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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
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Morning Star, June 11, 2017, pg. 9 June 5, 1917 was military registration day in Albion, as 902 Albion-area young men registered to be drafted into World War I. Each was given a specific number for a future draft lottery. Registrations occurred nationwide as our country prepared for war. A mile-long parade was held in Albion to mark the occasion. A complete list of names of those who registered was published in the Albion Recorder on July 20. That list makes a great historical reference source as to who was living here at the time, especially for ethnic immigrant names in town. Those who failed to register were called "slackers," and were promptly located and taken to a county registration facility to make sure they obeyed the law. On Friday July 20, 1917 draft numbers were drawn in a lottery in Washington DC by U.S. government officials. 258 was the first number drawn, and in Albion that number was assigned to an immigrant, John Pasnk. He was the first of 178 men from Albion conscripted from that first draft lottery. The Albion Recorder reported, "John Pasnk, a laborer in one of the factories, was on the street in the afternoon, Friday. Pasnk cannot talk English very well, but to all his friends who joshed him about being drafted he was able to say, "I go," accompanying his statement with a broad grin." Some of the 178 young men from Albion who were conscripted from that first World War I draft lottery included (as spelled/printed): Eadus W. Huffman, Bernard F. Miles, Morris L. Earl, Edward C. Klein, Martin Spiko, Herman W. Scheman, Sam Rudik, Frank Orlando, Leonard Wochholz, William Washington, DeMoyne Burns, Guy Sutton, Frank Staresinic [Sibal], Arthur Ethridge, Hercules Cobb, Feofan Condratuk, Owen Emmons, Curtis Yarger, Russel C. Edwards, Ernes C. Moss, Richard E. Vernor, John W. Clark, Harry Hobus, Stanley Noakes, Karp Sewchuk, Henry J. Faulk, Harry Cotton, Angelo Tatone, Matt Cibl, William Pellowe, Leonard Fox, Joe Munaco, John Finnegan, Marin Gaspare, William Fischer, James M. Martin, William VanAtta, George Bocheff, Earl Caines, Theo Coles, Albert Bellowe, John Marshuk, Roy Doyle, John Cooper, Earl Bearman Louis Burton, Alfred Daniels, and Donald Bullen. Do you like postcards? From our Historical Notebook this week we present a postcard that you would not like to have received in the mail. Officially known as Government Form 164-C, it is a draft notice from the War Department for an Albion young man, Earl Connor, to report to the U.S. Army mobilization camp at nearby Marshall at 8:30 a.m. on November 22, 1917—or else. It is signed by the Calhoun County draft board chairman, E.J. Mallory, and secretary Knickerbocker. Did you have an ancestor who served in World War I?  Government Form 164-C
All text copyright, 2024 © all rights reserved Frank Passic
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