Wellsville American Legion Post 702 is named for Morrison Hayes, the younger brother of Gabby Hayes — remembered for his Hollywood westerns in the 1930s and ‘40s.
Morrison Hayes died on a battlefield in France in World War I.
Wellsville journalist Kathryn Ross writes that, today, there is little information about the young man who gave his life in the “War to End All Wars” 107 years ago. Even the Legion itself has little more than a blurry photo of Hayes included on a scrolling message sign board over the bar.
Hayes enlisted in the Army shortly after President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917, following the torpedoing of American flagged ships delivering supplies to a beleaguered Europe. The war had been raging for more than 2 1/2 years prior to that while the U.S. remained neutral.
According to the Allegany County Reporter, “Hayes was 22 years of age, and enlisted a year ago (1917) at Hornell in the Infantry, and was afterwards transferred to the 12th Machine Gun Company. From Hornell he was taken to Camp Greene, at Charlotte, N.C., where he remained in training until he went to France (May 1918).
A LETTER SENT HOME
The Hayes family received a letter from the young man shortly after his arrival in France.
…Well, I am in France at last and rather like it. It is a beautiful country, only the cities here seem real old fashioned. We get a newspaper here every day giving us all the baseball dope so you see some of it is pleasure. I wish you would phone father and tell him to write as I have only heard from him twice since February. I am writing him a few lines today.
The first day we were here I had the pleasure of seeing about 50 German prisoners. They were all big fellows, some six feet and better and two French soldiers were guarding them. The Frenchmen were not more than 5 ft. 4 tall. To show you how much the Boches prisoners want to get away I will tell you a little incident.
They tell here that a German prisoner escaped and was gone for about 2 months, and then he came back and had 5 other Germans with him, and not even a guard. I don’t know whether this will be censored or not. For the last 25 miles before we arrived all we could see was vineyards, or in other words the section we are in is not an extensive farming country. Takes more to vineyards and small garden plots.
The people in America don’t know how well they are off. Here each family has flour cards, meat cards and the men even have tobacco cards, which means they are allowed so much and no more. We see old men and real young boys but everyone in the draft age has gone to war.
The Y.M.C.A. is doing wonderful work here. We are able to buy a real lot of American things; much more than I thought we would be able to. Everything is real high here, especially candy, which is very scarce. Well, I will have to close for this time as I have quite a few more letters to write.
In your letters let the folks know you heard from me and that I am all O.K. I want you to send me some chocolate candy. Try and get Hershey’s in the thick bar. I will write again next week. Love to all.
Sgt. Morrison Hayes
Co. B 10th M Gun Ba.
Am E. F.
KILLED IN ACTION
Two months later Hayes died in combat.
Under the headline “Another Wellsville Soldier Makes the Supreme Sacrifice,” the Reporter wrote on Sept. 3, 1918. “Mrs. Noble Ferris, of North Brooklyn Avenue received a telegram last evening from the War Department at Washington, announcing that her brother, Corporal Morrison Hayes, had been killed in battle in France, but giving no details. Probably the particulars of the sad event will come by letter later on. …
Cpl. Hayes is buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, Belleau, France. Today there is a memorial stone placed near his parent’s gravesite in Woodlawn Cemetery. Each year on Memorial Day the Legion in Wellsville, which was named in his honor in 1920, places a memorial wreath at the stone.
Hayes was awarded the Distiguished Service Cross for his actions. The medal was established in 1918, and is second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor. The official citation reads:
“The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Corporal Morrison Hayes, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Company D, 12th Machine-Gun Battalion, 4th Division, A.E.F., near Haute-vesnes, France, 19 July 1918, Haute-Marne department.
“Although wounded during an advance, Corporal Hayes refused to be evacuated and led his squad forward with the Infantry, placing the gun in action on the front line. Exposed to intense fire, he maintained his gun in action until he received a second wound, which later proved fatal. When ordered to withdraw, he assisted in moving the gun back to another position, inspiring his men by his personal heroism.”
For the relatively short time American soldiers fought in WWI, 2 million Americans served in the American Expeditionary Force. There were 116,516 Americans who died in the war; 53,402 of them in combat, wany perished from the Spanish flu. According to General Pershing’s Casualty List printed in major newspapers throughout the nation, 346 Americans died in combat in July 1918 along with Wellsville’s Morrison Hayes.
Much of the information in this article was retrieved from a story written by Stephen Sweet published in the files of the Allegany County Historical Society.
