Notable Cadets

Russell Kelso Carter, born in 1849, was in Pennsylvania Military Academy’s first graduating class in 1867 and was awarded a degree in civil engineering. In a long and varied career, Carter was an ordained Methodist minister, practicing physician and prolific author.

He also was the first president of the college alumni association. Widener University’s R. Kelso Carter Award–given each year to a U.S. citizen (other than a graduate of PMC or Widener) who “in the opinion of the Alumni Association, has through acts and accomplishments brought honor to the college” — is named in his honor.

As a student, Carter was a star athlete-said to be “one of the cleverest of the early pitchers” on the school’s first baseball team (formed in 1866) and an expert gymnast excelling in routines with a pair of 20-pound Indian clubs.

After graduation, he remained at PMA as a mathematics instructor and later also taught military tactics, chemistry and natural and experimental philosophy. In 1872, he was the college adjutant.

After the 1873 commencement exercises, graduates met at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia to form an alumni association so that “the friendships of former years might be preserved, the more agreeable memories cherished, and a spirit of union and good fellowship fostered.” Captain Carter, as he was known, was elected its first president.

Ill health forced him to move to California for three years, but he returned in 1876 to resume duties as professor of mathematics and tactics instructor.

In 1881, after the retirement of Col. George Patton, who organized PMA’s engineering program in 1864, Carter was made Professor of Engineering. He immediately set out to improve the civil engineering program and introduced practical aspects to the program, new textbooks for mathematics and expanded the survey program. But in the summer of 1887, he again became ill and was forced to resign from the faculty of PMA. He moved to New Jersey to recover.

Faced with recurring health issues, Carter, who grew up in a religious home, explored faith healing and in 1887 was given a license to preach as a Methodist minister and garnered a reputation as a prominent evangelist. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, he wrote numerous books about faith healing, Christianity and science and at least four novels. He also wrote the words and music to scores of hymns, including “Standing on the Promises,” which was contained in the 1885 hymnal, Songs of Perfect Love, edited PMA music professor John R. Sweeny.

During the summer of 1892 Carter returned to California while his family remained in Maryland. A short time later, he filed for divorce from his wife. After successful medical treatment of tuberculosis (“consumption”), he distanced himself from faith healing, returned to Baltimore, studied medicine and became a physician. He practiced in the Baltimore area until his death in 1928. His obituary noted that he had been the last surviving alumnus of PMA.

The hymn, is still sung, as you can hear in this modern rendition:

Conrad, a decorated career Army officer who served in the Mexican border wars, the Spanish-American War, the Chinese Relief Expedition, the Philippines Insurrection and World War I—and as a professor of Military Science and Tactics at PMC–has the distinction of not only graduating from PMC, but also from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (Class of 1892).

Born in West Virginia, in 1868, he was the son of Col. Joseph Conrad, who commanded a Union brigade during the Atlanta campaign in the Civil War and “carried in his head a bullet intended for General Phil Sheridan…when he interposed his person for protection of his Chief,” according a 1955 USMA alumni bulletin.

At Pennsylvania Military Academy, Conrad was one of the youngest and most brilliant members of his class. After graduation, he passed the entrance exam for USMA, where his experiences in Chester “enabled him to fit comfortably into the pattern of cadet life at West Point,” the alumni bulletin, written after his death in 1955, reported. After graduation from the Academy, Conrad, an avid horseman, was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Regiment. While stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, he was commended for his conduct in the field during the Garza Revolution on the Mexican border.

During the Spanish-American War, the 3rd Cavalry was one of five cavalry units assigned to the crucial assault on San Juan Heights. Three troopers in the regiment were killed and 52 wounded in the action, including 2nd Lt. Conrad, who was shot in the ankle. Conrad was also one of five troopers in the battle awarded a Silver for distinguished gallantry.

After three tours of duty in the Philippines and participation in the Chinese Relief Expedition at the end of the Boxer Rebellion, Conrad, by then a captain, served as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at PMC from 1902-1905. He took a special interest in the Cavalry Squad and was regarded by students as “firm and strict, yet always just, kindly and an ‘all-around good fellow.’” He returned to the college in 1924 to receive the Bachelor of Military Science degree, awarded to honor graduates who served in the military in time of war.

Conrad commanded the 38th Field Artillery during World War I and until it was demobilized in 1919. After that, he served with the Adjutant General’s Department in Washington, D.C. When he retired in 1932, he and his wife, the former Jean Hoskins, settled in Washington.

