(Photo provided) The headline of one of many articles about the Marietta College Ambulance Unit published in the Times in 1917.

Before the United States decided to go “over there” and help our European allies win World War I, a group of Marietta College students volunteered to go to France and serve in an Ambulance Corps to evacuate injured soldiers from the front lines to hospitals.

Beman G. Dawes, a Marietta college graduate and the father of Gates Dawes, a student at the college in 1917, had a plan to help out. At an alumni meeting in New York in early April he floated the idea of forming an ambulance corps and sending it to the front in France. $25,000 would be needed to make the plan work, an amount quickly raised by Gates from other alumni.

The money would cover the purchase of 10 Ford ambulances and cover the expenses of the men that would make up the group. Of the 23 that would end up serving, 14 were from Marietta College.

By the middle of May, the Marietta College Ambulance Unit was ready to depart Marietta. At a ceremony at First Congregational Church on Front Street the group was presented with an American flag to take with them to France. The event on May 20th honored the students who would soon leave for New York as well as the men who had recently signed up to serve in the Ohio National Guard.

Two days later their train left Union Station on Second Street. All the men wore white sweaters with red crosses on them that, along with scarfs, had been hand knitted by the young women of Marietta. They arrived in New York the following day and were treated to dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel with the Ohio Society of New York. The Marietta College alumni group hosted them the next night.

On May 26 they set sail for France aboard the French liner Rochambeau. Many of the 400 people on board were also Americans heading to France to help provide medical help.

During the 10 day voyage the ship came under attack from a German submarine which fired a torpedo that failed to explode when it hit the ship.

After arriving in Bordeau, France, they made their way to Paris where they were requested to help shuttle ammunition to the front. They were given a choice of driving the ambulances as planned, but they chose to help deliver the ammunition because it was the task most needed at the time.

The men, it was reported in The Times on Dec. 10, 1917, were well treated by the French, getting a “hearty reception” wherever they went. In an interview with Walter Wyckoff, who had returned to Ohio, they even got to enjoy a baseball game on July 4.

By the time their six-month commitment ended, many of the men had decided to stay in Europe and enlist in other branches of both the American and French armies. Four of the men lost their lives for their country. In a ceremony in Muskingum Park in 1919, the French government recognized the men for their service during the Great War.

Beman Dawes, the alumni who organized the unit, received the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French government. Dawes had a long history of public service. He was a descendant of Revolutionary War hero William Dawes, and the son of Civil War Brigadier General Rufus Dawes. His brother Charles Dawes would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the Dawes Plan that provided a blueprint for a post war Europe, and he would become vice president in 1925. His other brothers, Rufus and Henry also had long periods of public service.

Today a bronze plate presented by the French ambassador is part of a monument near the Ohio River at Virginia Street and Gilman Avenue that honors the young students that went to serve in France more than a century ago.

Art Smith is online manager of The Times, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com.