Letters from World War I depict the life of YMCA canteen volunteer

Eden Smith Harrison already lived a fulfilling life by the time she left as a YMCA canteen volunteer in World War I at the age of 43. She was one of Illinois’ first female lawyers and a member of the Smith, Smith and Smith Law Firm.

On Tuesday evening, her great-step-granddaughter, Barb Boma, a Morris resident and school teacher, shared letters Smith Harrison sent home from her time spent in both London and France.

“I must tell you, I had no idea I could do something like this,” Boma said. “When I first became aware of Edie as a relative, she was living with my grandmother in their house on Chapin Street.”

Smith Harrison was living with Boma’s grandmother, Ruth Huseby. Boma was never aware that her grandmother had typed out Smith Harrison’s diary.

“She never said one word about her service overseas,” Boma said. “I knew nothing about it until after she passed, and I Found out she’d written a diary. I then found out later that Gram (Huseby) had typed out all the notes.”

There are 65 pages worth of letters written, and Boma shared a few selections Tuesday night. The opening page reads in a lawyerly manner: “For the benefit of those who might expect to find in the following pages an abbreviated history of the World War, or a chronicle of the big events that happened out on the front, this information is here to upend it. Not a single engagement, conflict, combat or encounter of any kind is recorded in these letters. Only six of them were written before the armistice was signed. They contain only a little bit of human nature, vary human nature, and were written without the thought of publication by one who signed up for the frontline service but who, like her beloved doughboys, had to go where she was sent.”

Boma said she could hear Smith Harrison’s voice in her head while reading it. Smith Harrison said she found in the “humdrum routine of everyday army life an infinite variety of joy and sorrow, comedy and tragedy, humor and pathos as she looked out across her canteen counter into the faces of her soldier boys in that never-ending chocolate line.”

The first letter Smith Harrison wrote spoke of her journey by boat to London, an unpleasant experience.

“I can tell you right now that if you ever want to see your living sister again, you can come on over,” Boma read. “I have decided that if I ever put my foot on the terraform again anywhere, even in no man’s land, I’ll keep it there.”

Things did grow more pleasant for Smith Harrison from there: She adapted well to army life, although she initially didn’t like the fact that she had to wear the same clothes for multiple days.

“I have seen so many wonderful things and strange and new sensations so crowded in upon me that I am bewildered,” Boma read. “But one pack stands out in a golden unmistakable relief, and that is I am glad I came.”

Smith Harrison said she initially set out that night to find some “Illinois boys,” some men from her area. Instead, she found a man from Boston, a man from Texas, and people from all over, even Australia.

The letters cover much of Smith Harrison’s overseas activities, and those interested in reading more should visit the Grundy County Historical Museum at 510 W Illinois Ave., Morris, where copies of the letters are available to read.