After his death in 1955, his plebe-year roommate at West Point remembered him as “as fine and loveable a character as ever was.”

Less than a year after James Calvin Hobart Jr. graduated from PMC in 1916, the United States entered World War I, and he was eager to get into the fight.

Rejected a dozen times by various branches of the American military because of poor eyesight, he left home in Cincinnati in 1917 for France. There, on July 9, he joined the American Field Service as one of a growing number of American volunteers assigned to the French Army’s Réserve Mallet transportation unit. Praised by the French as “America’s first belligerents,” the 800-member unit convoyed ammo and materiel from the railheads on the Soissons-Fismes road to the Chemin des Dames on the Western front.

Hobart was placed in Transport Materiel Unit 397 Groupe Hémart. On a typical sortie, he ferried 10,200 pounds of 75 mm artillery rounds through shell-pocked terrain in his five-ton Pierce Arrow truck as French and German pilots dueled in the skies above.
The work was dangerous, and Hobart saw plenty of action.

“I watched what first appeared to be a column of black smoke,” he wrote in a letter home. “I caught one of these columns at its birth. It was a huge fountain of earth which rose, oh, I’d say about forty feet in the air, spread out and came back to earth. I’d counted about forty or fifty of these ‘Jack Johnsons.’ I closed my eyes and listened to the rifle fire; I’d lie on my back and see the Shrapnel bursting around a dozen French planes.”
The 23-year-old attempted to make light of the dangers. “I’m just as happy and safe as if I were at home,” he wrote his family in mid-August 1917. But in the next breath, he added: “God’s will be done. Remember that’s what you pray for and hope for. So, Mother, if anything happens, please take it that way. I intend to come back and would be darned sorry not to, but if He decides otherwise, let’s be glad it’s so.”

That month, Hobart was decorated for his service by the French government in a ceremony that included “one French general, on colonel, one major, one captain and a general of the British Army.”

“We, about thirteen of us, were called to attention…decorated and kissed twice, once on each cheek,” he wrote home. “At this point, a German plane was sighted and we all scuttled off the open field and made for a wood nearby.” Records of the century-old ceremony are elusive and it is not clear what medal Hobart was awarded. AFS drivers received three types of French Army decorations, the Légion d’honneur, the Médaille militaire, and the Croix de Guerre.

After he had served three months with Réserve Mallet, the U.S. Army assumed control of the AFS and Hobart (still disqualified from the military by what he called “these dishpans I have for specs”) joined the American Red Cross as an ambulance driver. “If PMC taught me anything,” he wrote a friend, “it taught me to perform a duty whether pleasant or not. I leave for Italy, December 3, 1917.”

Later, he wrote: “I am driving Ambulance 87. That was my old number at PMC. Funny how that was assigned to me!”

Hobart died in Albuquerque, N.M, at age 76 after serving as an administrative officer in the Atomic Energy Commission

Churchill Mehard was born in Mercer, PA and attended public schools. He then enrolled in Haverford College, PA. He left Haverford in February 1898, he arrived at PMC. Known as “Baldy,” for the lack of hair on his head, it was clear that he wanted to earn military honors in the Corps of Cadets and pursue a law career. Although he earned an appointment to West Point, he remained at PMC and in his senior year was appointed First Captain.

After Commencement, Mehard began his study of law at the Pittsburgh Law School and was admitted to the Allegheny County bar in 1903. Yet, his military aspirations remained. He enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard and was commissioned a First Lieutenant in 1903. As World War I approached, Mehard was commissioned into the U.S. Army under the National Defense Act of 1916, and assigned as an instructor at Fort McPherson, GA. On August 15, 1917, he was assigned to the 321st Field Artillery, 157h Brigade, 82nd Division AEF as a Major. After completing School of Fire at Fort Sill, OK, Mehard remained as a senior instructor. In May of 1918, he was ordered to rejoin the 321st Field Artillery in France. He led his troops through the second Battle of the Marne the St. Mihiel offensive, and throughout the entire Meuse-Argonne operation. Despite being severely gassed at L’Esperance, he was twice cited for gallantry in action. After the Armistice, he returned to America, and appointed Colonel of the field artillery of the Pennsylvania National Guard. In 1923 he was promoted to Brigadier General and commander of the 53rd Field Artillery Brigade.

