During June 1913, the Federal army was sent to Texas, following several border raids by Mexican bandits. In Lexington, Company I of the Kentucky National Guard was established in the event of a war with Mexico. The company established a temporary training camp at the University of Kentucky campus. The university agreed to allow the guardsmen the use of Buell Armory and Stoll Field. Henry S. Breckinridge, Assistant Secretary of War, was an honorary member of the company. The state quartermaster supplied tents and other camp equipment. In July, the company was sent to Owensboro to complete training with the other Kentucky guard units.[i]
In April 1914, the Lexington Commercial Club began working with the State National Guard to plan a mobilization center in Lexington for the state troops. The Commercial Club indicated “it is not expected that if an actual state of war should develop requiring the invasion of Mexico, that the conflict would be a short one, hence it is regarded as necessary that a mobilizing camp should not only be convenient to railroads, but should also be located where green troops can be trained and held if necessary for long periods of time, while being prepared for the heavy service of the tropics.”[ii]
In April 1914, Adjutant General J. Tandy Ellis, of the Kentucky National Guard, approved a tract of Elmendorf Farm for the mobilization camp. The site was known as the McClintock tract, located near the Country Club, approximately 3 miles from Lexington. The property was on both the interurban line and the L&N Railroad.[iii]
With the outbreak of the First World War, the Lexington Board of Commerce continued efforts soliciting the army for a mustering and training camp for Fayette County. In December 1915, the city’s Board of Commissioners passed anti-vice ordnances against prostitution in Lexington. In addition, the city began reducing the number of saloon licenses, from 160 to 75. Both ordnances were passed to address the army’s concern over the effects of prostitution and liquor on the soldiers. The board also recruited the Rotary Club and both newspapers (the Lexington Herald and Lexington Leader) to promote that the soldiers would receive a “square deal.” The city also promoted the “pure food” available for the camp.[iv]
In June 1916, the Kentucky Brigade was mobilized for the Mexican Punitive Expedition. From Lexington, the brigade included Company I of the 1st Kentucky, Company C of the 2nd Kentucky Regiment and Company A of the Signal Corps. During August 1916, the brigade was shipped to Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas. The unit was attached to the 10th Provision Division and patrolled the Rio Grande River. In February 1917, the brigade returned to Kentucky.
In 1917, the Army’s Central Bureau, in Chicago, approved a camp for Lexington for the Kentucky National Guard. The army selected the Lansing Farm, 3 miles south of Lexington on the Versailles Road. The 212½-acre track provided enough space for housing the soldiers, and rifle and machine gun ranges. The farm was located on the west side of Versailles Road[1], just west of Hamilton Park.[v]
The Lexington Development Company purchased the old Lansing Farm during April 1917. The company was established by several prominent businessmen to provide the army a free site for the training of troops. The property was purchased for $69,062.50, or $325 per acre. The directors of the company were Thomas A. Combs (President), George K. Graves (Vice President), John G. Stoll (Treasurer), Denny B. Goode (Secretary), Charles H. Berryman, Desha Breckinridge, S. H. Dailey, Victor K. Dodge and Leonard B. Shouse. The investors subscripted 25 percent of the cost and borrowed the remaining portion to purchase the farm. In addition, the company leased portions of the Simon Weils[2] farm for Camp Stanley. The lease cost was $6,000.[vi]
On May 1, 1917, the army made a typographical survey of the campsite and sent the blueprints to Chicago for review. Plans called for the construction of 300 box barracks, at the cost of $140,000. A box barrack was a basic wooden framed box, covered with tarpaper. These barracks replaced canvas tents, which rotted after several months in use. However, the camp was supplied tents due to time required to build the barracks.[vii]
Before the first soldiers arrived, the camp was laid out with a transit, running parallel to Versailles Road. Each regiment was divided by company along the main thoroughfare, roughly a half mile in length. From the main thoroughfare, streets were laid out perpendicular for each company. The enlisted men’s tents were clustered along these streets. Across the main thoroughfare, the company’s officer tents were set up. Behind the officer’s tents, the company’s kitchen and mess tents were erected (along the Versailles Road). The food allocation was forty cents per day for each soldier, or $1,600 per day for the brigade.[viii]
The brigade’s headquarters was established in old Lansing residence. Offices and sleeping quarters were set up for the General, Adjutant, Judge Advocate and Quartermaster. In front of each regimental headquarters was a billboard, where the daily orders were posted. [ix]
The camp’s streets were paved in cinders. The camp was supplied from the city’s water supply, with water mains setup for each company. The camp was also equipped with electric lighting, with lampposts erected along the main thoroughfare, on each company street. The camp was served by the interurban line, which operated half hour service. The interurban company built a siding into the camp.[x]
The YMCA erected a large tent, where daily plays and speakers entertained the soldiers. On Sunday, religious services were conducted in the tent. The Lexington Public Library established a branch in the tent with donated phonographic records, books and magazines. To keep the soldiers entertained, the regiments also set up baseball teams for each company. In addition, boxing and wrestling matches where held periodically.[xi]
Each regiment conducted twice-weekly dress parades and formations. Each regiment also operated a canteen, which was part military store and soda fountain. The camp had a wooden stockade, 8 feet high, to confine soldiers with discipline problems.[xii]
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On June 18, 1917, General Roger D. Williams, Adjutant General for Kentucky, formally established Camp Stanley as the Kentucky National Guard’s brigade headquarters and issued orders for the concentration of the 2nd and 3rd Kentucky National Guard Regiments at Lexington. The 2nd and 3rd Regiments were headquartered in Lexington and Winchester, respectively. At the time, guard units were scattered around the state protecting railroad bridges and tunnels from sabotage. See Appendix B – Special Order No. 36.[xiii]
One of the first steps taken by General Williams was to declare the “red light district” off-limits[3] for soldiers. The city was patrolled by provost guards from the camp and city policemen. The police arrested anyone who sold hard liquor to soldiers and any intoxicated soldiers were given stiff sentences in the guardhouse. Any unattended woman around the camp was arrested for vagrancy and given a 30-day sentence in the city workhouse.[xiv]
On July 7, 1917, General Williams order the 2nd Kentucky National Guard Regiment from Winchester to Lexington. The next day, approximately 600 soldiers arrived in Lexington on two special trains, while the horses and wagons traveled overland. Each train included six passenger cars, three boxcars and one flatcar. The camp now held about 2,500 soldiers.[xv]
Both regiments had authorized strengths of 2,000 soldiers each, with recruits flowing in at the rate of 25 per day.
