FAMILY LINE AND HISTORY
Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, Sr.
6th of 6 children of Finley McLaren “Frank” Chamberlin & Emily S. Hoy
Born: Aug 12, 1889, Cleburne, Johnson Co., Texas
Died: Dec 10, 1971 (age 82) Lakeside, San Diego Co., California; emphysema, arthritis
Buried: Dec 20, 1971, Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Multnomah Co., Oregon
Religion: Catholic
Military: WWI (Officer in Army Air Corps, pilot); WWII (Army Air Corps, Major)
Occupation: Entomology Professor at Oregon State University; helped produce first crop duster
Author: Entomological Nomenclature & Literature and several books on insects
Avocation: Avid stamp collector, woodworker/finisher
Married: April 12, 1917, Frieda Lois Jones, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon
Four children: Mary Hope “Hope” Chamberlin, Willard Joseph Chamberlin Jr., Marcella Joan “Jo” Chamberlin, Roy Morgan Chamberlin
Frieda Lois Jones
1st of 3 children of Lewis Albert Jones & Mary A. Morgan
Born: Dec 24, 1893, Plainview, Linn Co., Oregon
Died: Sep 7, 1983, (age 89) Greeley, Colorado; old age, bad heart valve
Buried: Sep 12, 1983, Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Multnomah Co., Oregon
Religion: Converted to Catholicism
Occupation: worked for telephone company in Astoria, Clatsop Co., Oregon
Married: April 12, 1917, Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon
Four children: Mary Hope “Hope” Chamberlin, Willard Joseph Chamberlin, Jr., Marcella Joan “Jo” Chamberlin, Roy Morgan Chamberlin
1. Mary Hope “Hope” Chamberlin
Born: Dec 2, 1917, Portland, Multnomah Co., Oregon
Died: Mar 11, 1974, (age 56) Veteran’s Hospital in Washington D.C.; lung cancer
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown, Washington D.C.
Occupation: Department of the Army Public Information office (4 years), Public Relations Director of United Service Organizations, Inc. (WWII), Glamor Magazine (associate editor), Verona-Cedar Times in New Jersey, (public relations director) United Nations (interpreter), Library of Congress, Chicago Sun (worked for Edward R. Morrow), English teacher, Stars & Stripes (journalist and editor)
Author: A Minority of Members: Women in the US Congress, pub 1973
Married (1): Sep 30, 1940, Henry J. “Hank” Garnjobst, Cook Co., Illinois
Annulled: 1941
No children
Married (2): aft 1941 during WWII, Robert Edward “Bob” Corso, in Europe
Divorced: abt 1959/60, New Jersey
No children
2. Willard Joseph Chamberlin, Jr.
Born: Apr 26, 1920, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon
Died: Jun 29, 1988 (age 68), Tucson, Pima Co., Arizona; lung & esophageal cancer
Buried: Jul 7, 1988, National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix, Arizona
Military: WWII, U.S. Air Force, Army Air Corps MSGT, flew in Berlin airlift
Occupation: Military career (1939-1953): Air Corps Technical Sergeant, radio operator; metalworker, ran a bar in Tucson, Pima Co., Arizona
Married: Jun 1, 1950, Anna Belle Miller, Florence, Pinal Co., Arizona
Divorced: after 8+ years of marriage, prob Arizona
No children
3. Marcella Joan “Jo” Chamberlin
Born: Oct 23, 1923, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon
Died: Aug 29, 2014 (age 90), Eugene, Lane Co., Oregon
Cremated: ashes given to family
Occupation: Secretary, graphic artist, worked in marketing for Hewlett Packard
Married (1): Jun 4, 1946, George Anthony Sertic, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon
Divorced: Jan 16, 1961, Veneta, Lane Co., Oregon
Two children: Stephanie Anne Sertic, Stephen Michael Sertic
Married (2): Jun 1961, Marue Challoner Carroll, Las Vegas, Clark Co., Nevada
Divorced: 1965
Married (3): Oct 3, 1969, John Edmund “Jack” Tuttle, San Diego, San Diego Co., California
Divorced: Nov 7, 1971, San Deigo, San Diego Co., California
4. Roy Morgan Chamberlin
Born: Jun 12, 1926, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon
Died: Aug 11, 1999 (age 73), Salem, Marion Co., Oregon; asbestoses, lung cancer
Cremated: Inurned Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Multnomah Co., Oregon
Military: WWII and Korea, Marine sergeant (8 years)
Occupation: Commercial builder, safety engineer, high school teacher
Avocation: Fine cabinetry (gun cabinets, hutches, tables, grandmother clocks)
Married (1): Feb 14, 1947, Carol Elizabeth (Burres) Schlinkmeier, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon
Three children: Roy Morgan Chamberlin, Jr., Cathy Carol Chamberlin, Penny Lu Chamberlin
Married (2): Mar 12, 1972, Sarah Doris Little, Salem, Marion Co., Oregon
No children
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Timeline and Records
Six children of Finley McLaren “Frank” Chamberlin & Emily S. Hoy:
1. Nellie Belle Chamberlin
1873 – 1956
2. Frederick Lawrence “Fred” Chamberlin
1875 – 1955
3. Ada Agnes Chamberlin
1877 – 1960
4. Roy Valentine Chamberlin
1881 – 1923
5. Mary Agnes “Mamie” Chamberlin
1887 – 1980
6. Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin
1889 – 1971
Three children of Lewis/Louis Albert Jones & Mary A. Morgan:
1. Frieda Lois Jones
1893 – 1983
2. Evadne C. Jones
1898 – 1951
3. Paloma J. Jones
1902 – 1981
**********
Aug 12, 1889: Birth of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, 6th of 6 children of Finley McLaren “Frank” Chamberlin & Emily S. Hoy, in Cleburne, Johnson Co., Texas
Dec 24, 1893: Birth of Frieda Lois Jones, 1st of 3 children of Lewis/Louis Albert Jones & Mary A. Morgan, in Plainview, Linn Co., Oregon
1897: Frank & Emily Chamberlin children, photo by Marshall, 1637 Larimer St., Denver:
Handwritten on the back of the photo:
“Anaconda, Colorado, 1897”
Note: estimated ages according to date on the back of the picture:
Roy Valentine Chamberlin (abt 15)
Willard Joseph Chamberlin (abt 7)
Frederick L. Chamberlin (abt 22)
Nellie (Chamberlin) Chatfield (abt 24); Nellie was married in Dec 1894
Mary “Mamie” Chamberlin (abt 10) (although she looks younger)
Ada Agnes Chamberlin (abt 19)
1897: Emily Chamberlin (age 46) and youngest child, Willard (abt age 7)
Taken in Cripple Creek, by Ideal Photo Company, D.P. Morgan, Manager
Dec 1897: Frieda Lois Jones photo:
1898: Frieda Lois Jones photo:
Jun 5, 1900: Federal Census for Eldora Town, Boulder Co., Colorado:
Chamberlain, E.S.: head, born Jul 1851, age 48, widow, 6 children born, 6 children living, born Pennsylvania, father born Penn, mother born Penn, restaurant keeper, owns home
Roy: son, born Aug 1881, age 18, single, born Texas, father born New York, mother born Pennsylvania, waiter in restaurant
Mamie: daughter, born Jan 1887, age 13, born Texas, father born New York, mother born Pennsylvania, at school
Wilford: son, born Aug 1890, age 9, born Texas, father born New York, (Willard) mother born Pennsylvania, at school (Willard)
Note: Emily’s (E.S) birth year is listed as 1851 rather than 1850, so would be age 49. She is listed as the owner of the property without a mortgage and is running a restaurant; her son Roy is working with her as a waiter. She is not a widow as her husband Frank is still alive and Frank is in the above 1900 Eddy, New Mexico census living with their daughter Ada (Chamberlin) Chambers. Emily’s 1st child, Winnie, is not accounted for in the number of children born or deceased.
May 19, 1905: Letter from Frank Chamberlin (age 59) to his son, Willard Chamberlin (age 15):
Sawtelle, Calif
May 19, 1905
Dear Son Willard.
I haven’t much to write as usual. The weather here is foggy every morning & I don’t think that is very healthy. I feel fairly well except I have a bad cold & have some bad spells coughing nearly tares the insides out of me. I got a couple of Roy’s pictures a few days ago & I think they are fine & he is fine looking & I guess he is as fine as he looks.
One of the Philipene soldiers here shot himself last Monday. Think he had been drinking pretty hard & guess he was bug house.
I suppose you have more hay than you will need to feed. What is it worth a ton there. There is a fine crop here, but it is the first good crop for several years, how much stock have you got to feed, well you have got quite a collection of bird eggs, how are your chickens coming on, do you have any water for irrigation. They are finishing the work on new electric line & they have begun building on the new town site.
Guess that’s all there is to write this time.
Love from your Father
FC
Note: Frank’s sons Willard “Joe” (at left below) and Roy (at right)
Jul 3, 1905: Letter from Frank Chamberlin (age 59) to his son Willard (nearly age 16):
Sawtelle, Calif
July 3, 1905
Dear Son Willard,
Just got your letter, am sorry I can’t see you & Fred. I have got furlow & leave here tomorrow for Rifle to go to Casper with Nelley & Charly. Will write you on the road somewhere when I have a chance & tell you about the trip & how we are getting along.
Nothing to write about here. I am feeling pretty well at present.
Love from your Father
FC
Apr 15, 1910: Federal Census for Los Angeles City, Los Angeles Co., California:
Chamberlein, Emily: head, widow, age 60, 7 children, 6 living, born Pennsylvania, father born Pennsylvania, mother born Pennsylvania, occupation none. (Chamberlin)
Walland: son; age 20, single, born Texas, father born Pennsylvania, mother born Pennsylvania, occupation none (Willard Chamberlin)
1914 – 1918: World War I:
World War I was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from Jul 28, 1914 to Nov 11, 1918. World War I, also known as the Great War, began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe. During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan, and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.
1915: Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin earns a bachelor of science degree from the Orgon Agricultural College. It’s here he meets his future wife, Frieda Jones, who also attended school here.
April 12, 1917: Marriage of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin & Frieda Lois Jones in St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon. Frieda is age 24 and Willard, the 6th and youngest child of Frank Chamberlin and Emily Hoy, is age 27.
May 26, 1917: WWI Draft Registration Card, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon:
NAME: Willard J. Chamberlin
PERMANENT ADDRESS: 338 S. 14th, Corvallis, Oregon
DATE OF BIRTH: Aug 12, 1890
CITIZEN: Natural Born
PLACE OF BIRTH: Cleaborn, Texas, U.S.A. (Clearborn)
PRESENT OCCUPATION: Student, O.R.T.C.
EMPLOYER’S NAME: United State Government
WHERE EMPLOYED: Presidio, San Francisco, CA
NEAREST RELATIVE: Wife
MARRIED OR SINGLE: Married
WHAT MILITARY SERVICE HAVE YOU HAD?: Sergent, Cadet Corps, 2 years, Oregon
ADDRESS: Carson, Baker, Oregon
HEIGHT: Tall
BUILD: Slender
COLOR OF EYES: Gray
COLOR OF HAIR: Dark
Aug 1, 1917: Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin graduates from the School of Military Aeronautics at the University of California, Berkeley
Aug 6, 1917: United States enters World War I
Oct 20, 1917: Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin passes his Reserve Military Aviator’s test
Dec 12, 1917: Birth of Mary Hope “Hope” Chamberlin, 1st of 4 children of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin Sr. & Frieda Lois Jones, in Portland, Multnomah Co., Oregon.
Jan 1918: Willard is commissioned as a First Lieutenant in WWI with the 141st Aero Squadron and serves in England, France, and Italy; he served in WWI as a pilot in the United States Air Service’s 91st Observation Squadron from 30 July 1918 thru the Armistice (11 Nov 1918).
1918: Willard Chamberlin in WWI uniform, taken in St. Louis, Missouri; he is pictured with his mother’s brother, Adea Adam Hoy:
1918: The following are a series of letters from Frank & Emily Chamberlin’s youngest son, Willard, written in France and Germany during WWI:
Jun 8, 1918: Letter from Willard Chamberlin (age 28) to his mother Emily Chamberlin (age 67):
France-June 8, 1918.
Dear Mother,
Again this field is about deserted, there are but four of us flying here and this is Saturday p.m. and no flying. All of the boys went to the main camp so I am alone, the sole target of just one million flies.
