World War 1 100 Years Ago: May 8-15

From The Indianapolis Star, Thursday, May 13, 1915: Indianapolis nurses Miss Clodia Johnson and Miss Margaret Bowen, who are members of the National Red Cross Nursing Service, departed yesterday for New York where they will sail Saturday for Austria. The women are the first Indiana nurses to be accepted for service in the European war. While friends and relatives wept as they waved farewells, the nurses were dry eyed and enthusiastic over the prospects of performing a service for the suffering humanity in war-stricken countries and entirely unmindful of possible danger to themselves. They have taken inoculations against typhus which is devastating southern Europe. About 200 American born nurses are working on the battlefields of France, Serbia, and Russia, as well as in countries away from the battles but where there are thousands of wounded to be cared for.