Lewis D. Harbison First World War correspondence

This collection contains correspondence from PFC Lewis D. Harbison, AEF during the First World War era. Included in the correspondence are letters and postcards. Also included in the collection are eight photographs of Harbison and his family from childhood to adulthood, photocopies of postcards, transcriptions of the correspondence, a biographical note provided by the donor, and one letter from the US Department of the Interior regarding Harbison's time at the Grand Canyon. Toward the end of the correspondence there is one empty envelope.

Added 11/13/2018: photocopied Warranty of Deed documents from the a sale to the CO Bar Livestock Company by Lewis D. Harbison and his wife Nellie on May 27, 1939. (courtesy of Northern Arizona University Special Collections, NAU.MS.296 John G. Babbitt collection)

PFC Harbison wrote his correspondence while working on ranches in Noble, Oklahoma, Alanreed and Cautillo, Texas, and Flagstaff Arizona for the Babbitt Brothers. He then was drafted into the AEF in February 1918 and wrote his letters to his mother and father separately, often telling them different things regarding his activities in training. In April he explains that there are "no cowboys in the country anymore," and that employers can swear that their business will take a loss to keep a man from enlisting. After training, Harbison was deployed to England and France though he does not discuss the war in any detail, and returned home in February 1919. The last two letters are from his time working ranches in Ash Fork, Arizona around Christmas 1923 to his sister Clara.