We return again to the list of African American soldiers from Kansas who attended the officers’ training school at Fort Des Moines, Iowa ( http://www.kansasww1.org/the-african-american-soldier-kansans-at-fort-des-moines/ ).  It is difficult to find much information about them, so if anyone has additional knowledge of these soldiers, they are encouraged to share it.

1sr Lieutenant George Wayman Hamilton was born in Topeka on April 17, 1892.  To attend the officers’ training school, he had to have been either a non-commissioned officer or be college educated.  1940 census records say he was college educated, but doesn’t indicate what school he attended.

When he registered for the draft on June 5, 1917, he was listed as living in Topeka, but his occupation was a teacher at Guthrie, Oklahoma.  The 1910 census shows that he was living with his parents at Lacy, Oklahoma.

After the war the 1920 census shows that he was back in Topeka, married, and selling insurance.  By 1930 he was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was now an attorney.  The 1940 census shows, as mentioned above, that he had completed four years of college.

Although he was 50 years of age at the time, he was required to register at the out break of World War II, and he did so.

Hamilton died May 31, 1965.  He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery at Milwaukee.  His military stone gives his service:  1st Lt., 317th Military Police, 92nd Division.

Blair Tarr is the Museum Curator of the Kansas State Historical Society. He oversees the three-dimensional collections of the Society, but has special interests in the Civil War, Wichita-made Valentine diners, and Leavenworth's Abernathy Furniture. In the last few years he has also done a lot of cramming on The Great War. He is a past president of the Kansas Museums Association and the Civil War Round Tables of both Kansas City and Eastern Kansas. He is currently a board member of the Heritage League of Greater Kansas City.