Greenwich's Involvement In World War One

In 1917 the United States entered World War One, and towns like Greenwich were thrust into the war effort. Anti-war and pro-war activists alike populated Greenwich but when the Espionage Acts were passed, people were forced to be fully pro-war. Despite being a small town of twenty-one thousand people, one thousand and thirteen Greenwich men and women served in the military, in addition to the people serving in the home guard and in several other organizations. Both overseas, through enlistment and the formation of new branches of the military, and at home by making rations, farming, and making bandages as well as other essentials. The impact of Greenwich’s involvement in World War One can be seen within the current United States military

Prominent women’s suffrage advocates like Caroline Ruutz-Rees, who led the Connecticut Division of the Woman’s Committee of the Council of National Defense and member of the Connecticut Women’s Suffrage Association, publicly supported the Women’s Land Army. The purpose of the Women’s Land Army’s was to get women to work on farms and in the fields to replace the men that had gone off to war. Women would be sent to a training camp in Bedford, New York and organized into groups to be sent to large farms. Caroline Ruutz-Rees was also the headmistress of Choate Rosemary Hall and to further compensate for the lack of agricultural workers, she made female Choate students plant and cultivate potatoes. In addition to farming, Greenwich women became auto mechanics, military drivers, and waiters. Furthermore, seven women from Greenwich served overseas as nurses in the United States Army. Greenwich resident Grace Gallatiun Seton, a leader in the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association in 1910, organized Le Bien-Etre du Blesse, Welfare of the Injured, Women’s Motor Unit in France. The group, according to Seton in an issue of Journal of National Institute of Social Science drove “ thousands of miles: carried tons of food and comforts to the wounded—during the first months to the Emergency and Field, and, later, to the Base Hospitals; kept open the doors of several Hospitals by its service” and saved many of the wounded’s lives. As a result of her efforts, Seton was given medals from both France and the United States. Louisiana Havmeyer, co-founder of the National Women’s Party, not only endorsed the WLA but also founded the Greenwich Canning Kitchen. The Canning Kitchen encouraged residents to bring produce from victory gardens and small farms to be preserved and consumed by soldiers and or civilians. An employee at the kitchen, Mary Curico, recalled,