Islanders signed up

Remembrance Day observances will be held on Friday, November 11, in Canada, including on Grand Manan, where many young men signed up for the draft on both sides of the border at the outbreak of World War I.
Prior to the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1917, many residents of Grand Manan sought seasonal employment in the sardine packing and canning factories of Eastport and Lubec. Many Grand Manan residents settled in the nearby communities, married locals and raised families as permanent citizens. In this turbulent period of declared war against the Axis allies led by Germany and Austria, the United States responded with the Draft Act in 1917, requiring all citizens, both native-born and aliens, to register for the draft.
The June 6, 1918, issue of The Saint Croix Courier reported: "May Eldridge of Eastport says that Eastport has given 125 of its boys to the U.S. military service and stands ready to give 500 more, if needed. Eastport also holds the proud records of furnishing 625 men in the Civil War. During its administration, not one dependent of any Eastport soldier will want for anything."
The following list of names is a snapshot of those young men from Grand Manan who signed up in Eastport and Lubec and does not indicate whether or not they wound up actually serving. Several million service records were lost to a fire in a national storage warehouse in 1973. Calculating the number of veterans in a given community can only be reconstituted through local newspapers, family records, veterans organizations, county records and by seeking out memorials, cemetery stones and cenotaphs dedicated to memorializing those who made the supreme sacrifice for their country.
It is hoped that this preliminary list will aid local researchers who are trying to determine how many men and women participated from the communities and deserve a place in their history. Those Grand Mananers include the following who filed with the draft: Vandon Eugene Bancroft, Lubec; Charles Edward Beal, Lubec; Philip Daggett Burnham, Eastport; Arnold Blake Cheney, Lubec; Jasper Lyman Cheery, Lubec; Reginald Meredith Cheney, Lubec: Thurber Thaxter Cheney, Lubec; Frank Leslie Cossaboom, Lubec; Mabray Maynard Cossaboom, Eastport; Lawrence Ryan Dixon, Eastport; Eastman Arval Fountain, Eastport; Lincoln A. Green, Lubec; Ralph Greene, Lubec; Wesley Wallace Greenlaw, Eastport; Wellington Judson Griffin, Eastport; Hatsel Maurice Guthrie, Lubec; Henry Everett Guthrie, Lubec; Clarence L. Hatt, Lubec; Earl Wayne Ingalls, Lubec; Ashton William Kent, Eastport; Ernest Edward Leighton, Lubec; Guy James Leighton, Lubec; Walter Scott Leighton, Lubec; George Emory Earl Marston, Lubec; Gordon Donald Marston, Lubec; Percy Lear Monroe, Lubec; Clyde Eugene Morse, Lubec; Leslie Waters Morse, Eastport; Alton Burton Richardson, Lubec; Calvin Donald Scovil, Lubec; Archie Martin Trecarten, Lubec, also signed in Canada; William Burdell Trecartin Jr., Lubec; Howard Whelpley, Lubec; Alfred Worth Wilcox, Lubec; Grover Mabrey Wilson, Lubec; Melvin Wellington Winchester, Eastport; and James Emerson Zwicker, Lubec.
Many residents from these two communities, as well as elsewhere in Washington County, will recognize many family surnames and will likely find ancestral connections. Anyone who has stories, photos or information about those families can email <roger.nason@gmail.com>.