{"id":7702,"date":"2018-11-11T04:20:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T04:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=7702"},"modified":"2018-11-11T04:20:17","modified_gmt":"2018-11-11T04:20:17","slug":"always-in-readiness-fond-memories-of-uncle-billys-barracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/always-in-readiness-fond-memories-of-uncle-billys-barracks","title":{"rendered":"Always in Readiness: Fond Memories of Uncle Billy’s Barracks"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>During the First World War, convoys of U.S. Army trucks, or \u201cliberty truck<\/a>\u201d trains, rumbled over century-old stagecoach tracks down the National Road,\u00a0a primary channel for shipping supplies for the war effort. And a storied old stagecoach watering hole once known as the \u201cFour Mile House\u201d and later \u201cStamm Inn,\u201d located in the Pleasant Valley area of the Old Pike in Wheeling became, toward the end of the war, a little oasis of comfort and cheer\u2013 a sweet reminder of home \u2014 for those truck driving soldiers.
\n\n

\n

\n

Four Mile House<\/h2>\n
\n
$\"Four$ <\/a>
Four Mile House in 1877. Real Photo Postcard from the personal collections of Sean Duffy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Built two centuries ago by Samuel Carter in 1818 (the same year the National Road reached Wheeling from Cumberland, Maryland) the \u201cFour Mile House,\u201d later known as the \u201cStamm House,\u201d served as an inn for weary travelers. It stood on the south side of the Old Pike a few hundred feet from the entrance to what is now Wheeling Park on Stamm Lane.<\/p>\n
According to an article written in 1918 by Blanche D. Steenrod, the layout of the inn featured an office and ladies\u2019 parlor to the left of the entrance hall, the all-important bar to the right, and a ballroom in the back. \u201cThese rooms have witnessed many a festivity,\u201d wrote Steenrod, \u201cwhen men wore cues and ribbons, and pretty feminine faces peered \u2018neath close fitting bonnets.\u201d Stage lines with names like Lacey & Company, Norwalk & Lake Erie, Good Intent, and Mail Chariot, reigned in their ten horse teams to make regular stops.<\/p>\n
\n
Stamm House<\/h2>\n
\n
After arriving in Wheeling in 1833, German immigrant William \u201cUncle Billy\u201d Stamm<\/a>\u00a0married Mary Franzheim in 1840, then purchased the Four Mile House in 1848. The Stamms served as proprietors for the next 67 years. During that time, the Stamm Inn earned its status as a legendary stop along the Old Pike, both for the good times \u2014 such as a visit by Martin Van Buren in 1848 \u2014 and the bad \u2014 such as when beer baron Henry Schmulbach beat a man to death<\/a> with his fists on the Stamm Inn grounds for stealing Schmulbach\u2019s two-horse buggy.<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/a>
Stamm Inn, circa 1919. From the W. C. Brown Collection of the Ohio County Public Library Archives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
In her wartime article, Steenrod felt compelled to point out that, had the Stamms still been alive during the conflict with the German Empire, a time of pervasive paranoia<\/a> about lurking disloyalty and flagging patriotism in old \u201cGerman Wheeling,\u201d the Stamms undoubtedly \u201cwould have been loyal to the land of their adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n
This slideshow requires JavaScript.<\/p>
<\/div>\n
There could be no quarter given for even a residue of historic disloyalty, because the 100-year-old inn was then being used for a \u201cpatriotic, humane purpose\u201d as a military barracks for truck driving U.S. Army soldiers, providing, as Steenrod proclaimed, \u201cshelter for some of the earth\u2019s finest manhood\u2014mobilized to help win the world\u2019s freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
The House Mother\u2019s Report<\/h2>\n
\n
In 1919, Mrs. Thomas Burke, \u201chouse mother\u201d at the Inn during the Stamm Barracks days, wrote a report about what she witnessed for the Yearbook of the West Virginia State Federation of Woman\u2019s Clubs<\/a>.<\/p>\n
According to her report, the issue of providing a place of rest, recreation, and entertainment for the supply line soldiers was first discussed at a meeting of\u00a0the Motor Convoy Committee of the Rotarians and the War Services Committee of the Woman\u2019s Club of Wheeling in August 1918. Prior to that time, the convoys had typically stopped for rest at Blaney\u2019s Grove, seven miles east of Wheeling.<\/p>\n