I have been flying four days now and feel much better. Our work here is very interesting, we have an imitation airplane out in the field and each one of us have our own private machine. Each machine has an apparatus that looks like a machine gun mounted on it but instead of shooting bullets it takes pictures, we call them “picture or camera guns.” Our first work is diving at the plane on the ground and taking pictures of it from all angles. Then we work in pairs, one man flies along as a target and the other man dives at him taking pictures. It sounds awfully easy but it is mighty difficult work to keep your sights on a plane going a hundred miles an hour and your own machine going about one hundred and twenty miles an hour. Then we have combat work, two of us go up and try to keep each other from taking pictures and at the same time get pictures yourself. In this work we take advantage of all the trick and acrobatic flying we know. It is great sport but very tiresome. One does not notice it while up but when your hour or hour and a half of flying is up, you land. You feel just tired out. We have four hours of flying each day, 7:30 to 9:00 and 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. We also get a certain number of hours for solo work that is, you go up and do whatever you like. We practice aerobatics and do contour flying the latter is great sport. You get your engine working perfectly and come down 15 or 20 feet from the ground and go tearing across the country over a hundred miles an hour. Looming up over trees or houses, circling over villages and pulling off a few stunts near some of the big Chateaux.
Yesterday I was out when the Paris Bordeaux express train, the fastest train in France, came along. I zigzagged and flew in circles around it much to the delight of the passengers. You can imagine how fast we go when I simply flew circles around the train as it tore along and it seemed to barely move. Later I flew away south of the camp over a most beautiful country. For miles and miles it is divided up into little farms, I should judge from one to ten acres and of all shapes each surrounded by trees. The people do not have their houses on these places but every few miles the houses will be clustered together in a little village. It is fine to go sailing along over the fields some green with new crops, others newly plowed, some of a dark green, fields of red and pink clover and a few of a golden color showing ripening grain. The streams winding here and there with their arched stone bridges, the roads loom up like long winding ribbons. Here and there a large estate with its castle like Chateaux, many of them have beautiful grounds, gardens, flowers and lakes. A few are surrounded by moats and some are in picturesque ruins, the old towers overgrown with ivy. I noticed at several crossroads the “way side cross” simply a big cross, a reminder that you are in a Catholic country. At one place I noticed a very large Crucifix at the junction of several roads it was perhaps 20 feet high and looked solemn, majestic and beautiful there in a little green valley by a brook and surely many a prayer is brought forth from the travelers along these roads by that place. I know it brought one from me as I swung my ship in a circle over its head.
I received a letter from you a couple of days ago dated April 26th I also received a package of papers from you about the Liberty Loan but have not received the one about the earthquake, it will come in the course of time, most everything gets here if one is patient.
You are surely awfully good to offer so many prayers for me. I always try to think to say a prayer as I go out to my machine or as I get up in to it and I often say them in the air (it’s nearer heaven you know). I was up almost four miles the other day, too cold for comfort up there, through. I would like to break the altitude record; a German holds it, 25,800, 5,000 feet higher than I have been.
Gee, the flies are a fright here. I am going to get a truck this evening and go to town for a bath.
I was just about to seal your letter when the orderly came in with five letters for me and one was from you. It was directed to Italy but they know in Paris that I am here so it came straight through. Came through in good time it was mailed on the 15th of May, the day I got back here.
I certainly did take advantage of my opportunity in Italy as you know by now. Again I was lucky, over half of the boys got fined $20 and three months confinement to camp for being so long in going down but they did not do anything to me, however, I arrived before most of them.
Have not received Mamie’s letter yet.
I did not do a lot of work trying to learn Italian, I did not feel much like it.
I am sending you a little birthday present in a few days.
Lots and lots of love to all.
Your loving son. W.C.
Emily Chamberlin, age 60
Jun 20, 1918: Willard Chamberlin to his mother Emily (forwarded with notes from his brother Roy):
Paris, June 20th 1918.
Dear Mother:-
I am stationed just out of Paris now. There are about fifty pilots here and we have about ten planes a week to be delivered to different parts of France so you see we have very little to do. The mess at camp is fine other wise it is a poor place, no conveniences at all, even the officers barracks have no floors, that is wooden floors, just dirt. We can go to Paris anytime we like. They run an auto truck in every hour from 6:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. That helps some. This is the last place before the front. They send us out from here as fast as possible. The usual stop here is from three to six weeks.
Paris is just passable now days. Our principle pastime is sitting at the tables of one of the many sidewalk Cafes and watching the people pass, figuring out the life history of the Belgian, French and English officers and men by their numerous service stripes, ornaments, service bars and decorations. Some of them who have seen service since the beginning of the war certainly have the decorations. Then there are the women, a great many have left Paris, some are very beautiful and strange to relate, most all are bad, yes very, very bad. No one can ever tell me that America, or rather the United States isn’t the most moral country in the world. England, Italy and France are all the same, perhaps England is a little the best but all are very bad.
We came up here from ——- three days ago and every day it has been raining and every night it is cloudy. We are hoping for some clear nights so we can see some air raids. The Boche comes over almost every clear night. I talked with a United States Captain last night. He was just back from the front and said it was a matter of a short time until the United States can get her men over here then we will settle this business. All of the boys from the front praise our troops, especially the Marines, and all want to get back again. There seems to be a fascination about the front.
We are going over to the Palace des Invalides this p.m. to see all of the War Trophies of the French. They have a number of captured German Planes on exhibit and these, of course, will be very interesting to us.
W.J.C.
(The balance of this letter was of a personal nature to his mother so it will be omitted. R.V.C.)
(These letters, while not of a secret nature, should not be shown too freely, therefore please be very careful to whom you show them and what is done with them after reading. There may be some things in these letters that would benefit the enemy if they had a chance to use them so remember that enemy ears are listening everywhere and take no chances. R.V.C. 7/23/18)
Note: R.V.C. is Roy Valentine Chamberlin, older brother of Willard and the notes in brackets are his
Jun 22, 1918: Willard Chamberlin (age 28) to his mother Emily (age 68):
France, June 22, 1918.
Dear Mother:-
Received my first mail in about ten days this p.m., two letters, one from you and one from one of the boys in England. I have missed my mail so much the last five days. I have been in Paris part of each day and there is so much to see. One never knows in the army what will happen tomorrow so I am taking time by the forelock and seeing what I can while there is time.
Paris has many museums, parks, art galleries and points of interest, of course, many of the more valuable things such as fine paintings have been removed and the great Natural History Museum is closed. I would particularly like to visit the latter and see the Type collection of Beetles but guess it is impossible.
As yet I have not seen the real front but hope to soon. You know even yet I do not, cannot believe but a very small part of the cruelty of the Germans to their prisoners.
The United States have no Aerial Gunnery School of their own as yet but have the privilege of sending their men to a large Gunnery School in Southern France. Well in April they turned out so many men that the French school could not take care of them so they sent a few to Italy. They are now sending them to both places.
The Red Cross is doing very good work over here I guess, at least at the front and caring for the French refugees from the devastated districts. At the camps in the rear I find they are a convenience but like most conveniences over here you pay them well for it. They closed up the Y.M.C.A. at the camp I came from until they cut down in their prices. The K.C.’s will show up the Y.M.C.A. when they get started.
You could publish anything I write if you cut out names of places and dates but do not give my name. I do not care to have it published until I bring down a German.
Your letter was dated May 26th and came to me June 22nd, not so bad.
I visited another Aviation camp today it lies on the other side of Paris about four miles out of the city, it is a huge camp, largest I have ever seen, the United States, French and British all have more or less material and planes there. It is a reserve station for the French and also a camp where they keep Planes and Pilots who have the defense of Paris. There are fifteen American boys there who patrol the city and a much larger number of French. I saw thousands of Planes and many types I had never seen before. It was all very interesting. I think I could get into this defense work and would like it for a while but once you get there it seems you are kept on the job and cannot get away. There are batteries of anti-aircraft all about the city and we who just came up here are hoping for clear weather soon so the Boche will come over and we will see or at least hear some excitement.
I have talked with numerous men back from the front and they are all of the same opinion, that it is the only place and everyone wants to get back there as soon as possible. All have great faith in our boys and are sure it is only a matter of two or three (million?) U.S. troops up there and we will drive the Hun back to Germany then, of course, that will mean the end.
There is a Belgian Aviation field only a mile from us. I have not been over there yet. Also a few miles out is the great testing field where they have almost every kind of a Plane used by the Allies and a lot of captured German machines. I want to go out there Monday.
Perhaps soon I can write you some news from the “real front.” I hope so. I have not entirely given up the idea of going bombing but then the prospects are slim.
Lots of love to all,
Your loving boy W.J.C.
Aug 1, 1918: History of the 91st Aero Squadron: Willard Chamberlin is 4th from left in middle row:
History of the 91st Aero Squadron. This 35-page book is a bit rare. It details the squadron’s birth, leadership, training, off-duty fun, deployment, overseas actions, etc. and has a few photographs as well. One such photo is of all of the squadron’s pilots posing in front of an aircraft at “Gondreville, Aug 1st, 1918” and includes (and names) “Chamberlin” among them. His pilot wings on his chest are apparent. He is listed in the appendix as an Officer. Willard’s name in on the roster of officers in the History of the 91st Aero Squadron. An observation squadron pilot flew reconnaissance (and/or photograph) missions to gather intelligence concerning the location of enemy troops or to improve the accuracy of friendly artillery fire, etc.
Source: Mark Synovitz, Lt Col, USAF (Retired)
Oct 7, 1918: Willard Chamberlin (age 29) to his mother Emily (age 68):
91stAero Squadron A.E.F.
France, Oct. 7th 1918
Dear Mother:-
Yesterday’s mail brought me three letters from you. You are certainly writing regularly and it is mighty fine to get your letters.
Received a box of K. of C. cigarettes from the head office in Paris today. Also request to refund the Sleeper Fare from San Diego to New York.
Perhaps I have mentioned a Lieutenant E.A. Love in my letters to you. I was with him a great deal from Berkeley right through San Diego, New York and many camps over here. We both came over with the 141stSquadronHe went over the lines on patrol September 15thAnd has never been heard from since. It is like losing a brother we had been together so long. One of our ships failed to return night before last. We received a phone message dropped from a German Plane to the effect that two of our ships which disappeared a month ago landed in Germany, both pilots are well, one observer was killed and the other badly wounded.
At first it was quite a trial to cross the lines into enemy territory but after almost three months of it, it gets to be just a part of the days work and is not so bad. I often fly down very low coming back over our side and when I see the poor boys down there eating their meals standing in a foot of mud and water I think “there are worse places than up in the air.” After all it is a grand and glorious feeling to sail through the sky and to be able to see so much with so little effort.
Yes, indeed we go armed. Each pilot has a Vicker’s Machine Gun mounted in front and has 750 rounds of ammunition which can be fired in about two minutes if necessary. We usually fire in bursts of 8 or 10 shots, though. The observer has twin Lewis Machine guns and usually carries 6 or 8 magazines of ammunition, 94 rounds to the magazine. He is the one who usually does most of the fighting.
My work is thoroughly satisfactory. I turned down the chance to go pursuit and am glad. We have a fine Squadron and the Chief of our Air Service sent work to our Commanding Officer this past week that he considered the 91stthe finest and best Army Squadron in Europe, barring none.
I wrote Washington about the Bond and you will get it shortly I am sure.
Drink coffee? I almost live on it I drink from one to three cups each meal.
You are not allowed to send things over here now and there is really nothing I need that I cannot get here.
I lost my bedding roll in the last move we made, it was worth about $75.00, cot, pillows, 4 blankets and a sleeping bag, bedding roll cover and some clothes including my winter underwear. It will not only be the cost but the sleeping bag was a wonder. I bought it in New York and it is impossible to get it replaced over here.
I have flown over Angers where Clare Vose is, it is a beautiful part of France, near Tours. We are located near Bar le Duc, south of Verdun, you will find it on any map of France.
Germany’s demand for Peace I am afraid is a “stall,” at any rate they must accept all of our demands and they better do it now because we have them in bad shape and it is only a matter of weeks until we have them out of France and out of half of Belgium. Then it will be slow work but they will go the pace until we get them on German territory. Then may the Lord have mercy on them for those soldiers of France, Italy, England, Belgium and America who have suffered so much at their hands will surely have no pity on them.
It is a pleasant hour I spend every night changing the lines on a map I have of the Front and figuring out our gains and how long the Huns can hold out on certain sectors.
We had eggs for breakfast this a.m., six and one half francs, about $1.20 per dozen.
A battalion of French soldiers just passed coming back from the trenches. I went out and looked them over, many wore six and seven service stripes showing 3 and 3 ½ years of service and all wore a smile. I tell you these French people are wonderful.
There was a horrible accident on our field night before last. In addition to the two squadrons in our group there is a squadron of night fliers. A machine took off and the pilot evidently banked too steep on the first turn, they crashed to the ground, the machine caught fire, the gasoline tank exploded and both pilot and observer burned to death before anyone could get to the wreck.
It is now two o’clock and I must go to the office as I am to fly this afternoon. Lots and lots of love to all,
Your loving son.
Oct 7, 1918: Letter from Willard to brother & sister-in-law, Roy and Irene Chamberlin:
France, Oct. 7th1918.
