Story City in WWI - 100 Years Ago Today - June 5, 1917

Lewis Brattebo

The first draft during WWI was held on June 5 of 1917. Men between the ages of 21-31 were registered. On the left below is a proclamation from the governor of Iowa that was printed in the May 31 edition of the Herald. Below on the right is an article from the June 7 edition of the Herald that describes the how the draft registration went in Story county. 2,758 men registered in Story County on this date 100 years ago. Of that number 90 were from Lafayette Township and 122 were from Story City.

One of the men from Story City who registered for the draft on June 5 was Lewis Brattebo. He was a Private First Class in Company A of the 30th Machine Gun Battalion which trained at Camp Funston in Kansas. The battalion was scheduled to deploy to Europe but was prevented due to the influenza outbreak during September and October of 1918.  It was reported that 61.3% of the battalion was sent to the hospital. The total number of deaths at Camp Funston due to pneumonia following influenza was 430. Below the two articles is a scan of the front and back of Lewis's draft card.

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