On July 20, 1917 the first draft numbers were drawn at the Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. Here in Iowa, Story and Hamilton counties were 2 out of 3 counties in the entire state that had already sent more than their full quota of men. None of the registered men in the Story-Hamilton county area had to enter the army at this time. They would be called later as needed. Below is an article from the July 26, 1917 edition of the Herald that describes how the draft lottery went in this area.

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.

On April 30, 1917 about a dozen men from Story City left to join the military. Photos from the large gathering to bid good-bye to the men are above. Below is an article from the May 3, 1917 edition of the Story City Herald describing the gathering.