April 1919 - reports of seven local men in the service: William Ryan,
Charles Hilty, Floyd Woods, Marion Watkins, Lowell Schaublin, Wilbur Bracy and Clayton Welty
April 10, 1919 – These stories were published the Bluffton News 105 years ago this week. They involve reports of seven local men and their situations in Europe at the time.
William Ryan, son of John Ryan of Orange Township, who lost his right leg in the battle near Verdun on Oct. 13th, is home on a fifteen day furlough.
Bluffton’s three veterans of the 37th, which is receiving a tremendous ovation in the principal cities of the state, are expected home honorably discharged in the near future.
The boys are Charles Hilty, Floyd Woods and Marion Watkins, all of whom served in the 146th infantry.
Lowell Schaublin, who is recovering from the effects of pleurisy at the base hospital at Camp Sherman, and Wilbur Bracy, who died in France from pneumonia, were also members of this organization.
Clayton Welty, former Bluffton College student who served with the marines at Chateau Thierry, where he was wounded, has acquired the name of “Rag Doll Welty” as a result of an unusual incident.
He and some other patients of the Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C., where he was convalescing, were invited to dinner by some friends. An unusually good story was told which caused the guests to burst out in an uproar of laughter.
For Welty the laughter turned to a fit of coughing and he retired from the room to return later with two good sized pieces of cloth, a part of a shirt he had been wearing when wounded in the chest while in battle.