Collection of Six Original Typed Letters Related to the United States Army Quartermaster Corps, 1918, Nebraska and Indiana

Collection of six original typed letters from Major John G. Maher, Colonel R. E. Powers, and Colonel Charles. P. Daly who work for the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Some of the letters have carbon copies which are not included in the page or letter count. Five original War Department and War Camp envelopes included (each with an address or other writing on front). Multiple dates in 1918. 8" x 10 1/2." Eight pages total. Each letter is very clean and intact except for light age toning, a few wrinkles, and the occasional small mark. Each letter and the entire collection are Fine. The United States Army Quartermaster Corps (formerly known as the Quartermaster Department) is the U.S. Army's oldest logistics branch that was founded in 1775. The letters in this collection revolve around the work of Captain John A. Orcutt who traveled to various Quartermaster Depots in the midwestern U.S. in 1918 to complete training on new procedures for keeping inventory. The letters discuss personnel, offer thanks for work done, and introduce Orcutt to others. One of the writers is Colonel Robert Boyd Powers (1871-1941), an American military officer, who, at the time of his letters, works at the Quartermaster Depot in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Powers graduated from West Point in 1892 and served in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He has written two letters (one page each), both of which are signed as "R. B. Powers" in black ink; one is addressed to Daly; the other, to Orcutt. There are two copies of Powers's letter to Orcutt although one is unsigned. One of the other writers is Colonel Charles P. Daly (?-?). Daly was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His letterhead shows that he worked at the New Orleans Depot. He has written one letter which is addressed to Colonel D. E. McCarthy of the Quartermaster Department at Fort Sam, Houston, Texas. His letter is one page with five copies total. The third writer is John G. Maher (1864-1939) who was an American military officer, businessman, politician, and news journalist. Maher served as a private during the Spanish-American War, was part of General John J. Pershing's 1916 expedition to the Mexican border (also known as the Pancho Villa Expedition, Mexican Expedition, and Punitive Expedition), and became the chief disbursing officer of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France during World War I. Maher was also a prominent figure in Nebraska newspaper and political circles. Maher's name is also associated with the tall tales and hoaxes he foisted upon unsuspecting readers and listeners in Nebraska, many of which were created during his time as a western correspondent for the New York Herald in order to sell more newspapers. Among his hoaxes were the discovery of a "petrified prehistoric man" near Chadron (which he implemented by burying a cement casting of a Buffalo Soldier), touting the healing properties of Chadron's "soda springs" (which were simply boiling springs he had laced with bags of baking soda), and sightings of the Walgren Lake Monster near Hay Springs. In this collection, Maher has written three letters. One is three pages and addressed to L. M. Nicolson, Director of Quartermaster Operations in Washington, D.C. This letter has two copies and is unsigned. Maher's other two letters are each one page, addressed to Orcutt, and signed (one in black ink; the other in pencil).…