The letters and diaries of David T. Nelson from the First World War were compiled and edited by John P. Nelson and published in 1996. Included are
The text and pictures as printed of Letters and Diaries of David T. Nelson, 1914-1919, John P. Nelson, 1996
Forward to the book
The summer of 1914 must have been a busy one for David Nelson as he traveled around North Dakota on his new "Indian" motorcycle visiting relatives and friends while getting ready to leave for England to attend Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He had spent the past months studying Greek in preparation for Oxford while at the same time teaching in a one-room school.
His planned term at Oxford turned into a five-year adventure due to the war in Europe which had begun that summer. During those years away from home he wrote to his family and kept notes in his diaries. His mother kept his letters, diaries and other memorabilia (as mothers are prone to do), and when his father died in 1936 they were rediscovered in the family homestead. Before her death in 1989 his wife, Esther T. Nelson, requested that if possible these writings be published for his family to read. It is in honoring that request that I have compiled this book.
I'm sure those who knew him remember how he always had his "Lefax" with him, and used it to jot down notes, quotations and other information that he wanted to remember. One finds bits of poetry, interesting quotes, jokes, etc. even in the early notebooks. In a very touching letter he wrote to his mother on Easter Sunday, 1929, shortly before her death, he reminds her of a few verses of poetry she had given him. "You sent them to me once years ago and I carried them in my notebook, until the paper got so worn that I put it away for safekeeping."
I have included the materials as they were written with original spelling and punctuation. In a very few instances I have made editing changes for ease of reading. My own comments and explanations, which are in brackets [ ], have been included where I thought they might make the text more understandable.
I have tried to identify relatives and others mentioned in the letters but chose not to attempt further identification of his many comrades whose names are included. For those readers who might wish to have more information I suggest a careful study of the available histories and journals related to those organizations.
Letters and postcards are identified using italics for the date and place while bold type has been used to indicate diary entries.
I'm sure much of the available material might be of historic interest to some, but it was not practical to reproduce copies of all the many pictures, documents and other items he retained.
I hope you find this material as interesting as I have. We all have our own unique life experiences. This book relates the experiences of one person, David T. Nelson, during a short, but interesting period of his life.
I want to thank those many persons who helped answer my questions and provided me with information. A special thank you to my wife, Arlene, for her many suggestions, her help in proof reading and comparing the typed copy to the original documents, and especially her support, encouragement and patience. Any errors of fact or otherwise are solely my responsibility.
John P. Nelson
Waukon, Iowa
1996
Additional letters.
Two letters were sent to JPN by Elizabeth Hegge in June, 2003. She wrote she had found them in her mother’s things. These letters were not included in the book published in 1996.
Unpublished Letter 1
[No addressee or date. Probably written in January, 1916 to Walter when David went to the Ambulance service]
Oxford is a desperate time to live there anyway for it rains almost all the time. Then I thought that it was very much worth while to see this side of the lines, and besides the ambulance work is really useful besides giving one a great deal of experience. If I get out of it without being mashed up by a shell, I shall be all right. Only one of the men has been killed so far and only two slightly wounded so that the chances seem fairly good.
At present I am with Section 1 of the American Ambulance. We are not on active duty now for the Section is overhauling and repairing its cars. We expect to be sent off in about a week, however. The Ambulance is connected with the American Hospital in Paris. The Hospital has two very large branches, one at Neuill-sur-Seine (almost in Paris) and another at Juilly (near Paris). It maintains a Paris section of ambulances and also three sections in the field. The field sections are composed of twenty cars each and about the same number of men. A French officer is attached to each section, as well as two French mechanics and two French cooks. We get the regular army mess and are assigned quarters like units of the army.
We are now in a small village just outside a city of about 20,000 inhabitants. The city is a typical French provincial city with its small shops, cafés, etc. It has a splendid cathedral, however, and several old and interesting houses.
There are Americans from all parts of the States in our section and they are a mixed lot too. No too alike. They have flocked in from all directions and now they are lumped together here. They are all good fellows, all intelligent, and none of them dull. Our mess-room is the main “salle” of a café. It is dirty and dingy and crowded and unkept but no one pays any attention for one soon forgets the ways of civilisation when one is away from it. We have an old phonograph which some kind friend donated and that furnishes typical “canned music”. There is a worn-out piano, but no one has the heart to play it.
We sleep in a vacant house without fire in blankets laid over a straw mattress. It is sometimes difficult to keep one’s feet and shoulders covered at the same time, but outside of that one sleeps fairly well. A bath is unknown luxury – even a wash in the morning is not general.
I shall try to tell you more when we get to the front if I am not too busy. I hope you can raise the $25 for me as I shall rather have to rely on you. Send it as a draft in “dollars” – not francs, for the dollar is now the world’s standard in money. Address me at
American Ambulance
Boul. ď Inkermann
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Unpublished Letter 2
Feb 11, 1916
Dear Christine,
I was so happy to get your card announcing the new baby boy [Frederick Hegge] with the short note you had written on the back of it. I wanted to answer it right then and there but couldn’t because we were just getting ready for a move and everyone was doing double time. Now it is about three weeks since then and your card is still unanswered. Not that I am indifferent, but simply because letter-writing suggests a few comforts about one, whereas we have beastly few, if any here. And it has so happened that although we are supposed to work only about five days out of eight, I have been on duty every day save one, since we started work here. Some of the men are sick and some of the cars are up for repairs so that there is no escape.
To-day I am on day and night service with two other boys in a small town about four kilometers behind the lines. We have to wait here until a call comes from one of the posts closer up and then we go up to get the wounded. We have had only one call each to-day as it is comparatively quiet. So while sitting here in what was formerly a private garage with my overcoat on and my feet up against our improvised stove I am scribbling these few lines. We are sticking fairly close to-day too for the “boches” started dropping a few into town a few minutes ago. There is a whir-r-iz-z-boom and you know that the shell is a fair distance away. Then whir-r-r-ee-crack! and you begin to think it’s time to run for the cellar. Instead, however, you take a look outside to see if the shell was anywhere near you and whether there is any chance of picking up the “fusée” or cap of the shell.
To-day is tame, however, as it is wet and rainy. Yesterday they dropped them in regularly all day long. They put in perhaps two hundred of all calibre, but aside from smashing a few vacant houses and tearing a few holes in the streets there was not damage to speak of. Only two men were wounded and that was because they were foolish enough to stay outside when things got hot.
Ordinarily there isn’t much shelling here, but every once in a while the Germans open up for a day or two as there is a bridge across the river just as one comes into town and they keep trying to smash it. We had to cross it twice yesterday while it was under fire and believe me we don’t linger to watch the scenery.