Dear Roy and Irene:-
I have been expecting a letter from you for sometime. Although you write but seldom that when you do it is some letter.
Things certainly look bright for the Allies. Bulgaria out and no doubt Turkey will be by the time you receive this letter. That will allow the allies to concentrate a lot of troups and form a new line from Roumania to the sea. It will be no job at all to drive the Austrians out of Albania and Serbia. With a good drive on this new front and on the Italian Front I look for Austria to toss up the sponge. Germany will then ask peace terms at once but it will be a case of unconditional surrender or we will go to Berlin. The latter is what the boys would like. The request for peace made by the Entente yesterday I am firmly convinced will never go through, Germany is not yet ready to accept all of our terms. I do not believe the Allies will accept anything less. Time only will tell. We will have the Huns out of France in three weeks or less. We will have them on the Antwerp-Meuse River Line by the time you read this then if we can get Briey and Metz the war will be over.
I presume you hint at England in your remark about the peace negotiations. I have never trusted England very much, however, France and America and the balance of the Allies have spilt too much blood to be hoodwinked by anyone at the end.
Where did you get the information about Ross Miller?
All machines going over the front have machine guns, the Chasse carry two, observations three to five and the bombers three to seven. Under the English system the Reconnaissance and Photography machines are protected by Chasse machines but we do not do that, we tried it but the Chasse machines were not able to fly far enough on their supply of fuel so we usually go in bunches of three and protect ourselves. I led a Patrol of ships over the front Friday, we lost one man just as we reached Verdun (it was very cloudy) so the two of us went over. When some 15 miles over I saw a formation of seven ships coming our way and a formation of five going to meet them. My observer saw them and said, “Better turn around there is a bunch of Boche,” they were below us and some distance away and I had a hunch that they were Spads (Allied Machines) so I turned right over to them the other ship above me dove and fired his guns a sign of enemy aircraft. I had run away from a bunch of our Spads the day before when I was over alone and I wasn’t going to be fooled this times as we had not completed our mission and I did not want to go back yet. The two formations joined forces and came our way. When right under me I could see them plain and though they bore no Black Crosses I knew they were Huns, they gave us a good chase but we had altitude on them and beat them out.
Our pictures are usually taken at about 5000 meters, a little over three miles in the air, but the weather has been so bad that we have secured very few pictures during the past three weeks. On our usual missions now we fly from 200 to 4000 meters in the air. Last month I had 34 hours in the air and 586 kilometers behind the lines, there were only three pilots with more and one of them with only 601 kilometers.
I wrote mother most of the news this p.m., so will close with to love to all.
Your brother, W.J.C.
Photo of brother Roy & Irene Chamberlin:
Oct 17, 1918: Letter from Willard (age 29) to his mother Emily (age 68):
France Oct. 17th 1918.
Dear Mother:-
Your letters of the 9th and 14th of September with the baseball clippings came yesterday. Baseball does not interest me very much only local games where I know the players then, too, all news like the World Series is cabled over here and we get it in the Paris addition of the New York Herald. It certainly pleases me, though, to know you are so thoughtful about those things.
It has rained almost steadily for eight days and Northern France is a sea of mud. It is almost out of the question for our heavy machines to get off the ground in this mud, in fact we have sent up only one or two ships since the 10th of October. I don’t suppose we will average flying one day a week for the next four months if the war lasts that long which I do not think it will.
I am feeling fine, got my courage up to a high pitch today and went to the dentists to get a tooth “yanked” but he found some that needed filling so put in four fillings and will pull the other one tomorrow, I would rather fly over to Berlin than sit in the dentists chair an hour.
Received official confirmation of the Hun planes we brought down on the 9th and will get the French War Cross, “Croix de Gerre.” Have not heard anything more of the Distinguished Service Cross recommendation.
I surely wish we could have a few weeks of your hot Los Angeles weather, we would make the Huns fly, they are going good even through the mud. Word comes tonight that Ostend, on the North Sea and Lille have fallen. That means a lot at this time. There was danger that the weather might stop operations around Ostend but we still have time to push the Huns away from the Coast so we will be able to hit them all winter.
I was a little surprised when you wrote that you would like to see the Huns paid back in their own way, surprised at it coming from you tho I would not have been surprised at anyone else saying it. It is what almost everyone thinks. Personally I have never felt very bitter against the common run of Germans. They have been for generations held to a course that kept them under the heel of the Kaiser and are really not to blame. That, of course, does not apply to all. Many have met their punishment and the balance surely will not be only in the next but in this world. A soldier is a soldier and must obey orders, it is those in command who are to blame for most of the things done, however, in many, yes inumerable cases the responsibility rests with the individual.
A few days ago I learned that the 91stDivision (made up of Oregon and California draft regiments) was in repose near here so I went over and looked up some officers I know. Several fellows I knew in New Mexico and Oregon are with them. The Division did wonderful work up north of Verdun and have suffered terribly, they lost over fifty percent of their officers and about the same percent of their men. Some of my friends are gone others are in the hospitals shot to pieces. The officers tell me their men (mere kids) fought like dogs for five weeks, they were never dry during that time. Those I saw were a sorry sight but very cheerful asking when they would get back to finish the job. A major told me they had been sending bunches to the hospital everyday, pneumonia and dysentery is taking those who got by the Huns. They were up against Germany’s best troops and though they were all green, had never seen battle before, these “contemptible Yanks” beat the Prussian Guards. They told me stories of the Germans surrendering with a pocket full of bombs which they pulled out and then after being captured, of their holding up their hands and firing their machine guns with their feet, etc. The result is that the U.S. boys do not take many prisoners now. They put them to sleep on the battlefield. A Lieut. told me it was hard, mighty hard to shoot a bunch of men when they are holding their hands in the air, you know there are some good ones among them, but we have to do it.
I think that seven day leave I have coming is within sight. We have four pilots on leave now and if bad weather keeps up I think I will get my trip to Lourdes early in November. I will be glad to get away for a while. Life gets very weary here when there is no flying. I have been staying in bed until nearly noon every day so that it would not be so long until our mail comes. We get the papers about two thirty and the letters about five p.m. About all there is to do is eat, sleep, read and play cards.
I suppose Roy had to register. Well, I am glad I was able to get in, am glad to be here and will be glad to get out when it is over. It has been a great thing for our country, how great only time will tell.
This is about all of the news for this time, hope you are all well and happy and not worrying.
Loads of love to all, your loving son. Willard.
Oct 23, 1918: Letter from Willard to his sister-in-law and brother, Irene and Roy:
France Oct. 23, 1918.
Dear Irene and Roy:-
I had a great trip, in a way, this week. One of our ships working behind the lines broke a crank shaft and as it was flying low it barely got back, in fact it landed right in the battle. We sent a car up to get the guns and the instruments if possible and I went along.
We left camp about 9:00 a.m. taking the main Verdun road as far as Clermont then branching off on the Grand Pre Road. Our destination was Exermont or rather we were informed that that was as far as we could go in a car.
The steady rains have converted Northern France into a sea of mud and were it not for the fact that the French roads are wonderfully well built it would be impossible to travel at all because of the heavy traffic constantly passing north and south. For three hours we traveled north and the road was simply two long lines of motor vehicles one going north and the other going south. There was every kind of a truck known in Europe as well as America. They were loaded with almost every article known to man (except women) Ammunition of all kinds, supplies in sacks, in boxes and in bulk, meat, truckloads of forage, hay and grain. Here and there were the ever present Ambulances driven by boys who never lost an opportunity to dash madly ahead of the slower moving trucks and cars containing officers. I never realized we had so many generals in the army, it seems to me that we passed fully a hundred one and two star cars. Now and then a motor dispatch rider would dash through, how they escape being killed is a mystery. As we progressed northward the drizzle increased to a steady downpour of cold rain and the traffic increased coming in the side roads from the railheads, also, we began to run into batteries of artillery moving up. Progress was necessarily very slow, however, in time we came to towns which had been in range of the guns and they were very pathetic sights, not a whole building in them and all that remained of most of them was the outline of where a wall had been. The basements had been cleaned up and serve as quarters for troops, headquarters, etc. You would see a hole about three feet in diameter looking for all the world like a well, on a post beside it would be a sign, “Post of Command 77th Regiment, or Headquarters,” such and such a division and if you looked close you might discover a little lonely stovepipe emerging from the debris near by. Down under the earth with their telephone and telegraph instruments you would find a Major or a Colonel with his staff, directing operations of his particular unit.
We soon passed the lines of trenches and barbed wire, miles of both, then a short space of land which was so covered with shell holes as to remind one of a badly pock marked face, this was “no man’s land.” On through the intricate system of wire and trenches, which until a few days ago had been occupied by the Germans. This was the land where the Allied Armies had faced the Huns for three years with scarcely a move.
On we went the roads getting steadily worse under the strain of heavy traffic. Then we encountered American Negros, labor Battalions, working, repairing the roads. They were mud-spattered and cold and doing mighty dirty work but I searched in vain for a depressed countenance. On the contrary, I found them happy, smiling, many singing or whistling. Here we began to encounter little wooden crosses, the graves of those who have made the supreme sacrifice. The road was lined with death stock, broken down caissons and limbers, overturned ambulances, abandoned field kitchens and ammunition cases by the thousands, mostly German. Here was a place where our artillery had made a stand and the empty shells of 75’s were piled up like little mountains. We passed a camp containing fully five thousand horses belonging to the batteries which we could hear faintly rumbling up ahead. There were acres of pup tents pitched next to a forest and trucks were dumping countless bales of dry goods, some were burst open and we could see warm underwear and socks and I tell you those dough boys stood around looking longingly at them for they had not had a change in four weeks, they had just been relieved “up there” where they had not been dry for days and days. When we returned late in the afternoon there was a long line of them getting these warm articles issued and I appreciated better what it meant to them, as you will appreciate it if you read this to the end.
The villages we were passing through now had a short time previous been occupied by the Germans, and the French named streets and other signs had been painted over and replaced with German names and German signs. The mere sight of German Script makes one boil these days.
Soon we came to Exermont, a small village down in a little valley. Just beyond the village is a high hill, know as Hill 240, of which I will have more to say later. Exermont was the scene of severe fighting. It was captured by the Americans, the Germans counter attacked and retook it, but only for a few hours, then the Americans captured it the second time and have held it since.
The object of our trip lay some two kilometers over the hill. We tried in vain to get something to eat before doing this two kilometers through the mud but it was impossible to get anything, so we started up the road right behind a battery of 155’s which were sending hundreds of pounds of steel into the Germans some ten or fifteen kilometers north. The noise was awful and the concussion almost as bad as the noise, I was glad they were about through for the time being. We left the road and went up through a small ravine past a French Battery of 75’s, over the ridge was several American Batteries of 75’s, on ahead we could see our plane sitting on top of a small hill. As we started up the hill we entered the battlefield of two days previous. It was indeed a dreary sight, the low black clouds, the steady downpour of rain and the open battlefield stretching way to the north. Dead bodies were lying here and there, holes half filled with water were the Huns had operated their machine guns, many of the deadly machines were still in place. Rifles and equipment of all kinds were scattered about. A burying squad was hard at work trying to dig graves in the heavy wet clay. Long lines of bodies were laid out waiting for the Chaplin, the German dead were in one place and the American in another. Over the hills came the stretcher bearers with their heavy burdens, hardly able to keep their footing in the mud—–So the war goes on.
We stripped the Airplane of the guns and instruments and sent them back to the car and we wandered across the battlefield towards the woods and Hill 240 where very severe fighting took place. If you have been on the West Slope of the Coast Range in Oregon and have tried to leave the beaten trail and make your way through the dense thickets of salal and vine maple you know exactly what the steep slopes of Hill 240 are like. There are numerous trails and a couple of roads winding up its sides, they are steep and we had difficulty in keeping our footing in going up. Every few feet on each side of the roads were pits dug by the Germans and in front of each had stood a machine gun, barbed wire had been woven in and out among the underbrush, pitfalls constructed and every conceivable thing done to hamper the advancing Americans. It was into the face of all this that our boys of the Western States advanced in October. As one goes over the ground one cannot help but wonder how they ever took the hill at all. It certainly took the highest courage and morale of brave men to do it and they paid the price as the Khaki clad bodies lying in the brush and mud tell. Our boys carrying full equipment, 120 rounds of ammunition, often compelled to wear gas masks, took the hill in the face of some of Germany’s best troops dug in behind deadly machine guns. America may well be proud of her sons and when the final story is told of who won the war it will not be the artillery nor the cavalry nor the Aviation Corps, true they have all done their part, but it is the doughboy who deserves the credit. It is not so hard to die, especially in the excitement of the battle but it is hard to live as these boys are living.
