View source for Letters of Herbert H. White




Herbert Hewet White was born in 1890 and grew up in Stoddard, Wisconsin.  After WWI, he married Clarice Mildred Jacobson in 1921.  They had three sons; Hewet Herbert, Ronald Royce, and Douglas Donald, and a daughter named Leota Clarice.  The son, Douglas Donald White was killed while serving in the military in 1948 when his plane went down west of Guam.  Herbert and his wife Clarice were residents of Farebault, Minnesota where he lived into his 90s.

The following six letters were written by Herbert White between April 13, 1918 and February 29, 1919. During his stateside training he was assigned to Co. 5 of the 161st Depot Brigade, but later he was sent France with Co. B of the 354th Infantry, 89th Division.  The first three letters outline his experiences during training at Camp Grant in Illinois and Camp Funston in Kansas. In the fourth letter, dated September 28, 1918, he gives a thorough and often humorous description of his experiences "somewhere in France."  The last two letters are sent from the hospital at Camp Sherman in Ohio where he was recuperating from the amputation of his right arm, which he lost to a German bullet.  In his poignant fifth letter he sums up his experiences in WWI, "I would not take a thousand dollars for what I have gone through but would not give a nickle to go again."

The letters were sent by Herbert White to his older sister, Dora C. Schubert, who was my great grandmother. They were passed down to me by my father, Roy H. Suttie, who was her grandson.