My grandfather Pvt. Frank Gustaf Severin Erickson wrote this letter from Camp Mills, New York on August 6th, 1918 in Swedish to his mother Christine Brita (Olson) and father Anders Erickson in Wilton, North Dakota.

The letter was written just two days before Frank would sail aboard the ship Nestor, leaving from Brooklyn Harbor for transport to Liverpool, England.

He would eventually cross the English Channel for France and serve with the 308th Infantry - Company H and inevitability be a fortunate survivor of the soon-to-be-infamous "Lost Battalion."

Frank wrote many letters and postcards back home to his folks in Dakota over the years 1910 through 1919. He had left home in 1910 and traveled out west looking for adventure and work. Frank was 18 years old when he boarded a train in Bismarck for California.

The family were avid letter and postcard writers so many have survived the century plus of time that has passed since his departure. He regularly stayed in touch with his family back on the farm in Regan.

Before he joined the American Expeditionary Force in late Spring of 1917 in Tacoma, Frank lived and worked in Daly City, California, Polaris and Armstead, Montana, Port Huron, Michigan, Phoenix, Arizona, Tacoma, Washington and the towns of Baker, White Pine and La Grande, Oregon.

For the period before he joined the AEF Frank and his brother Ernest Julius Erickson were railroad deputies out of La Grande. His younger brother Anders Sebran Filimon Erickson served with the 101st Aero Squadron of the Air Corps in France from 1918-1919.

When Frank wrote letters or cards to his parents he always wrote in Swedish, but wrote his sisters and brothers in English.

Scroll down past letter and view Frank's Embarkation paperwork listed (Number 121) near the bottom.

Translated from Swedish:

August 6, 1918
Camp Mills, New York

Dear Parents
I received your awaited letter yesterday. I see that you are alive and well. I can say the same for myself.

I do not think I will be in U.S for many more days, but we do not know where we are traveling.

I have traveled through Bismarck, so feel fortunate I have had family visits before I go to the war. It may now be a long time before we meet again. We stayed in Camp Kearny in California for only a week. It took us seven days from California to New York. It was a good trip. The red cross met us by the station and provided lunch and cigarettes.

Has the trunk I sent home arrived yet? If you have not received it, write to tell me so.

With a dear greeting to you all from your son.
Frank