{"id":11584,"date":"2026-11-11T16:51:04","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T21:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/?p=11584"},"modified":"2026-11-11T17:17:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T22:17:05","slug":"framingham-wwi-veteran-private-chester-c-sewells-letters-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/2026\/11\/11\/general-interest\/framingham-wwi-veteran-private-chester-c-sewells-letters-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Framingham WWI Veteran Private Chester C. Sewell's Letters Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"1917<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

FRAMINGHAM, MA<\/strong> - In 1917, Chester C. Sewell and his brother Eldon had recently moved from Hopkinton and lived with their parents Edward and Margaret at 8 Evergreen Street, Framingham, Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When war broke out in Europe, Chet and Eldon both volunteered and joined the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waiting at home, Margaret read and kept every letter neatly tied in bundle, knowing if things went badly, the letters may be all she would have left to remember her son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the bravery and fighting spirit of Chet, Eldon and thousands of other American boys, Germany was defeated and Chet and Eldon both made it safely home to Framingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pvt.
Pvt. Chet Sewell. WWI in uniform on motorcycle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While this article is about Chet's letters home and a family that kept his memory alive, after the war, Chet went on to make the name \"Sewell\" well known in Framingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chet oversaw the construction of all three Framingham High schools, some of the elementary schools and other properties in Framingham. His last municipal building project was the construction of Loring Arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chet's son Quentin Sewell went on to be a history teacher in Framingham and Quent's wife Joanne Sewell was music teacher and directed many of Framingham Public Schools music and drama programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

100 year after the first letters were sent, Chet's grandson, Craig Sewell, took all the letters Chet had written home and carefully organized and transcribed them into a book to share with family and friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, Craig created a website that is an online archive of the letters and a Facebook page to keep his grandfather's memory alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Letters of Private Chester C. Sewell<\/strong> (website)<\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.lettersfromww1.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chester C. Sewell Facebook Page:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61590018923302<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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The names of Chester and Eldon Sewell and can found on the commemorative plaque listing Framingham residents who served in WWI in the front lobby of the Framingham Memorial Building (City Hall).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

###<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Pvt.<\/figure>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FRAMINGHAM, MA – In 1917, Chester C. Sewell and his brother Eldon had recently moved from Hopkinton and lived with their parents Edward and Margaret at 8 Evergreen Street, Framingham, Mass. When war broke out in Europe, Chet and Eldon both volunteered and joined the U.S. Army. Waiting at home, Margaret read and kept every letter neatly… [read more]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":11587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[5213,5212,5217,120,5218,5214,5211,5215,5216],"class_list":["post-11584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest","tag-chester-sewell","tag-chet-sewell","tag-framingham-veteran","tag-history","tag-human-interest","tag-sewell-framinghgam","tag-veteran","tag-world-war-i","tag-wwi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11584"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11597,"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11584\/revisions\/11597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.framingham.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}