John Voorhees Visited by Fellow Pastor from Manchester, CT

According to James Odell, in an account reprinted in the Courant on August 16, 1918:

• Voorhees was in an officers’ ward at a forward hospital
• The hospital was a few kilometers south of where he had been stationed
• The surgery that had saved his leg had been “only the most skillful.”
• His leg was held in a perpendicular position by a mechanical device.

Voorhees was injured on June 19, 1918.

The Courant would publish an update on Voorhees’s injury on June 22, 1918.

1. “Little has yet reached this city, beyond the fact of the wound and that Mr. Voorhees ahs been making a recovery since the operation.”
2. From Hesselgrave’s letter: “You have already received the word about his wound, and I can do little more than enlarge upon the cable already sent to you through Judge Prentice.”
3. From Hesselgrave’s letter: “When I heard that he was hurt, I was almost overcome.  I could have gladly taken his place.  And now that I know he will have a complete recovery I can almost envy him this striking badge of service and sacrifice for the greatest cause our hearts and lives hold dear.  And so I congratulate you, while I sympathize with you.”

1. The Courant re-printed Hesselgrave’s letter in full on July 15.
2. Charles Hesslegrave was the pastor at Manchester Congregational Church.

Unattributed, “How Dr. Voorhees Got His Wound,” Hartford Courant, July 15, 1918, page 3.