We met a company coming out of the fight for a few hours rest dragging their weary heavily laden bodies back to this very Hill 240. Coming back to nice warm barracks and beds, hot meals with a bath and clean dry clothes …? No, when they arrived they had to dig a hole in the mud, build a fire in it to dry the damp earth, stretch a shelter over the hole and crawl in their wet blankets and try to rest their weary bodies there on a lonely hill surrounded by their dead companions.
You in the States who go without your sugar and substitute for flour who buy war stamps and Liberty Bonds, you are doing all you can and it is appreciated by the boys over here, but no matter what you deny yourselves, no matter how much you sacrifice you will never know what the actual fighting men go through with. Soaked to the skin for weeks, often days without food, suffering from bad water, men who have always lived clean, suffering the torments of vermin and resting at long intervals, then under the screatching shells and always in danger of exploding shells from the enemy. It is a very hard life and it is said to the everlasting credit of the American boy he is facing it bravely, always doing his part and a little more, always with the Yankee grit and the Yankee smile.
We passed on around the Hill into an open field where I heard the story of a “baby tank” which had done its bit and now lay like a corpse on the battlefield. The story was told by an Artillery Sergeant:- This small tank going into attack on a certain morning was delayed by engine trouble and after the repairs were made the driver was moving up into action. The back of the tank was open and a private of infantry came up and informed the driver that he knew where there were five different machine gun nests. The driver desired to know where they were but the doughboy insisted on showing him where they were and not merely telling him. So the tank proceeded and the doughboy walked along behind and gave directions. As they neared a trench the tank engine failed. When the driver had it going again he turned to discover the private was gone so he advanced on the machine gun emplacement and discovered that the doughboy had gone around and crawled up the trench, shot one Hun, wounded another and was having a hand to hand fight with the third. After a short scuffle the American was able to turn the machine gun on the German operator and put him out of business. He then disposed of the wounded German and directed the tank onto the remaining four machine gun nests which they destroyed. Then with a “so long and good luck to you” the private went off to join his unit. This is just one of the countless brave boys who have gone out of their way to do a brave deed which will never be known and passes unrewarded because the proper military authorities know nothing of it.
Another tank went into the face of machine guns and anti-tank guns. On examining this tank we found it covered with blood inside and the engine had been put out of commission by the ball from the heavy antitank guns and there were several holes through the structure, the two N.C.O’s who had operated it had stayed until they had fired every round of their machine gun ammunition and every one pounder they had. I was told that though both were wounded they had been gotten out and taken to a field hospital. In front of the tank were the bodies of twenty-six dead Germans.
One of the very striking features of the battleground was the immense quantities of German ammunition lying about, cases and belts of machine gun ammunition everywhere, also thousands of rifle ammunition. This is all gathered up by salvage crews and sent to the rear. One might go on indefinitely telling about what is to be seen but there is only one more incident that I will relate. I saw the bodies of two Americans lying together, one had been wounded in the leg and had evidently bandaged it himself and gone on only to be shot through the head later. The other was under full pack and had on a gas mask, it looked as if he had been hit by an explosive bullet, his hip was very badly torn and the clothing very badly burned around the gaping wound, in front of him lay a dead German run through by a bayonet.
It was dusk as we returned, the rain still fell and the 75’s were again sending their message of hate into the ranks of the Huns far to the North. But the memory of those lonely forms lying in the mud, the thoughts of the anguish suffered by their loved ones far beyond the sea, will remain fixed in my memory for a long time to come. And then comes the thought of what is a just punishment for he who has caused all this suffering to the human race. Surely he will not escape a just punishment. I think when the good God made hell for the souls of the damned he had in mind one man with a withered arm.
W.J.C.
WWI: Willard Joseph Chamberlin, Officer in United States Air Service; pilot):
After his completion of pilot training during World War I, Willard Joseph Chamberlin was assigned as a Pilot to the 141st Pursuit Squadron and was with that unit from 10 Jan 1918 to 8 Feb 1918. The 141st was not yet operational nor flying missions in France. Willard was reassigned and reported to the 91st Observation Squadron on 30 July 1918. The 91st was organized at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas on 20 Aug 1917. After training, the unit traveled to France landing on 15 Nov 1917. Unit training continued until 24 May 1918 when the squadron was issued French Salmson 2A2 observation planes and was sent to the Front. Their airborne purpose was typically to observe, photograph, and report enemy action and troop movements. With the front seat of the Salmson manned by the Pilot, the strategic purpose of the mission was performed by the Observer in the rear seat. The Observer’s job included navigating, observing, photographing, calibrating the accuracy of friendly artillery, watching for enemy aircraft, and manning the rear machine gun. The unit’s first flight over the lines occurred on 3 Jun 1918. While operating out of Gondreville, France, the squadron took part in the St. Mihiel drive. On 20 Sep 1918, the unit moved to Vavincourt (about 6 km north of Bar-le-Duc) and participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive and sometimes flew as far as 50 km behind enemy lines. By the end of the War, Pilots of the 91st collectively engaged in a total of 139 combats and scored 21 victories (21 downed enemy aircraft). On 9 Oct 1918, 1Lt Chamberlin was credited with half of a victory (shared with another pilot). According to George C. Kenney of the 91st in the “History of the 91st Observation Squadron: “On the 9th one of our formations of three ships was attacked by fourteen Fokkers in the neighborhood of Jametz, and after a fierce combat, in which we were finally driven from our course, and which lasted practically all the way back to Verdun, three enemy planes were brought down, with all three of our ships pretty well shot up, although none of the pilots or observers was hit. Kenney and Duncan, Delana and Merrill, and Chamberlin and Sieper, were the teams officially credited with the destruction of the enemy planes.”
French Salmson 2A2 observation plane:
—–WWI Sources—–
“Wings of Honor” by James J. Sloan, Jr. Schiffer Military History; Atglen, PA: 1994 (pgs 183, 423)
“U.S. Air Service Victory Credits,” Historical Research Division, Air University, Maxwell AFB, AL. June 1969
“History of the 91st Aero Squadron, Air Service U.S.A.,” by George Churchill Kenney and Horace Moss Guilbert. Gebruder Breuer; Coblenz, Germany: 1919 (pgs 13-14, 28)
“World War I Aviation Books in English: An Annotated Bibliography” by James Philip Noffsinger, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ: 1987 (pg 149)
Source: Mark Synovitz, Lt Col, USAF (Retired)
Nov 11, 1918: End of World War I
Dec 6, 1918: Letter from Willard Chamberlin (age 29) to his mother Emily (age 68) and family:
Treves, Germany Dec. 6th 1918.
Dear Mother and everybody:-
Doesn’t it seem queer to get a letter from me written in Germany. This place is Treves in French and Tries on German maps. Anyway you can find it, it is the first large city on the Moselle River south of Coblens, the latter city is some sixty miles north of us.
I spent December 4th and 5th touring Luxemburg and this part of Germany in an auto and the weather was poor most of the time, rain and mist. I saw a lot of the country and enjoyed the trip. We went from Pruetin to Andun, Luxemburg City, Treves and Brisburg returning to Treves and down the valley of the Mosells River to Diedenhoffen, Fontoy and back to Pruetin. I spent several hours in Luxemburg City, the capital of the small state of the same name where the people speak French, some German and a little English and a lot of Luxembergise, which is very similar to the Dutch of Holland to which country Luxemburg formerly belonged. I found the city a very clean and beautiful place prosperous and well kept. The people are not at all attractive but polite and civil, very much in favor of the allies, liking the Americans especially well. They do not appear to lack any of the necessities of life, in fact from the appearance of the windows I think one could buy most anything either necessity or luxury if you care to pay the price for it, on the whole the prices are higher than in France.
I found Germany very attractive, the towns, cities and country appear to be prosperous, certainly all are neat, clean and attractive far beyond the rest of Europe when these things are all considered. The country and cities remind one of our country. Things are modern, streetcars, electricity and the first steam heated hotels I have seen in Europe. Modern water and sewage systems are everywhere while in France the primitive well in the center of town furnishes water and the woods and fields attend to the latter. They have a good telephone system which France has not. I even saw electric street flushers and street sweepers. There are two things which Germany seems to lack; flour and wheat products, rubber and manpower. Of course, there are some things for producing implements of war which one would ordinarily not notice. The stores display candy and cakes, things not seen in England or France today. The bread is black and vile smelling, tastes like sawdust and looks like coal. Potatoes seem to be plentiful. We had very excellent meat and good coffee the last, in fact all of these superior to any you find in France. They served us white sugar and fine butter but no milk or cream. One other thing I noticed no public or private gasoline driven vehicles except those of the cities or the war Department, there is probably a shortage of Gasoline. Few good horses are to be seen, the plowing is being done by oxen but more often by three or four milk cows hooked to a plow. The German people as a whole do not seem to resent our being here, they smile and wave at us and are always rushing to our assistance in every way possible but I cannot think but that in their hearts they wish that we were all in the depths of Hades. Surely they do not swallow such a defeat with a smile. They appear to still love the old Kaiser, his picture and that of the Crown Prince are everywhere there is but one thing more common, that is, Verboten. It appears that there were few things that were not ‘Verboten’ (forbidden) I wish I could read enough German to read these signs, they are everywhere.
While I was in Luxemburg the Bishop’s funeral took place, it was a gorgeous and impressive affair, long lines of alter boys, priests and church dignitaries passed. The Duchess came out of the Royal Palace and stood with bowed head on the balcony as the funeral passed, there were two bands and hundreds of embroidered banners, the whole population was on the street as one girl said “to see the Bishop well buried.” The Duchess a girl of 19, not beautiful as a Duchess should be, rules the country and seems to be loved by her subjects.
We are occupying an old German Air dome a mile or more out of the city of Treves. It has one large concrete and brick shed which has a capacity of about thirty planes then there is an enormous Zeppelin shed which contains about 150 German Airplanes which are to be turned over to the Allies under the terms of the armistice. I have had an opportunity, long sought for, to examine practically every type of German plane built. They are all here and in good shape, I only hope the weather clears up and they will let us fly some of them. I would name some of them and tell you all about them but hardly think it worthwhile. Will have pictures of them and we can go over them when I come home if you, Roy or Irene are interested. Suffice to say they are good ships and on the whole are to equal I think to those we have. I was particularly interested in the little Pfalz Scout for it was one of these that I shot down in October and in the Fokkers, two of which I helped to shoot down and dozens of which I have been in combat with. We expected to be quartered in town, the quarters in the field are hardly enough for the men. It was fortunate that the adjutant and I happened to be in Treves when we heard that our squadron was coming. We went out and got there before everything was picked up. I got a few nice things including a new heavy German bayonet and a spiked dress helmet and about twenty-five good pictures their aviators had taken. They destroyed all plates and most photographs. I did discover a box of very large plates 12 x 14 inches taken with what must have been a very fine camera, these plates are about as large again as anything we use. I did not have time to examine the plates they were in a box, I just pulled out the first one which was a plate of Verdun with excellent detail so I hid the whole box and will get them when I get out there again. The Germans surely had us beat on cameras for their pictures are much clearer and better in detail then ours. The more I see of their work and their ways the more respect I have for them and if the little old U.S.A. had not stepped in with its awful man power and wealth Germany would have been strutting home with France in one pocket, Italy in the other and England off in the distance looking very helpless.
Well, this pen is going dry and I have no ink so I must draw this to a close. Our mail goes out and comes in at uncertain intervals now. It may be a day or week before this goes. No mail has come in for about ten days so we should have a bunch soon. This should reach you in time for me to wish you a most happy and prosperous New Year. On that day think of me either in Coblenz where we move shortly or else on my way back to France. The second army is now on their way to relieve us and will be up to the Rhine late in December and we are promised that we shall be on our way to the States early in the New Year, do not let that keep you from writing though because this War Department is a very changeable machine and we may be here for a long time yet, I hope not though. With lots of love to all, your loving son,
Willard.
Dec 15, 1918: Letter from Willard (age 29) to his mother Emily (age 68):
91stAero Squadron A.E.F., France.
December 15th1918.
Dear Mother:
I’m still at the same old camp waiting for flying weather in order to get our remaining planes to Treves. It is just a little mud hole these days and only a few of us here, little to eat and almost nothing to read so time hangs heavy. As you might guess, too, there is little to write. We have had but one mail in eleven days, it came yesterday and in my mail there was an ancient document from you written just two months ago. You speak of the Christmas coupon for sending me a package. Well the size package one is allowed to send is such that a package of gum and a safety razor blade is about all the box would hold any way. In the 91stsquadron there are 169 men and 44 officers or there were that many at the time the coupons were sent out and we received 160 coupons so turned them all over to the men, I do not believe a single officer took one.
