The Merci Boxcar

This boxcar is one of the 49 boxcars of the French Merci Train. It was given to Rhode Island in 1949 by the people of France, as a gesture of thanks for the United States’ aid during both world wars. The Merci Train arrived in the United States on February 3rd, 1949; there was one car for each of the then-48 states, and one to be shared between the District of Columbia and Hawaii. 

The boxcar was originally built in 1860. It’s known as a “40 and 8,”  because it was used to transport 40 soldiers in full military gear or eight horses. When the French government decided to send the boxcars, they had them repaired, freshly painted, and decorated with plaques bearing the coats of arms of 40 French regions. Also painted on the side is the message “Train de la Reconnaissance Française and Gratitude Train” accompanied by the blue-white-red tri-colored French bands. 

More than six million French families contributed gifts to the Merci Train as a measure of their thanks. The items in the Museum’s boxcar originally ran the gamut from children's drawings to an haute couture wedding dress. The French also included other rarities, such as a jeweled Légion d’Honneur medal once presented to Napoleon, a Louis XV carriage, and the bugle that signaled the World War I armistice signing in 1918. 

Rhode Island’s car made its grand entrance at the Woonsocket Depot and was then carried to Providence, where officials opened it and distributed its contents. One gift sparked particular excitement in Rhode Island: a couture wedding dress donated by a dressmaker in Lyon, France. The Merci Train Committee put the dress on display at Gladding’s department store in Providence to be raffled off to one lucky bride. The only conditions for receiving the dress were that the bride needed to fit the dress unaltered, and that her wedding be scheduled within the year. 25-year-old Lillian Weimar, then a clerk at a Westerly mayonnaise factory, won the dress. Her mother was originally from France.

Despite all the fanfare for the car in 1949, Rhode Island’s boxcar soon became a forgotten relic and was abandoned to disrepair in a Charlestown junkyard. However, in 1998, almost 50 years after its initial tour, veterans Alphonse Auclair and Jacques Staelen recovered the car. It was restored at the Museum by vocational school students, where it continues to serve as an enduring symbol of alliance and friendship between France and the United States. 

During World War Two, Americans rallied for victory. The defense of democracy was not limited to those serving on the front lines but also included those on the home front. In addition, to encourage a sense of communal responsibility and fervent patriotism, the war effort created an economic boom for the industries of the Blackstone River Valley.

The war rationing program began in Rhode Island when Governor Howard J McGrath appointed a rationing board in January of 1942. Soon after, war-rationing boards all over the country limited the purchase of items such as tires, sugar, gasoline, canned goods, butter and cigarettes. Americans were strongly urged to grow their own food and soon after, virtually every vacant spot throughout Woonsocket neighborhoods featured a so-called “victory garden.” Front yards and backyards were converted into vegetable-producing plots in order to save mass-produced food for those who served the nation both at home and overseas. 

During World War II, Woonsocket reached the peak of wartime material production. As early as 1941, manufacturing plants such as Guerin Mills and the French Worsted Company received contracts worth over $10 million for woolen army cloth. Other companies like Jacob Finkelstein and Sons pioneered the manufacture of “raincoats from rubberless but rainproof materials” and also specialized in the making of the popular and functional army field jackets. 

Another innovator was the Taft-Peirce Company, which produced the breech casing and handgrip for the 20mm anti-aircraft Oerlikon machine gun, which proved pivotal in combat in the Pacific. 

The war created such a necessity for manufacturing that it reinvigorated even defunct mills. The U S Rubber Company’s Alice Mills in Fairmount reopened its doors in the 1940s to meet the demands of the war. They produced barrage balloons to protect convoys and cities, and also manufactured rubber life rafts, attack boats, and life-saving wading suits for the Allied Forces. The U S Rubber Company also produced top-secret materials. A company newsletter released in February of 1944 stated that there were  top-secret materials produced by the mill that could not be photographed or talked about. These items were decoy cannons, tanks, and other military vehicles used by the so-called “Ghost Army,” a tactical deception unit created to deceive the Germans during and after the Allied invasion of Normandy. 

Woonsocket manufacturers continued to produce goods for the military into the 21st century. The Brickle group, a family-run company, produces blankets and berets for the military and their warehouse is well stocked and ready for crisis as a manufacturer of wool blankets for disaster relief programs worldwide. 

Millions of dollars were raised through the sale of war bonds or debt securities, issued by the government to finance military operations. Mills encouraged their employees to purchase bonds as a way to support their local community as well as the nation. An honor roll published in a U S Rubber Company magazine in November 1944 indicated that there were 205 Woonsocket workers in the armed services and that Woonsocket rubber workers had a 100% participation rate in the sale of war bonds. Bond rallies were held to raise money and support troops. Other organizations also contributed to the war effort at home and all of the Woonsocket theaters in the 1940s sold war bonds and boosted morale by airing wartime movies.