Camp Funston

Camp Funston was a U.S. Army training camp located on Fort Riley, southwest of Manhattan, Kansas. The camp was named for Brigadier General Frederick Funston (1865–1917). Camp Funston was one of sixteen Divisional Cantonment Training Camps established at the outbreak of World War I.

Construction began during the summer of 1917 and eventually encompassed approximately 1,400 buildings on 2,000 acres (8.1 km²).

During World War I, nearly 50,000 recruits trained at the camp, commanded by Major General Leonard Wood. Notable units who received training at Camp Funston include the 89th Division, which was deployed to France in the spring of 1918, the 10th Division and black soldiers assigned to the 92nd Division.

Among those trained at Camp Funston was Texas State Representative George Peddy, also the past student body president of the University of Texas, who managed to obtain a permit to return to Austin for the impeachment proceedings against Governor James E. Ferguson.

During World War I, Camp Funston also served as a detention camp for conscientious objectors (COs) many of which were Mennonite in faith. Since it was compulsory, Hutterites sent their young men to military camps, but they did not allow them to obey any military commands or wear a uniform.

In March 1918, some of the first recorded American cases of what came to be the worldwide influenza epidemic, also known as "Spanish Flu", were reported at Camp Funston.

...
Wikipedia