It was William Stamm\u2019s granddaughter, Mrs. Oscar Burdats, who offered the Stamm Inn property as the new barracks location. The committee eagerly accepted her proposal. Mrs. Burke was chosen from the War Services Committee to serve\u00a0as house mother to \u201csee that the boys were made comfortable and happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But U.S. Army Convoy Headquarters in Chicago pondered the offer for months, and it wasn\u2019t until November 4, 1918 (a week before the Paris Armistice that would end the war) that the old Stamm Inn finally officially became the \u201cStamm Barracks,\u201d also known affectionately in the soldier vernacular as \u201cUncle Billy\u2019s Barracks.<\/p>\n
This slideshow requires JavaScript.<\/p>
<\/div>\n
By November 7, \u201cA motor train composed of 30 trucks and 123 men [would] pass through Wheeling\u2026occupying the Stamm home if the offer still held good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
Uncle Billy\u2019s Barracks<\/h2>\n
\n
$\"Stamm$ <\/a>
Stamm Barracks, \u201cVictory Day, Nov. 11, 1918.\u201d Photograph from the personal collection of Dr. Bill Crowl.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The ladies of the War Services Committee hurriedly prepared the old Inn for the soldier boys, borrowing furniture from neighbors. Mess tables and benches were loaned by the Red Cross. While teams of plumbers got the old pipes back to working order, electricians installed new lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll day long a delightful bustle and confusion of constantly arriving baskets, jars, boxes, packages, bundles of every size and shape gave evidence that the boys were going to be taken care of within as well as without. Stationary, stamps, picture postals, fruit, chewing gum, candy, smoking and chewing tobacco, cigarettes, more cigarettes, and mostly cigarettes were some of the good things constantly on hand.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Women from all over the city pitched in to bake \u201cforty luscious pies.\u201d Others sent jars of preserves, fried doughnuts, cookies, and gingerbread, filling the old inn with the aromas of home cooking.<\/p>\n
The soldiers enjoyed numerous amenities usually unavailable during their long excursions, including hot water shaves and showers, laundered uniforms, warm fires in every room, hand-knitted sweaters and socks, and comfortable sleeping quarters. One of the rooms was converted into a reading room full of books, magazines, and comfortable chairs. Neighbors stopped by to visit and chat with the soldiers, who enjoyed the camaraderie.\u00a0The house was filled with sing-along songs like \u201cOver There\u201d and \u201cHome Sweet Home\u201d played on the old inn\u2019s piano.<\/p>\n
For the soldiers, the old barracks was a welcome respite from tents, cots, and campfires. It felt like a return to hearth and home.<\/p>\n
A week after the Stamm Barracks opened, an armistice was signed in Paris, ending the war.\u00a0Still, there was work to be done and supplies to be shipped while the American Expeditionary Force prepared to sail back home. But what had been enthusiastic work in support of the war effort overseas soon turned into drudgery for the truck driving soldiers on the Old Pike. A place of rest and relaxation was needed more than ever.<\/p>\n
Stamm Barracks remained open until January 28, 1919. After its official closure as a barracks, the inn continued to operate in the \u201cdefense of liberty to house the army boys\u201d for several more months, providing comfort for these men even as their duties dwindled to a close.<\/p>\n
Despite its brief existence, the Stamm Barracks managed to provide rest and recreation for more than 3000 soldiers and officers working on the long haul. These joyful gatherings after days on the road would make lasting impressions, as \u201cLegionnaires the country over [would] tell of their experiences at Uncle Billy\u2019s Barracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During the First World War, convoys of U.S. Army trucks, or \u201cliberty truck\u201d trains, rumbled over century-old stagecoach tracks down the National Road,\u00a0a primary channel for shipping supplies for the war effort. And a storied old stagecoach watering hole once<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[608,962,960,956,959,955,963,957,964,961,958],"coauthors":[313],"class_list":["post-7702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-henry-schmulbach","tag-motor-convoy-committee-of-the-rotarians","tag-stagecoach","tag-stamm-barracks","tag-stamm-house","tag-stamm-inn","tag-u-s-army-convoy-headquarters","tag-uncle-billys-barracks","tag-war-services-committee","tag-west-virginia-state-federation-of-womans-clubs","tag-william-stamm"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/AW-FI_Stamm-Barracks.jpg?fit=738%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5pkc7-20e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7702"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7706,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7702\/revisions\/7706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}