Clara Mabel Cramer, RN, ANC, 1883-1953

"I will soon arise shed my bath robe sheep skin shoes blanket etc. and in their place put my leather sweater (a dandy) wool sweater rain coat boots and hat and after stopping at the nurses mess for a short while will go on to work and the queer part of it is that I am enjoying such a life immensely."¹

Ashland Tidings, Jan. 14, 1918, pg 5.

Clara Mabel Cramer was one of 25,000 graduate nurses who enlisted with the American Red Cross to serve during World War I. Clara was working as a nurse in Bellingham, Washington, when the call went out in newspapers across the Pacific Northwest for 100 nurses to staff Base Hospital 50. 

A native of Galva, Kansas, Clara was the third of four daughters born to Loren Lamont Cramer and his wife, Leora Tinsley. Loren and Leora were married on December 23, 1887, in McPherson County, Kansas.² Their first daughter Lillian Esther arrived in 1879; Maude in 1880; Clara on March 28, 1883; followed by Myrtle in 1885.

Local newspapers such as The Galva Times, The McPherson Daily Republican, and The Canton Pilot, were full of mentions of the four Cramer girls, their perfect school attendance—"those with the grit and life about them to be on time"—exemplary deportment and visits with friends and relatives.³ In 1895, Clara was tasked with arguing against the question “that traveling is more beneficial to the young than school” and yet her life would take her on many adventures.⁴

In 1901, Clara graduated from Galva High School. She likely taught school for several years before enrolling at the Illinois Training School for Nurses in Chicago in 1904 with the intention of "completing the three-year course if the work proves congenial".⁵ In 1907, Clara graduated with first honors and began her nursing career at the Cook County Hospital.⁶

After their marriages two of Clara's sisters, Lillian and Myrtle, moved to Bellingham and in 1909 Clara joined them there.7 Clara was enumerated in the 1910 federal census living with her sister Lillian Cramer Morrison.⁸ Later that year, on November 28, 1910, she applied for a Washington State Nursing license.⁹ Clara's brother-in-law, John Reid Morrison was a physician and Clara may have assisted in his practice. Clara continued to hone her nursing skills and by the time she renewed her nursing license in 1916, she had completed a short course in bacteriology and lab analysis in Seattle. 

 American Red Cross Nursing recruits who received their
 equipment kits at the Holly Hotel, Washington Square,
New York City. NARA 20806898.

When the United States entered the Great War on April 6, 1917, the armed forces had an inadequate medical corps and immediately began recruiting civilian doctors to help fill out their ranks and create a network of base hospitals and other triage centers. The Army also turned to the American Red Cross, still a fledgling organization at the time, to help supply graduate nurses, those who had completed training at an accredited nursing school, like Clara Cramer. By March of 1918, Clara had enlisted with the Red Cross and been assigned to Base Hospital 50, the Seattle unit organized under the auspices of the University of Washington.¹⁰ 

Clara made a visit home to Galva to visit her parents, sister Maude and other family and friends before reporting to duty at Fort Riley, Kansas, on May 15, 1918.¹¹ After receiving basic training, Clara joined up with other nurses assigned to Base Hospital 50 in New York City to receive their uniforms, get additional training and wait for orders. The unit's history describes how they spent the time waiting for their deployment orders, including a trip to the Stock Market, before finally departing aboard the France, along with over 4,500 soldiers and nurses, from Pier 86 on the Hudson River on August 25, 1918.^{12, 13}

Two of Clara's letters home were published in local papers describing her experiences and the journey to France.^1,14 Once they arrived in Mesves in late August, the nurses worked steadily through the end of 1918, when units began to be consolidated including Base Hospital 50 which was deactivated on January 20, 1919. Clara was one of 50 of the unit's nurses transferred to Evacuation Hospital 31, located at Nantes, near the French coast. Eventually, the nurses received their orders to return to the United States, sailing on the Imperator on July 7, 1919.¹⁵ Upon their return, the nurses were demobilized at the Hotel Albert in New York City's Washington Square. 

