Book tells of Cleveland couple’s love and faith during World War I

A must-read for all Cleveland residents interested in history and personal relationships is the book, “My Dear Mabel: A Grandson’s Lessons in Love, Faith, Patriotism and Courage in Letters from World War I,” by James M. Hawk.

 

The book is the true story of a young couple — Roy Hawk of Cleveland, and Mabel Thornton of Knoxville — who were caught up in the events of the “Great War” and the “War to End All Wars” fought more than a century ago in Europe.

 

It is a tale of their growing romance during those tumultuous years as Roy went off to war as a soldier in the American Expeditionary Force and Mabel worked as a clerk at the War Department in Washington, D.C.

 

After the war, they married and raised a family in Cleveland. 

 

Roy and Mabel’s story is told in a series of personal letters they wrote to one another from January 1917 to June 1919. The letters were discovered by their grandson, James M. Hawk, a former Seattle, Washington, attorney. 

 

“I found them in my father’s house after he died in 2018,” James told the Cleveland Daily Banner during a phone interview. “As I was reading them, I realized that I was not just reading family history but American history.”

 

In his letters to Mabel, Roy details his experiences as a World War I soldier beginning with basic training as an infantryman at Camp Forrest near Chattanooga, followed by his shipment overseas to Europe.

 

Arriving in war-torn France in the late summer of 1918, he describes the long marches through the heavy rain and mud as well as surviving in the trenches amid the shellfire of the enemy. He also witnessed the results of combat in the final weeks of the war.

 

“My comrades paid the greatest price for democracy — their lives. I saw too many things to tell you just now,” he wrote Mabel. 

 

The Armistice ended World War I’s fighting on November 11, 1918, but Roy found himself sick in the hospital with dysentery, an all-too-common illness for soldiers forced to live and fight in unsanitary conditions. After recovering, he served with the American Army Occupation in Germany for several months until finally returning home to be discharged.

 

Throughout his letters, Roy unashamedly expressed his love of country, his love for Mabel and his faith in God. 

 

“This I do know, that if I had a thousand lives to live, I would give them all to the cause for which we are fighting,” he wrote. “For if I am spared, I see what I am awarded upon my return. It will be you and your love for me. But in the event I never return, I hope that my life has not been ill-spent because I believe that part of man we call the soul never dies.”

 

While Roy was overseas, Mabel also joined the war effort. She was hired and served as a clerk in the State, War and Navy Department building in Washington, D.C., directly across the street from the White House where she often saw President Woodrow Wilson and other dignitaries. Her letters reveal that she was as a strong, determined woman who knew her own mind. 

“Mabel was the youngest of 14 children,” James said of his grandmother. “When her father told her that she wasn’t going to let her go to Washington, she said ‘Just watch me’ and she went.”