If you have a personal experience with the history of the Merci Train or the artifacts that came from the train and would like to share your experience please let us know. Maybe you have a neighbor or relative who may have served in the wars and actually rode on one of these cars.
Photos and or stories are always welcome. Please contact Earl Bennett.
New articals are added to the top of the page please stop back often.
06-11-08
Wedding Dress from Connecticut's boxcar
04-25-08
John and Sue Ann Irving and their friends Bob and Sharon McElroy have, in their retirement, been traveling to various areas of America, and while doing it, they are trying to visit as many of the Merci boxcars as they can. In January of 2008, they visited Hawaii and the Hawaiian Merci boxcar. And, as has been their habit when they visited other boxcars, they sent me a report of their visit to this car. Below is the journal of their visit to the Hawaiian boxcar. I hope that others will enjoy reading it as much as I have. The delay in posting it is due to my inability to devote the time required to edit and email the report to our webmaster following the death of my wife on January 29th. I am beginning, with the help of God and my friends, to catch up some on my correspondence now, though, and slowly growing accustomed to life without her.
Earl Bennett, Website Author
go here
to see the text --> 
02-26-08
Here is some corrispondance from Roxanne Godsey:
Oh Earl…I am so excited! I got the most BEAUTIFUL card & letter from Sister Anne at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut! There is a short history of the bell and TWO photographs!!!!! I will include the originals in the packet I am preparing for you, but in the meantime here are photographs of what I received. I am unable to translate the portion of the letter which is in French, but hope that you may have someone who is able to do so. I will be sending a heartfelt letter of thanks to Sister Anne. This response was more than I had hoped for! I hope that you are as excited by this as I am! I hope that this can find its way to the website…what a wonderful addition to the Connecticut page it would be!
The pictures
can be viewed here ->
01-25-08
Ira and Roxanne Godsey of Dallas, Tx recently discovered the Merci Train history while visiting the Capitol Museum in Phoenix Arizona, which holds a large collection of the Merci Train gifts that arrived in that state’s Merci boxcar in 1949. The Godseys became intrigued with the touching story of friendship and gratitude exhibited by the peoples of America and France and determined to find out more about what had happened to the other 48 boxcars full of gifts. Mrs. Godsey is quite at home on a computer (unlike this writer) and she immediately set to searching the internet for references to the Merci Train. She soon sent the Email below to tell me about a bell for the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Ct.:
"Earl,
I was looking for books
about the (Merci) train
on Amazon and came across
this excerpt. You may
very well already know
of this, but I wanted
to pass on the info just
in case. (I , Earl Bennett,
founder of this website,
was not aware of the existence
of the bell, nor of the
abbey. In fact, everything
that has been added to
this site in the past
6 or 7 years has come
to me through the efforts
of others. I am no longer
able to travel to conduct
research, and I am thankful
for, and to, the dozens
of individuals who have
shared with me (and the
world through this website)
something that they knew,
or had found, concerning
the history of the Merci
Train).
Mrs. Godsey's note continues:
The book is:
Mother Benedict: Foundress
of the Abbey of Regina Laudis
By: Antoinette Bosco
The excerpt is:
(Pay particular attention to the underlined sentences.)
In mid-May, Regina Laudis conducted an ancient ceremony on the monastery grounds, one called the "Baptism of the Bells". The nuns had acquired four bells to be placed in the steeple of their monastery, and each had a history and would be given a name. The first, named Francis-Julia, was a shiny locomotive bell from the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad. The second, Lauren-Francesca, had formerly belonged to a Canadian farm. The third, Simeon-John-Ascension, had once been used by a Protestant church in Pennsylvania. The most unusual of the four, Mary-Eugene-Benedict, was a bronze bell cast in 1746 from the French village of Mouans-Sarthoux in the Maritime Alps. It had been used there in the ancient chapel of Saint Bernardin until the death in 1929 of the last member of the brotherhood, the "Confrerie" to which the chapel belonged. It had come to Connecticut on the French "Merci Train" and had been destined for the state library. But when it became known that the nuns in Bethlehem were interested in this bell, which came from the country they had left so short a time before, some friends arranged that this bell, one of the oldest now in America, be given to Regina Laudis.
To learn more about the abbey, its history, purpose, and goals, visit its website (Abbey of Regina Laudis ) Meanwhile, watch this space for other discoveries that Mrs. Godsey has made and wants to share with all who are interested. She also joins me in wanting to make sure that knowledge of this precious history is preserved for future generations in one place, easily accessible to everyone.
Also form Roxanne Godsey, pictures from of an artical from Life magazine:
"Hi Earl!
So you don’t have to wait to receive it in the mail, and so you will have copies for the website if you wish to use them there, I took photos of the LIFE Magazine article. It is brief, as all articles in that magazine usually are, but the few photos are very good, especially the color one of the ship coming into harbor. There are photos of the whole layout so that you can place each close up section in your mind. On the color photo I wrote the words that appear underneath of it so they are more easily read. I will put the magazine in the mail to you in the next few days. Enjoy!
12-08-2007
From Brigitte Helzer:
| As
a new 7 year old immigrant,
having arrived with
my parents from France in Dec.1948, I was in New York at the time of the Merci Train arrival in February of 1949. When the city of New York decided to have a parade to welcome and receive the NY boxcar, I was "volunteered" by the local Alsatian organization to be in the parade with my French costume. I don't remember much about the parade. I think I was mostly in the celebration at City Hall Plaza where the picture was taken. The boy that was with me was the son of friends of the family and did not speak French. His mother may have been French. I'm so intrigued by the story and what has happened to all the aritcles in the box cars. It was a pleasure to find your website. I do have some memories of the American GIs liberating our village from the Germans and of learning my first English words , "Chocolate" and "Chewing gum", which those GIs were generously sharing with us children. The GIs would often take my picture when I was in my same reginal costume I wore at the parade, and which I was proud wear. I also remember being on the ship that brougtht us to America in 1948, and how awe struck I was at all the food they served in the dining room; I had never seen so much food. I don't specifically remember the Friendship Train food being delivered in the Alsace region of France where we lived in 1947, but my parents remembered getting food from the soldiers, and were grateful to the Americans. I live in Vermont now and am very pleased to find your website about this history that I lived through, and also pleased to see that the Vermont boxcar still exists; I plan to go see it at some point. Thank You, Merci, Brigitte Kibler Helzer |
 |
"