Lost in the celebration of Mississippi”s Bicentennial is another time for celebration. The year 2017 marks the centennial of the American Red Cross in Lowndes, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Clay and Monroe counties. It was World War I that sparked the local interest in the Red Cross and the need to assist local servicemen and their families. But more than just that, it helped provide needed personal articles for all allied soldiers, and in 1918 opened an office at Payne Field, an Army Air Service pilot training base at West Point.
The story of the local Red Cross goes back to the spring of 1917. In April of 1917, Miss Emma Pohl at the II&C, now the W, promoted Red Cross nursing classes, and soon over 400 students had signed up. On May 10, Margaret Wilson, the daughter of President Wilson, came to the college for a Red Cross fundraiser. Local businesses also joined in fundraising efforts.
In Columbus, the Rev. Samuel Slack, rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and Jesse Woodward realized the need to establish a Lowndes County Red Cross chapter. They made an application to the American Red Cross to establish a chapter. The answer they received was not only an authorization to organize a county chapter but to include four adjoining counties.
Slack and Woodward enlisted the aid of John Frierson, and plans were made to travel the surrounding counties promoting the establishment of Red Cross chapters in each. With Woodward providing his automobile, they headed first to Brooksville. There, they spoke first at the Methodist Church and then to a gathering under an oak tree near the hotel. Among the suggested projects was the knitting of articles of clothing for soldiers.
Frierson wrote that, as he was about to speak to a group of men who had been rounded up by the ladies who had heard the first message, “…Will Cunningham, said ‘Now you tell us how to knit socks for the soldiers.’ He was whittling on a stick, and like the others, had followed because the women had corralled him.” That day the people of Brooksville pledged $1,100 to the Red Cross.
There followed over the next few days trips and speeches in Oktibbeha and Clay counties before a final program in Monroe County before a large crowd in an Amory cotton warehouse. On June 4, a meeting was held at the Columbus City Hall to discuss forming a regional Red Cross chapter. II&C president H.L. Whitfield presided over the meeting. The chapter was organized with the Rev. Slack as president. The chapter began operations on June 4, 1917, though its charter was not issued until July 13. Soon, there were independent chapters in each of the counties.
By November 1, 1918 the Lowndes County Red Cross had a headquarters in Columbus with branches in Crawford, Mt. Vernon, Prairie, Woodlawn, Artesia, Mayhew, Rural Hill and Caledonia. There were five white auxiliaries and 13 black auxiliaries, and chapter membership totaled 2,100 white and 935 black members. Between June 4, 1917 and November 1, 1918, the Lowndes County chapter made or purchased and shipped boxed items including 1,009 pajamas, 2,080 bed shirts, 408 knitted sweaters, 697 knitted socks, 652 refugee garments, 27,059 surgical dressings and two and a half tons of second-hand clothing for Belgian refugees.
After 100 years, the Red Cross is still here, still active and still doing a good job of helping people.
Rufus Ward is a local historian. Email your questions about local history to him at [email protected].
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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