George Armstrong was born 22 February 1884 in St. Louis, Michigan . He enlisted (1908) in the U.S. Army, serving in the regular army for eighteen years and in the Reserves for two, rising to the rank of major in the Military Police . For most of his army service during the period of this correspondence with Nell Floss Steel, later his wife, Nell Steel Armstrong, George Armstrong served with a Recruit Depot in the U.S. Army General Services Infantry, involved with training recruits .
Initially based in Columbus, Ohio, where he probably met his future wife, Nell Floss Steel, George Armstrong was transferred (1913) to the military training camp at Texas City, Texas, but also fulfilled assignments in Saginaw, Michigan (1913), St. Louis, Missouri (1913), and Vera Cruz, Mexico (April 1914). He also received training in El Paso, Texas (1914), before returning to Columbus, Ohio (1915).
During World War I, George Armstrong was periodically stationed (1915-August 1918) at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indiana and Camp Sherman, Ohio. George Armstrong subsequently served in the U. S. Army Infantry, 83rd Division, in France (September?- November 1918), inspecting prisoner of war camps .
After World War I, George Armstrong was trasferred to Cleveland, Ohio, and eventually retired from the army to avoid being reverted to his previous rank of 1st Sergeant . The Armstrongs lived briefly in Grandfield, Oklahoma, before moving successively to Burkburnett, Graham, Ranger, Breckenridge, Holliday, and Wichita Falls, Texas . They finally settled in Baytown, Texas to be close to family. George Armstrong began a career in the Texas oilfields, working for Texaco for many years before retiring from the company January, 1949. He died in Baytown, Texas on April 27, 1964.
Nell Steel Armstrong was born Nell Floss Steel in Ohio 21 November 1884. After graduating (1908) from the Protestant Hospital Training School for Nurses in Columbus, Ohio, she became a Red Cross nurse and worked in a baby camp (1909), as well as in a hospital in Toledo, Ohio (1913).
During World War I, Nell Floss Steel served six months (1914-1915) in a military hospital in Serbia, travelling there by way of Palermo, Greece, spending some time in Athens . Returning to the United States in 1915, she worked (1916) in hospitals and sanitariums in Columbus, Chillicothe, and Oxford, Ohio .
Nell Floss Steel was also one of the Columbus Ten, a group of nurses who served in a military hospital on the Mexican Border at Eagle Pass, Texas during the winter of 1916. By March 1917 she had returned to Columbus, Ohio, and began teaching Home Demonstration at Ohio State University, and married George Armstrong 21 August 1917 in Columbus, Ohio .
Nell Steel Armstrong worked in a hospital in Detroit, Illinois before returning to the hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where she was promoted to Assistant Superintendent, and remained until moving with her husband
In addition, Nell Steel Armstrong served as president of the Graduate Nurses Association and Assistant Superintendent of the instructive District Nursing Association . She also did intermittent nursing until her death on January 7, 1968 in Baytown, Texas .
From the guide to the Inventory of the George Armstrong and Nell Steel Armstrong Papers Ragan MSS 00043., 1863-1920 (bulk: 1913-1920), (Cushing Memorial Library)
