The Arthur Marschke Documents

Arthur Marschke in the summer of 1918

Arthur B. Marschke

Clippings & Letters

The Bohm family archives contain a number of undated newspaper clippings and two pieces of correspondence written by a young man named Arthur B. Marschke, a distant relative of the Hermann Bohm family. The letters were addressed to Alma and Hartha Bohm and date from the late summer and early fall of 1918; they contain general accounts of Marschke’s experiences on the Western Front in World War I. He and the two Bohm sisters were cousins, close friends, and they shared a special affection for each other. Obviously part of a larger, ongoing exchange between himself his cousins, his wife, and his parents, and written after he joined the Army in 1917, they describe day-to-day events during the last eight to ten weeks of Marschke’s life. The rest of Marschke’s World War I correspondence is not extant. In addition to the two letters, the Bohm Family Archives contains four undated newspaper clippings, two from The Fargo Forum and two from the Enderlin Independent, that provide additional details. Alma Opheim Bohm found and retrieved the letters, newspaper clippings, and a wealth of other family history material, from the basement of Hartha Bohm Sallen’s Enderlin home while preparing for the estate sale following Hartha’s death on February 2, 1976 .

Rounding out the story contained in the material found in Hartha Bohm Sallen’s basement is some information found in the informative little book, Enderlin, North Dakota, 1891-1991, Diamond Jubilee. This work recounts, not only the events of Arthur Marschke’s untimely death less than two weeks before the end of the war, but also mentions the senseless tragedy fifteen years later that took the life of his widow, Esther Robertson Marschke. Information from the diamond jubilee publication is presented first and is followed by the texts of the letters and newspaper accounts.

The Story of Arthur B. Marschke’s Death[1]

When World War I ended, the soldiers of that war organized The American Legion. The Enderlin post was chartered February 3, 1922 with the following members: W. H. Nollman, A. R. Martin, Roy Rasmusson, John L. Roth, Tony Schoedl, F. E. Mau, S. J. Hagen, E. W. Sannes, Alan A. Keene, E. J. Boehnke, Gordon. O. Sundby, F. W. Harper, R. J. Simonet, Claude B. Phillips, and Dr. Gilbert Hendrickson.[2]

The post was named for Arthur B. Marshke, a local boy who lost his life near Verdun in late October, 1918. His wife, the former Esther Robertson, had been notified only that he was missing in action.

In September of 1922, Mrs. Marschke received a photograph of herself and her infant son from a former German soldier, Herman Suit. In an accompanying letter, he told her that her husband, dying from a wound received in that battle, had given the picture to a German soldier with the request that it should be sent to his wife. Marschke’s name and organization, a machine gun company in the 101st Infantry, was written on the folder containing the photograph, together with his wife’s name and address.

The German soldier was severely wounded and passed the photograph to Mr. Suit with the request that he return it. For some time after the war, German soldiers were forbidden to correspond with foreigners and thus Mrs. Marshke didn’t learn where her husband lost his life until four years later.

The story had a tragic sequel. Mrs. Marschke moved to Webb, Saskatchewan, with her son.  In 1933 she went to Gull Lake for dental work. She arrived at the station for the return trip as the train was starting to move, and pulled herself onto the steps, just as the crew, unaware that she was there, shut the door. Clinging to the outside of the train in bitterly cold weather, she managed to hang on for about nine miles, when she finally lost her grasp. Her body was found beside the tracks. Her son Leroy, the child Arthur Marschke never saw, is now [in 1966] an engineer with the Boeing Airplane Company in Seattle, Wash.

Arthur Marschke's letters to Alma and Hartha Bohm follow

*

 Letter Number One[3]

 Somewhere in France

Aug. 26 1918.

Dear Hartha:

I know it is a long time since I scribbled the last note to you.

It certainly is a big jump from Little Rock, Ark. To the Battle Front in France, and nowhere along the way was there much of a chance to doing much writing of any kind.

But now I am further back again in a quieter part.

The first day at the front with shells zizzing thru the air, thuding into the ground and than the crashing explosion nearby, and many times overhead was rather disquieting, but the second night with even a heavier crashing of exploding shells all around and over us we hardly noticed it and slept quite well.

The battles and places I cannot describe and neither can I name the towns that I have passed thru or stopped in.

But I can give you a fairly good description of France as I have seen it in my travels and also about the trip over the ocean, altho most of the trip over was very monotonous. But the first few days out we had some very rough weather which caused a lot of seasickness among the boys, even I had a slight attack.

The ship I was on was not very large so it tossed around at a great rate, first the front end would rear way up into the air and than plunge down as tho it was going to the bottom of the sea and at the same time rock from side to side with the water splashing clear up over the top of the ship once in a while. And than we seen a whale spouting water into the air, also a bunch of sharks, and near England a man fell overboard and was picked up by one of the sub-chasers. But we did not have the pleasure(?) of encountering a U Boat or submarine.

England is a very pretty country. We spent about three days there and seen quite a lot of it in crossing over on the railroad, altho the railroad go[es] thru many tunnels, some of which are five or six miles long and so dark that we could almost cut chunks out of the darkness with our knifes. And than in France we seen miles and miles of vineyards loaded with grapes which will soon be ripe now.

There are valleys an hills everywhere and the houses and other buildings are all of white or gray stone. I also seen quite a few houses built right into the limestone hillsides, like cliff dwellers, in the old Astic [sic] Indian style.  And nearly all the wine cellar[s] are in the hillsides.

Many of the wine barrels are large enough to hold about ten of the large barrels that we have in the states. I’ve tried four or five different kinds of wine but somehow they do not appeal to my taste, but the French people drink wine with every meal and many times in between meals.

