Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center

 

Lester Alexander Schlup, Sr.

 

LH-344

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Introduction

Biographical Sketch

Scope and Content

Inventory

 

Introduction

 

This collection was donated to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in 2007 by Jon Shultz.

 

Biographical Sketch

 

Born in Sandusky, Ohio December 7, 1894, Lester Alexander Schlup was the son of Alexander and Mary Christina (Smith) Schlup.  After graduating from Sandusky High School, Schlup attended the Sandusky Business College. After the completion of his degree, he found employment in the U. S. Agriculture Department in Washington D.C.

 

In 1917, at the age of 23, Schlup passed the U. S. Army field clerk examination.  In November of that same year, he was shipped overseas and was stationed at the general headquarters of the  American Expeditionary Forces (AEF)  at Chaumont, France, south of Paris.   

 

As an army field clerk for G-5 (General Staff-5), Schlup superviseed various schools and oversaw general direction and coordination of education and training.  Because of the number of divisions, these duties were carried out in two shifts.  In 1919, he was discharged from the U. S. Army. Schlup returned to Washington, D. C., where he continued to work for the U. S. Department of Agriculture and became an active member in ACE (Agricultural Communicators in Education).  On June 17, 1920, he married Mary Kathleen Hellyer (April 8, 1898- Oct. 15, 1992) in Baltimore County, Maryland. They had one son, Lester Alexander Schlup, Jr., on July 11, 1921. Schlup later married Pearl Shannon (August 20, 1900 - May 22, 1968).  After her death, Schlup married Irene Wallace McClennon. Lester Alexander Schlup, Sr. died April 8, 1981 in California, Maryland.

Scope and Content

 

This collection, dating from 1917 to 1981, contains the personal diary/scrapbook created by Lester A. Schlup, Sr.  during his World War I service. Included in this collection are  several letters; photographs and scans of photographs; a postcard; paper currency; coins; tokens; U. S. political buttons; and military medals, buttons, and a belt buckle.

 

Lester Sr.'s diary contains handwritten entries and also memorabilia collected during his military service in France.  Included are his passport, identification card, ticket stubs, pamphlets, stamps, newspaper clippings, general U. S. Army orders and reports, programs, menus, and French currency.  The correspondence is primarily from Lester Sr. to friends, of which all but one was written during WWI.  There is one letter from Lester Jr. and one from John Baker, a friend of Lester Sr. 

 

The collection contains a typed transcript of a diary kept by a “Mrs. [Donald] Howard,” a British citizen posted with her husband in Washington, D. C. during late 1941.  She was believed to have been a friend of Kathleen Schlup during WWII.  The diary spans the years from 1939 to1941 and was copied by Kathleen Schlup or perhaps Evelyn E. Perry.   The diary relates “Mrs. Howard’s”experiences in London and the English countryside prior to and during WWII.  Entries reflect on current events, the coming war, declaration of war, rationing, bombing and destruction of London, and the couple’s eventual move to the United States.

 

Several Schlup genealogies and books autographed by their authors for Lester A. Schlup, Sr. are also in this collection.             

 

Inventory

 

Ac. 5680

1/4 linear ft.

SCHLUP, LESTER A., diary/scrapbook contianing entries written during his service  spent with the American Expeditionary Forces in WWI, Feb. 12, 1918 to July 8, 1919 (28 pp.).

           

            Registration Certificate for Lester A. Schlup, June 5, 1917

            Various newspaper clippings pertaining to the war, current events, and the AEF, (pasted in and laid in)

            Various ticket stubs and pamphlets in French, (theaters, concerts, trains, etc)

U. S. Army orders for deployment overseas

Army Medical School Vaccination register

United States of America War Department Passport

The Headquarters Chronicle, Chaumont France, Dec. 1918

Holiday service pamphlets and holiday mess hall menus

Two pieces of French currency (One Franc piece; Fifty Centimes piece)

Several French stamps

            Pages of “American Glory,”  (booklet detailing American aid to France)

            Army correspondence detailing military leaves, orders, passes, etc.

            Report of General John J. Pershing, Nov. 20, 1918

            Souvenir of the Eagle Hut, American Y.M.C.A

            Relief from duty orders, June 14, 1919

            Honorable discharge letter, July 8, 1919

            AEF Officers Identity Card for Lester A. Schlup, Army Field Clerk

 

1. Outgoing and Incoming Correspondence

 

Outgoing Correspondence

 

SCHLUP, L. A.

?, to Ed, 1p., written while with the AEF

1918, June 7, to Edward Waterfield, postcard, sent while on leave in Paris

1918, July 12, to Friends, 7pp., written while with the AEF

1919, Jan. 10, to Ed and Louise Waterfield, 4pp., envelope included

      1981, April, to John Baker, 1p., front and back, attached to incoming

      correspondence of John Baker, dated June 17, 1981

 

SCHLUP, L.A., JR.

      N.D., to Jon, 1p., concerns the history of Mrs.[Donald] Howard’s copied diary

 

Incoming Correspondence

 

BAKER, JOHN

      1981, June 17, to Lester Schlup, Jr., 1p., concerns the late Lester Schlup, Sr. and a  

      book titled Farm Broadcasting: The First Sixty Years; inc. letter written by Lester, Sr. prior to his death.

 

2. Photographs

 

    Copy of photographs of Alexander and Mary (Smith) Schlup

    Copy of photograph of Lester A. Schlup, Sr.

    Copy of photographs of Margaret Halgren and Lester, Jr., Lester, Sr.,(Lester, Sr. in WWI uniform), Helene Schlup Valade,Elizabeth Schlup, and Helene Schlup Valade

    Copy of photograph of Lester, Schlup, Jr. in WWII uniform

    Photograph of Lester, Jr. (?), holding a trophy, June 1945, Buckingham Field, Fort Myers, Florida

    Enlarged portion of photograph of Lester, Schlup, Jr. with trophy

 

3. Miscellaneous Schlup Family Information

 

    Schlup(p) Family of Sandusky & Toledo Ohio, detailed list of Schlup family and descendants, starting in 1798 and ending with in the (1960s), 3pp.

    Notes on Lester A. Schlup; Genealogy charts

    Descendants of Adam Schluep/Schlupp  from Ancestory.com website (from Adam Schluep Schlupp 1798 to Zollweg 1992) 13pp.

    Letter from Jeanne Hartman to Jon Shultz concerning identity of individuals appearing in photographs contained in Folder 3., 1p.

    Photocopy of Last Will and Testament of Charles M. Wolfe, Fremont, Ohio, March 6, 1923, 1p.

 

4. “Mrs. [Donald] Howard’s” transcribed diary, Aug. 14, 1939 - Jan. 1941, 98pp. (copied 1945)

 

 

5. Paper Currency

     

   The Confederate States of America, twenty-dollar bill, dated Feb. 17, 1864, 1pc.

   The Central Bank of China, 100 Yuan note, used by nationalists, dated 1941, 1pc.

   The Japanese Government, ten centavos note, used in Philippines in 1944, 1pc.         

Books

 

   BAKER, JOHN C., Farm Broadcasting:The First Sixty Years

 

   EISENHOWER, MILTON S., The President is Calling. (inc. letter from the author to Lester, Sr., long time-friend, dated January 11, 1980)

 

   HARDING, T. SWANN, Two Blades of Grass

 

Artifacts transferred to the Museum

 

   Cigar box containing polticial campaign buttons, handkerchief, coins, tokens, belt buckle, and military medals.