Turning Sons into Sammies: Just Call It “Camp Quick”

Imagine the Fort Worth of a century ago. Imagine what the Star-Telegram at the time described as “a wind-swept, untrampled tract of a prairie” on the western edge of town (today’s Casa Manana would be at that edge). Now imagine that in just three months that wind-swept, untrampled tract of prairie would become decidedly trampled, would become transformed, would become a city of thirty thousand people—the population of Cleburne or Waxahachie or Farmers Branch.

But this instant city would be different. It would have a rifle range, an artillery range, battlefield trenches. And its population of thirty thousand would be mostly male. This was the Army’s Camp Bowie in the summer of 1917, and in terms of America’s response to our declaration of war against Germany in World War I, Camp Bowie was Camp Quick.

Think of it: The United States declared war on April 6. In late May Fort Worth city officials proposed that the Army build one of its planned mobilization camps just west of town.

On June 11 the War Department announced that Fort Worth had indeed been selected for a National Guard mobilization camp.

Camp Bowie would be “operated like a separate city, with the best of water, gas, electric, telephone and street car service.” Northern Texas Traction Company said the route of its Arlington Heights line would be changed to accommodate the camp. Part of the line would also be double-tracked.

Construction of Camp Bowie began on July 18, 1917 as the Army’s 36th Infantry Division was organized from Texas and Oklahoma National Guard troops. Camp commander was Edwin St. John Greble (he not only graduated from West Point but also was born at West Point). (Photo from How It Happened and Other Poems.)

bowie 35000 7-23-17On July 23 the Star-Telegram announced that as many as thirty-five thousand soldiers might train at the new camp.

Almost 3,500 construction workers swarmed over the site of the camp, working in Texas summer heat. By August 21 they had used millions of board-feet of lumber to build nine hundred structures, including mess halls, warehouses, and supply depots.

The city, local utilities, and the Army acted with speed that today seems amazing. On August 9 the Star-Telegram announced arrival of the first troops at the camp. Even in the heat of August the Army had to anticipate winter at the camp: Sixty thousand cords of wood had been ordered. By August 9 the camp was declared 65 percent finished—just twenty-four days after construction began. On August 24 Camp Bowie was opened officially.

 

Things continued to happen fast at Camp Quick. By October the camp had thirty thousand troops. (Fort Worth’s civilian population at the time was about ninety-five thousand.) (Photo from The Capsule, a publication of the camp hospital.)

The camp was bisected by Arlington Heights Boulevard (today’s Camp Bowie Boulevard) and a streetcar line and was bounded roughly on the north by White Settlement Road, on the south by Vickery Boulevard, on the east by University Drive, and on the west by Lake Como. The divisional headquarters was just north of the intersection of Camp Bowie Boulevard and Crestline Road. The base hospital was just south of the intersection of Camp Bowie Boulevard and Byers Avenue. And if in 1918 you stood where Arlington Heights High School is today, you’d be learning the basics of bayonets with the men of the 71st Infantry Brigade. (Photo from the National Archives.)

FW Camp Bowie-Map~CH RogersMap of Camp Bowie from Pete Charlton’s “1000+ Lost Antique Maps of Texas & the Southwest on DVD-ROM.”

Camp Bowie paula

Men of Battery D, 133rd Field Artillery, and their mascot behind a row of furled tents. (Photo from Paula Tanner Thomas.)

camp bowie sammiesEven as the camp began turning sons into Sammies (as in “Uncle Sam”), it continued to grow. Within weeks the camp would spread over 2,200 acres, contain nearly 3,000 buildings, twenty miles of “good graveled streets,” a hospital, a theater, an indoor pool, several YMCA facilities, a railroad spur, and a jazz band. The Sammies slept in tents, not barracks. The Star-Telegram said the camp had ten thousand horses and mules.

A city needs a newspaper, and Camp Bowie had three. Much of the front page of The Reconnaissance in December 1917 was devoted to the quarantine during the influenza pandemic.

Camp Bowie’s Texahoma Bugler in November 1917 reported that the population of the camp was twenty-seven thousand.

Pass in Review was written for both Camp Bowie and Camp Taliaferro.

camp bowie 9-27-17On September 27, 1917 the Star-Telegram reported the first birth at Camp Bowie: a boy named “Sammie Bowie.”

bowie ads 7-22-17Local businesses welcomed the influx of Sammies. More on Fort Worth’s response to the war here. Clip is from the July 22 Star-Telegram.

NTT ~ Camp Bowie ~ 19171211

“Soldier boys” were invited to ride the interurban lines to Dallas and to Cleburne and to enjoy Lake Erie trolley park. (Photo from Pete Charlton’s “1000+ Lost Antique Maps of Texas & the Southwest on DVD-ROM.”)

Three months after the camp had opened, the war dominated the news.

Truth is the first casualty of war. Among the front page stories on December 1 was a Star-Telegram report detailing the “they say” false rumors that circulated about the camp: “They say” soldiers were deserting, spies and even civilians were being executed, spies were poisoning food and water supplies and infecting soldiers with meningitis germs. One victim of such rumors was camp nurse Ella Behrens. (Ananias was a member of the early church in Jerusalem who was guilty of deceit.)

camp bowie money 12-16-17 stFor Fort Worth the silver lining in the dark cloud of war was the boost to the local economy provided by Camp Bowie. On December 16, 1917 a Star-Telegram writer pointed out the effect of Camp Bowie and Camp Taliaferro (three local airfields training fliers) on the local economy. (Multiply the dollar amounts by 18 for today’s equivalent.)