The Chief of the air service sent in a request for the names of all old officers who wished to return to the United States at once and I put my name on in letters large enough so he will not require ‘glasses’ to read it, have hopes of getting back early in February at the latest. The squadron was supposed to have moved to Coblenz the 13th, but the weather has prevented us from even getting all of the ships as far as Treves. Have not seen the sun since December 4th. Suppose it is still up there some place. One had to light a candle or lamp to read after 3:30 p.m.
We took a truck and went to Verdun Thursday. The truck was a big lumbering affair and the roads are very rough. Fortunately we have no dining room here and have to stand up to take our meals at all times so the fact that I didn’t sit down yet has caused no comment.
The weather Thursday was miserable as it has been for sometime, a low fog and frequent showers, so we started for Verdun. The very name of Verdun brings the tears to the eyes of many Frenchmen, there are few names in France that bring up greater or more historical thoughts than Verdun, not only has it stood the tests of the past four years but in 1870-71 it was bombarded for sixty-five days without giving up. It was bombed and sieged most of the past four years and it was here in 1914 that the famous French phrase came into existence, “they shall not pass.” And they did not though Germany sacrificed 400,000 men trying to pass and the French paid 250,000 lives to keep the Hun back but Verdun was not taken. The city in normal times was a city of, I should judge, about 25,000 to 35,000 people, situated on the bank of the Meuse River and protected on the north and east by hills on which there are I think seven forts. Of these great underground fortifications the Germans took and held two for some months and it was around one of these, Fort Voux, where the severest fighting took place in 1914. I had flown low over Verdun many times, just over the house tops and the view one gets from the air, is, of course, far superior to anything that can be seen from the ground. Our visit was mainly to go through the underground city, the Citedal. We spent about an hour going through a part of this place where our guide told us 20 to 25 thousand troops could be quartered with ease. I saw barracks by the mile, canteens, theaters, a chapel, great gun rooms and arsenals holding enough explosives to destroy Europe, a bakery where they were turning out bread by the car load. The mixing was being done by huge mixers similar to the large concrete mixers one sees in the States. The place is electrically lighted throughout. Steam heating and sanitary arrangements are far better than I have seen any place else in France. All of this is underground much of it many stories under and that which is above the surrounding ground is regular hills with protections in the shape of reinforced concrete walls. There are places where the superstructure was hit by large shells but for the most part they simply chipped the concrete. Of the city itself little remains hardly a building has escaped and many blocks are simply a mass of stones, charred timbers, broken glass and twisted iron. The beautiful Cathedral still stands, its two Gothic Towers can be seen for miles, but it is broken and shattered in many places and doubtless will have to be entirely rebuilt. Shells, like cyclones, have queer antics, in some cases a house was entirely blown away except one wall and there high up one could see a blackened fireplace, a broken mirror or a picture still hanging, all that was left of what was once a beautiful home. In one instance was the bathroom remaining. There is not a civilian in the place and no business has been conducted since the awful days in 1914. There are a lot of our men occupying the ruins and I saw a kitchen in what was once a barber shop, blankets spread in bakery shops and confectionary stores, the old market place is crowded with artillery and so it goes nothing natural, everything war. Yes, there was one calm and natural thing, that was the peaceful old river calmly flowing on its way to join the Rhine. The road lead out over the hills to the northeast and a more dreary sight cannot be imagined than these hills covered with shell holes, broken forests, abandoned trenches and the litter of four years of constant fighting. There are untold quantities of barbed wire, shells, broken vehicles, abandoned machinery, mile after mile of this litter. The road is lined on both sides with immense trees, I say immense, they are for this country, they run from 2 ½ to 3 feet in diameter, many have been more or less broken with shell fire many, too, are missing, having been cut down by the Huns. What struck me so forcibly was the fact that so many of these trees had a notch about six inches wide and four inches deep cut half way around the trunk at about four feet from the ground. These notches were loaded with dynamite and all were so fixed that they could be put off with electricity. In case the Huns had to retreat they would blow the trees across the road and it would have taken a great deal of labor for the army following them to clear the way for artillery or for tanks to follow, I think it was mainly to hold up the tanks. It seems that the Germans were never successful with their tanks and they were always greatly in fear of those of the allies. The general contour of the country northeast of Verdun is such that there is a sort of Gateway, possibly two or three miles wide where tanks could get through and unless they passed through here there is little chance of getting by in this vicinity. Mr. Fritz sure had this gate fixed to stop the tanks. They had built reinforced concrete posts five feet square and some five or six feet high and as many feet in the ground. These posts were set some 30 to 50 feet apart and imbedded in and connecting each were steel cables a good five inches in diameter and in the more likely places great chains had been added. After all that the poor square heads had to walk out and leave it all. About as far back of the Hun lines as Verdun is back of the allied lines lies the town of Elaiu or it did once. It was a rather large place, too, but I venture to say the oldest inhabitant if he returned today could not tell where his house had stood, the place is simply a mass of debris, completely washed out by artillery. I have some pictures that will show these things.
This is quite enough for this time. With loads of love and the hopes of getting back to the U.S.A., a square meal and the loved ones, I am, Your loving son.
Willard.
Dec 25, 1918: Letter from Willard Chamberlin (age 29) to his mother Emily (age 68):
Tours, France Christmas Day 1918.
Dear Mother:-
I left Tours and came by the way of Sarsbruck, Metz, Nancy, Colombey les Belles and Paris to Tours. Left Treves the night of the 18th, and arrived here the 22nd. Most of the time was spent waiting for trains, for instance, I went to the depot at Nancy to get a train at 7:30 p.m., it pulled out at 2:00 a.m., there was not even standing room. I got the Paris Express which was due at 11:00 p.m., almost had to lick a couple of ‘frogs’ and insult a French General to get a seat, but I got a seat. Stayed over Sunday in Paris, went to Mass at the church of the Madeline. I went to confession last night and waited up to go to midnight mass, went to the Cathedral at 11:30 and there was hardly standing room. I had not been at all well and did not feel like standing during the services so went to bed. I had intended spending the greater part of the Glorious Feast day in bed but had to get up early in order to go to communion.
I intended to do some shopping in Paris but it is absolutely foolish to price things they ask at least twice what they are worth and then you have to pay a ten percent tax besides. I got a few things here, I want to bring each one something from over here if possible.
There is no chance of getting out of here for at least two weeks so I am taking a seven day leave commencing tomorrow, am going to Toluse and Pou, Lourdes is near Pou. The train service south is fairly good, I will go one route and return another. If things go well I will probably be ready to sail by the 15th of January. There are thousands of Casual Officers on the list and one simply has to wait until his turn comes. I was lucky at Colunby. There are several hundred there waiting to be sent to one of these camps down here but being a friend of the Commanding Officer I got my orders down here within an hour after I got there.
This is a queer Christmas Day. It is bad enough to be in one of these camps at any time but to spend Christmas, a day when we think of loved ones at home, it is awfully lonesome and one feels like the poor half starved dog I see trotting down the path, sort of forlorn, forgotten and horribly lonely. There is one bright star in the heavens though, the boys are not fighting in the mud, the war is over and I will soon be on my way home. As I heard a lad say last night, “Well, I always did want to cross the ocean, and I still do.”
Lots of love to all on this Christmas Day,
Willard.
Jan 7, 1919: Letter from Willard (age 29) to his mother Emily (age 68):
Tours, France Jan. 7th 1919.
Dear Mother:-
I last wrote you from Paris about a week ago, December 30thI think. Well, on that day Lieut. Harvey and I left for Oloron a little village in the mountains. We found a quaint place out of the usual travel route and a town in which there had not been an American Officer and we spent a royal two days. It had been our intention to go to the end of the line, hire horses and go over into Spain. We arrived at Oloron at 3:00 p.m. and the other train did not leave until 8:00 p.m. so we wandered around the place trying to find someone who spoke English so we could get the “dope” on the country to the south. Neither of us could handle enough French to get along that far, then I made the discovery that most of the people spoke both French and Spanish. I cornered an old priest and in a mixture of French and Spanish got all the information we wanted, that was no hotels, uncertain weather and lots of snow in the mountains and doubtful if we could get horses so we gave up the idea of going. The priest was connected with the orphanage and wanted to show us through, so we went. They were having a bazaar and we got stung as one usually does at a church affair but as he said, it was for a good cause. They had about a dozen very charming girls and we were the center of no end of attraction. They gave us dinner and the next day a dance and party, in all we enjoyed it very much. Returned to Paris the next day but were there only an hour catching the 1:00 p.m. Express for Lourdes arriving at 3:00 p.m. We visited the town and an old castle and prison, then spent the balance of our time at and around the wonderful Cathedral and Shrine, it is all beyond description. I have some pictures that will show you what it is all like. Wonderfully situated in the lower Pyrenees on a beautiful river. Millions have been spent in the church, statues, etc. I bought some things, crucifixes, medals, etc., for everyone and dipped them in the waters. One of the most wonderful things is the Stations of the Cross in life sized bronze figures on a hill above the Shrine, nine years indulgence for making them. I thought of you a lot while there, what a wonderful place for you to be. If you could just have one of the little places in the ancient town and spend your time in the numerous places of worship, you would not kill yourself through trying to climb up the steep hill making the Way of the Cross. We left the 3rdfor Tolouse and found it a busy city, dirty as usual, like all French cities. We visited many of its shops, markets and ancient churches, the latter built when it was a Spanish city, nearly a thousand years ago and they look it. Tolouse is the 4th largest city in France. We left at 8:00 p.m. for Chateraux where we were supposed to arrive at 4:30 a.m. and get a 5:10 train for Tours. Sleepers are rare in France and so high that only a General can afford to ride in them. We just managed to get a seat. I did not sleep a wink, the night was very dark and the rain poured. We stopped at 5:00 a.m. and I crawled out of the coach thinking that we were at Chateraux, found we were at Lamouge, a place we should have reached at 2:10 a.m. We started to get back on but found out seats were taken so decided to go to a hotel and sleep until the morning train came. After trying several places we got a room and got to bed at 6:10 a.m. got there at nine and found our noon train would arrive about 2:00 p.m. We had dinner and went to the depot at 1:45, train arrived at 3:30 p.m., we arrived at Chateraux at 6:00, the only train for Tours had left at 5:15 so we stayed on and went to Orleans, reached there at 9:00 p.m. and got the Paris Bordeaux Express at 10:00 for Tours, arriving at 12:30 a.m. Could not get a bed any place so sat up in the Red Cross and drank coffee and chocolate and ate sandwiches till 6:00 a.m. it being Sunday I went to early mass and came out to camp about 10:00 a.m. I am sleeping in the bed of the Lieutenant who is on leave as I have no bed and will not buy any now. I have had three hours sleep in the 60, the last days of my leave. We have a fine Red Cross here at camp and if I had a warm place to sleep would enjoy it. It rains steadily and the place is a sea of mud, but that is France.
I expect to get my orders out of here in a few days, that is not very definite though for when you leave here you may and probably will be at a worse place, the nearer to a Post and how long you will stay there no one knows, it is a step nearer home though.
While I was on leave some kind soul went through my trunk and stole a lot of my souvenirs from the front and when they brought my baggage from the storeroom they had lost my barracks bag so if I get home with the clothes on my back I will be doing very well I guess.
When I left the Squadron I had no bed roll to put my overcoat in so I asked one of the boys to keep it in his he did and lost all of his baggage, and, of course, my overcoat with it.
I see by the papers that Teddy is dead. As Gray says “The Paths of Glory Lead But to the Grave.” So we all must go. He certainly was a great man in many ways and exerted great influence. Personally I did not admire him a whole lot.
My mail does not seem to follow me, have not received any since I left the Squadron about the 8th of December.
I am getting mighty anxious to get home. Hope this letter finds all of you well and happy. With loads of love to all,
Yours lovingly,
Willard.
Wikipedia: Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, Military service:
Chamberlin graduated from the School of Military Aeronautics at University of California, Berkeley on August 1, 1917. He passed Reserve Military Aviator’s test on October 20, 1917 and was commissioned First Lieutenant in January 1918, with 141st Aero Squadron. During World War I he served in England, France, and Italy. He twice flew the English Channel delivering planes from Paris to London. He performed reconnaissance and photography work during the St. Miheil and Argonne offensives. In the second day of the St. Miheil drive with his observer, under great difficulties, he carried out the longest reconnaissance over German territory of any American aviators. As a volunteer for a mission for flying at low altitude over enemy lines for certain information, he received the Cross of War from the French. He brought down three enemy planes and attempted to deliver messages to the famous Lost Battalion in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, France. He was recommended three different times for the Distinguished Service Cross. He was discharged from active duty in February 1919 and became a professor at Oregon State.
Chamberlin was recalled up to the military in May 1941, with the rank of Major, and stationed in charge of a training film preparation unit at Lowrey Field in Denver, Denver, Colorado. In February 1942, he reported for duty at Sheppard Field in Texas, where he directed technical training at the Army Air Forces Technical School.
