Enduring the Unendurable: Alice Dodd
During our lives we have all faced challenging times and certainly history shares stories of unimaginable trials. One such story, a portion of which is likely familiar to many Evansvillians, is that of Alice Gresham Dodd the mother of James Bethel Gresham, the first United States combat fatality of World War I.
On a fateful night, November 3, 1917, the 24-year-old Gresham and fellow soldiers Merle Hay and Thomas Enright were killed in conflict with the Germans. In the ensuing days, word reached Evansville and Mrs. Dodd that American blood had been shed on French soil. Understandably, Mrs. Dodd was inconsolable saying “God help me” and “Oh, will they bring him home. I want to see my boy again”1. Her mourning was shared by the people of the city as a memorial service was held for her son at the Coliseum and outpourings of sympathy were received from across the country. In the months following the deaths of Gresham, Hay and Enright, their names were invoked in encouraging people to their part for the war effort.
In Evansville, Mrs. Dodd was not forgotten. Her husband, William Dodd, whom she had married following the death of her first husband, Green Gresham, had difficulty providing for the family and a public subscription drive was held to build her a new house. This house still stands on the edge of Garvin Park.
The months following James Bethel Gresham’s death also saw the outbreak of an event deadlier than World War I; the 1918 Flu Pandemic. The pandemic ravaged the United States and the world in the spring and fall of 1918 and again in the spring of 1919 killing an estimated 675,000 Americans and 50 million people globally.
It was during the deadliest wave of the pandemic in the fall of 1918, that Mrs. Dodd faced new tragedies. On October 31, her son John Gresham died of influenza induced pneumonia. 35 years old, John Gresham left behind a widow and four small children, the youngest of whom was two-and-a-half weeks old. Mrs. Dodd mourned “There is his wife left with four small children—it’s just too hard.”2 John’s funeral took place on Saturday, November 2, 1918.
The next day, Sunday, November 3, 1918, Mrs. Dodd, the city and the country marked the first anniversary of James Bethel Gresham’s death. For Mrs. Dodd, in a cruel and ironic twist of fate, it was also the day her daughter Nola Lowey succumbed to the pandemic. 31 years old, Nola Lowey, had lived with her mother in the Gresham Memorial Home. On November 5, Mrs. Dodd buried her daughter.
The deaths of Alice Dodd’s children in the pandemic occurred just days before the end of World War I on November 11, 1918. With the cessation of hostilities, Mrs. Dodd shared “My heart, though sad from the recent bereavements in my family, is overflowing with joy at the sudden and wonderful end of the horrible war. My heart has been gladdened with the thought that my boy died for his country and doubtless other mothers will experience the same proud joy.”3
Alice Dodd passed away on February 18, 1927 and is buried in Locust Hill Cemetery along with her sons James and John and her daughter Nola.
Photo Caption: This photograph by Karl Kae Knecht depicts Alice Dodd at the window of the Gresham Memorial Home in Evansville.
1The Evansville Courier, November 6, 1917, page 1
2The Evansville Courier, November 3, 1918, page 2
3The Evansville Courier, November 12, 1918, page 11
Thomas R. Lonnberg
Chief Curator & Curator of History
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