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Note: He died of complications from colon cancer. ********************************************************************
He signed a postcard to his sister (Mrs. Morris Stetson) as ' Jack'. Per aunt Azzie he went by Jack when he was young.
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He served in World War I. Per Aunt Azzie, he served in Nevers, France. When he got over there, some of the fighting was over. His job was to guard the prisoners. "One of the prisoners carved an artillery shell with an eagle, to thank grandpa for taking such good care of him." He served in the 19th Engineers. Jarrod has seen the 2 shell casings carved by the prisoner. Aunt Azzie has them. Per the army, he served from May 25, 1917 to June 11, 1919.
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Per Aunt Allison and Grandma Johnson, he was in the 19th Engineers, and was gassed by mustard gas in WW I.
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Per Aunt Allison and Grandma Johnson, John B. Peacock worked in coal mines at age 11 or 12 and then on the railroad for over 50 years.
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Per Aunt Allison and Grandma Johnson, John B. Peacock drank a 5th of whiskey every Saturday.
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Per Aunt Allison and Grandma Johnson, Caroline and John ran off to be married by a Justice of the Peace on March 15, 1921.
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Per Aunt Allison and Grandma Johnson, John B. Peacock may have inherited a saloon in Scotland but refused it. Per Uncle Bill Peacock, he inherited a hotel in Scotland (possibly Edinburgh) but didn't accept it.
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Per research, John Bennett Peacock was in the 19th Engineers (Railway ) stationed in Nevers, France where he worked in a railyard. The 19th also had POW's working on the railyard with them, so the story about guarding a prisoner may be true as well. I have seen the artillery shells the prisoner carved.
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Excerpt from a book reference found online about the 19th engineers. The Builder Magazine October 1929 - Volume XV - Number 10 THE CITY OF PRAGUE AND BOHEMIAN FREEMASONRY by Bro. Joseph S. Roucek, NJ
The story of the Saxonia Lodge therefore is pieced together from the sources that are at hand. The first is entitled "A Lodge of Inherent Right." I quote: In the pages of the American Mason (Philadelphia), the following relation is given which is of unusual interest in more than one particular. Especially is the narrative notable as showing that a body of Masons, thus thrown together, re-assumed an inherent right delegated to Grand Lodges under ordinary circumstances, and constituted themselves into an "Occasional Lodge" as was the custom of our Masonic forbears. The Nineteenth Engineers, Railway, was recruited largely from among the employees of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and in company with the Eighteenth Engineers, Railway, from the Pacific Coast, sailed from New York on August 9, 1917. The big Cunard Liner "Saxonia," then used as a troopship by the English authorities, on which we were sailing put in at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and there joined the convoy which was being formed. Quite a number of passengers, both civilian and military, were on board other than the two regiments mentioned.
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19TH ENGINEERS (RAILWAY) By Lieutenant W. Frederic Todd, Regimental Historian
The history of the 19th Engineers properly dates from June, 1916, when the possibility of operations in Mexico made necessary a definite plan for operation of the railroads, both as to material and personnel. At this time Samuel M. Felton, President of the Chicago and Great Western Railway, was appointed consulting engineer and adviser to the chief of engineers, U. S. Army, on railway matters, and it was he who conceived the idea of recruiting men for railway regiments direct from railway service.
When the United States entered the European War and the question of railway operation and maintenance in France became of paramount importance, Mr. Felton was officially placed in charge of all preparations for the organization and movement abroad of railway engineers. The pressing need for railroad men at that time is shown in a letter written by Mr. Felton: "The French railways are badly run down and in more or less need of complete rehabilitation; they have no men who can be spared to do this work; they want all their men on the firing line; before we can train men to go into the trenches we can supply them as to railroads, and this immediately. General Joffre says any men we send over must be soldiers, so the railroad forces must be enlisted men..
They are short of men in their shops to repair locomotives and it is proposed to organize a shop regiment .. " The shop regiment referred to in Mr. Felton's letter, when organized, became the 19th Engineers (Railway).
Interior of Commercial Museum, was used as Barracks by the 19lh (Railway) Engineers.
Recruiting was begun in the offices of the District Engineer, Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia, with Captains Charles P. 0' Conner and Joseph Caccavajo as Recruiting Officers. The first enlistment was made on April 20, 1917, but it was not until the beginning of May that an active campaign for recruits was begun. On May 9, 1917, Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Deakyne, Corps of Engineers, arrived in Philadelphia to take command of the regiment, accompanied by First Lieutenant William F. Tompkins, Corps of Engineers, his Adjutant.
Colonel Deakyne had served as District Engineer in Philadelphia from 1908 to 1912, conducting important river and harbor work, and his knowledge of the city was of immense assistance to him in the work of organization.
