-
Alice's Family
Her father was born in Joplin, Missouri. Her mother was born in Benton County, Arkansas. Alice’s parents' names are George Elmer Mikel and Amamda Featherrston. They were 11 years apart from each other. She had a younger brother and sister. All her family lived in different parts of the United States so moving further away from them was hard for her and her siblings. -
Where She Grew Up
She lived in White Oak Hollow. Where she lived was about 6 miles away northwest of New Jenny Lind. Soon they moved to St. Joseph Missouri which they thought was Joplin Missouri but when they got there they found out it wasn’t. They had a nice white house with a barn and horses. They would go to school and then play ring-around-the-rosey. -
How She Made It Into The Red Cross
Alice had a friend who was two years younger than she was. At the interview, Alice wore an outfit that almost didn’t get her into the Red Cross. The woman who was in the Red Cross really needed help because most nurses were just volunteers and weren’t actually from America. So Alice was in the right place at the right time when asked to join. -
World War
The war started on July 28, 1914. Many nations like Europe, Russia, the U.S., the Middle East, and many others were involved in the war. Soon enough the war started competition between the Central Powers, Germany, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary against the Allies which were France, Italy, Russia, Japan, and Great Britain. WW1 was one of the greatest watersheds of the 20th century. It led to four imperial dynasties (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Turkey). -
What Started The War
The war started on June 28, 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Many nations were blaming Serbia's Government. Russia supported the Seriba Government and Austria-Hungary did not and wanted war but they waited for the German Leader to agree to the war. On July 5 1914 Germany privately agreed to the war. On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and that day Europe’s great powers were gone. -
When The War Started For Nurses
Nurses went to help the injured when the war first started. They didn’t have any nurses and were struggling because of low staff. Soon enough in the late 1914’s about 2000 Australian nurses came to help during the war. Many of these nurses were just volunteers and lots did for the expedition in 1915 so they left. -
How Nurses Lived
Life was difficult for the nurses working because of all the weather changes. Many blackouts made it harder for the nurses to perform their work. No nurses died from enemy action but some were wounded. About 272 died from diseases that were caused by them helping the soldiers but also just living on the base in general. -
Battles For The Nurses
Many of the women working in the war were not trained or had little experience. By 1915 the war started to get big and thousands of women who barely had an education volunteered to be nurses. The Red Cross uniforms were nice but the work was not as nice as the uniforms were. It was exhausting, continuous, and gross. Many medical issues were not known to the inexperienced doctors and nurses. -
Battles For The Nurses pt2
For soldiers with wounded infections, bullets, and polluted mud, there were no antibiotics or disinfectants, and to help the wound they would use iodine salt and wrap it up. They didn’t have many supplies to rely on so they did their best with what they had. -
World War 1 Inventions
During WW1 they created daylight savings time which helped the Soldiers because they gained an hour. This helped save more coal because of the extra hours they had of sunlight. Other nations like the United Kingdom followed a few weeks later and it became official in 1918. -
World War 1 Inventions pt.2
They created tanks because none of the European soldiers could even get close to the other side. They were being shot too fast and couldn’t match up with the Central Powers. During the war the Allied were getting boats sunk by the Germans so they created “depth charge”. Depth charge was like an underwater bomb that would go off and explode boats. -
Nurses Inventions
They invented blood banks so that it would be easier to transfer blood to patients. Sanitary pads which absorbed more than just regular cotton and were cheaper. Creating warmer and more durable uniforms by using a gray crepe and a gray dress. One more example was Kleenex which was used to remove makeup and blow your nose. -
Day In A Life For A WW1 Nurse
The day started at 7:50 am-8:00 pm. Nurses tried to get off for at least three hours just to take a break from all the craziness happening. Patients usually got a bath in the morning after they ate breakfast and took the medicine they needed. -
Day In A Life For A WW1 Nurse pt2
The nurses would wrap up the wounds which could take almost an hour depending on how many soldiers and how bad the wounds are. Patients in the afternoon could receive visitors but most patients would write back home. When nurses were on break they would usually take a walk or ride their bikes. -
Facts About WW1
There were about 20 million deaths during World War 1. An estimated 40 million were injured and these soldiers fought in every type of weather. The United States didn’t join the war until April 4, 1917. Russian forces asked women to join the war in June 1917. -
What Made Alice Enlist
She was going to get married to a guy named Bill Dana but soon she found out that he cheated on her. Alice didn’t want to ever get married after that so she started training to become a nurse. She has never worked in a hospital and had no training experience.She only had the memories of an old hospital. It seems she enlisted to get out of Missouri and expand out. -
Work At The Camps And Wards
They gave baths and checked temperatures. The older nurses gave the medicine to the soldiers because they were more experienced. They were told to take temperatures a specific way because in their mouths their temperatures were higher and they would bite the thermometer. Since that happened the thermometers were put under their arm. Alice never treated overseas people only ones on land. -
Where She Was Stationed
She was stationed at Camp Pike and she was not sure how far that was from Fort Smith. She would go to Little Rock to do examinations and sometimes have to stay there because she couldn’t get back to Camp Pike in time. Alice had no money because she wasn’t told to save some of her money. She was just nineteen years old when she was stationed at Camp Pike and that was her first ever time being away from home. In Alice's first year, she only made $5 a month. -
The Flu Epidemic
The flu started before Alice had even arrived at Camp Pike. Many soldiers were sick and it was hard for the nurses to take care of them all. Soon enough they got to start having a nurse assistant which helped them out a lot. Alice said they never knew how many people had died during the flu. There was no more room in the morgue and people were falling out of it when they would open the door. Alice never knew how they treated the flu because the older nurses did the medicine. -
How The War Ended
The Allied powers won World War 1. Germany signed the armistice agreement with the Allies. This war was called “the war to end all wars”. The Treaty of Versailles forced bad terms on Germany that shook up Europe and that was a reason World War 2 started. -
Life After The War For Alice
Alice said the war helped her make a living for herself and didn’t have any trauma from the war. She traveled to places she’d never been to. When she was 27 years old she divorced her husband who was a minor league baseball player. She soon found out her youngest brother had been killed working in the mine. Alice wanted to keep working as a nurse so she got a job at the Veteran Administration and had to move to Dawson Springs, Kentucky which meant she had to leave her son.