USMA Class of 1901. Cullum No. 4005.
He was the son of James J. Guthrie and Mary O'Connor Guthrie.
On May 11, 1907, he married Louise Morgan Simpson, daughter of Brigadier General John Simpson at Havana, Cuba.
They were the parents of five children.
Fifty-second Annual Report of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 11th, 1921, Seemann & Peters Inc., Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1921.
William Leo Guthrie
No. 4005. Class of 1901.
Died, April 8, 1918, at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, aged 42 years.
William Leo Guthrie was born in Iowa, September 12, 1875. Appointed to the Military Academy from Colorado, he entered June 28, 1897 and graduated February 18, 1901, when he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, 12th Cavalry. He served in the Cavalry at Forts Sam Houston and Clark, Texas, until March 1902.
In January 1902, he was transferred to the Corps of Engineers and served with troops of that Corps at Washington, D.C.; manila, Philippine Islands; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and Fort Riley, Kansas, until 1907. In the latter year he sailed for Cuba with Company M, 3rd Battalion of Engineers and after a few months' service with that company at Camp Colombia, Cuba, was placed on detached service in the Department of Public Works at Havana. He remained on that duty under the immediate orders of Lieutenant Colonel William Black, C.E, Advisor to the Department of Public Works, until the end of the Provisional Government, January 28, 1908.
After his return to the United States, in 1908, he was for two years on River and Harbor Improvement at Oswego, New York, one year at the Army Field Engineer School, Fort Leavenworth and three years commanding an Engineer Company, first at Fort Leavenworth and later at Texas City. From March 1915 to August 1917, he was in charge of River and Harbor Improvements at Mobile, Alabama. In August 1917, he received his commission as Colonel of Engineers, National Army and was sent to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, in command of the 309th Engineers. He remained in command of that organization until his death, April 8, 1918. He was married to Miss Louise Simpson, who, with several minor children survives him.
William Leo Guthrie entered upon his career as a cadet at West Point with a weak heart and was conditioned physically. Throughout all his service he knew he possessed a delicate organism and always lived a Spartan's existence in order to save his strength for the service.
He was a man of strong religious character and a devout Christian gentleman of the Roman Catholic faith, a character deeply religious in every phase, but wholly without ostentation or display in that regard, as in every other. He was strict in the performance of duties, exacting on himself and on others as well. With all his deep religious feeling, he never allowed it to interfere with his performance of duty. A fellow officer writes, I recall a scathing answer he once gave a Roman Catholic who tried to use church influence to get the Captain to change a decision. Moreover, he never tried to persuade anyone else to change his religion and once he told a friend, When a man tries to make a woman change her religion he is putting the skids under her. As could be expected from his religion he believed in one's duty to society and lived up to it.
William Guthrie was a man with a remarkably active mind and with keen curiosity to inquire into all that was going on. Though an engineer and soldier by profession, his principal interest and enthusiasm lay in the strictly military side of his duties.
With an ingrown physical weakness in his heart, he nevertheless had an exceptionally big, kind heart. A former battalion commander writes of his observation, While William Guthrie was commanding one of the companies I have seen him go into the water for a man who had been drowned and work over the body in an effort to save the man long after doctors and all others had given up hope. He was eager to help the injured or those in distress. Continuing, this battalion commander writes, Altogether, he was the best company commander that I have observed in my experience in the army; this excellence was due to traits of character that contribute to excellence in any grade held in the army; namely, fairness, a thorough knowledge of human nature, thoroughness in the performance of duty and in exacting such actin from those under his control. At one time his company was with a division that was being inspected with all the vigor known to the regular army at the time and in preparation for immediate war service. The inspector was an officer of long experience in the line and an observer of European troops. He had seen much service as an Inspector General in our army. This officer informed me that Guthrie's company was the best he had seen anywhere.
The same officer further says: I inspected his regiment raised for the World War. His death had occurred only two or three days before. I saw the molding by his careful hands in the character of that regiment, found out that he had clung to his task until death was actually upon him, having discarded thought of self to the last, despite the warnings of doctors and superiors. From the enlisted men of the regiment who drove the car in which I left the camp, I learned that the enlisted men of the regiment, those general and quiet, but accurate appraisers of the men who stand before them, had gauged the character of William Guthrie as truly and well as I had done through years of observation and honored and respected him as a man of his kind deserves to be respected and honored by all.
