Military service:
On June of 1917 Francis filed his Draft Registration card, and then trained at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas and Camp Lewis, Washington. Francis served in the US Arms service in France during WWI.
My grandfather had two farms - one in Indiana (the original McGuire farm) and the 2nd farm was located in North Dakota. While homesteading in N. Dakota Francis became great friends with the Indian people living in the area. And many of these new friends had also served in military as my Aunt Eileen writes about below.
Memories of Memorial Day
Written by Aunt Eileen McGuire (5/26/08)
Hi Relatives, I thought that I would share a little of my early memories of Memorial Day. It was our custom to go to Shell village on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. My mother (Louise) and her oldest sister, Aunt Elvina with her husband, John Rust and children along with my parents, Francis A. and Louise E, Ivan, Marvin, baby Byron and myself would have a picnic lunch sitting on a canvas spread on the ground, while Dad and Uncle John went with the World War I Indian veterans to the basement of the church for pit roast beef sandwiches which I'm sure were very Delicious. One time I told Dad that I was not going to eat with the family, but go with him and Uncle John to eat. Dad informed me that I was not invited to do so--only the veterans. So I settled for the family picnic, and while roaming around I went where Indian Ladies and their children were eating. I had long blond rag curls hanging over my shoulders. One Indian lady felt of a curl and said "pretty."
The Indian ladies had made crepe paper flowers and put them on every grave in the cemetery there. Dad and Uncle John took their guns and participated with the Indian veterans in the 21 gun salute over the graves. Dad took pictures of the graves and church. He took one picture of several of the Indian men and put x''s by the ones on the picture who were chiefs--I think 6 were chiefs. Ivan and Marvin may remember more details, but this is what I remember.
Happy Memorial Day! We have so much to be thankful for to live in a country where we can worship God, and we need to remember and appreciate all that our servicemen throughout the years have done to help keep our country free. We do need to pray for the leaders of our country and support righteousness.
With love and prayers, Aunt Eileen
Also: I would also like to tell you what Aunt Carrie (McGuire) Strouse told us about our great-grandfather, William Taylor Zaring, who is buried at Mt. Hebron, when he came home from the Civil War. Their family lived near Little York, IN. As he was walking home through the woods, their family dog, named Big Ben, came to meet him, stood on his hind feet and put a paw on each shoulder--so glad to see him. All the time that great-grandpa had been in the war, Big Ben had lain across the entrance to the house. But he never did that again after great-grandpa returned home. They supposed that the dog felt that the father could now take care of the family.
