A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
From an unidentified contemporary newspaper: Horses In France Are Beauties--But Leon Barnum Is Not Crazy About The Wagons. Couldn't Write Because He Had No Paper--Relief Came With Paper And Tobacco. Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Barnum, of Bridgeville, received a recent letter from their son Leon, who is a member of the 303d Co. A, Military Police, now in France. He tells many things about the country that are interesting:
Sunday, July 7, 1918.
My Dear Father, Mother & Brother:
It is now ten o'clock in the morning. I am sitting in front of my tent writing this. I can shut my eyes and see you all, as you are in bed, as it is five o'clock at home. You are not thinking of getting up yet. I would just like to be stealing in now and wake you all up. That would be some surprise for you all, but it will be some time before that surprise comes, I think, although some of the boys think it will be over before Christmas. The fellow I sleep with has a bet of $15 the war will be over before Christmas. Everything is going in our favor. Let's all hope it is over soon; the best is bad enough. Everybody would like to see it over with.
There are a great many things I would like to write about, such as the trip across the ocean and all that happened and all the sights I have seen since, but that is impossible, so you cannot expect it. I cannot even tell you about our duties here or any of the military movements; if I could I would have a very long and interesting letter.
The French are very funny people in my mind; so far behind modern times. They have everything different from that at home, such as the way they drive a horse by one line, some of them. All of their wagons are two-wheel affairs with wheels heavier than those on our heavy wagons, with a large cover over them. That is their nice wagons to go for a ride in. Then they have their heavy wagons, which have only two wheels, with a rigging on and balanced so they can get quite a load of hay or anything they want to draw. The wood they burn is the brush we throw away. They cut it and put it into bundles the size of a feed bag and tie it, then draw it to the house. It looks like a load of hay. One thing they have that surely is good is their horses--most all Belgian horses and they are beauties. I wish you had a pair I saw a few days ago.
When they drive two horses, they have them one ahead of the other. It looks real queer. The only place I have seen two horses driven as we drive at home, was on a mowing machine and the mowing machine was an Adriance machine right from America.
When I saw that machine I said to one of the boys, I wish I was home now riding one of those machines. He said yes, and I was helping you.
It is now 8:30 p. m. I have had my supper and feel real good. You are no doubt out on the porch reading with mother and I imagine Neal Dow is either down to the river swimming or up to the lake. I sure wish I was with him for a good swim. That is something I have not had here yet.
It has been a real hot day, but it is getting real cool now. The nights get quite cold.
I saw the regiment that Chester Adams is in the other day, but did not see him. If I see them again I will look more closely, although I don't know for sure that he is here.
It has been quite a while since I wrote; that was because we had no paper and could not get any, but a God-send came to us the other day that was a Y. M. C. A. man with paper, envelopes, American tobacco and cigarettes. You cannot imagine the difference in the tobacco--none of the boys like this foreign tobacco.
Now, if I don't write as often as you think I should, don't get worried and think I have been shot. I am coming back when this thing is over and tell you all about it.
Don't get mixed up on my address. Here it is: L. S. B., 303rd Company A, Military Police, American Expeditionary Forces, via New York.
Have got to say good-night for this time. Remember me to everybody and write often. Your loving son, Leon.
From the Middletown (NY) Daily Herald, Thursday, June 24, 1926: Leon Barnum, of Bridgeville, is working for S. D. Case who is overseer for a company which is building a big lake to flood hundreds of acres at Starlight.
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
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