Camp Bowie Double Panorama ~ 1918Camp Bowie on that “wind-swept, untrampled tract of a prairie” in 1918. (Image from Pete Charlton’s “1000+ Lost Antique Maps of Texas & the Southwest on DVD-ROM.”)

camp bowie 1918 36th Div ReviewIn April 1918 the 36th Division paraded through downtown. (Image from Pete Charlton’s “1000+ Lost Antique Maps of Texas & the Southwest on DVD-ROM.”)

Also in April Fort Worth became saloonless for the first time since the Civil War as the sale of alcohol was forbidden within ten miles of Camp Bowie and Camp Taliaferro.

By July 1918 the 36th Division was fighting in France.

Shortly after the armistice on November 11, 1918, Camp Bowie’s raison d’etre executed an about-face: The mobilization center became a demobilization center, turning Sammies back into sons.

1919 Camp Bowie ~ National ArchivesCamp Bowie in March 1919. (Map from Pete Charlton’s “1000+ Lost Antique Maps of Texas & the Southwest on DVD-ROM.”)

demobilize 5-31-19Troops began arriving at the camp for demobilization in June. Clip is from the May 31, 1919 Star-Telegram.

camp dismantledIn late 1919 the Star-Telegram reported that Camp Bowie “is rapidly being torn down” and that “a city of modern homes” was rising in its place.

camp-bowie-sale-1920In January 1920 General Engineering Company was selling the buildings near the camp hospital. Note the Lamar phone exchange.

Most of the buildings of Camp Bowie were torn down or moved, their role in history forgotten. But now and then, . . . (Thanks to Sharon for the tip.)

camp gone 4-6-20The troops demobilized, the buildings dismantled, on April 6, 1920, three years after the declaration of war, the Star-Telegram announced that Camp Quick, built in a hurry on “a wind-swept, untrampled tract of a prairie,” was Camp Closed.

Posts About Aviation and War in Fort Worth History

This entry was posted in Life in the Past Lane, West Side. Bookmark the permalink.

12 Responses to Turning Sons into Sammies: Just Call It “Camp Quick”

  1. sharon says:

    Just saw that this house for sale. The listing says it was once part of the Camp Bowie Base Hospital.
    https://www.redfin.com/TX/Fort-Worth/4730-Pershing-Ave-76107/home/31752773

    • hometown says:

      Thanks, Sharon. I have updated my post. Even with some remodeling (the front porch added, maybe a room added or enlarged on the end), the house has a utilitarian look that does not fit the neighborhood.

  2. Ann says:

    I enjoyed reading this as all your articles. My uncle Roy Yager was about 14 and a carpenter’s helper at Camp Bowie in 1917. He had clippings and photos he shared with the family when I was 10 or 11.

    • hometown says:

      Thanks, Ann. Wish we could see time-lapse film of your uncle and all the others building that camp.

  3. The Camp Bowie map is quite amazing to look at and then try to picture what we know today. When Camp Bowie shut down and the land reverted back to the public, my grandfather, Burford King Isaacs, who was a lawyer in Fort Worth, purchased a house lot about four or five lots up from what is now Camp Bowie Blvd. and built one of the first houses on what is now called Dorothy Lane. The address was 1212. My mother was born in that house in 1922. They would move to 1312 Mistletoe Drive in 1933, and 1212 Dorothy Lane became a rent house until 1945 when my parents purchased the house from my grandparents after my father discharged from the Army Air Corps. I have a few inherited photos of one of my relatives when he was stationed at Camp Bowie during WW1.

    • Sarah Osuorji says:

      Hey Wiley! I randomly came upon your comment here. I currently own 1212 Dorothy. Was really cool to hear the background on the house. Hope your family is well!

  4. Molly Daniel says:

    I’m looking for information to further identify two nurses at Camp Bowie. They appear in a group photo with my great aunt, and I know only their last names. The photo was described as a the “Iowa nurses” at Camp Bowie, but I have learned that some of the nurses were not actually from Iowa but might have gotten their nurse’s training at an Iowa hospital. The two for whom I do not have information have the last names Brode (could also be Brodie) and Bunch. Their names did not appear in the Camp Bowie history (“Capsule”) but I saw an image in your blog regarding Miss Behrens which appears to include the name Lillian Brode.” It was a cropped version of a newspaper clipping. Could you look at that clipping to see if the name Bunch appears on it and let me know?

    • hometown says:

      Molly, I have sent you the page that includes that list and also the negative results of my search of the newspaper archives.

  5. Connie White says:

    How do I follow this blog on Pinterest and FB and email? I tried to follow it on Pinterest, but there is no way to follow like a normal Pinterest Group.

    • hometown says:

      Connie, there is an RSS feed link in the column on the right. RSS should provide alerts of updates. I don’t post to Pinterest or Facebook.

  6. Henry Ford said war is bad for business. I say bunk to that. War has always been good for Fort Worth. I worked at Air Force Plant 4 a long time, made much money. One day a tourist came about at the plant on a tour. He asked if I felt bad that my F-16s were going to kill lots of people. I said hey, I don’t load them with ammo; these are intended for ag use; if somebody puts bombs on them, that’s not my problem.

  7. Mellinda Timblin says:

    Years ago, I rented a house on Byers. It was a very old house, owned by aver old man. He and the house were in remarkable shape and both absolutely charming.
    He had one firm and fast rule for every tenant for the 60 some odd years he had rented out that house. The old fellow walked me to the backyard and he then pointed to a strip of black paving almost obscured by the grass. He seemed to think I should know it’s pedigree. It was the last remnant of paving from ” The Camp”. “Dig it up or disturb it in any way and you’ll not get your deposit back from me.”

Leave a Reply to Molly Daniel Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *