1919 ORIGINAL GROUP OF NOTEBOOKS AND EPHEMERA DETAILING ONE MAN'S SERVICE DURING AND AFTER WWI AND BEYOND

On offer is a fine collection of WWI notes and documents regarding the service of a US Artillery officer who served in France. The collection consists of 2 small notebooks, a large photograph, letter of commendation and a typed 10-page description of a 1925 tour of French Battlefields. Each notebook has 68 pages and measures 5.5 inches by 4.5 inches. They are 20% and 100% complete, respectively. The battlefield tour document measures 8.5 inches by 11 inches. There are 2 black and white photographs presumably of the author - one in uniform aboard a ship and the other, dated 1967, and of him with a young boy. Fairman Rogers Dick was born in Philadelphia in 1885 and passed away in 1976 at the age of 90. From 1908 to 1915, he worked with a number of investment firms on Wall St. and then he organized his own firm, Dick, Gregory, Inc. In 1917 he joined the Army and during World War I he rose to the rank of major with the field artillery in France. After the war he joined the firm of Roosevelt and Son, with whom he remained until 1933 when he formed another company, Dick and Merle-Smith. He retired in 1946 but stayed active with the firm as a consultant. He qualified as a pilot in 1916 and became a member of the Early Birds of Aviation, a group of pre-World War I flyers. Dick was a recognized expert in railroad regulations During the 1930's, he was an expert witness in many landmark cases involving federal regulations of railroads. Dick once served as chairman of the Research Committee of the Transportation Association of America. In 1956, he served on a transportation task force for President Dwight Eisenhower. He served with the 306th Field Artillery of the 77th Division, U.S. Army. The first notebook has very few entries and appears to be a record book of mess dues and mess alcohol purchases. The second notebook contains many notes that would be expected of an officer in a field unit. For Example: "B.A. will draw all [ ] shell in A B C D; Will be dumped at 8:30 See Polock; . Horses will not be watered Sunday a.m.; guns will be hauled out Sat P.M. ."; "Special detail in a.m. Rode with major Fitz in p.m. Talked with Pete Bowditch at [ ] in p.m. Says we might be here a year" [Jan 10]; "Inspected 304 wagons in a.m. In p.m. went to Boudreville and took command of 3 rd Bn. I am not very comfortable over there. Walked an hour." [Feb 2]. The Battlefield Tour report is very interesting. It is clearly moving in placed for him: ". The Argonne was the least changed of any section I saw, but in one respect even it is changed. The scattered graves of French, Germans and Americans have all gone. They have been gathered into cemeteries. You see them here and there along the old front, the battalions of the dead, the crosses row on row and the flag flying over them." [p 9] . There is frank assessment of the future as well: ". The road down through the ravine is well open but the concrete shelters were merely heaps of stones. They had been dynamited by the French. Apparently, they were getting ready for the next war and they face the wrong way for the French and the right way for the Germans, so they had to go…" [p 9]. A military historian would find this an excellent collection to review. It can serve to cross-reference other data. The first-hand account of the battlefield some seven years following the end of the war provides both detailed information about the movements of the 306th Field Artillery and a unique assessment of what happened in the immediate years after the war. Size: 24mo - over 5" - 5¾" tall.