Title: Ralph E. Ellinwood Collection, 1917-1919
Arrangement
The materials are arranged by size in one box.
Abstract
Ralph Everett Ellinwood served with the American Field Service in TMU 397 from June to October 1917 and with the U.S. Army Ambulance Service from October 1917 to January 1919 during World War I. The collection consists of typescript copies of his wartime diary and letters home, a draft manuscript about his experiences as a prisoner of war May to December 1918, one photographic print, and an American Field Service wallet.
Administrative/Biographical History
Ralph Everett Ellinwood was born on August 9, 1893. His father was Everett Ellinwood, a prominent attorney in Flagstaff, the U.S. Territory of Arizona. After a childhood in Flagstaff and Brisbee, Arizona, Ellinwood attended Amherst College. In June 1917 he entered the American Field Service (AFS), a volunteer organization serving with the French Army during the First World War. He served as a member of Transport Matériel [Etats-] Unis (TMU)397, also known as the Réserve Mallet, which transported munitions and supplies. AFS ceased to exist as an independent entity and was absorbed by the U.S. Army after the United States entered the war later that year, and Ellinwood consequently enlisted in the U.S. Army Ambulance Service in October.
On May 28, 1918, during the Third Battle of the Aisne, Ellinwood was taken prisoner by the Germans. As a prisoner of war he traveled extensively by foot and train, stopping at prison camps at Laon (July 1918) and Langensalza (August to November 1918). He returned to France on January 1, 1919, seven months after he was captured and a month and a half after the Armistice was signed to end the war.
Upon returning to the United States, Ellinwood wrote and published an account of his experience as a prisoner of war entitled Behind the German Lines (New York, Knickerbocker Press, 1920.) Ellinwood then earned a degree in journalism at Columbia University, married Clare Rounsvell, and worked for a newspaper in Sacramento, California. In 1924 the couple settled in Tucson, Arizona, where Ellinwood became editor and co-owner of the Arizona Daily Star. They had three children.
Ralph Everett Ellinwood died of a heart attack at age 37 in 1930.