Willard Chamberlin: Contact print from WWI. The plane could be a Curtiss JN-4D Jenny; supposedly a modified Jenny was used in 1921 as one of the first crop dusters. He looks to be in aviator uniform. The leather helmet and goggles and his coat with the two cargo pockets and map pocket on the left side of his chest look to be military issue. (info courtesy of Stephen Smith, fellow researcher)
Feb 1919: Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin is discharged from active military duty
Feb 1919: Willard becomes a professor at Oregon State after his military discharge
Jan 15, 1920: Federal Census for Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon:
Chamberland, Joseph: head, rents, age 29, married, born Texas, father born New York, mother born Pennsylvania, etymologist Oregon College (Willard Joseph Chamberlin)
Chamberland, Frida: wife, age 26, married, born Oregon, father born Oregon, mother born Oregon (Frieda Chamberlin)
Chamberland, Mary H: daughter, age 2, born Oregon, father born Texas, mother born Oregon (Mary Hope Chamberlin)
Apr 26, 1920: Birth of Willard Joseph Chamberlin, Jr., 2nd of 4 children of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, Sr. & Frieda Lois Jones, in Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon.
1920: Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, age 31:
Oct 23, 1923: Birth of Marcella Joan “Jo” Chamberlin, 3rd of 4 children of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, Sr. & Frieda Lois Jones, in Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon.
Nov 19, 1923: Death of Roy Valentine Chamberlin (age 41), brother of Joseph Willard “Joe” Chamberlin, Sr., in Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., California, of pernicious anemia.
Jun 12, 1926: Birth of Roy Morgan Chamberlin, 4th of 4 children of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, Sr. & Frieda Lois Jones, in Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon.
1926: Willard publishes his first book, The Buprestidae of North America, Exclusive of Mexico
Title: THE BUPRESTIDAE OF NORTH AMERICA EXCLUSIVE OF MEXICO
A Catalogue, Including Synonymy, Bibliography, Distribution, Type Locality and Hosts of Each Species
Author Name: Chamberlin, W. J.
Publisher: Published by the author, 1926
Note: Buprestidae is a family of beetles known as jewel beetles or metallic wood-boring beetles because of their glossy iridescent colors. The author was Forest Entomologist at Oregon State College.
Willard’s other published contributions to the world of bugs:
Apr 7, 1930: Federal Census for North Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon:
Chamberlin, Willard J: head, age 39, married at 26, born Texas, father born New York, mother born West Virginia, forest etymologist at State College, Veteran WWI
Frieda L: wife, age 36, married at 28, born Oregon, father born Oregon, mother born Oregon
Mary H: daughter, age 12, born Oregon, father born Texas, mother born Oregon
Willard J: son, age 9, born Oregon, father born Texas, mother born Oregon
Marcella J: daughter, age 7, born Oregon, father born Texas, mother born Oregon
Roy M: son, age 3, born Oregon, father born Texas, mother born Oregon
1930: Willard “Joe” Chamberlin received his PhD in Zoology from Stanford University. His thesis was “A Study of the Buprestidae of the Northwest Coast Region, a dissertation on jewel beetles of the north Pacific coast.
He became a professor of entomology (bugs) at Oregon State University at Corvallis. He authored numerous articles and books on entomology: The Bark and Timber Beetles of North America North of Mexico (published in 1939), Entomological Nomenclature and Literature (published in 1952). After WWI he helped produce the first crop duster airplane, combining his flying skills and his scientific knowledge of pests.
1939 – 1945: World War II: Willard “Joe” Joseph Chamberlin served as a Major in the U.S. Army Corps, in charge of cadet training in aircraft mechanics & photography, stationed in Colorado, Texas, Kansas, and Ohio. Badly injured from a forest fire patrol crash in 1936, he walked with a cane and had one shoe built up from the severe damage to his leg. He was referred to as “the flying professor.”
World War II (WWII), also known as the Second World War, was a global war lasting from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world’s countries—including all the great powers —forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. In a state of total war, directly involving more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries, the major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, resulting in 70 to 895 million fatalities, with more civilians than military personnel killed. Tens of millions of people died due to genocides, (including the Holocaust), premeditated death from starvation, massacres, and disease. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, including strategic bombing of population centres, the development of nuclear weapons, and the only two uses of such in war.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
Feb 15, 1940: Letter from Mrs. Grace E. Chamberlain to her cousin, Fred Chamberlin, the brother of Williard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin:
#166 Grant Ave. East
Highland Park, Michigan
February 15th, 1940
Mr. Fred L. Chamberlain-
#343 East Gage Street,
Los Angeles, California.
Dear “Cousin”:-
For a long time I have been interested in writing up my Chamberlain family history, or at least genealogy, and locating all the members I could for the rather voluminous “family tree.” Your branch have been rather difficult to corral, and as is usual, one waits to get these family details till all have passed on who might have given aid.
I should say we are straight second cousins. Our grandfathers were brothers. You come from Harrison, and I from his brother Orson. I have often heard my father speak of his Cousin Finley, and I believe they occasionally wrote each other as boys. If I can find an old letter of your father’s I will inclose it. I know I did see some in my father’s old papers.
I had the pleasure of being quite well acquainted with your Aunt Grace, who only died quite recently, and with your Aunt Addie Kinne, whom I greatly admired. She too has been gone just a short time. I did have lovely obituaries of both these aunts and if I can find one will include it. But in all these talks with them, I tried to get their memories to go farther back than your father, so asked few questions about Finley’s family, though I did have the names of his children.
We are quite a tribe, and most of our ancestors were extremely worthy of emulation. I found we had plenty of Revolutionary ancestors. Both the Elder Henry Chamberlain, father of Reuben, who was the father of Harrison, and also Capt. Ebenezer Sumner, who was the father of Mary Sumner, the wife of Reuben C. were Revolutionary soldiers. I got all the proof, and was readily accepted. Then in going back, I found that we have a direct Mayflower lineage. I also joined this, and submitted proof, so that would know it was all authentic. They are very particular but we made the grade all right. I am delighted to pass onto you so fine a lineage and if any of you ever want to join any of these societies – I will be glad to tell you more about it. In these days, with every alien well organized, I think it might be well if we Americans were a little more conscious of our Americanism. I became quite interested, and have used it as a hobby, doing all my family lines. I think it appealed to me more because I was born a Chamberlain, and married a Chamberlain and often wondered about possible relationship. We have different emigrant ancestors: Then behold my amazement to find that our ancestor the Rev. Henry Chamberlain of Vermont, had done the same thing- he had married an Abigail Chamberlain, so I had to trace her out, and she has still a different emigrant ancestor. Whether these C’s were related before coming from England, I do not know.
I wrote up my notes for a little genealogical magazine our society gets out, and as I had extra pages, am sending you a full set, not exactly full either, for our gt. grand father Reuben Chamberlain had two wives, and in a later edition I added the descendants of the second wife. But you and I come through the first wife, Mary Sumner.
I have spent several lovely vacations in and around Wyoming, N.Y., locating old graves, records, etc, and have come to know the family of Amos Chamberlain very well. He was a splendid man, and he too was quite interested in the family tree. He just died last year, but his widow and sons live in the community still. I found the old obituary of our great grandfather Reuben, and you see he was an early settler there. This Amos Chamberlain was the grandson of Luther Chamberlain, an older brother of Harrison.
Lest I give you too big a dose of family matters at one setting, I will not write more now, but leave you to digest the outline I am sending. My idea was to write up the family of Henry Chamberlain, Sr. of Westmoreland, N.H. and his wife Susannah Hinds. It was some undertaking! What a lot of writing and researching I did. I have also visited the old ancestral home on Westmoreland, N.H., and all the places in Vermont where our Rev. Henry Chamberlain preached. He was a Baptist minister.
If your mother is living, I suppose she has heard of Hinds Chamberlain, who was the first settler in LeRoy, N.Y. I have rounded up all his family, the graves, ect. He was uncle to Reuben, tho’ there wasn’t much difference in their ages. Maybe you never knew where your father got his name- Finley of Findley. Well—–this Hinds Chamberlain married the widow McLaren. She had two children, a girl and a boy, by her first husband Malcom McLaren. The boy was named Finley McLaren. I suppose Hinds Chamberlin raised him – in fact I know he did, and Hinds C. used to go out to see Reuben and Harrison, and Harrison thought this little McLaren boy was the finest youngster ever, so he later named his own son Finley McLaren Chamberlin. Addie told me this. But the old Genesee and Wyoming county histories mention the McLarens, as Scotch, and coming from Scotland about the time Hinds C. settled in LeRoy.
Now I wish you would take some time off, and write me a big letter, tell me the names, dates of birth, etc, of your brothers and sisters, who they married, etc. Also I wish I knew more about your father’s life, after he came out of the army. This Amos C. used to have your Aunt Grace come and visit them, and she told him more of your fathers life, but I do not know it. And feel free if you are interested, to ask me anything you care to about the others. Your first cousin Bert Kinne lives in Spokane, Wash. and your first cousin Elliott Kinne (this is your aunt Irene’s boy) lives in Chicago.
Grace & Frank Chamberlain
If your mother is living, I shall hope she can tell more of Wyoming matters.
Sincerely
Mrs. (J.F.) Grace E. Chamberlain
Note: Grace’s husband, J.F. Chamberlain, is Francis “Frank” Joseph Chamberlain. Fred Chamberlin is her second cousin, the son of Finley “Frank” Chamberlin & Emily Hoy. Their great-grandfather Reuben Chamberlin had two wives and both descend through the first wife, Mary Sumner. Grace descends from Reuben’s son Orson, Fred descends from Reuben’s son, Harrison.
Feb 18, 1940: Death of Emily S. (Hoy) Chamberlin (age 89 yr, 6 mo), mother of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, in Los Angeles, of interstitial nephritis (kidney disease) and acute uremia.
Feb 21, 1940: Picture of Emily Chamberlin’s five living children the day of her funeral in front of her home at 343 E. Gage Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Mamie (Chamberlin) Rosborough (age 53), Fred Chamberlin (age 65), Nellie (Chamberlin) Chatfield (age 67), Ada (Chamberlin) Whitaker (age 63), Willard “Joe” Chamberlin (age 50). Emily’s other son, Roy Valentine Chamberlin, died in 1923. She also had a daughter, Winnie, who died as a young girl:
Mamie (Chamberlin) Rosborough (age 53), Fred Chamberlin (65), Nellie (Chamberlin) Chatfield (67), Ada (Chamberlin) Whitaker (63), Willard “Joe” Chamberlin (50)
Feb 21, 1940: Family photo at Emily S. (Hoy) Chamberlin, three days after her death:
standing: Mamie, Fred, Nellie, Willard “Joe,” Ada, Ada’s son Edward Whitaker: kneeling: Nellie’s son Roy Chatfield, Ada’s son Melvin Whitaker
Feb 22, 1940: Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., California (pg 17):
Emily Chamberlin Funeral Conducted
Requiem mass was celebrated yesterday in St. Columbkille Catholic Church for Mrs. Emily S. Chamberlin, 89, resident of Los Angeles for 34 years and widow of Finley Chamberlin, Civil War veteran. She died Monday at her home, 343 E. Gage Ave. Interment was in Calvary Cemetery under direction of Utter-McKinley Mortuary. Mrs. Chamberlin leaves five children, Mrs. Nellie Chatfield of Chico, Mrs. Ada Whitaker of Baker, Or., and Mrs. Mamie Rosborough of Morton, Wash., Fred Chamberlin of Los Angeles, and Willard Chamberlin of Corvallis, Or.
As I Was Told:
Willard “Joe” was furious when he discovered that his mother, Emily, had not only been married but had a child before she married Finley. He found out when he was doing family research in the 1940s. He couldn’t believe it was true, knowing his mother and what a staunch Catholic she was, nor that his older siblings hadn’t told him.
Apr 25, 1940: Federal Census for North Corvalis Benton Co., Oregon:
Name: Willard J Chamberlin
Age: 50
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1890
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birthplace: Texas
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Head
Home in 1940: North Corvallis, Benton, Oregon
Map of Home in 1940: North Corvallis, Benton, Oregon
Street: Grant Street Road
Farm: No
Inferred Residence in 1935: North Corvallis, Benton, Oregon
Residence in 1935: North Corvallis
Occupation: Forest Entomologist
House Owned or Rented: Owned
Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 6000
Highest Grade Completed: College, 4th year
Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 44
Class of Worker: Wage or salary worker in Government work
Weeks Worked in 1939: 52
Income Other Sources: No
Household Members:
Willard J Chamberlin: age 50, Head, born Texas
Frieda Chamberlin: age 46, Wife, born Oregon
Marcella J Chamberlin: age 16, Daughter, born Oregon
Roy M Chamberlin: age 13, Son, born Oregon
Letter (undated) from Mrs. Grace E. Chamberlain to her cousin Willard “Joe” Chamberlin or his brother Fred:
You must have a lot of second cousins somewhere on your grandmother Surdam’s side of the family.
