History: local faces of World War I

11/7/2025

By Lauren Royce, Editor
MONTROSE — Janice Gavern, a Local American Legion Post member, military historian and Air Force veteran is helping to make history a little less abstract for students studying World War I by remembering and honoring the Susquehanna County residents that served in it.
Gavern frequently collaborates with Bonnie Yuscavage, curator of the Susquehanna County Historical Society in Montrose. One of the times Gavern was there, Yuscavage told Gavern she had found a box of World War I era photos. The photos were of local men who had signed on to fight in World War I on the day they went to the Susquehanna County courthouse to receive orders. Dressed in fine hats, suits and ties, the men posed stoically for their portraits.
“I’m hoping, and it’s not that I’m trying to recruit them or enlist (students), I just want them to understand what the military is about — to look at these people as individuals,” Gavern said. “Look at the clothes they were wearing, look at the hats they were wearing. Every man was dressed in his best clothes.”
A guide of the photo copies and posters of the photos were sent to Elk Lake Elementary, Elk Lake High School, Lathrop Street Elementary, Montrose High School, Choconut Elementary, Blue Ridge High School and Forest City Regional School. Copies for Susquehanna High School and Mountain View Jr./Sr. High School are next to be delivered. With the support of the Montrose Garner-Warner American Legion Post, Gavern had posters of several photos from the collection made with accompanying names and information on the backs. Gavern also said she wanted to thank Jen and Alex at Center City Print in Scranton, as well as Yuscavage for finding the photos.
“I have had an ongoing project for years now where I try and get information out to schools,” Gavern said. “When I talked to the principal at Blue Ridge, what they are doing is using these pictures in their social studies classes— Then, the schools can follow up and if they want to, they can have the students pick a name (to research).”
Gavern said her main goal is to make the Great War and the soldiers that served in it more personal to students, instead of it seeming like an event unrelated to their part of the world.
“So now, the war isn’t just something that happened,” Gavern said. “The students get to see these people as part of their community and maybe some of them are actually related.”
On the backs of the posters are the veterans’ legal names which can be searched on websites like FindAGrave.com, and obituaries can be found too.
“One of the pictures that you will see of a single person that went one day is Albert Homer Slahghter,” Gavern said. In the photo, Slahghter is a single African American man standing above a metal star with a man holding the American flag behind him. The records said he was being sent to Camp Custer, on August 1, 1918. Gavern said she did some searching and found he was buried in a grave in France two months after signing on.

“They were proud of what they were doing, they were proud of where they were going,” Gavern said.
Gavern, 76, served four years in the active Air Force and 21 years reserve Air Force where she became an officer. Gavern retired as a captain from the Air Force reserve. She is the deputy commander for women’s issues at the American Legion 15th District. At the state level, Gavern is also vice chairwoman of the women veterans committee. At the local post she is a member of the auxiliary and is a dual member, as a veteran and first vice president of unit 154. Gavern is also the Minority inspector in Jessup Township and worked the polls on election day.
Gavern’s passion is for speaking about the history of women in the military and history in general. “That’s part of what I see as my role to continue helping in the community,” she said.
She hopes to eventually travel to Washington D.C to see “A Soldier’s Journey,” the World War I memorial that includes 35 interrelated statues 60 feet long representing the life of a World War I veteran.