Willian Guthrie was a fighter, would fight anyone any time for a principle, for a friend or for his command or any member thereof. He died preparing his troops so that they would be ready to make the world free for democracy. He well knew that his energies were killing him, yet he would not quit and when the last call came he was as surely a gallant sacrifice in the World War as any man who fell in action – even more so. He knew that in the full performance of his duty he met his death and he did.
A former subaltern in his company writes as follows: When I joined Bill Guthrie's company the first frosts of fall had come. A nutting drive was on. The Captain saw to it that everyone took an interest in nutting in the afternoons. The company wagons hauled in tons of black walnuts. The cellars of barracks were soon well stocked – and incidentally that company had an excellent knowledge of the neighboring topography.
When a certain engineer battalion of the National Guard reported to the Captain for a week's training in camp, the guardsmen expected to lie around in camp for a day or two and have nothing but guard mounts, with their band. Nat a bit of it! They fund they had landed in the midst of a 'military station' and were pitted against an aggressive enemy, who was heartless enough to attack them at daybreak after that first wakeful and drizzly night. But they learned a heap that week.
These two incidents occur to me as typical of Guthrie's energetic, enthusiastic, driving, fighting spirit. He worked his men hard and himself hardest of all, not sparing himself when sickness threatened. In his untimely death the army regrets the loss of a good soldier.
A Friend.
He was the son of James J. Guthrie and Mary O'Connor Guthrie.
On May 11, 1907, he married Louise Morgan Simpson, daughter of Brigadier General John Simpson at Havana, Cuba.
They were the parents of five children.
Fifty-second Annual Report of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 11th, 1921, Seemann & Peters Inc., Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1921.
William Leo Guthrie
No. 4005. Class of 1901.
Died, April 8, 1918, at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, aged 42 years.
William Leo Guthrie was born in Iowa, September 12, 1875. Appointed to the Military Academy from Colorado, he entered June 28, 1897 and graduated February 18, 1901, when he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, 12th Cavalry. He served in the Cavalry at Forts Sam Houston and Clark, Texas, until March 1902.
In January 1902, he was transferred to the Corps of Engineers and served with troops of that Corps at Washington, D.C.; manila, Philippine Islands; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and Fort Riley, Kansas, until 1907. In the latter year he sailed for Cuba with Company M, 3rd Battalion of Engineers and after a few months' service with that company at Camp Colombia, Cuba, was placed on detached service in the Department of Public Works at Havana. He remained on that duty under the immediate orders of Lieutenant Colonel William Black, C.E, Advisor to the Department of Public Works, until the end of the Provisional Government, January 28, 1908.
After his return to the United States, in 1908, he was for two years on River and Harbor Improvement at Oswego, New York, one year at the Army Field Engineer School, Fort Leavenworth and three years commanding an Engineer Company, first at Fort Leavenworth and later at Texas City. From March 1915 to August 1917, he was in charge of River and Harbor Improvements at Mobile, Alabama. In August 1917, he received his commission as Colonel of Engineers, National Army and was sent to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, in command of the 309th Engineers. He remained in command of that organization until his death, April 8, 1918. He was married to Miss Louise Simpson, who, with several minor children survives him.
William Leo Guthrie entered upon his career as a cadet at West Point with a weak heart and was conditioned physically. Throughout all his service he knew he possessed a delicate organism and always lived a Spartan's existence in order to save his strength for the service.
He was a man of strong religious character and a devout Christian gentleman of the Roman Catholic faith, a character deeply religious in every phase, but wholly without ostentation or display in that regard, as in every other. He was strict in the performance of duties, exacting on himself and on others as well. With all his deep religious feeling, he never allowed it to interfere with his performance of duty. A fellow officer writes, I recall a scathing answer he once gave a Roman Catholic who tried to use church influence to get the Captain to change a decision. Moreover, he never tried to persuade anyone else to change his religion and once he told a friend, When a man tries to make a woman change her religion he is putting the skids under her. As could be expected from his religion he believed in one's duty to society and lived up to it.
William Guthrie was a man with a remarkably active mind and with keen curiosity to inquire into all that was going on. Though an engineer and soldier by profession, his principal interest and enthusiasm lay in the strictly military side of his duties.
With an ingrown physical weakness in his heart, he nevertheless had an exceptionally big, kind heart. A former battalion commander writes of his observation, While William Guthrie was commanding one of the companies I have seen him go into the water for a man who had been drowned and work over the body in an effort to save the man long after doctors and all others had given up hope. He was eager to help the injured or those in distress. Continuing, this battalion commander writes, Altogether, he was the best company commander that I have observed in my experience in the army; this excellence was due to traits of character that contribute to excellence in any grade held in the army; namely, fairness, a thorough knowledge of human nature, thoroughness in the performance of duty and in exacting such actin from those under his control. At one time his company was with a division that was being inspected with all the vigor known to the regular army at the time and in preparation for immediate war service. The inspector was an officer of long experience in the line and an observer of European troops. He had seen much service as an Inspector General in our army. This officer informed me that Guthrie's company was the best he had seen anywhere.
