The Last Hurrah for Benton County's Battery B
Before shipping out to the battlefields of Europe, local recruits were treated to a day of city-wide celebration, free meals, and community fanfare in Kennewick.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The week of October 1-6 was a memorable one for the Benton County boys enlisted in Battery B, Washington Field Artillery. Sunday they were mustered into federal service, and Tuesday they were entertained by the citizens of Kennewick and Prosser. The holiday was suggested by E. M. Sly to allow the men one final opportunity to spend time with friends and relatives before heading to Camp Greene, North Carolina. Thirty-four boys from this end of the county arrived in Kennewick under Lieutenant F. R. Jeffrey, while forty more went to Prosser. The depot platform was crowded with residents, and the boys were escorted by G. A. R. veterans and the Richland band to the M. E. church for dinner. Merchants provided coupon books for free meals, cigars, and entertainment at the Princess theater. Before departing, the town gave the men a heartfelt farewell, pledging support to the soldiers who were heading to a foreign land to fight for the future of the world.
“We wanted you to know that we appreciate the fact that you are rendering the highest patriotic service a man can render to his country.”
This scene captures the intense, unified local patriotism of 1917, months after the U.S. entered World War I. Today, Kennewick remains a city deeply defined by its military ties, though the scale of public mobilization has shifted from small-town send-offs to the global footprint of nearby installations like the Hanford site and the regional veteran community.
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