Knowing Nowata: Emma McGruder

Emma Magruder

1919 Nowata Elementary School Principal Served in WWI

by Carrol Craun

World War I broke out on July 28, 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire fought against the combined forces of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan, and the United States. By the time the war began to wind down, more than 16 million people — soldiers and civilians alike — had perished due to the unprecedented carnage inflicted by so-called modern weaponry. American troops entered into the fray on April 6, 1917 when President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany.

President Wilson immediately established a War Council that included a variety of organization heads. One was National President Virginia Hill Cowles of the General Federation of Women (1916-20). At the request of General John J. Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.), the War Victory Commission was established. One focus was to help soldiers overseas with spiritual, mental, and physical strength along with providing a small sense of home comfort with food, books, letter writing, and canteen services. Two women from each state (a total of 98) would be chosen and receive training to bring a 'touch of home' once the American forces proved victorious. They would travel to the war zones of France, Belgium, Italy, and the Rhine River areas of Germany. This group of Federation women would work as a part of the A.E.F. with the YMCA, the only civilian organization allowed to work with the Army at that time. The other focus of the commission was to help provide food and support here in American to free up men to go to war and to help with jobs that needed to be filled. Victory Gardens arose, women filled many jobs once held predominately by men, and America thrived under war conditions due to the efforts of many women. This was a period of change in the perceptions of what women could do.

Women in war zones existed under the same conditions as men — eating poor food, getting lice, living with constant fear, and suffering the Spanish flu pandemic of that era. Many perished.

Mary Emma Magruder (later Cook), 1919 Nowata Elementary School Principal and teacher, was one of the two Federation women chosen to represent Oklahoma overseas working with the A.E.F. The other was Maud Morris of Alva. They were instructed to report to Barnard College in New York on January 22, 1919 to attend training. They prepared to travel to France shortly after the first of February, where they would assist with reconstruction work under the auspices of the Y.M.C.A. Magruder was stationed at General Pershing's headquarters at Chaumont, France and worked in England, Belgium, and along the Rhine River in the post-war period.

Miss Magruder was chief of the Overseas Omaha Unit of the American Red Cross, served in the YMCA Canteen at the Officers 'Y' in France, worked in the Women's Bureau in Paris, and worked at the Enlisted Men's 'Y' Hut at Liverpool, England. For her service to Belgium, she was awarded the Medal of the Rhine and the Queen Elizabeth Medal (Medaille de la Reine Elizabeth), presented to those who performed exceptional services to Belgium in nursing the ill and wounded. The medal was presented to her personally by the King and Queen of Belgium.

She was one of the lucky to return home, continue with her life, marry, and have a family. She eventually moved to Arkansas. Many of the women serving overseas perished from illness or wounds.

One of her uniforms can be seen in the Nowata County Historical Museum.