The same officer further says: I inspected his regiment raised for the World War. His death had occurred only two or three days before. I saw the molding by his careful hands in the character of that regiment, found out that he had clung to his task until death was actually upon him, having discarded thought of self to the last, despite the warnings of doctors and superiors. From the enlisted men of the regiment who drove the car in which I left the camp, I learned that the enlisted men of the regiment, those general and quiet, but accurate appraisers of the men who stand before them, had gauged the character of William Guthrie as truly and well as I had done through years of observation and honored and respected him as a man of his kind deserves to be respected and honored by all.
Willian Guthrie was a fighter, would fight anyone any time for a principle, for a friend or for his command or any member thereof. He died preparing his troops so that they would be ready to make the world free for democracy. He well knew that his energies were killing him, yet he would not quit and when the last call came he was as surely a gallant sacrifice in the World War as any man who fell in action – even more so. He knew that in the full performance of his duty he met his death and he did.
A former subaltern in his company writes as follows: When I joined Bill Guthrie's company the first frosts of fall had come. A nutting drive was on. The Captain saw to it that everyone took an interest in nutting in the afternoons. The company wagons hauled in tons of black walnuts. The cellars of barracks were soon well stocked – and incidentally that company had an excellent knowledge of the neighboring topography.
When a certain engineer battalion of the National Guard reported to the Captain for a week's training in camp, the guardsmen expected to lie around in camp for a day or two and have nothing but guard mounts, with their band. Nat a bit of it! They fund they had landed in the midst of a 'military station' and were pitted against an aggressive enemy, who was heartless enough to attack them at daybreak after that first wakeful and drizzly night. But they learned a heap that week.
These two incidents occur to me as typical of Guthrie's energetic, enthusiastic, driving, fighting spirit. He worked his men hard and himself hardest of all, not sparing himself when sickness threatened. In his untimely death the army regrets the loss of a good soldier.
A Friend.
USMA Class of 1901. Cullum No. 4005.
He was the son of James J. Guthrie and Mary O'Connor Guthrie.
On May 11, 1907, he married Louise Morgan Simpson, daughter of Brigadier General John Simpson at Havana, Cuba.
They were the parents of five children.
Fifty-second Annual Report of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 11th, 1921, Seemann & Peters Inc., Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1921.
William Leo Guthrie
No. 4005. Class of 1901.
Died, April 8, 1918, at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, aged 42 years.
William Leo Guthrie was born in Iowa, September 12, 1875. Appointed to the Military Academy from Colorado, he entered June 28, 1897 and graduated February 18, 1901, when he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, 12th Cavalry. He served in the Cavalry at Forts Sam Houston and Clark, Texas, until March 1902.
In January 1902, he was transferred to the Corps of Engineers and served with troops of that Corps at Washington, D.C.; manila, Philippine Islands; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and Fort Riley, Kansas, until 1907. In the latter year he sailed for Cuba with Company M, 3rd Battalion of Engineers and after a few months' service with that company at Camp Colombia, Cuba, was placed on detached service in the Department of Public Works at Havana. He remained on that duty under the immediate orders of Lieutenant Colonel William Black, C.E, Advisor to the Department of Public Works, until the end of the Provisional Government, January 28, 1908.
After his return to the United States, in 1908, he was for two years on River and Harbor Improvement at Oswego, New York, one year at the Army Field Engineer School, Fort Leavenworth and three years commanding an Engineer Company, first at Fort Leavenworth and later at Texas City. From March 1915 to August 1917, he was in charge of River and Harbor Improvements at Mobile, Alabama. In August 1917, he received his commission as Colonel of Engineers, National Army and was sent to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, in command of the 309th Engineers. He remained in command of that organization until his death, April 8, 1918. He was married to Miss Louise Simpson, who, with several minor children survives him.
William Leo Guthrie entered upon his career as a cadet at West Point with a weak heart and was conditioned physically. Throughout all his service he knew he possessed a delicate organism and always lived a Spartan's existence in order to save his strength for the service.