And I have been in parts of France where the blackberries grow wild everywhere and when walking thru the woods they seem to reach out everywhere and scra[t]ch the hands or try to tear the clothing. And many a time in pushing aside the bushes have I taken hold of some of the prickly briers and had to remove sharp little thorns from my hand which left a smart for some time afterward, to remind me to be more careful in the future. But I have found some ripe berries and they have a fine flavor and are very juicy so I’ll not fight shy of the bushes even if I do get a few prickles in getting the lu[s]cious berries.

I’m going to [the] front over shell torn ground and ruined buildings, many of which were just a pile of rocks. Some of the shell craters are 20 to 30 feet in diameter and 10 to 12 feet deep, so you can imagine the terrific force expanded when one of them explodes.

Around some farms these huge shell holes were so numerous that we had to almost walk thru the craters to look at the ruins.

But the grain fields did not get damaged very badly except in some places. But many of the fields where the Germans were are now being harvested, and towns that have been badly shelled are being cleared up and many of the people are moving back but others are still waiting farther back.

But now I’ll cease scribbling.

My Best Wishes to you and the rest of the Folks.

Hoping to hear from you in the near future,

I am as ever,

Arthur Marschke

   101st Inf. M.G.Co

    A.E.F.

[in a different hand]

Censored By

Lieut. Inf.

*

 Letter Number Two[4]

 Sept. 24th 1918

Hello Cousin Alma:

Once again I am scribbling to you after a silence that must have seemed an age to you.

But even if I am slow in writing to you does not mean that I have forgotten you altogether for this letter will prove otherwise. The papers tell of thewar as a whole but all the little experiences of individuals are very seldom heard of. Many of them would make a book by themselves.

Guy Emprey had some great experiences as told in his book, “Over the Top.”

Some of them are a little farfetched but hardly able to hapen to one man even in four years of war.

But as a whole the book is very good and some of the scenes described have even fallen to my lot since I have been at the front.

In the latest drive we were in the woods nearly all the time, than for about a mile we were in open country and came to a ridge of hills dropping downward for five or six hundred feet to a beautiful valley as far as the eyes could see and in the distant  the hazy outline of hills and in the valley within reach of the eye thirty-five or forty towns could be seen.

The[re] is no work or life of any kind going on. The fields are all idle and most of the towns deserted. Vineyard[s] are stunted in growth and grown to weeds, but nearly all the roads look good because they have trees along both side[s], some large and others small.

When I first came to these woods I could not see any kind of wild animals or birds so that I thot there were not any around here, but the other day I was sitting alone in the woods and in a short time I seen several little red squirrels jumping from limb to limb up in a tree. And at nigh while standing guard I heard them on all sides of me. Also [I] seen rabbits running around in the bushes, and met a red fox on the path who disappeared into the brush when it seen me coming towards it.

We have been building a sort of dugout the last few days because the Germans are rather peeved on account of us chasing them back so far, and are sending shells and

Second Edition

    Same date 1918

 shrapnel over at all times of the day and night, and dropping bombs from aeroplanes in the daytime.

Beechnut trees grow here in great quantities so the squirrels kneed not go hungry, also see hazelnuts every once in a while.

At night when the dew is on the ground many of the dead leaves and pieces of wood have a bright glow, which is caused by large quantities of sulpher in them being dampened.

Doughnuts are quiet a treat here in the army and we were lucky in having several for supper yesterday, and we also get prunes once in a while but we call them “Army Strawberries.”

A bath is a luxury tha we have done without for about five weeks now. We are luck if we can wash our hands and face once a day but usually every second day is the way we get it.

But I’m thinking I’ve scribbled almost enough for this time, especially about things happening around here.

In your last letter you promised to send me several pictures that you expected to take of your new car, yourself and the rest of the girls and boys.

I hope you’ll not forget about them.

If I could only have a camera out here I could certainly take some interesting pictures, but not being allowed a camera I must try to do the best I can with my pencil in scribbling about it on paper.

I hope you’ll excuse the use of pencil but its’ the best I have at present, and please overlook the hasty scribbling and any mistakes I might have made.

So now I’ll bring this to a finish because the sun has set and we cannot have other light.

Hoping you will favor me with a letter in the near future,

I am Your

   Cousin and Sincere

    Friend

    Arthur Marschke.

    101st Inf. M.G.Co.

    American Exp. F.

 Censored By.

 Lieut. Inf’ty.

P.S. My Best wishes to your Mother, brothers and sisters.

A.B.M.

Newspaper Clippings Relating to Arthur Marschke's Death Follow

*

Arthur Marschke

Missing in Action

l

Another Enderlin Home Desolated By War’s Ravages. Son Reported “Missing in Action” [5]

Mr. August Marschke received the terrible news from the War department the first of this week that his son Arthur had been “Missing in Action.” The family had been worrying about Arthur for some time, as they had not heard from him since about October 15 and he was very regular about writing home.  Finally the suspense became unbearable and an inquiry was sent to Washington, resulting in the above reply. Why the family had not been notified before is one of the mysteries of official red tape.

While all Enderlin mourns with the bereaved relatives, yet there is one ray of hope and we will not give up the thought of again seeing Arthur until the last report of corrections is available. Every day we read in the reports from the war department where men previously reported “missing” have been found who were again in their accustomed places in the ranks after being officially “lost” for several months.

*

 Her Photo Brings Wife First News of How Soldier Died[6]

Enderlin, N.D., Oct. 2.—A photograph of herself and little son, received by Mrs. Arthur B. Marschke of Enderlin, from Herman Sult, former German Soldier, with