thought it might help, but I couldn't find anything there and the site takes forever to load because they put all the pictures on one page! Still, you may find it fun to look here.

I also found this certificate and while it has nothing to do with Scouting, I think it reflects the era and perhaps how the Stone family felt about World War I. (I see no evidence of Quakerism here.) Anyone know what 50 cents in 1918 would be in today's dollars? Anyone know how Owings might have earned that money?

Now, the soldier

Most of you did a good job about guessing on the soldier. It is Dr. D.E. Stone, the father of Jess and Owings, and he is, of course, in the Medical Corps. I'm not sure where the picture was taken, but he was stationed at one point in North Carolina.

Did he want to go? I think so. Maggie mentioned how disruptive this would be for anyone. I'm not sure he saw it that way, but there's some evidence others did, as you can see from this curious letter. It seems to be saying, "Emmitsburg needs him more than the Army." But it also indicates he volunteered and the letter writer doesn't really ask for anything. If nothing else, the letter gives us some insight into the medical situation in Emmitsburg in 1918 and so I include it here.

Posted by Greg Stone at July 28, 2003 07:51 PM