On one day, May 10, 1917, twenty Macon lawyers, all volunteers, entered the United States Army at Ft. McPherson, Georgia. Some local lawyers were already in Federal service, serving with the Georgia Guard units called up to chase Pancho Villa along the Mexican border. In all, about thirty five members of the Macon Bar were in military service before the end of "The Great War" _ World War I.
Draft resistance at the start of World War I was at least as great as during the Vietnam era. Pro and anti draft forces fought a pitched battle through the streets of Hawkinsville, with casualties on both sides.
A number of Macon lawyers, C. Baxter Jones, R. L. Anderson, L. B. Aultman, W.C. Turpin, John B. Harris, Ben Fowler, and Warren Grice among them, served as a committee to provide free legal counsel to selective service registrants.
So many of the active members of the Macon Bar were in service during 1917-18, that organized Bar activities _ such as they were _ ceased during the war.
I remind those having copies of bar memorials to relatives or associates that they may mail me a copy for inclusion in the Macon Bar archives.
Frank M. McKenney
Macon Bar Historian