Honoring Iowa’s ‘Soldiers in White’
When Iowans explore the State Capitol grounds, they see the towering Civil War Soldiers and Sailors monument, the striking World War II memorial, and tributes to those who served in Korea and Vietnam. Visitors can also find a memorial to those who served and died in the Spanish-American War.
Though more than 4,000 Iowans died in World War I, the third most of any conflict, no memorial honored the women and men who served in what was first known as the World War — until recently.
A permanent marker was dedicated earlier this month to the Iowa women of World War I.
Years ago, a floral “gold star” graced the capitol grounds to honor the Iowa men who died in service. Additionally, the Ola Babcock Miller Building houses a pair of plaques that honor the service of Iowa men during the war.
Activists and leaders also embraced the service of women, and Gov. Nathan Kendall and others dedicated 10 white birch trees on the west extension of the capitol on May 30, 1921. The trees were planted to recognize the Iowa women who died in service in the Great War, including the nurses known as “soldiers in white.” (Newspapers reported at the time that 10 Iowa women had died in France, but this was not the case. It is also likely that at least one of the nurses, Maude Holt of Sioux City, was a case of mistaken identity.)
The nurses on the list were Marion Crandell of Davenport; Elsie May Hatch of Edgewood; Kathleen Kennebeck of Carroll; Dorothy Koellner of Fort Madison; Lorraine Ransom of Burlington; Mary Weiman of Fairfield; the previously mentioned Maude Holt of Sioux City; as well as Ramona Bates, Marie Beeman, and Mary Mahoney. (Newspapers at the time often misidentified Ms. Hatch as Mary Elsie Hatch. These same articles often misspelled Ms. Koellner’s name as “Knoeller.”)
Iowa history enthusiasts ought to know Marion Crandell, who is generally regarded as the first U.S. woman to die in active service during the war. She was born in Cedar Rapids, lived in Nebraska as a child and was fluent in French, having studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. She taught at St. Katharine’s School in Davenport. After the United States entered the war, she signed up as a YMCA worker in early 1918 and worked at a canteen in March 1918. It came under attack, and she was fatally hit by artillery.
Kathleen Kennebeck was a victim of the global flu pandemic. She was traveling to Europe on the steamship Vestris when she died on October 2, 1918, and was then wrapped in a U.S. flag and buried at sea. A Roman Catholic shipmate wrote Kennebeck’s parents to say that a group of young women had prayed the Rosary before her burial.
Erma Shaw of Denison, whose father had served as Iowa’s governor and as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, died on the same ship eight days later. Her body was returned to the United States. It is uncertain why Ms. Shaw was not recognized with a tree in 1921.
Elsie May Hatch died in Paris on December 20, 1918. She was buried in France, and her family paid to have her body returned to the United States in 1921. Services were held in Edgewood on September 4, 1921.
Dorothy Koellner grew up in Fort Madison. She attended nursing school in St. Louis. She traveled to France in late 1918. She was working for the Red Cross in Paris and became ill in February 1919. Ms. Koellner was said to have a beautiful grave, and her brothers in Fort Madison received photographs of her grave. Her body was brought back to Fort Madison and she was buried on October 18, 1920.
It is no wonder errors existed in the roster of Iowan women who died in service. Communication and identification was unreliable, and documentation was often done from local newspaper reports. The names might have been shared by a local source that can no longer be located. This may be the case with Ramona Bates, Marie Beeman, Mary Mahoney, and Mary Weiman. If a name appeared on a death list and no correction was issued, it became accepted as fact. The State Historical Society of Iowa has identified several names of men who were listed as having died in service but in fact survived.
Maude Holt is likely such an example, where a name was misprinted due to an error of transcription from a casualty list. On December 7, 1918, the Sioux City Journal listed the death by disease of “Nurse Sad Baud S. Holt.” Later research indicated that a Sioux City harness-maker named Baud S. Holt had died of disease in France. He had been a horse sadler for the U.S. Army and when his name was transcribed, “Horse” became “Nurse,” and “sadler” was abbreviated to “Sad.” Baud Holt had a sister Maud, but no record can be found of her passing. The State Historical Society of Iowa has a photograph of Baud Holt in its collections of Iowans who died in the Great War — but no record of a Maud (or Maude) Holt dying in the war or its aftermath.
Over time the white birch trees died, and the women they honored were largely forgotten. In 2016 a group of volunteers organized an Iowa World War I Centennial Committee to promote activities recognizing the service of Iowans in the war. When the committee rediscovered articles on the “Soldiers in White” Memorial, it approached the state’s Capitol Planning Commission to re-honor these women and all the Iowa women who served in World War I. The planning commission worked with the Iowa World War I Committee to plant ten white oak trees — the state tree of Iowa — and create a memorial plaque naming the women from the 1921 ceremony.
On April 17, 2019, the planning commission formally approved the final plans for an Iowa Women of World War I Memorial north of the Iowa World War II Memorial near East 13th Street. The memorial was rededicated on Sunday, May 5, 2019.
— Leo Landis, State Historical Society of Iowa
