DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. July 16, 1917. Abilene, Texas.
A company of men raised their right hands and were mustered into service for World War I. Company I, 7th Texas Infantry. Out in front stood Captain R.
M. Wagstaff, First Lieutenant A. J.
McDavid, Second Lieutenant E. B. Sayles, and First Sergeant Elmer C.
Stearns. And behind them, one hundred and thirty-nine enlisted men, drawn from the surrounding area, ready to answer the call. Now before they saw any faraway battlefield, these men trained right here, on familiar ground, at the West Texas Fair Grounds, the place that would one day be known as Rose Park.
They drilled and prepared through the heat of a Texas summer. Then September 1 came, and they transferred to Camp Bowie at Fort Worth, folding into something bigger: Headquarters Company, 142nd Infantry, 36th Division. The story keeps moving.
October 8, 1918. France. Company I stepped into action alongside the 4th French Army.
Twenty days they were in that fight, October 8 through October 28. Twenty days that carried the full weight of a world at war. And then, in June of 1919, the unit was mustered out of service.
One hundred and thirty-nine men from around Abilene had trained in a fairground, shipped off to France, and come back to a world that would never look quite the same. That marker stands in Taylor County, making sure the road doesn't forget them.
What the marker says
Mustered into service during World War I, July 16, 1917, at Abilene with officers, Captain R. M. Wagstaff; 1st Lt. A. J. McDavid; 2nd Lt. E. B. Sayles; and 1st Sgt. Elmer C. Stearns. Company had 139 enlisted men from the area who trained here at the West Texas Fair Grounds (now Rose Park) until September 1, then transferred to Camp Bowie at Fort Worth. It became part of HQ. CO., 142nd Infantry, 36th Division. The unit saw action in France October 8-28, 1918, with the 4th French army, and was mustered out of service in June, 1919. (1968)