Clara was discharged on August 7, 1919, and made her way home to Galva for a welcome visit with her family. Eventually, she returned to Washington where she worked as a nurse in Seattle, Bellingham, and Everett. Whether it was a private nurse or for a much-needed break after the war, Clara spent nine months in Hawaii from December 1921 through September 1922. In 1936 she received a Bachelor of Nursing Degree from the University of Washington and a certificate in Public Health Nursing. Clara later returned to the city where her nursing education began, Chicago, where she worked for several years before returning to Bellingham. Clara's adventurous life as an independent woman ended at the age of 70, just months after the death of her sister Lillian, and she was buried in her hometown of Galva, Kansas.¹⁶

Detail from signature quilt donated to
Galva Historial Museum. McPherson Sentinal.

Clara's eventful life as a self-sufficient woman, traveling, furthering her education and serving her country is remarkable in its own right.¹⁷ And yet, her story does not end here. In 2017, more than 60 years after her death, several of Clara's family quilts were discovered in a thrift store in Oregon. A shopper recognized their historical value and, noting the mention of several Kansas towns, contacted a museum in McPherson County, who in turn forwarded her email to a curator at the Galva Historical Museum.

Three amazing quilts, which belonged to the Cramer family, were returned to the community that nurtured Clara in her youth. One of the quilts is inscribed to Clara, by her paternal grandmother Sabrina Wilsey Cramer, with a date of 1904 the year she first left Galva to attended nursing school in Chicago.¹⁸ This tangible postscript to one woman's incredible, yet invisible, experiences reminds us that every life has a story and the threads are just waiting to be pieced together. 

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References

1. "Red Cross Nurse's Letter." The McPherson Weekly Republican, Friday, December 13, 1918, p10.
2. Ancestry.com. Kansas, County Marriage Records, 1811-1911 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
3. "School Report" The Galva Times, Friday, January 30, 1891, p2. 
4. "Galva Public Schools" The McPherson Republican, Friday, January 25, 1895, p1.
5. "Galva" The McPherson Daily Republican, Friday, January 29, 1904, p4.
6. "Kansas Girls Win Honors" The Canton Pilot, Friday, November 08, 1907, p5.
7. "Galva" The McPherson Weekly Republican, Friday, September 17, 1909, p5. 
8. "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGVK-JNN : accessed 10 February 2019), Clara Cramer in household of John R Morrison, Bellingham Ward 4, Whatcom, Washington, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 332, sheet 4A, family 72, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1673; FHL microfilm 1,375,686.
9. Clara M. Cramer, Department of Licensing, Business and Professions Division, Registered Nurses Licensing Files, 1909-1917, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.wa.gov, 9 February 2019.
10. "Base Hospital Unit to Mobilize at Palo Alto" Seattle Daily Times, Thursday, March 28, 1918, p14.
11. "Galva" The McPherson Daily Republican, Saturday, May 11, 1918, p3.
12. "War Nurses at Stock Exchange" New-York Tribune, August 20, 1918, p8.
13. U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939; Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, National Archives Record Group 92, roll 441; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (Accessed 11 February 2019). Clara Cramer, La France, sailed 25 August 1918, New York to Brest, France.
14. "From France" The Canton Pilot, Thursday, January 2, 1919, p2.
15. U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939; Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, National Archives Record Group 92, roll 125; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (Accessed 11 February 2019). Clara M. Cramer, S. S. Imperator, sailed 7 July 1919, Brest, France to Hoboken, New Jersey.
16. Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 January 2019), memorial page for Clara Mabel “Bay” Cramer (28 Mar 1883–13 Sep 1953), Find A Grave Memorial no. 48196678, citing Empire Cemetery, Galva, McPherson County, Kansas, USA.
17. Washington, World War I Veteran's Compensation Fund Application Records, 1921-1925," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPR8-MFGX : 5 December 2018), Clara M Cramer, 8 May 1918; citing Galva, McPherson, Kansas, United States, Military Service, Washington State Archives, Olympia; FHL microfilm 004992972.
18. A common thread: Oregon woman sends antique quilt home to Galva. McPherson Sentinal. [online] May 18, 2018. (Accessed 11 February 2019.)