In the fall of 1916, when Amelia was nineteen years old, she boarded a train for the Ogontz School in Pennsylvania. Amelia didn’t mind going far away from home. She was starting on a new adventure.
The head of the Ogontz School was a woman named Miss Sutherland. At first, Amelia did not like her. But in time, she changed her mind. Miss Sutherland was strict but very smart. She had opinions on all sorts of subjects. And although Miss Sutherland had had many chances to marry, she never did. Miss Sutherland was more interested in her career than a husband. Miss Sutherland was an independent woman who made a big impression on her pupils.
The other students and teachers at Ogontz admired Amelia. She was shy but charming. She was a good athlete. She was also a practical girl. In a letter home to her mother, Amelia wrote, “I don’t need spring clothes so don’t worry about sending me money… I know you all need things more than I.” Once Amelia even bought hand-me-down shoes from a friend.
In her second year, Amelia was elected vice-president of her class. Amelia wrote the class motto. She strongly believed in what it said.
“Honor is the foundation of courage.”
While Amelia was at Ogontz, the United States entered the First World War. During the Christmas holidays of 1917, Amelia went to Toronto, Canada. Her sister Muriel was in school there. Amelia’s mother also joined them.
In Toronto, Amelia saw soldiers who had been wounded in the war. Amelia wanted to help. Within a week, she made a decision: she was not going back to Ogontz. Instead, she would stay in Toronto. Amelia would train to be a nurse’s aide and work in a hospital. People who knew Amelia weren’t surprised. Amelia always acted on what she believed in.
WORLD WAR I
It was called the Great War… but it was really terrible. More than 30 million people were wounded or died in World War I between the years of 1914 and 1918. At the beginning, only Germany and Austria-Hungary were fighting against the allied forces of Britain, France and Russia. As the war dragged on, more countries got involved. The United States joined the Allies, entering the War in April 1917.
By the summer of 1918, about 200,000 American soldiers were being sent to Europe each month.
These soldiers often lived in deep ditches. They dug these trenches for protection as they fought. It was called “trench warfare.”
Peace finally came with an Allied victory in November of 1918. Most people thought there could never be another war like this. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Only twenty years later the world exploded into World War II. |