A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

Our Rich History: World War I comes to Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky


By Paul A. Tenkotte
Special to the NKyTribune

One hundred years ago, on Wednesday, May 30, 1917, Covington, Kentucky’s Memorial Day Parade wound its way from 5th and Madison Avenue in downtown to historic Linden Grove Cemetery. At the cemetery, dignitaries gave addresses, followed by a 21-gun salute to the fallen dead of America’s armed forces.

Headline of Cincinnati Post, April 6, 1917. Declaration of War against Germany (provided)

Only seven-and-a-half weeks earlier, on April 6, 1917, the United States declared war against Germany.

The declaration of war had been long in arriving, but still shook the nation. Clearly, no one expected that the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Serbian nationalist in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, would ultimately lead to the Great War, now known as World War I.

Even more amazing, few Americans would have ever predicted in 1914 that the United States, an isolationist nation, would join the war in order to “Save the World for Democracy.” In fact, President Woodrow Wilson campaigned for a second term as president in 1916, using as his slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War.”

On Thursday, October 26, 1916, less than two weeks before election day on November 7th, President Wilson visited Cincinnati. His motorcade through downtown Cincinnati drew thousands of well-wishers, including schoolchildren. The Cincinnati Post reported that the crowds “went wild” in enthusiasm for the President, shouting “You kept us out of war!” A “little woman” at Race Street, the Post continued, yelled “You’re for peace, and so are we!” (Cincinnati Post, October 26, 1916, p. 1)

Photo of President Wilson Second Inaugural, Washington, DC, March 5, 1917. Source: Library of Congress.

Wilson gave a far-ranging speech at Cincinnati’s Music Hall on Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. He outlined a mosaic of American history, a nation that was composed of a “melting pot” of immigrants seeking liberty, and of small businessmen pursuing prosperity.  The United States did not wish, the President claimed “to take anything away from any other nation in the world.” However, the past two years had already transformed the world and America’s place in it. “When the great war in Europe began we were a debtor nation,” Wilson proclaimed, “. . . and the war has transferred us into a creditor nation.” (Cincinnati Post, October 27, 1917, p. 8)

In a prophetic remark to the audience, Wilson outlined the future of the United States.  “I want you to understand, my fellow citizens,” Wilson continued, “in the years immediately in front of us, in the years immediately to come—I hope very soon indeed, for I mean after the war—we have a distinct part to play in the world which we never played before.” “We have got to put all that old provincialism which concentrated our attention upon ourselves behind us, and we have got to step out upon the great arena of the world itself.” This meant, the President suggested, that nations needed to “combine with one another so that no nation shall go to war on any pretext which it is not willing to submit to the opinion of mankind.” (Cincinnati Post, October 27, 1916, p. 8).

Top: Lucien Dauchet (Carl Wachs Jr.); bottom: Lieutenant Carl Wachs. Source: Chicago Daily Tribune, February 4, 1919, p. 11.

In January 1917, British interception of the Zimmermann telegraph from the German Foreign Office to the German ambassador to Mexico shocked the world. In it, Germany proposed an alliance between itself and Mexico should the U.S. declare war against Germany. If so, Germany promised to reward Mexico after the war with the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Coupled with Germany’s resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, America’s road to war seemed inevitable.

On April 6th, the U.S. Congress declared war against Germany. The Cincinnati Post, echoing the broad outlines of President Wilson’s vision of America and of the world, stated on its editorial page that same day: “If we stand upright like men and do the thing that is laid upon us, we shall open up a new era in the history of this old world, make it for the first time fit to live in, and shake from it the last old links that fasten it up to darkness and feudalism.” (Cincinnati Post, April 6, 1917, p., 4)

In May 1917, the U.S. Congress passed the Selective Service Act, enacting a temporary draft of able-bodied men. The first draft registration, for men aged 21 through 31, was held on June 5th. On that day, Carl B. Wachs (1894-1979), a single man and son of Covington merchant Selmar Wachs, registered for the draft.

Lieutenant Carl Wachs served in Europe in Company C of the 311th ammunition train, known as the “Blackhawks.” A young orphaned boy, named Lucien Dauchet, wandered into their midst at Camp Hunt near Bordeaux, France. Dauchet’s father, a Belgian, had died in combat, and his mother had been brutally executed by the Germans. The men of the 311th protected and fed Lucien, clothing him in the 311th’s military uniform.

Lieutenant Wachs felt compassion in his heart for poor Lucien. According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, little Lucien became “heartbroken” when Wachs’ company was scheduled to leave France. So, Wachs took the boy to the American consul in Bordeaux, France, and adopted him. (Chicago Daily Tribune, February 4, 1919, p. 11) After Wachs was discharged from service, he and Lucien returned to live at 721 Main Street in Covington.

When Carl Wachs returned home to Northern Kentucky, the spirit of service to others followed him. Eventually, he became Executive Secretary of the Covington Chamber of Commerce, and then Executive Secretary of the Kentucky League of Cities, from 1933 to 1968. Carl Wachs died in August 1979 in Lexington, Kentucky. His widow, Elizabeth Blewett Faull, died at age 104 in Lexington.

Lucien Dauchet became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He eventually moved to California, where he died in April 1989.

World War I, as President Wilson had predicted, transformed the world forever and made the U.S. a great power. It also changed the lives of millions of individuals worldwide, such as Lucien Dauchet and Lieutenant Carl Wachs. Memorial Day 2017, in this year marking the centennial of America’s entry into World War I, reminds us of the great sacrifices that predated us. It serves as an occasion to reflect upon America’s stepping onto the “great arena of the world” that Wilson projected, and where it remains today.

We want to learn more about the history of your business, church, school, or organization in our region (Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky). If you would like to share your rich history with others, please contact the editor of “Our Rich History,” Paul A. Tenkotte, at tenkottep@nku.edu. Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Public History at NKU.


Related Posts

Leave a Comment