Cornfields to Marching Feet Remberances A-B

Camp Ellis Remembrances A-B

These remembrances are from a book entitled Camp Ellis, Illinois - From Cornfields to Marching Feet by Marjorie Rich Bordner. (1)

Virginia Williams Allen: One time I was at an Army Show in Bernadotte. They had a pontoon bridge for army vehicles to cross Spoon River. Military equipment was not allowed on the old iron bridge. (1)
Zelda Anderson: One day while at work, one of he soldiers at Camp Ellis came to her to call her attention just outside the door in a breezeway to an unusual happening, one that would have seemed impossible in the early years of World War II. In the breezeway was a United States Corporal fast asleep, along side a German POW, also asleep. This is how it was for the prisoners, but quite different from what the German men had been told early in the war. They had been told before being taken prisoners, that America had been badly damaged and they were very amazed when they saw there was no damage here.
Louis Ash: The German prisoners cleaned our main restrooms. Most were big, dark-headed men, clean-cut, and fairly good looking. We weren't supposed to talk to them. Some did. They wondered if they would ever get home again and what had happened to their families. I understand that four are buried in a small cemetery ... outside Bernadotte.
Eugene Aten: I lived on Adams Street across from WIU (then Western Illinois Teachers College) and attendee the lab school. During the war Camp Ellis housed POWs and these were often brought to the campus to help with the care of the vast campus. I had to walk close by them as I went to school.
Grace I. Baker: The Station Hospital with its facilities was one of the chief points of interest to the thousands attending the Dedication Day celebration on July 4, 1943. Civilians were astounded when told the hospital occupied 140 acres: that one of the corridors was 2,939 feet long.
Mary Raby Barnes: My father, G. Early Raby, was a World War I veteran...he was Number One man in charge of the German Prisoners of War. Eventually he invited some of his most trusted "Trustys" for Sunday dinners at our farm home east of Bushnell. My mother gathered friends, relatives and neighbors to help with the sumptuous chicken dinners she closely planned, cooked and hosted many times. At times they would bring her little handmade gifts from their Carpentry Shop.
Betty Moran Hughes Batterton:Can you believe that Table Grove High School moved its graduation date to April 24th in 1942? Many of the students lived on farms located in the area that was to become Camp Ellis; therefore, many families were relocating and consequently the ending of the school term was changed. We went to school on Saturdays and school ended in April...........Many workers drove each day from towns around the area and others from quite a distance. Others found rooms in private homes and ate all their meals at the restaurant (B&M Restaurant). I remember a long shelf along the wall back towards the kitchen which was used to stack the metal lunch boxes with the orders written on a ticket and also the time for picking up. There would be boxes stacked up row upon row up the wall.
Eileen C. Beaty: Spoon River HOme Bureau was going to have a picnic for our families and decided to invite some soldiers from Camp Ellis. I was fortunate to have some fresh peach pie made and think I offered to take about six home with me. Some watched farm chores while others laid down in the lawn to feel the grass. They had no place at Camp ELlis to relax on the green grass. One young man wanted to stay in the house. Our youngest child was less than a year old. This young man had a Child of similar age, whom he had never seen.
Allen Blount: I was only about 10 years oldand my sister about 8. When the Camp became a POW camp, POWs did manual labor in the area. As I recall, you would go to the Camp, tell them how many men were needed and they would be sent with a guard to do the work. My father made arrangements to have a group did tile ditch. As I remember, 8 or 10 were sent with a driver and a guard, a big pot of black coffee and a big pot of beans. My mother was scared to pieces and was going to take us kids into our grandparents" home in canton but she didn't, and after a while she felt sorry for them and was sending garden produce and milk to them. My father reasoned that those men were made to fight and wouldn't she be thankful, if one of us was there, that someone would show us compassion. One of the prisoners, in very broken English, asked, "How old girl?" -- speaking of my sister -- and my father told him. He said, "I have girl about that age, I think," and started to cry because he didn't know if his family was alive or not.
Harvey Bubb: The last thing I did at Camp Ellis was inventory 208 mess halls
Sue Buchen: My husband and I own a tavern in Bushnell called the Jenny Wren Club....the bar came from the Officers" Club in Table Grove
Fran Burke: During World War II, Mrs. Walter Martin of the Peoria USO contacted Caterpillar Tractor Co., requesting permission to contact Caterpillar girls to help entertain the soldiers at Camp Ellis. A meeting was called and it was voted to form a separate Caterpillar Girls USO Club.
Rosemary Homes Butler: To a high school grocery store employee, Camp Ellis meant a lot of changes...our town of Ipava grew from 650 to 1400. Camp Ellis officials saw to it that the cemeteries which were within their boundaries received protection and care. ...Prisoners of War were the ones who tended the cemeteries.