Charles Addison Jacobs (abt. 1889 - 1918)

Ancestors

Died 3 Oct 1918 at about age 29 in France

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Biography

Died in WWI.

"A Military Funeral

America entered the First World War in 1917. Thousands of inexperienced but eager young men poured into France, bolstering the weary forces of the Allies in their struggle against Imperial Germany. By 1921 the Government Printing Office, like the rest of the country, was caught up in its own concerns. Yet deep feelings about the war still remained. In August 1921, those feelings would emerge because of a unique event — a military funeral held in GPO. Charles Addison Rhett Jacobs was one of three GPO employees killed in action during the First World War. He went to work at GPO in 1914. In 1917 he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He participated in active operations in the Chateau-Thierry sector and the Champagne offensive, rising to the rank of corporal. He was killed in action on October 3, 1918 and buried temporarily in France. In 1921, Jacobs’ mother, Mrs. Roberta Jacobs, approached Public Printer George Carter, saying that “Her son’s life was centered in the Government printery before his entry into the service and…no better tribute could be paid his memory than a funeral from the Office in which he and his friends had worked.” Carter gave his permission for the service to be held within GPO on Wednesday, August 21, at 12 noon. The body arrived on Tuesday, August 20. That night, Jacobs lay in state on the first floor landing of Building 1, watched over by a Marine guard. The next day at noon, GPO veterans of all wars were excused from work to allow them to attend the funeral. Representatives of the American Legion, Spanish-American War Veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Boy Scouts filled the staircase and lobby. Other guests included Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby, Marine Major General John A. Lejeune and other Navy and Marine officers, and GPO’s top officials. The casket was surrounded with an array of floral tributes, including an immense wreath of roses from President and Mrs. Harding. The funeral procession traversed the Capitol grounds to what is now Constitution Avenue, where it was met by several cars which transported its members and the casket to Arlington National Cemetery. The cortege was composed of a detachment of Marines and a group of GPO veterans, many wearing their old uniforms. In 1926, the GPO work force purchased and erected two bronze tablets as an honor roll of those who served in the war. Years later, photographs of GPO’s World War II dead were placed there. In the 1980s, new tablets commemorating those who served in World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam Era, designed and manufactured in-house by GPO employees, were added to what is now officially designated as the GPO Veterans Memorial."

Sources

• Family tree kept by Helen Crouch, his first cousin.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-KEEPINGAMERICAINFORMED/pdf/GPO-KEEPINGAMERICAINFORMED.pdf