On July 23, 1917, the first payday was conducted at Camp Stanley, with over $100,000 paid out for June. Each company was called to the YMCA tent, based upon its captain’s seniority, and the roll was called. Privates were paid $30 per month.[xvi]
On August 19, 1917, a brigade parade and review was held for the public, before the regiments were transferred south. An estimated 20,000 visitors attended the ceremony. The interurban company ran a number of city streetcars to the camp’s siding. In addition, an estimated 4,000 motor cars were parked along Versailles Road. The army cut a new entrance off Versailles Road to the parade ground. A reviewing stand was erected in the center of the parade ground. The guest of honor was Governor Stanley, assisted by a guard of honor from Company B, Signal Corps (raised in Lexington). Each regiment marched past the reviewing stand, with the regimental band playing, followed by supernumerary companies, machine guns squads in motor trucks and supply train in wagons.[xvii]
On August 29, 1917, Captain Neinmeyer, of the Quartermaster Corps, paid out another $100,000 for the July pay of the soldiers.[xviii] In early October, all three regiments were transferred to Camp Shelby, at Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
New recruits arriving at Union Station, 1918 <UK>
In October 1917, the War Department notified city officials that the Camp Stanley site “would be of no further use to the government.” The next week, Simon Weil purchased the camp for $63,750, or $300 per acre. The city and county agreed to cover any loss up to $10,000. After expenses and $10,000, the Lexington Development Company lost an estimated $8,700 on attracting the camp.[xix]
Troops Leaving Union Station <UK>
[1] Oxford Circle area, across from the Cardinal Hill Hospital.
[2] The Simon Weil’s farm was the site of Camp Miles, during the Spanish American War. The farm was adjacent to Camp Stanley, running between Versailles and Old Frankfort Road.
[3] One of the houses closed was Belle Breazing. Belle’s place was one of the most famous for its influential patrons and known as “being the most orderly of disorderly houses.”
[i] Lexington Leader, June 6, 1913, page 16, column 1.
[ii] Lexington Leader, April 23, 1914, page 1, column 6.
[iii] Lexington Leader, April 23, 1914, page 8, column 3.
[iv] Bolin, James D., Bossism and Reform in a Southern City: Lexington, Kentucky, 1880-1940, University Press of Kentucky, 2000, page 68.
[v] Bolin, James D., Bossism and Reform in a Southern City: Lexington, Kentucky, 1880-1940, University Press of Kentucky, 2000, page 68.
[vi] Lexington Herald, October 10, 1917, page 1, column 7.
[vii] Lexington Herald, May 1, 1917, page 1, column 1.
[viii] Lexington Herald, August 26, 1917, Magazine Section, pages 1-2.
[ix] Lexington Herald, August 26, 1917, Magazine Section, pages 1-2.
[x] Lexington Herald, August 9, 1917, page 8, column 7 and August 26, 1917, Magazine Section, pages 1-2.
[xi] Lexington Herald, July 31, 1917, page 8, column 1 and August 26, 1917, Magazine Section, pages 1-2.
[xii] Lexington Herald, July 13, 1917, page 14, column 6 and August 26, 1917, Magazine Section, pages 1-2.
[xiii] Lexington Herald, June 18, 1917, page 6, columns 3.
[xiv] Bolin, James D., Bossism and Reform in a Southern City: Lexington, Kentucky, 1880-1940, University Press of Kentucky, 2000, page 68 and Lexington Herald, July 8, 1917, page 1, column 5 and July 13, 1917, page 14, column 6.
[xv] Lexington Herald, July 8, 1917, page 1, column 7.
[xvi] Lexington Herald, July 23, 1917, page 1, column 6.
[xvii] Lexington Herald, August 19, 1917, page 1, column 2.
[xviii] Lexington Herald, August 29, 1917, page 3, column 4.
[xix] Lexington Herald, October 10, 1917, page 1, column 7.