Your great grandfather was Seneca Surdam, and his wife was Anna. I submit this data for your family record.
Seneca Surdam was born April 27th, 1790 ) I don’t know where
Ann Surdam ” May 25th, 1790 )
Seneca Surdam died April 13th, 1859 ) I suppose they are buried around
Anna, his wife, died May 8th, 1867 ) Wyoming, N.Y. I never have looked for their graves
Children of Seneca and Anna Surdam, as follows:
Jane born June 4, 1814
Maria ” Oct 22, 1818
Melissa ” July 1, 1820
Caroline ” Jan 4, 1823 This is the one who married your grandfather, Harrison Chamberlain. They are both buried in village cemetery, Wyoming, N.Y. and have markers.
Delia ” Oct 16, 1824
Jane ” May 26, 1826
Morgan ” Nov 28, 1829
Younglove ” Feb 24, 1830
Freelove ” Feb 14, 1831
Malina ” May 8, 1832
George ” Sept 11, 1834
Quite a sizeable family! I don’t know if any one of this name still lives around Wyoming. I assume not, for I never heard either your aunt Grace or Aunt Adah speak of any such relation. Your Aunt Grace never married‚ I think lived to be 88. Think to ask me to show her your obituary. I have one of both Addie and Grace. Aunt Grace died in a Baptist home for the aged in the suburbs of Rochester, N.Y.— Fairport, where she lived for many years. She was brought back to be buried with her father and mother, Harrison and Caroline, there in Wyoming, but at the time of the funeral I did not hear of her having any relatives present except on the Chamberlain side. Yet you see she must have had Surdam relatives a plenty.
Your father’s middle name is MacLaren. He was named for Finley McLaren, a Scotchman. The first Finley MacLaren married Betsy Stewart (or Elizabeth, I suppose). I think they were married in Scotland. Came to the vicinity of LeRoy, had two children, Finley MacLaren and Helen Mary MacLaren, when their father died— one of the earliest deaths in that vicinity. His widow soon married Hinds Chamberlain, and these children were raised by him as his own. They used to visit at Reuben C’s, and Harrison C (your grandfather) thought this MacLaren boy the finest he ever knew, and gave that name later to his only son, and according to the girls nearly always called him by both names, i.e. Finley MacLaren.
Note: This letter was written to Fred Chamberlin or Willard “Joe” Chamberlin (the sons of Finley & Emily) from Grace Chamberlain, a descendent of Orson Sumner Chamberlain, the brother of Harrison Chamberlain.
Note: Seneca Surdam died in Middlebury, Wyoming County, New York
Note: Originally the name was Van Surdam, and at some point during Seneca or Reuben’s generation, the Van was dropped from usage.
Nov 24, 1940: Letter to Willard “Joe” Chamberlin, from a distant cousin, Mrs. Grace E. Chamberlain:
Nov 24th, 1940
Dear Cousin Joe:
We are back to “home plate” for a day or so, and as we were just talking of you, will try and get off a note, with enclosures which I hope will satisfy the Mayflower Soc. We are not through with our “project” in Williamston, but have got to a point where it is not so terribly bothersome. It was too much for either of us to take on at our ages, but once into it we must see it through for better or worse. Having had total losses with our bonds we just felt we must keep what real estate we had. Can go out and look at it, at least.
Ditto with us, for all the emotions you had over election results. I do hope FDR keeps in mind that some twenty-three million votes were against him, and give some consideration to their representatives. We surely thought Congress would change in the shuffle, but alas! How can we ever pay the debt, or how can the generations to come? Yet with it all, we must have deep gratitude that we are yet in a land not drenched with blood. I hope England may hold out. I think she will, yet I cannot see it, except with eyes of faith.
Now, I think you have enough data for Mayflower, and I hope you persist and go through. You see we of this generation can establish the proof better than generations to follow, and once in, it becomes history. Added to other worries I am heartbroken that I seemingly have lost the pages from the Harrison bible. Your Aunt Grace had simply taken the four sheets out of her father’s bible, which contained the records, and gave them to me. I have preserved them so carefully. I took them down here to have photostat copies made of each sheet, and had one each of three of the sheets. The other was all the Surdam family. Then I happened to think why not have more copies made here, as I have a friend in Williamston who is in an office that does that work. I will just take it out to him and have several copies made of each page for less than the cost of one here. I had the original at the farm, and remember having it in a large envelope all ready to take down town, but in the melee have simply mislaid or lost it. I cannot think it is lost, but “hid” as I have a faculty for doing. Maybe it will show up. BUT I am so glad I have these three, and Frank thinks you can have another photostat made from this. Please do if you can, and do include an extra set for me, for I wanted them for my family book, but wanted you to have the original, as you see it takes in even Reuben, and his second wife Nancy.
Now this bible record I think shows that Finley is the son of Harrison, as he is recorded on page with other children. The death certificate of Harrison shows him to be the son of Reuben and Mary Sumner C. Sorry Amos ever undertook to correct the record with the town clerk in Wyoming for he had it wrong. Neither Mary Sumner of Reuben C. were born in Vermont. Reuben, according to obituary, was born in Westmoreland, and Mary Sumner was born in Middletown, Conn. (Middletown Vital Records, Vol. 2, pg. 134, if you haven’t this reference). I guess it should be stated “Conn. Vital Records, Middletown Vol. 2, pg.134.” Reuben’s obituary may be referred to for a lot of proof, for it states his birthplace, his marriage to Mary Sumner, his death, etc.
With best wishes and do write if I can do anything more. I think it will be splendid to have this branch of the C’s proven Mayflower descendants. It’s a little irksome to make the proof, but you can see they have to be very exacting else many would get in who do not belong.
Grace
Apr 27, 1941: son Roy, Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, Sr., and daughter Marcella:
WWII: May 1941: Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin Chamberlin is recalled up to the military with the rank of Major, and is stationed in charge of a training film preparation unit at Lowry Field in Denver, Colorado
Jun 1941: Frieda Lois (Jones) Chamberlin:
Feb 1942: Willard reports for duty at Sheppard Field in Texas, where he directed technical training at the Army Air Forces Technical School
Military Service: Chamberlin earned a bachelor of science at Oregon Agricultural College now Oregon State University in 1915, and graduated from the School of Military Aeronautics at University of California, Berkeley, on August 1, 1917. He passed Reserve Military Aviators test on October 20, 1917 and was commissioned First Lieutenant in January 1918, with 141st Aero Squadron. During World War I he served in England, France, and Italy. He twice flew the English Channel delivering planes from Paris to London. He performed reconnaissance and photography work during the St. Miheil and Argonne offensives. In the second day of the St. Miheil drive with his observer, under great difficulties, carried out the longest reconnaissance over German territory of any American aviators. As a volunteer for a mission for flying at low altitude over enemy lines for certain information, he received the Cross of War from the French. He brought down three enemy planes and attempted to deliver messages to the famous Lost Battalion in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, France. He was recommended three different times for the Distinguished Service Cross. He was discharged from active duty in February 1919 and became a professor at Oregon State.
Source: https://amp.blog.shops-net.com/48970018/1/willard-joseph-chamberlin.html
Chamberlin was recalled up to the military in May 1941, with the rank of Major, and stationed in charge of a training film preparation unit at Lowry Field in Denver, Colorado. In February 1942, he reported for duty at Sheppard Field in Texas, where he directed technical training at the Army Air Forces Technical School.
Sep 15, 1943: Delayed Certificate of Birth for Frieda Lois (Jones) Chamberlin:
Jan 16, 1944: Letter to Willard “Joe” Chamberlin, from a distant cousin, Mrs. Grace E. Chamberlain:
Jan. 16, 1944
Dear Cousin:-
We were speaking of you only yesterday, and hubby chided me for not having written earlier in response to your Christmas greetings. Christmas does not seem quite the same to us as we grow older. We could not even be with the doctor boy in Cincinnati – however, I had a week with them in November, but dare not “clutter” traffic in Dec.
I am wondering what you think of war conditions now, and how soon we may reasonably expect victory. That we shall have it, I doubt not, but some or our best informed commentators think it may be some distance off. BUT how can Germany stand much more bombing, if we are doing even half of what we are told we are? Its a heartache when we read of the numbers of our lovely bombers lost, and of the personnel that go down with them. Yet I think we get off much better than we would trying to accomplish the same task with a land army. We had another casualty among our C’s in the person of young Paul C. my nephews son – he was badly wounded in Tunisia. Has been sent back to a hospital in Butler, Pa. where he has been in a cast over six months- was wounded by shrapnel in back and in head, and both limbs have been paralyzed since. He says he is getting wonderful treatment, having all sorts of things done for him, and is given hope that he may walk again.
In going through old papers I come across letters from your aunt Addie. I will inclose some, so that you may sort of get acquainted with her, even at this late date. When she speaks of Middlebury- that is the township in Wyoming co., N.Y. the village of Wyoming is about two miles from Reuben’s old place, is where Harrison, your grandfather was born, and is buried. There was an academy there early, one Jabez Warren was one of the founders. He enters our line, via. his marriage to one Hannah Sumner, she is a sister to Reuben’s wife, Mary Sumner- in other words a brother-in-law of Reuben, and the one with whom he made the trek from Vermont to Western N.Y. in 1601 or 02. You will find much of this Jabez Warren and Hannah Sumner. Jabez was a rev. soldier, and both he and wife are buried in East Aurora, N.Y. just a few miles from Wyoming. In fact Jabez Warren owned 1750 acres of around the present village of East Aurora, later made most famous by the colony of “Roycrofters” under Fra Elbert Hubbard. I just relate this in case you ever go through there, you would want to look it up. To ever get at the C’s I virtually had to run down all their relatives, and it is interesting too, for the son of this Jabez Warren, was the Gen. Warren of the war of 1812, the burning of Buffalo, etc. Both this Gen. Warren and his father Jabez were marked by DAR {their graves} some years ago, and I have write up from Buffalo papers. Father often spoke of his Warren relatives, and I did not know until I went into matters myself, but what he always had reference to Gen. Joseph of Bunker Hill fame.
But to return to this early academy in Wyoming- I think it ranks with our present day high school, being so near Harrison’ s farm, it gave his children the privileges of education, that few in rural communities had in those days. All were better educated than the average of their day.
Addie Kinne was a wonderful reader, and a retentive memory, and was a most interesting person. I am told that at the woman’s club, church meetings, etc. she was an interesting speaker always. Was very blunt in any statement she made, or position she took, and could defend any position she took on any matter. I would say that was a trait in which all of those in my father’s generation shared. She was a faithful member of the Baptist church, and her old home, is immediately adjacent to it, and the church now own and occupy it as a parsonage, which I think was her desire. She was tall and never overweight, had very sharp, piercing dark eyes, and an engaging smile. I think she was better looking perhaps than either of her sisters, Adah or Grace.
Best Wishes,
Grace
abt 1944: Undated letter to Willard “Joe” Chamberlin from Mrs. Grace E. Chamberlain:
I have only recently located the old farm owned by our great grandfather, Reuben Chamberlain, near Orwell, Vermont. I have been in Orwell twice, but did not think I had time to try and find his land. The land around Orwell is good for Vt., and the histories say that Orwell was famous for its Merino sheep in the days of our Reuben.
However, the librarian in the Orwell library sent me an old snap shot, and said her father owned this farm between 1885 and 1900. So I had some shots made from it. Now it is typical of the old places of New England. BUT look at the barn just beyond. This is brick and when Reuben sold to one Appolus Austin, this barn was made into a store, and he conducted a general store in it for years, so we may be certain Reuben used this.
I am sending it on for your Chamberlain collection and do hope you get this global mess cleaned up soon, and that we may be able to talk a trip East and include Orwell.
Sincerely,
Grace
Note: Willard is serving in WWII at this time.
Jan 29, 1944: Letter to Willard “Joe” Chamberlin from Mrs. Grace E. Chamberlain :
January 29, 1944
Dear Cousin:- I am enclosing some notes for your “Chamberlin” scrap book – assuming that by now you have one. They tend to confirm the story of our ancestry.
Was able to find a picture of the old Middlebury academy there in Wyoming. Its gone long ago, but its where your aunts went to school after country school, and as I told you Jabez Warren was one of the founders. He was Reuben’s brother-in-law.
Now if this reaches you o.k. and is your correct address, let me know, as I know have the book covering your fathers’ civil war service, and want to mail it to you.
What are you thinking politically? Do you forecast a change in the National set up?
Sincerely,
Grace
1950: Willard Joseph Joe” Chamberlin sells his beetle collection to the California Academy of Sciences; he specialized in jewel beetles (family Buprestidae) and bark beetles (subfamily Scotylinae)
Aug 4, 1955: Death of Frederick Lawrence “Fred” Chamberlin (age 80), brother of Willard “Joe” Chamberlin, in Monterey Park, Los Angeles Co., California; heart attack.
