“Service Honest and Faithful”

Lambert (Bert) Jager was born on June 27, 1891, a Saturday. His parents were Frank and Hendricka Jager, who lived in Clam Union Township, Michigan, just east of McBain, and just farther east of Cadillac. Lambert’s grandfather was Lambertus Jager (click to read the previous post about him) who came to America to join Frank and his other sons after his wife (Anna Strijker Jager) died back in the Netherlands.

At age 20, in 1911, Bert Jager was living in Pontiac, Michigan. Aunt Ruth’s family history collection includes a series of postcards Bert sent home to Missaukee County between 1911 and 1914.

A postcard from August 1912 showed Bert and his brother Abel. “Abel is working by me now”

Sometime between 1914 and 1916, Grandpa Jager headed out west to California. A 1916 letter to his brother showed that he was living in Afton, California, north of Sacramento. He was working on a ranch, but he had bought 10 acres of land for $250. The land had a small almond orchard on it. “…I am in debt now up to my neck.” A personal item in the local paper noted, “Bert Jager, a sturdy young farmer from Afton, visited Colusa on business yesterday.”

Although World War I started in Europe in 1914, the U.S. did not declare war on Germany until April of 1917. Grandpa Jager, living in California, got this draft notice in March 1918:

Ordered to report on April Fool’s Day, 1918, Grandpa Jager was sent to basic training at Camp Lewis, just south of Seattle, Washington. Bert Jager was a private in the Headquarters Company of the 364th Infantry, which was part of the 182nd Brigade, part of the 91st Division, part of the V Corps of the American Expeditionary Force.

After almost three months of basic training, Bert and the rest of the 364th Infantry left Camp Lewis by train in June 26, 1918. They arrived at Camp Merritt outside New York City. On July 12, the 364th left for Europe on the Olympic, the sister ship to the ill-fated Titanic.

After a week on the Atlantic Ocean, Bert and his fellow American soldiers arrived in Southampton, England, and then on to Le Havre, France. They spent the rest of July and August in France, drilling and training.

In September, Grandpa and the 364th headed to the front lines. The 91st Division was placed smack in the middle of what would become the largest battle in World War I–The Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Grandpa Jager sets the stage in his WWI diary: “September 21st–Left orchard and had a 5 kilometer hike to near battle line through Auberville. Also, Germans sending over gas shells and shrapnel continuously, arriving same day. Left on September 2th to go and take our positions to go over the top next morning on September 26th.”

“Going over the top” was soldiers charging out of their trenches to attack the enemy across no-man’s land. What was Lambert Jager’s experience in the middle of this great battle? We don’t know. This is all he put in his diary: “September 26th into battle till October 4.”

The 364th was later sent to Belgium, where they were also near the front lines. After the war ended on November 11, 1918 (“News came. Armistice was signed, all felt happy. They say we are going home very soon”), Grandpa’s unit stayed in France until March, 1919. They took the U.S.S. Siboney back to America, and Lambert Jager was back in California in April. He was discharged from the army on April 26, 1919. His discharge papers note “Service honest and faithful.”

In 1921, Sarah VerStrate boarded the train in Grand Rapids and headed out to California to marry Bert Jager. According to Aunt Ruth’s “Family Memories” that she wrote in 2008, “There was some resistance to the marriage to Bert because he was so much older than she (she was 21, he was 30) and the fact that she went to California to marry him. According to what I remember Mom saying, her father didn’t like it one bit.”

Sarah and Bert were married in Willows, California on April 28, 1921. Retha was born in 1922 and Freda in 1923. Apparently that almond orchard he bought back in 1916 didn’t result in prosperity. Here is an ad from the local paper in 1923:

Bert and Sarah returned to Michigan and settled on Dalton Avenue in the Beverly neighborhood of Grand Rapids. They had eight more children, plus a baby named Freddie born in 1934 that did not live. Bert worked for Leonard Refrigeration and later hauled coal for Breen and Haliday Fuel Company. They later moved to 140th street to a house that burned down in 1943, and then down the road to the house that later Rich and Barb’s family lived in, and is now owned by Dawn and Mark Doxey. The family transferred their membership from the Wyoming Park Christian Reformed Church to the Moline CRC in 1937.

Lambert Jager died of pancreatic cancer on May 10, 1952. He was buried in Hooker Cemetery.