Nebraska Soldiers & Letters Home

G.P. Cather

Grosvensor Phillips Cather was born on August 12th 1883, near Bladen in Webster County, Nebraska. His parents were George P. Cather and Frances A. (Smith) Cather. They had five children, Caroline Cather Lindgren, Frank Cather, Oscar Cather, Blanche Cather Ray, and G.P. Cather. G.P. Cather lived in Grand Island, Nebraska and attended preparatory college there between 1898 to 1903. After college he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, and attended the University of Nebraska between 1904 and 1905. He left Lincoln in order to homestead land in western Nebraska near Ogallala. In 1908, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served sixteen months on the U.S.S. West Virginia. After his honorable discharge, Cather returned to Bladen and married Myrtle Bartlett on June 8th 1910. The couple homesteaded and raised wheat on a farm in Webster County. In 1914, he joined Company K of the Fifth Nebraska National Guard Regiment of Blue Hill, Nebraska. Cather served as quartermaster sergeant for Company K at Llano Grande, Texas, along the Mexican border, until the guard unit returned in February 1917. After the outbreak of World War I, Cather attended officers training camp and received his second lieutenant commission on August 16th 1917 at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. He left for Europe and arrived September 24th 1917 where we began additional training. Cather fought at the front lines as a second lieutenant of Company A, 26th Infantry Division. He fought under the command of major Theodore Roosevelt Jr. While fighting along the Marne in France on May 28th 1918, Cather and many other Americans were killed. Cather was the first Nebraska officer to die in battle. For his service, Cather received the Silver Star and a Distinguished Service Cross. First buried in France, his family brought him back to Nebraska to be re-interred in the early 1920’s. His cousin Willa Cather used G.P. Cather’s letters home as inspiration for her first book One of Ours.