Colonel Deakyne was transferred to the command of the 11th Engineers six months after his arrival in France. In May, 1918, he was appointed Director of Light Railways and Roads and in September, 1918, became Chief Engineer of the Second Army, with the rank of Brigadier General.
Since the regiment was to depend to a great extent upon the railroads for personnel, the need for the utmost cooperation was manifest. W. W. Atter bury, Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, not only gave official assistance to Colonel Deakyne but also took an intense personal interest in the regiment. By his instructions, James Milliken, Special Agent of the railroad, devoted his entire time to work among the railroad men in encouraging enlistments, though little encouragement was needed. The "business" quickly grew to such proportions that the offices in the Witherspoon Building became inadequate and the first two floors of the Hale Building, Juniper and Sansom streets, were taken over.
Invaluable aid in recruiting was rendered by the Home Defense Committee of the Master Builders Exchange, under the Chairmanship of W. Nelson Mayhew. This committee, two members of which were on duty at all times, was directly responsible for a very large percentage of the enlistments, for approximately 600 men were enlisted from railroads, the balance coming from various other lines of business. Of the men recruited from railroads, 357 were from the Pennsylvania, 41 from the Philadelphia " Reading and 40 from the Baltimore " Ohio Railroads. The remainder came in smaller numbers from twenty-six other railroad companies.
The first men were called into active service on June 2, 1917, the barracks being the Exhibition Hall of the Philadelphia Museums, 34th and Spruce streets. The men were called out in groups of from one to two hundred and assigned to companies according to trades, each company containing, so far as practicable, all men of the same trade. Military training was begun at once under experienced instructors furnished by the Pennsylvania National Guard and continued to the date of sailing, August 9th.
It was understood that the regiment was to move into fully equipped shops and was not to take any tools abroad. A small number of hand tools, ordered as a matter of precaution, were not received until some time after the arrival of the regiment in France. Less than three weeks prior to the date of sailing, the Commanding Officer was advised that instead of going into equipped shops, it would go into the new Nevers shops of the Paris, Lyon et Mediterranee Railway, which were then under process of construction. As there was absolutely nothing in the shops, it was therefore necessary to equip them completely with all necessary machine tools, travelling cranes, air and hand tools, steam, water and air piping, power and lighting lines and fixtures, install a power plant and furnish steam and install lines for electric current (which was to be furnished by the Continental Edison Company from their new plant at Garchizy, about seven kilometers from the shops), and provide a complete supply of all materials necessary for the operation of the shops for a period of six months. The Wilmington and Trenton shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad were selected as being of about the same capacity as the Nevers shops, and brief studies of the equipment and supplies, were made, resulting in the formation of a complete list of tools, machinery, storehouse, drafting room and office equipment; in short, everything necessary for placing the shops in operation and running them for a period of six months. The order for all tools and material was placed by the Director General of Railways, Mr. Felton, within two weeks of the time that information was received as to supposed conditions in the Nevers shops. It was not until after the arrival of the organization in France that the actual situation was ascertained.
In accordance with orders from the port of embarkation, much important equipment was shipped from Philadelphia to New York five days in advance of the regiment, in order to insure its transportation on the same ship. Practically none of this equipment, consisting of clothing, cooking facilities, automobiles, motorcycles, tools, etc., was loaded on the boat, with the result that the regiment arrived in France with no automobiles, motorcycles or field ranges, and very little in the way of supplies of tools and clothing. Three days' reserve rations, supposed to be issued at New York, were not to be found, until, upon disembarking at Liverpool, they were discovered buried under hundreds of tons of other freight. Arriving at Liverpool on August 23d, the regiment disembarked the following day and immediately entrained for Borden, about seven miles from Aldershot, where it remained in Oxney Camp until August 28th, when it moved to Southampton for embarkation for France. Owing to bad weather the crossing was delayed until the following day and the regiment landed in Le Havre on the morning of August 30, 1917.
The Regiment Reaches France At Le Havre it was learned that the shops at Nevers were not ready for occupancy and each company was sent to a separate station for work in French locomotive repair shops. The distribution of the companies was as follows: Company A, Regimental Headquarters and First Battalion Headquarters to St. Nazaire; Company B to Bordeaux; Company C to Rennes; Company D to Sotteville-les Rouen; Company E and Second Battalion Headquarters to St. Pierre-des-Corps (near Tours), and Company F to Oullins, near Lyon. With the exception of Company A, whose work was locomotive erection, all the companies were engaged on locomotive repairs in the French shops.
