Daviess Countians Who Served

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Historical Marker #1456 commemorates the 1,747 men who served from Daviess County during World War I, between April 1917 and November 1918.

Kentucky enlisted more than 80,000 men in the Armed Forces for the First World War. With more than 1,700 coming from Daviess County, two of these men were brigadier generals in the Army and one became a major general in the Marine Corps.

Thomas Cruse and Ira Allen Haynes, the brigadier generals, were both born in Owensboro in 1857 and 1859, respectively. Cruse attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, eventually finding his way to Arizona where, as a cavalry officer, he helped fight against Geronimo. He became a brigadier general in the quartermasters’ corps on February 14, 1916, and retired from the army two years later. His book “Apache Days and After” was published in 1941. Cruse is buried in the Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C.

Ira Allen Haynes graduated from West Point in 1883, becoming a colonel in 1912 and a brigadier general in 1917. Serving in France from August 1918 until April 1919, Haynes retired from the military in 1923. He died in 1955 in Palo Alto, California. Haynes is buried in the Arlington National Cemetery.

Major General Logan Feland graduated from MIT in 1892. Although he was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Feland served as captain of the Owensboro State Guard company following the Spanish-American War. He was promoted to major in 1916, to lieutenant colonel in 1917, to colonel in 1918, and to brigadier general in 1919. He was given command of all troops in 1918 in France at Belleau Woods. Promoted to major general in 1931, he retired from the Marine Corps in 1933. He died at Columbus, Ohio, in 1936 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.