Joseph Peter Hirt (1886-1967)

    Joseph Peter Hirt was the second child of 14 born to Andrew and Mary Ann Hirt on September 3, 1886.  He spent his youth helping on the family farm a few miles west of Medford, WI in Hammel township.  In 1905, when he was 19, he headed west to Wyoming where he worked the oil fields as a driller for W.W. Wright who eventually became vice president of the Black Hills Petroleum Company.  My grandfather Louis Hirt, would have only been around one year old when Joe left for Wyoming.  It's quite possible that he did not really know his own brother.  I don't recall ever hearing about him and only learned about him through genealogical research.

A 1930s oil derrick erected by the Black Hills Petroleum Company, W.W. Wright, Vice President.  
This derrick is likely similar to those worked on by Joe Hirt.

    Joe Hirt's 1917 World War I draft card lists him as living in Hat Creek, Wyoming north of the town of Lusk.  Hat Creek was seemingly little more than a stage coach stop in Niobrara County not far from the state boundaries of Nebraska and South Dakota. This area of Wyoming was first settled in the 1880s, only 30-40 years before Joe migrated there.  It was still very much the wild west at the time of his arrival.  According to this website, "In 1875 soldiers went from Fort Laramie to establish an outpost on Hat Creek in Nebraska. Confused, they built a fort of logs on Sage Creek in Wyoming [about 10 miles north of Lusk]. The gold rush to the Black Hills started the Cheyenne-Deadwood Stage Route in 1876.  Bullwhackers freighting salt pork and whiskey to Deadwood, armored coaches hauling gold bricks and passengers to Cheyenne, Indians, and road agents brought adventure to Hat Creek Stage station. A two story log structure was built near the fort for a telegraph station, post office, blacksmith shop, hotel and store."

Map from Wyoming State Library website.

The website Lusk Photos from Wyoming Trails and Tails will give you a sense of what the area looked like around the time Joe lived in Hat Creek north of Lusk.

    On July 11, 1918 he was called up to serve in World War I through postings in the local papers. Joe was told to report to Fort Logan, Colorado. In the paper, he was listed as living in Edgemont, which is located in the southwest corner of South Dakota just south of the Black Hills and about one hour northeast of Hat Creek, WY.  

    From Fort Logan, he was transported to Camp MacArthur in Waco, TX where he attended infantry camp.  Thereafter, Private Hirt was assigned to Medical Unit #44 and deployed to Evacuation Hospital No. 15 operated by the American Expeditionary Forces in Verdon, France. We don't know in what capacity he served.  He could have been a cook, an orderly, or served in some other roll.  Amazingly, a few years after the war a service member wrote a detailed history of Evacuation Hospital No. 15 down to what servicemen were served for Christmas dinner.  It's well worth perusing.  Click on the link below to download it.  It also contains the sole picture I've found of Joseph Peter Hirt.  The Hirt family resemblance is quite strong.

• Souvenir roster and history of Evacuation Hospital no. 15:
  with the story of Verdun and the Argonne drive

Joseph Peter Hirt during WWI.

Evacuation Hospital #15 in Verdun, France.

    Joe served for less than a year and was discharged on July 2, 1919.  I've not been able to find out why he was discharged after such a short period of time.  Presumably he returned to oil drilling but that is not clear.  According to his obituary, he moved to Casper, WY in 1925 and entered the home construction business with Edward Mass in 1930.  Then Hirt and Mass purchased the Radio Bar and then later built the LaVita Club outside Casper.  I assume this was in the 1930s. It doesn't appear that these establishments survived to today.  

    His obituary cites that Hirt retired in early 1940s making his home at 173 South Ash in Casper - today a vacant lot in a commercial/industrial section of town.  The 1940 U.S. Census lists him as living in a motel and unable to work.  He would have only been 53 years of age.  Did he have to leave military service early and retire early due to an injury suffered during the war?  It's unclear at this point, but having to retire so early seems unusual for this time period and given his seeming modest means.  

Excerpt from the 1940 U.S. Census.

    What did Joe do to keep occupied between the time he retired and his passing in 1967?  This is also not clear, but his obituary did say he was a member of St. Anthony's Catholic Church so presumably he spent his Sunday mornings there.  We do know that his last days were spent at the Valley Manor Nursing Home in Casper where he died on February 22, 1967 at the age of 80.  He died from a bladder infection that evolved into bladder cancer that eventually metastasized through the body.  Senility with arteriosclerosis was cited as a secondary factor on his death certificate. He is buried at the Highland Cemetery, 1860 E. 12th Street  Casper, Wyoming; Sec. 132, Lot: 3, Plot: 5. 

    From the pioneer days in north-central Wisconsin, to the last of the stagecoach days of Wyoming and up until the era of post WWII modern conveniences and the space race, Joe saw the culture of where he lived in Wyoming and the nation change a lot during his life.  It's interesting to think about all the changes he witnessed and all that each of us witness in our lifetimes.

    If anyone has any pictures or remembrances of Joseph Peter Hirt, I'd like to hear from you.  Email me at jimoehler3@gmail.com.