Clarence Goodrich Comes Home

"Clarence Goodrich has landed at Boston," said the Hobart News of April 17, 1919. He was on his way home from "over there."

He arrived back at his parents' farm on Sunday, April 20. That same day, the Merrillville Study Club held a memorial service for the four Ross Township men who died in the war — among them, as we know, Clarence's younger brother, Harold. The memorial service ended with the planting of four trees along the Lincoln Highway, each marked with the name of one of the fallen soldiers.

The report doesn't state whether Clarence attended that ceremony, but as Harold's brother and a veteran of the battlefields himself, he was an object of much attention. The last day of April, the Goodriches hosted an evening reception at their farmhouse in Clarence's honor; some 300 people from Ainsworth and vicinity attended. They were eager to hear about Clarence's experiences, and Clarence was willing enough to talk.

Harold, he told them, had fallen just a few feet from him on that day in July 1918 — killed in the heat of battle, and instantly, Clarence believed. But something about the way Harold had said goodbye the evening before suggested that the young man had a premonition of his own death. As for Clarence himself, he had gone through much fighting without ever being wounded, and through an epidemic without ever getting sick.

The Gazette of May 9 included a brief summary of his military experience:

Clarence was in the service about two years. On April 10, 1917, he enlisted with Co. F, at Gary, and when he went to camp at Hattiesburg he was assigned to Co. F, 151st Inf., but when he later went to France he was transferred to Co. I, 104th Inf., 26th Division. He sailed overseas March 2, 1918, and upon returning to America he was discharged April 19, 1919. He saw considerable service being in the Marne, in the Pas Ferris sector, July 4 to Aug. 1, 1918, and in the Marne offensive from July 18 to Aug. 23, in the St. Mihiel offensive, Sept. 12 to Sept. 15, and the Truyon sector from Sept. 14 to Oct. 5, and the Marne-Argonne offensive, Oct. 10 to the signing of the armistice.

And now he was back on the farm.


Sources:
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 9 May 1919.
♦ "Honor Soldier Boy." Hobart Gazette 2 May 1919.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 24 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 25 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Memorial to Fallen Heroes." Hobart Gazette 25 Apr. 1919.
♦ "South of Deepriver." Hobart News 17 Apr. 1919.