Upon his return from France, Mehard resumed his law practice with his father, Judge Samuel Mehard. After his father’s death, Mehard reportedly became a “hard-drinking socialite” who was happy to be named the city solicitor of Pittsburgh. In 1939, he was found guilty in the City Hall consent verdict scandal (involving accusations of bribery) along with several other attorneys. Mehard successfully pleaded for mitigation of his sentence on grounds of his failing health. He moved to Arizona and died in September, 1943.

After Commencement, Joseph Minturn returned to Indianapolis and opened a wood carving business, having learned the machinist trade before he entered PMC. Wood carving became nearly obsolete when photo-chemical engraving was introduced and Minturn decided to enter the Indiana Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1895 and began a successful career in patent law. In 1916, he founded the Indiana Society of Mayflower descendants after learning that he was a direct descendant of John Howland, one of the passengers on the Mayflower.

In response to advertisements in the local papers in 1917 to join the Officer’s Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison and his own sense of duty, Minturn applied and was ordered to report at once. He registered, was given a thorough medical exam and was pronounced “sound and all right, but over-age.” He was then sworn in. Within weeks, Minturn was honorably discharged from the Army because of his age (he was 56 at the time). He left Fort Harrison and immediately traveled to Washington, D.C. There he hoped to receive a special dispensation from President Woodrow Wilson. Despite his unsuccessful efforts to acquire Congressional support from the Indiana delegation, Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall, a fellow Hoosier, came to his aid by contacting the Secretary of War. Minturn received new orders to re-enlist at Fort Harrison. After he completed his training, Minturn was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps and ordered to Camp Taylor, in Kentucky.

Fort De Piesnoy

At the start of World War I it became apparent that, because of advances in surveillance, there was a urgent need for specialists, called camouflers, who could fool the enemy through ingenious perspective illusions. Because of his ability to sketch and help make large-scale backdrops, Minturn was promoted and transferred to the Engineer School and attached to the 309th Engineers of the 84th division. In October, 1918, Minturn went to France with the 309th. There he was ordered to the A.E.F. Army Specialist School at Langres, France. He became an instructor in camouflage and military sketching. In 1919, the Army Schools were closed and Minturn was transferred to A.E.F. Headquarters. There he continued his work of illustrating manuals. In June, he returned to America and was discharged. He then returned to Indianapolis.

In 1920, Minturn and six other Indianapolis men who had served in the War founded The Service Club of Indianapolis. This group held regular lunch meetings to maintain the “bonds of friendship” they had formed during the War. The only requirement was that members had to have seen service in the Army, Navy or Marine Corps. In 1921, the story of Minturn’s war experiences along with many of his own illustrations were published in “The American Spirit.” He remained active in Indianapolis for many years and died after a short illness in 1943.

Jack Fancourt

After completing Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania, John “Jack” Fancourt attended PMC. He was a local track star, and, by his senior year, held the Middle Atlantic 220-yard record. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and went on to attend Officer Candidate School (Infantry). Because of a deficiency in math, he failed to graduate, and was transferred to Camp Butler, North Carolina. Private Fancourt wasted little time requesting an over sea’s transfer to replacement forces and was assigned to Company K, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division.

During early morning hours of January 22, 1944, the Allies landed on the Italian beach near Anzio. They advanced inland, but were stopped by a German counter attack in early February. At dawn on February 16, the Germans, supported by tanks, launched an attack, with the 179th receiving the brunt of the assault. On February 18, the Germans launched a more intense assault and destroyed one battalion of the 179th, forcing the remainder of the regiment to fall back. Company K suffered heavy casualties, but Fancourt survived. He was captured by the Germans, and along with other prisoners forced to walk towards Rome. After four days, they reached “Cinecitta,” a prisoner of war camp located just outside of Rome. The camp was used to hold prisoners for short periods of time. It was lightly guarded by German soldiers, and surrounded by barbed wire. One night, the guards were distracted by an air raid near the camp. This allowed Fancourt and several others to escape through the barbed wire fence. For the next several months, Fancourt, now with a moustache and long hair, hid in an apartment in Rome, and eluded recapture with the help of the Italian Underground,. In June, Rome was liberated, and Fancourt returned to duty.

At the request of Major General James Ulio, Adjutant General of the Army and a trustee of PMC, Fancourt returned to the school for a short time as a staff member of the Army Specialized Training (AST) unit. After being honorably discharged in late 1945, Fancourt joined the family business, W.F. Fancourt & Company, makers of textile soaps, in Philadelphia. Eventually the company moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. There he enjoyed fishing and golf, serving as the Honorary Chairman of the Greater Greensboro Open in 1974. He died in 1996.