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Volume 072-1 - January 2018 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin January 2018
Lest We Forget: Nevada County
During World War I
by Linda Jack
Te MORNING OF MONDAY, JUNE 30, 1914, DAWNED
cloudless and warm, portending yet another day of
high temperatures in a heat wave that had settled over
Nevada County. Readers of the Morning Union opened
their papers to find a front-page story about an assassination in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. On June 28th
Gavrilo Princip, a nineteen year-old Serbian nationalist,
had shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the presumptive heir to the crown of the Austrian-Hungarian
Empire. His wife, the Duchess Sophie, who had ridden
beside her husband in their open car, was also killed.’
Stories about the assassination remained on the front
page for several days before other news crowded out
the events in Europe. The most important international
news for Californians was the ongoing political crises in
Mexico. But summer was also a time for fun and celebration: the paper was filled with potential diversions such
as the gala two-day Independence Day celebration, which
was billed as the “greatest in history.”? Dances and other
events competed with the Grass Valley Auditorium’s latest photodramas, which included the six-part “Last Days
of Pompeii.”
But as the weeks passed, the celebrations of summer
could not dispel local residents’ rising concern about the
situation in Europe. What had initially been perceived
to be an isolated act by a maddened young revolutionary
became a political maelstrom as Austria-Hungary demanded retribution from Serbia. When Serbia failed to
meet those demands the governments of other European
countries assumed alarmingly militaristic postures, a
state of affairs that came to be called the July Crisis.
The crises came to head on July 28th when AustriaHungary declared war on Serbia. This declaration activated a set of treaties and alliances, rekindled a number
of long-simmering national grudges, and emboldened
Germany to act upon her pent-up ambition to retake territory held by France.
The following Sunday, August 2nd, Dr. Bert Foster
of Grass Valley’s Emanuel Episcopal Church delivered a
sermon in which he acknowledged, but tried to temper,
his parishioners’ worst fears. “If,” he suggested, “all of
the great nations of the world are indeed drawn into war
it will be the last the world will ever see.”? Citing the
Book of Isaiah, he preached: “And he shall judge among
the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall
Gavrilo Princip killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand of
Austria in Sarajevo. (Drawing by Achille Beltrame)
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
At the Morning Union’s office on Mill Street in Grass
Valley scores of residents gathered daily to get the latest news. Others telephoned the office to get updates.
On August 6th the newspaper began publishing a boxed
summary of the war news on the front page. The editor
assured his readers that the paper’s arrangement with the
Associated Press guaranteed that all important events
would be telegraphed from San Francisco upon receipt,
without regard to the time of day. Three weeks later the
paper published a Dictionary of Military Terms to aid
readers in understanding the battle information that had
become a regular feature of the daily news.°
By the end of August Dr. Foster’s “if” had become
a reality. Most of the great nations of the world were at
war. Austria-Hungary, Germany, and by secret treaty,
the Ottoman Empire formed the Central Powers. France,
Great Britain, Belgium, Serbia, Russia and Japan formed
the Allied Powers.
It didn’t take long for the hostilities to reach the
shores of California. At the outbreak of the war naval vessels of the European powers had been scattered
across the globe. The German cruiser, the Leipzig, which
had in early August replenished her coal supply in San