Early 1900s ad from Stanton's Mercantile Canoe, Ala.
The Great War, also known as World War I, was a pivotal event in the lives of the generation which fought the war. No other war had been fought with such savagery and loss of life. Technology was ahead of the tactics used on the battlefield to such a degree that cavalry charges were often met with machine gun fire which viciously cut short the life of horse and rider.
In the small hamlet of Canoe, Alabama, the war seemed distant to the residents. The small town was in its golden age and the flower of the small town was its youth with whom great promise and all the hopes of the continuation of the town carried forward.
Among those who had cast their lot with the town was P.E. Stanton and family. Stanton had moved to Canoe around the turn of the century and established a two-story mercantile store on the corner of what is now Highway 31 and Canoe Road South (at the caution light). The Stanton family had several children, among them was Albert.
The newspapers of that day were tasked with more than just covering the big-ticket news items therefore they kept up with the day to day activities of the residents of many areas. The Atmore Record, Atmore Spectrum and the Pine Belt News all kept a running ticker on the pulse beat of Canoe during the early years of the last century.
In these records it is easy to imagine young Albert Stanton growing up. The news would report on him and his brother spending weekends with their grandparents, going to ice cream socials or playing various games with other young people in the area. The Thursday August 17, 1913 edition records Albert speeding around Canoe on a new motorcycle. The sight of a motorcycle in what had, until recently, been only a horse and buggy town had to be quite a sight.
During this time Canoe was alive with department stores, doctor and dentist offices, peach and satsuma orchards and even a bank. Yet little did the residents of the little town know the storm clouds which were gathering to the east.
In 1914 World War I started in Europe. Even though President Woodrow Wilson attempted to keep the US out of the war, as the years passed it became increasingly difficult to remain neutral.
Eventually the US was drawn into the war and it was to be a war unlike any the US had previously seen.
Every male had to register for the draft. When registration officials came to South Alabama, some registrants had to be talked out of their back-wood communities to register in that they had seldom left their small farms.
On the registration forms the men had to list their occupation, whether married or single, whether native born to the US and if they were claiming exemption and why.
Albert Stanton listed his occupation as a salesman and no doubt this applied to working in his father's store in Canoe.
Stanton would soon find himself thrown into the mix with many other young men in a massive mobilization camp. Within a short amount of time he was assigned to Company M of the 324th Infantry Regiment of the 81st Division of the US Army and was sent to France.
The 81st division, one of the new divisions of that war, sailed for France in August 1918. There it participated in the defense of the St. Die sector in Lorraine, France.
By October 1918 the regiment had been moved by cattle car to the front and along the way passed through countless French villages and even been lodged with French civilians.
Disease was a constant threat among the men. During this time the influenza virus began to make its appearance. The virus began to spread among the German troops and within a short time had crossed over to the American lines. Soon many men were falling to the disease and this along with other illness claimed many lives.
On October 5, 1918, Private Albert Stanton died of disease in France, possibly from the flu. The war ended just over a month later.
Records at the Alabama Archives show Pvt. Stanton buried in France, yet the Atmore Record edition from Thursday November 24, 1921 showed his body being laid to rest at the Hall Cemetery in Canoe with Brother Q.E. Wells officiating. His loss was surely felt in the Canoe area.
