Captain Tirrell J. Ferrenz
Upon graduation from Armour in 1910 he became a licensed,
practicing architect and was employed by a Chicago based structural engineering
firm. Large industrial complexes and
manufacturing plants would become his areas of specialization. In 1913 he began evening classes at the Univ.
of Illinois law school. In 1917 he
received his JD, and was admitted to the Illinois bar.
At the outbreak of World War I Tirrell J. Ferrenz
enlisted as a sergeant in US Army. He
was immediately sent to Engineering Officers School at Camp Lee, VA. Upon completion he was promoted to 2nd
lieutenant, Engineers and assigned to the newly formed 604th Engineer Regiment
at Camp Grant, Illinois. Over the next
year he would be promoted twice. While
the 604th was stationed at Camp Leach, Washington, D.C. Captain Ferrenz was
assigned as the regiment’s adjutant – or chief administrative officer - a
position he held until after the war when the regiment returned home and was
disbanded.
Immediately after the armistice was signed Captain
Ferrenz was detailed for temporary duty with the Allied Armistice
Commission. His duties included
calculating the replacement costs of infrastructure destroyed by the German
hostilities. Ironically, historians now
recognize the tremendous burden of financial reparations placed upon Germany by
the Treaty of Versailles was a significant factor in the equation that would
ultimately lead to World War II.
Prior to the war Tirrell J. Ferrenz had been engaged to
Mabel Bartholomew, an elementary school teacher, who was originally from
Vermont, IL. Because of wartime
uncertainties they ended their engagement when he joined the Army. However, when he returned to Chicago they
were promptly reengaged and ultimately married in July 1920. They would produce two children, Robert (my
father) and Martha. By today’s standards of email and instant messaging, their
wartime correspondence (multi-page love letters, brief notes, lines of poetry)
is remarkable for both content and volume.
After the war Tirrell J. Ferrenz re-joined his
engineering firm. He also joined the
Army Reserve and would serve until 1939, attaining the rank of Major. Like a great many Americans, he was severely
affected by the stock market crash of October of 1929 and the Great Depression
that followed. He lost his job and his
family of four lost their home in the Chicago suburb of Willamette. After Mr. Roosevelt’s election and the
enactment of The New Deal, the Ferrenz family relocated to Washington, DC where
he became an administrator in the new Federal Housing Administration. He retired in 1955 and died in September of
1973 at the age of eighty-four. At the
time of his death he was survived by both of his children, eight grandchildren,
and one great grandson.
After his death a steamer trunk was discovered that
contained an enormous quantity of personal and family history related
material. Inside the trunk were his
boots, belts, hats, and assorted paraphernalia from his war years. Additionally, several dozen photographs that
he took of the 604th Engineers were inside the trunk. Many of the photos include a sentence or two
on the back that relate to the subject photo.
He also saved a bound record of 604th Engineers – seemingly every
significant piece of paper that crossed his desk – approximately 1000 pages -
including: personnel orders, courts
martial records, promotions, etc.
Throughout his life he was extremely proud of his
military service while a member of 604th Engineers and, when asked, would talk
about his wartime experiences – but only in general terms. As far as he was concerned, former soldiers
with war stories to tell, “those who served at the front, typically don’t tell
them. And those soldiers that tell
stories most likely made them up.”
Christopher B. Ferrenz
Chevy Chase, MD
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