He was a man of strong religious character and a devout Christian gentleman of the Roman Catholic faith, a character deeply religious in every phase, but wholly without ostentation or display in that regard, as in every other. He was strict in the performance of duties, exacting on himself and on others as well. With all his deep religious feeling, he never allowed it to interfere with his performance of duty. A fellow officer writes, I recall a scathing answer he once gave a Roman Catholic who tried to use church influence to get the Captain to change a decision. Moreover, he never tried to persuade anyone else to change his religion and once he told a friend, When a man tries to make a woman change her religion he is putting the skids under her. As could be expected from his religion he believed in one's duty to society and lived up to it.
William Guthrie was a man with a remarkably active mind and with keen curiosity to inquire into all that was going on. Though an engineer and soldier by profession, his principal interest and enthusiasm lay in the strictly military side of his duties.
With an ingrown physical weakness in his heart, he nevertheless had an exceptionally big, kind heart. A former battalion commander writes of his observation, While William Guthrie was commanding one of the companies I have seen him go into the water for a man who had been drowned and work over the body in an effort to save the man long after doctors and all others had given up hope. He was eager to help the injured or those in distress. Continuing, this battalion commander writes, Altogether, he was the best company commander that I have observed in my experience in the army; this excellence was due to traits of character that contribute to excellence in any grade held in the army; namely, fairness, a thorough knowledge of human nature, thoroughness in the performance of duty and in exacting such actin from those under his control. At one time his company was with a division that was being inspected with all the vigor known to the regular army at the time and in preparation for immediate war service. The inspector was an officer of long experience in the line and an observer of European troops. He had seen much service as an Inspector General in our army. This officer informed me that Guthrie's company was the best he had seen anywhere.
The same officer further says: I inspected his regiment raised for the World War. His death had occurred only two or three days before. I saw the molding by his careful hands in the character of that regiment, found out that he had clung to his task until death was actually upon him, having discarded thought of self to the last, despite the warnings of doctors and superiors. From the enlisted men of the regiment who drove the car in which I left the camp, I learned that the enlisted men of the regiment, those general and quiet, but accurate appraisers of the men who stand before them, had gauged the character of William Guthrie as truly and well as I had done through years of observation and honored and respected him as a man of his kind deserves to be respected and honored by all.
Willian Guthrie was a fighter, would fight anyone any time for a principle, for a friend or for his command or any member thereof. He died preparing his troops so that they would be ready to make the world free for democracy. He well knew that his energies were killing him, yet he would not quit and when the last call came he was as surely a gallant sacrifice in the World War as any man who fell in action – even more so. He knew that in the full performance of his duty he met his death and he did.
A former subaltern in his company writes as follows: When I joined Bill Guthrie's company the first frosts of fall had come. A nutting drive was on. The Captain saw to it that everyone took an interest in nutting in the afternoons. The company wagons hauled in tons of black walnuts. The cellars of barracks were soon well stocked – and incidentally that company had an excellent knowledge of the neighboring topography.
When a certain engineer battalion of the National Guard reported to the Captain for a week's training in camp, the guardsmen expected to lie around in camp for a day or two and have nothing but guard mounts, with their band. Nat a bit of it! They fund they had landed in the midst of a 'military station' and were pitted against an aggressive enemy, who was heartless enough to attack them at daybreak after that first wakeful and drizzly night. But they learned a heap that week.
These two incidents occur to me as typical of Guthrie's energetic, enthusiastic, driving, fighting spirit. He worked his men hard and himself hardest of all, not sparing himself when sickness threatened. In his untimely death the army regrets the loss of a good soldier.
A Friend.
He was the son of James J. Guthrie and Mary O'Connor Guthrie.
On May 11, 1907, he married Louise Morgan Simpson, daughter of Brigadier General John Simpson at Havana, Cuba.
They were the parents of five children.
Fifty-second Annual Report of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 11th, 1921, Seemann & Peters Inc., Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1921.
William Leo Guthrie
No. 4005. Class of 1901.
Died, April 8, 1918, at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, aged 42 years.
William Leo Guthrie was born in Iowa, September 12, 1875. Appointed to the Military Academy from Colorado, he entered June 28, 1897 and graduated February 18, 1901, when he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, 12th Cavalry. He served in the Cavalry at Forts Sam Houston and Clark, Texas, until March 1902.
In January 1902, he was transferred to the Corps of Engineers and served with troops of that Corps at Washington, D.C.; manila, Philippine Islands; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and Fort Riley, Kansas, until 1907. In the latter year he sailed for Cuba with Company M, 3rd Battalion of Engineers and after a few months' service with that company at Camp Colombia, Cuba, was placed on detached service in the Department of Public Works at Havana. He remained on that duty under the immediate orders of Lieutenant Colonel William Black, C.E, Advisor to the Department of Public Works, until the end of the Provisional Government, January 28, 1908.