Jan 2, 1956: Death of Nellie Belle (Chamberlin) Chatfield (age 82), sister of Willard “Joe” Chamberlin, in Chico, Butte Co., California.
Jan 3, 1956: Chico Enterprise, Chico, Butte Co., California:
Nellie Chatfield
Recitation of the rosary will be held in the Brusie Funeral Home this evening at 8 o’clock for Mrs. Nellie Chatfield, who died at her home on Boucher Street Monday.
Mrs. Chatfield was born on Mar 7, 1873 in Kansas City, Mo., to Frank and Emma Chamberlin. She resided in Chico in the same house the entire time.
Mrs. Chatfield was a charter member of the Catholic Ladies relief society.
She is survived by eight children: Charles J. of, South San Francisco; Leo W., of Camptonville; Mrs. Nellie McElhiney, of Oakland; Arden, of Yountville; Mrs. Ina Fouch, of Yuba City; Mrs. Ray Hayknee, of San Jose; and Roy E. and Mrs. Verda Day, both of Chico; a brother, Willard Chamberlin of Corvallis, Ore., two sisters, Mrs. Ada Whitaker and Mrs. Mamie Rosborough, both of Baker, Ore. 21 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. Mrs. Chatfield lost a son, Gordon in World War II and another son, Howard, three months ago.
At 9:50 a.m. Wednesday the cortege will proceed to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church where requiem mass will be offered for the repose of the soul.
Those who desire may have masses said in lieu of flowers.
1958: Photo of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin & Frieda Lois (Jones) Chamberlin:
Dec 10, 1971: Death of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin (age 82), 6th of 6 children of Finley McLaren “Frank” Chamberlin & Emily S. Hoy, in Lakeside, San Diego Co., California; of emphysema and arthritis. Joe is buried 10 days later in Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Multnomah Co., Oregon.
Note: Some military and death records reflect his birth year as 1899, others reflect 1890.
Dec 10, 1971: California Death Index:
Name: Willard J Chamberlin
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 12 Aug 1889
Birth Place: Texas
Death Date: 10 Dec 1971
Death Place: San Diego
Dec 10, 1971: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Death File:
Name: Willard Chamberlin
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 12 Aug 1890
Death Date: 10 Dec 1971
Enlistment Date 1: 18 Jun 1917
Release Date 1: 19 Feb 1919
Release Date 2: 20 Jun 1943
Dec 1971: U.S. Social Security Death Index:
Name: Willard Chamberlin
Birth Date: 12 Aug 1890
Issue Year: 1955
Issue State: Arizona
Last Residence: 92040, Lakeside, San Diego, California, USA
Death Date: Dec 1971
Dec 20, 1971: Burial of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin, Sr. in the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland Oregon
U.S Veteran’s Gravesites:
Name: Willard J Chamberlin Jr (sic Sr)
Death Age: 82
Birth Date: 12 Aug 1889
Service Start Date: 7 Apr 1945
Service End Date: 10 Jun 1945
Death Date: 10 Dec 1971
Interment Date: 20 Dec 1971
Interment Place: Oregon, USA
Cemetery Address: 11800 SE MT. Scott Boulevard Portland, Or 97266
Cemetery: Willamette National Cemetery
Plot: Section S Site 551
Notes: Maj Us Army World War II
Dec 15, 1971: Corvallis Gazette-Times, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon (pg 2:)
Dec 17, 1971: Albany Democrat-Herald, Albany, Linn Co., Oregon (pg 11):
Mar 11, 1974: Death of Mary Hope “Hope” Chamberlin (age 56), 1st of 4 children of Willard Joseph “Joe” Chamberlin & Frieda Lois Jones, in the Veteran’s Hospital in Washington D.C.; of lung cancer. Hope is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington D.C.
Sep 7, 1983: Death of Frieda Lois (Jones) Chamberlin (age 89), wife of Willard Joseph Chamberlin, in Greeley, Weld Co., Colorado; old age, bad heart valve
Sep 10, 1983: Corvallis Gazette-Times, Corvallis, Benton Co., Oregon (pg 18):
Sep 12, 1983: Burial of Frieda Lois (Jones) Chamberlin, alongside her husband Joe in the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Multnomah Co., Oregon
Feb 15, 2002: Oregon State University Alumni Association:
Beaver Eclips
Chapter 30 of 30: Amazing Beavers, Part II – Carry Me Back
By George P. Edmonston Jr.
Oregon State University, located as it is in the city of Corvallis in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, may be geographically isolated (like much of the Pacific Northwest) from the rest of mainstream America, but the university has been anything but isolated during all the armed conflicts of the 20th century. In the period covered below, the years preceding and including World War I, over 1,400 Oregon Staters answered the call to take up arms and fight the war that had been raging in Europe since 1914. This is their story, taken mainly from the pages of Beaver yearbooks for the years 1918-1920 and those issues of the OAC Alumnus, the OSU Alumni Association’s earliest alumni magazine, covering roughly the same time period.
As the war progressed, the campus became flooded with letters from former students and faculty serving in the various branches of the military. Here’s a sampling, sent to both the OAC Alumnus and the staff of the Beaver yearbook. Reading them today makes The Great War, fought over 80 years ago, seem as real as if it were going on right now.
First Lt. W.J. Chamberlin of the 91st Aero Squadron, AEF, was an OAC faculty member and expert on insects that destroy forests. He returned to Oregon State after the war and resumed his teaching duties.
“At 4:30 we went up again with two other ships (airplanes) flew further back into Germany than any of our other ships had been before and came down under the clouds below 1000 meters and got what we were after amid the most violent anti-aircraft barrage I have ever seen. We were almost through our work when a piece of shell hit my propeller and I was forced to throttle down to keep the machine from being wrecked. The other two ships had to leave me and there I was 50 miles in enemy territory, a damaged machine unable to climb, a violent crosswind blowing, the Archies hotter than the devil, good prospects for rain, and all along.
“The rain started soon and I had to throttle down more, for rain often splits the propeller. I thought the Archies would stop but they got worse. One burst under my right wing and tore a good square yard out. Then one went through the tail, a third tore my right elevator off, so I was unable to maneuver the ship. All I could do was hold her level and let the wind blow her toward Switzerland. It got dark, my observer lost his map and I lost my way. After what seemed days, I saw trenches and we got a few bursts of machine gun bullets. One went through the radiator, letting the water out and I was forced to let the ship go to the ground. In the semi-darkness I landed down-hill and turned a flip on our back but neither of us was hurt. We have been recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross now.” On Oct.–I was lucky enough to bring down a Boche plane. We just received official confirmation today and will get the French War Cross, the ‘Croix de Guerre.’
“We were over the German lines and had finished our mission and had started for home when 13 Boche jumped us. There were three planes in our flight, separated by several hundred yards. Five came after me. When one got in range, we put a stream of lead through his plane and he went down and burst into flames. A balloon observer saw it and sent in the confirmation.”
Source: Beaver Eclips, Oregon State University, Oregon, Feb 15, 2002
Jul 3, 2002: Up Close and Personal: The Flying Professor
Stories abound in old issues of The OAC Alumnus (now the Oregon Stater) during the 1920s of the important roles Oregon State men and women played during World War I. Over a thousand students and faculty left their jobs or interrupted their degree programs to serve in the armed services of the country. Many Beavers never returned. For those who did, they brought back stories to last a lifetime and this was certainly true of an associate professor in OAC’s department of entomology named W.J. “Joe” Chamberlin. Before the war, Professor Chamberlin had fashioned for himself a comfortable place among the classrooms and laboratories of Strand Agricultural Hall’s third floor, where he introduced his students to the world of insects that infect forests. He had received his B.S. degree from OAC in 1915 and then came the Great War and it was off to Europe for OAC’s young bug man, not to serve in the trenches of the French countryside but to swoop across the sky in a bi-plane as a fighter pilot. As a member of the 91st Aero Squadron of the American Expeditionary Force, the War Department officially credited Chamberlin with three German kills during the 13 months he served at the front. Many of his flying assignments had to do with long distance recognizance with the First Army Recognizance Group, most of the time taking pictures from the air 20 to 30 miles behind enemy lines. At times, there were also attacks from German warplanes to deal with, and this is where Chamberlin recorded his “kills.” The first plane he brought down was at Mars Le Tour, where he was in a group of three attacked by seven of the enemy. Then on Oct. 9, Chamberlin was returning from a mission when he was attacked. One of his flying mates was downed, and the professor downed an enemy plane. His most exciting day, however, came a few weeks earlier, on Friday, Sept. 13. Ignoring, as he later recalled, “the threat of ill luck,” he and others started out on what was then the longest recognizance flight ever undertaken by an American squadron. Here’s how the Alumnus reported the story:
“Joe” Chamberlin, photo from the October 1927 OAC Alumnus:
“It was a dirty day, of the kind France knows in the fall, when rain beats down as it does in the worst Oregon weather. A shell exploded and burst through the tail of the professor’s plane and otherwise damaged it. Then the driving rain became worse and darkness gathered. The plane wandered far across the German line. For two hours and 30 minutes, with the rain continuing and the plane damaged, the flight continued. At 8:20 p.m., in complete darkness, German machine gunners on the ground trained their guns on the plane and put three bullets through the radiator. The plane fell. It looked like certain death in the rainy and inky darkness. By a veritable miracle, the professor and his observer crawled out of the plane practically unscathed. The plane had fallen into a hole in a wood. A few yards in any direction would have meant certain death. And the plane was a mess of wreckage. It had literally fallen apart. They found themselves 16 kilometers from the Swiss border.” Chamberlin’s story ends here, and it is assumed he walked to safety. He certainly returned to his teaching duties in Corvallis and resumed right where he had left off…teaching students about insect pests…and flying when he wasn’t in the classroom. For two years, the intrepid professor took to the skies for the forest air patrol, first as an observer, then as a pilot, always on the lookout for forest fires and serving as the “eyes” of the firefighters. His territory included Southern Washington, Northern California and all of Oregon. He would later serve as a pilot instructor to OAC students wishing to learn to fly.
By: George P. Edmonston Jr., editor of the Oregon Stater and Eclips
Oregon State University Alumni Association
204 CH2M HILL Alumni Center
Corvallis, OR 97331-6303
Source: Beaver Eclips, Oregon State University, Oregon, Jul 3, 2002
Jan 14, 2006: Letter to me from my brother, Gordon Clemens:
Dear Catherine,
In going through my Chamberlin file I discovered a letter sent to me in the 1980s by our cousin Barbara Clauson who now lives in Henderson, Nevada. You remember visiting her a couple of years ago with me. In her letter she mentions the letters to Willard Chamberlin, so I think that is where I got my copies in 1980s. In her letter she states:
7-1-1984
“Dear Cousin Gordon, I hope you and all your family are well. I was going over the family tree information you sent to all of us for 1979. I just finished being involved in a governor’s race here and our candidate won. Governor List asked me to be his receptionist in the governor’s office and he was defeated in his re-election in 1982. I have been unemployed since then but our Assemblyman running for re-election this year just asked me to be his campaign manager and I said yes. I start next week and for the next four months it will be another hectic schedule.
I am also very interested in our family tree. I have over 100 papers given to me by our great uncle Willard Chamberlain in 1963. I only have the copies, as I returned all the originals to him. If you ever come to Carson I will be happy to show them to you. You are welcome to copy anything you want.
One is a letter written during the civil war by Finley Chamberlin at age 17. He wrote the letter to his family back home. I am enclosing an update of my mother’s line. There have been many changes and my mother died Nov. 21, 1983 (Nellie May Chatfield McElhiney). I miss her very much. We took a trip in June to Northern California and saw Aunt Ina. I didn’t know Uncle Jim had just died 2 weeks before. He was a wonderful man. We saw Joanne, Shirley, Jimmy, Joanne’s son and her grand-daughter. We also went up to Paradise and saw Uncle Charlie and Velma. They look wonderful. We stopped by the Chatfield house. No one was home but we took pictures of the outside. It is really rundown. A young couple owns it now and they are fixing it up. The house has been in the family since 1915 but it is no longer a part of our family’s roots. The last time I saw your Mother was Easter of 1967 or 1968. She came to my apartment with my mom and my sister Bev & her family. We all had a wonderful day. Hope to hear from you.
Your cousin Barbara.
I know you would be interested in knowing how the Willard Chamberlin letters came into my files. I am sending you some of the letters from Kinne, obituaries, etc. in the mail today so you will have them soon.
Gordon
Catherine & brother Gordon Clemens, researching in
Sanders, Montana, July 2006
Note: The cemetery and headstones pictures are from Find A Grave and are the property of those who photographed them.
2020. Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau and Gordon Clemens.