With the exception of the detachments at St. Nazaire and Nevers, it is a difficult matter to give a detailed account of the work done by the companies in the French railway shops. None of the companies had tools, working clothing, motor transportation or cooking equipment. In one or two instances it was possible to purchase a few American-made tools, but for the most part the men had to make out as best they could with antiquated French equipment or to laboriously make for themselves such tools as were absolutely necessary.
Every company, upon arrival at its destination, met with an enthusiastic reception, at the hands of the French authorities " and were looked upon with disapproval by the French workmen with whom they were to be associated. In some instances this disapproval was the result of the French workmen receiving the not unnatural impression that "les Americains" were getting easy berths back of the lines while the French workmen would be released for service at the front. In other cases the French workmen complained that the Americans set a higher standard of production than they could meet and they, therefore, would either have to work longer hours or take less pay. As a matter of fact, the Americans in the shops did more work in an eight-hour day than the French workmen did in a ten or twelve hour day, though the hours of the Americans were made to coincide with the French as far as possible in order to prevent any complaints on that score. As an instance of fast production by the American railroad men, a case at St. Nazaire was interesting. The locomotives erected by the French were usually completed in about three weeks. The first locomotive received by the Americans was erected in three days, with only the tools found on the locomotives themselves. The French shop men declared that it would not run, and great was their astonishment when they saw that it would.
Antagonism on the part of the French workmen was brief. They met the Americans outside of the shops, in the cafes and in their own homes, and when the companies were withdrawn, there was not an instance in which the French, the workmen as well as the authorities, did not protest against taking them away. At St. Nazaire, the only preparation that had been made for the men was the erection of wooden barracks and the placing of wooden bunks. There were no kitchens, wash houses or other necessary facilities. Work was immediately begun on erecting such additional buildings as were needed.
The instructions with regard to the erecting shops were for the Americans to get out six locomotives a day. There were no tools whatever, and, what proved to be the greatest difficulty of all, there was no provision of any kind for handling material. It was manifestly impossible to take the locomotive parts as they were unloaded from the boats and put them into the shops. It was discovered almost immediately that when a ship arrived with a consignment of locomotives it might be necessary to have it completely unloaded before there would be enough parts available to start work on a single locomotive. This meant that it was necessary to build storage yards. The French gave the Americans the use of a plot of ground for this purpose, but it was swampy in character and until the roadbed had been put in shape by throwing in ballast until it found a bottom, the locomotive cranes were off the tracks on an average of three or four times a day.
There were few tracks running from the docks to the locomotive shops and these were constantly being used by the French to transport their own locomotives and material. As a result, locomotive chassis and boilers had to be left on the docks until it was possible to get other space to store them, lay tracks to the storage yard, get cars to haul them in, and finally, secure cranes to load the parts on the cars. The history of the 19th Engineers at St. Nazaire, like Nevers, is a story of difficulty after difficulty overcome, of work done in spite of apparently insurmountable obstacles. The situation at the docks was of the greatest seriousness. The only cranes there were being used night and day by the French for unloading of ships, all material being left on the docks, rather than use the cranes for loading cars. On the occasions when the French cranes were available for use by the Americans, there was difficulty in getting operators to handle them. Finally two thirty-five-ton cranes were assigned permanently to the work; later four more were secured, two of which were used for loading and two for unloading in the yards. Additional storage yard space was secured from the French, more tracks laid down, and on January 1, 1919, there was a total storage space for about one hundred locomotives at one time.
In the shops themselves there was space for about six or eight locomotives, the tracks being placed so close together that it was almost impossible for a man to work on an engine when there was another one on the adjoining track, in addition to which there was so little room for handling material that it was impossible to maintain any great degree of order. There were two large overhead cranes in this shop, the Americans having practically the exclusive use of one of them and the use of the other for lifts that required two cranes. The greater part of the crane work had to be done at night, when the French were not working in the shops. The difficulty in getting material to replace parts that were missing from the packing boxes upon arrival made it necessary to send men to Nantes, Angers and surrounding country in an endeavor to secure the material to make such parts. Buying from the French was necessitated by the fact that placing requisitions through regular channels did not bring satisfactory results. " Eventually the American forces were given the use of another shop, which had been used by the French for the manufacture of railway guns (which same guns were on one occasion pointed out to a party of visitors as being part of the work of the regiment), and there was a corresponding increase in production.
During the period from September 30, 1917, to December 30, 1918, the men of the 19th Engineers at St. Nazaire erected a total of 1,124 locomotives, in addition to building storage yards, laying tracks, and building from locomotive packing boxes practically an entire new camp, capable of accommodating over a thousand men, truly a notable achievement.