After his return to the United States, in 1908, he was for two years on River and Harbor Improvement at Oswego, New York, one year at the Army Field Engineer School, Fort Leavenworth and three years commanding an Engineer Company, first at Fort Leavenworth and later at Texas City. From March 1915 to August 1917, he was in charge of River and Harbor Improvements at Mobile, Alabama. In August 1917, he received his commission as Colonel of Engineers, National Army and was sent to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, in command of the 309th Engineers. He remained in command of that organization until his death, April 8, 1918. He was married to Miss Louise Simpson, who, with several minor children survives him.
William Leo Guthrie entered upon his career as a cadet at West Point with a weak heart and was conditioned physically. Throughout all his service he knew he possessed a delicate organism and always lived a Spartan's existence in order to save his strength for the service.
He was a man of strong religious character and a devout Christian gentleman of the Roman Catholic faith, a character deeply religious in every phase, but wholly without ostentation or display in that regard, as in every other. He was strict in the performance of duties, exacting on himself and on others as well. With all his deep religious feeling, he never allowed it to interfere with his performance of duty. A fellow officer writes, I recall a scathing answer he once gave a Roman Catholic who tried to use church influence to get the Captain to change a decision. Moreover, he never tried to persuade anyone else to change his religion and once he told a friend, When a man tries to make a woman change her religion he is putting the skids under her. As could be expected from his religion he believed in one's duty to society and lived up to it.
William Guthrie was a man with a remarkably active mind and with keen curiosity to inquire into all that was going on. Though an engineer and soldier by profession, his principal interest and enthusiasm lay in the strictly military side of his duties.
With an ingrown physical weakness in his heart, he nevertheless had an exceptionally big, kind heart. A former battalion commander writes of his observation, While William Guthrie was commanding one of the companies I have seen him go into the water for a man who had been drowned and work over the body in an effort to save the man long after doctors and all others had given up hope. He was eager to help the injured or those in distress. Continuing, this battalion commander writes, Altogether, he was the best company commander that I have observed in my experience in the army; this excellence was due to traits of character that contribute to excellence in any grade held in the army; namely, fairness, a thorough knowledge of human nature, thoroughness in the performance of duty and in exacting such actin from those under his control. At one time his company was with a division that was being inspected with all the vigor known to the regular army at the time and in preparation for immediate war service. The inspector was an officer of long experience in the line and an observer of European troops. He had seen much service as an Inspector General in our army. This officer informed me that Guthrie's company was the best he had seen anywhere.
The same officer further says: I inspected his regiment raised for the World War. His death had occurred only two or three days before. I saw the molding by his careful hands in the character of that regiment, found out that he had clung to his task until death was actually upon him, having discarded thought of self to the last, despite the warnings of doctors and superiors. From the enlisted men of the regiment who drove the car in which I left the camp, I learned that the enlisted men of the regiment, those general and quiet, but accurate appraisers of the men who stand before them, had gauged the character of William Guthrie as truly and well as I had done through years of observation and honored and respected him as a man of his kind deserves to be respected and honored by all.
Willian Guthrie was a fighter, would fight anyone any time for a principle, for a friend or for his command or any member thereof. He died preparing his troops so that they would be ready to make the world free for democracy. He well knew that his energies were killing him, yet he would not quit and when the last call came he was as surely a gallant sacrifice in the World War as any man who fell in action – even more so. He knew that in the full performance of his duty he met his death and he did.
A former subaltern in his company writes as follows: When I joined Bill Guthrie's company the first frosts of fall had come. A nutting drive was on. The Captain saw to it that everyone took an interest in nutting in the afternoons. The company wagons hauled in tons of black walnuts. The cellars of barracks were soon well stocked – and incidentally that company had an excellent knowledge of the neighboring topography.
When a certain engineer battalion of the National Guard reported to the Captain for a week's training in camp, the guardsmen expected to lie around in camp for a day or two and have nothing but guard mounts, with their band. Nat a bit of it! They fund they had landed in the midst of a 'military station' and were pitted against an aggressive enemy, who was heartless enough to attack them at daybreak after that first wakeful and drizzly night. But they learned a heap that week.
These two incidents occur to me as typical of Guthrie's energetic, enthusiastic, driving, fighting spirit. He worked his men hard and himself hardest of all, not sparing himself when sickness threatened. In his untimely death the army regrets the loss of a good soldier.
A Friend.
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