She was a witness of the Ilinden upraise, the situation of the local population during Turkish Rule, the Young Turks' Revolution in 1908, Balkan Wars, First World War and she remained in Bitola until 1920.
During this time she kept a diary recording many events and also she personally took many valuable photos with her own camera.
In this post, short note is presented, giving valuable information about Bitola during the First World War.
Location of the American School for Girls in Bitola (only the entrance door is preserved) Photo: www.bitola.info
Memories of Mary L. Matthews: March 20, Tues. 1917.
Mayor Leshnarovitch brought two French officers to find quarters for the General.I said I could not give quarters to the military,--that our property was neutral as America was not in the war.
They went away but soon returned and said they had orders to come here and we must evacuate the Annex by noon!
The families occupying the cellar had to be moved to rooms in the Orphanage yard. Things not to be used were locked in closets. Then, General Dessort of the French Army's 16th Division came with eighteen of his men and settled them selves in the Annex and the laundry in the rear yard.
I had objected and said we should have shells, but the General said,
"How would they (the enemy) know?"
I said they would know.
We had not had a shell on our compound for three months and that might have been a mistake. The Germans had occupied Monastir from Nov. 1915 to Nov. 1916, and they knew the city well.
The first night, nothing.
The next night, at ten o'clock, six shells!
One fell in an alley across the street.
We heard someone was killed there.
One was near enough to make the General seek the cellar.
One broke in the side of a neighboring building.
Another fell in our garden at the root of my best apricot tree, and buried itself in the soft ground unexploded. Any digging there may yet explode it. It was very large.
Then came a big shrapnel through the roof of the Main Building, exploding in the dormittory on the second floor. There were about thirty of us in the Basement. I did not know but it might be an incendary shell. With a dark lantern and one of the brethren I went upstairs to see what I should see. There was a large hole in the ceiling of the dormitory. The head of the shrapnel had gone into the chimney and almost out on the other side. The bullets and pieces of the missile scattered in various directions. A hundred and forty pierced the door of a store-room and some still had power to go through magazines and an old Geography. Our supply of matches was"scattered over the floor, but they were safety matches, (parlor matches had been hidden away in an old cookstove in the cellar.)
One bullet went across the street and into the neighbor's guest room.
Later, we found about 400 bullets. Pieces of the shell went through the floor into the school-room.
The next night, at ten o'clock, a big shell fell in the hard play-ground making a crater about three feet deep, near the back steps, not far from where we were gathered in the basement, in the school dining-room.
I told the General these were for him.
He believed me this time, and moved to another house not very far away. The shells followed him there!
He moved to a place nearer the edge of the city. Even there the enemy followed him and his staff. Then he left the city for a distant mountain.
He did us one favor.
He sent a Captain with masks for us all. He knew the French would fire gas and the enemy would return it. The 37 masks were fitted to us and marked with our names.
A protest to the U.S. Consul in Salonica against occupation of our property by military was made. There was no further attempt by the French.
Underground telephones work both ways in war.
Not long after the General left us, three women in the usual black clothing, opened our street gate and came in. I saw them looking around and went out to ask what they wished. They inquired if we had a shelter.
I said we had only the basement of the Main Building.
Then, one asked, "Are there any French here?"
I said, "Not now".
"That is what we wanted, to know," one said. They went away satisfied. They knew I would tell the truth. The last of the General's men had gone. Had I told them there were any French there, they would have reported to the enemy and more shells would have been sent to us.
Underground telephones work both ways.
Read More:
- A MOUNT HOLYOKE WOMAN IN MACEDONIA: MARY MATTHEWS AND THE AMERICAN SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, 1888 TO 1920
- Bitola at the Beginning of Second Balkan War - Notes by Mary L. Matthews
- Bombardment of Bitola during WW1 – memories of Mary L. Matthews
- First Balkan War Summary by Mary L. Matthews
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