Another phase of the work done by the St. Nazaire Contingent was the repair of steamship boilers by a detachment under Captain T. L. Mallam, the work being done in such a manner as to merit the highest commendation of the naval authorities, and which resulted in a citation for Captain Mallam.
Time Records Established It has been said that the time consumed by the French in the erection of locomotives was three weeks, and that the first locomotive erected by the Americans was completed in three days. On December 30, 1918, the average time in which a locomotive was erected in the American shops was twenty-six hours, and the fastest time in which any one locomotive was built was eleven hours and ten minutes.
The situation at Nevers, where the first men of the 19th arrived on December 23, 1917, compared favorably with that at St. Nazaire, in so far as lack of material and all working and living facilities were concerned. Vastly larger in scope than the operation at St. Nazaire, with each individual department presenting a multiplicity of problems, the results were more than could have been expected of any organization.
The shops, far from being completed and lacking only tools and equipment, had progressed no further than the laying of the foundations of the main building. No machinery of any kind had been installed and the power plant at Garchizy, instead of being in operation, had progressed only to the point of partial erection of the building, no machinery having been installed. In addition, no arrangements whatever had been made for taking care of the troops, though it had been understood that this matter was to have been taken care of by the French.
Cars of railway material began to arrive in November, and an organization was established to handle the unloading and storing of it. During November and December, 270 carloads of material came in, much of this being heavy machinery for installation in the shops. There were no cranes available and all the unloading of this machinery and material had to be done by hand. Company E was ordered to Nevers, and upon arrival there was drawn upon for personnel for the stores department, and a gang of mechanics was organized and assigned to the erection of locomotive cranes. By the first of February two cranes had been erected and greatly facilitated the unloading of material, 845 cars of which arrived during January and February. The development of the storehouse work and organization, like that of every other operation at Nevers, was a matter of gradual growth and increased efficiency as new men were trained to the work.
It is impossible, in a brief space, to give even a fair idea of what was accomplished. For example, the power plant at Garchizy, which was supposed to be ready to supply power, was finally taken over, the building construction completed, machinery installed and the plant operated by Americans. In the meantime, a complete electrical plant had been installed in the shops by the electrical department, furnishing light and power to both the shops and the camp.
The growth of the various departments is well illustrated by the development of the blacksmith shop. This shop when started in the early part of 1918, consisted of two blacksmiths and two helpers, working in a small shed. In August, 1918, the blacksmith shop occupied over half an acre of ground and employed nearly a hundred men.
In addition to the work done in the Nevers shops proper, car shops were erected for the repair of freight cars, and a track system laid down with a capacity of 750 cars. From September to December, 1918, inclusive, the car shops turned out, repaired, a total of 1,863 cars.
Under the supervision of the electrical department was the maintenance of American ambulance trains. The first order consisted of fifteen trains, with two more procured from the French, but finding that the number would be inadequate, an order was placed with the English to furnish thirty-three additional trains. Only four of the additional thirty-three trains had been delivered when the armistice was signed, and the order for the balance of twenty-nine was canceled. One of the greatest difficulties in handling the trains was the variation in equipment and parts. There were, in the first fifteen trains received, seven different types, none of the parts of which were interchangeable, necessitating considerable additional work on the part of the supply department, to say nothing of the delay in getting additional parts when needed.
Naturally, with the growth of the shops themselves, there was need for increased personnel, which, in turn, required additional camp space. Such of the companies still on duty in outlying French shops as could be released from this work were brought to Nevers, where a camp was built capable of housing 4,000 men, and additional men, most of them with no railroad experience, secured from replacement camps. Camp Stephenson, as it was named, was undoubtedly one of the best in France, with its complete sanitary system, company shower baths, a Y. M. C. A. building capable of seating 1,400 men, and its well-stocked library. Classes in mechanical subjects were being conducted at Camp Stephenson some time before the organization of the regular A. E. F. schools.
An idea of the magnitude of the Nevers operation may be gained from the fact that the camp itself occupied about twenty-five acres of land, the car shops about twenty acres and the locomotive shops forty-five acres.
In February, 1919, the first detachment left Camp Stephenson en route for the United States. The remaining personnel was returned in detachments of about 500 men, the last to leave being a small detachment from the supply depot who remained behind on special duty for the purpose of assisting in turning over the shops, supplies and equipment to the French.
The work accomplished by the 19th Regiment of Engineers is something that cannot be appreciated except by those fully acquainted with the difficulties that were continually encountered and overcome, both at home and abroad. With few exceptions, officers and men had had no previous military experience, their training consisting, on the part of most of them, of that obtained during the few weeks spent in barracks in Philadelphia, but they developed a military organization and left behind a record of achievement, individually and as an organization, of which any regiment may well be proud.
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