Author: Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist
Frank Hines Bynum was born on July 31, 1895, in Raleigh, N.C., to Raymond David and Emma A. Freeman Bynum. Frank’s father worked as a printer in Raleigh, and the family was living on Hargett Street in downtown Raleigh by 1900. At the time of his draft registration for World War I, Frank Bynum was working as an assistant to the purchasing agent for Carolina Power & Light Company in Raleigh.
Frank H. Bynum was inducted into military service in WWI on May 2, 1918, in Raleigh, N.C. He would serve in the U.S. Army, and was assigned to the 60th Infantry Brigade, 30th Infantry Division (“Old Hickory Division”), during the whole duration of his military service. Bynum was sent to Camp Sevier, S.C., before being transferred to Camp Merritt in New Jersey. He served in the Headquarters Detachment of the 60th Infantry Brigade, which was composed largely of North Carolina men. Bynum was a clerk in the Headquarters Detachment, and had regular involvement with the brigade’s commanding officer Samuel L. Faison. 
During his unit’s travel from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to England, Bynum’s troop transport ship was attacked by a German U-boat on June 2, 1918, in the North Atlantic Ocean. The ship survived the attack and landed in England two days later. Bynum’s unit arrived in Calais, France, on June 5, 1918. During his time in France, Frank Bynum was involved in a number of military campaigns, including operations at Bellicourt. Bynum remained with the 60th Infantry Brigade after Armistice Day, and was involved with the Allied occupation forces through March 1919. Bynum returned to the United States aboard the troop transport ship the U.S.S. Powhatan on March 26, 1919, from St. Nazaire, France.
Frank Bynum arrived in the U.S. at Charleston, S.C., on April 10, 1919, and reported to Camp Jackson in Columbia, S.C. All told, Bynum served overseas in Europe during the war from May 17, 1918 (when his transport ship left the United States), to April 10, 1919. He reached the rank of sergeant on August 14, 1918. Frank Bynum was honorably discharged on April 14, 1919.
After the war, Frank Bynum returned to his family’s home in Raleigh, N.C., where he worked in the family’s Bynum Printing Company by 1930, with his father Raymond, who was president of the printing company. Frank Bynum would marry Lula Armstrong Stockard on June 13, 1931, in Wake County, N.C. During the 1930s into the mid-1940s, Bynum served as the treasurer for the Bynum Printing Company. By 1949, Frank Bynum had come to serve as vice-president and treasurer of the Bynum Printing Company. Later in life, Bynum relocated to Charlotte, N.C., and moved his family’s Bynum Printing Company there as well. Frank H. Bynum died on May 12, 1991, in Charlotte, N.C., and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, N.C.
To learn more about Frank Bynum’s WWI service, check the Frank H. Bynum Papers (WWI 44) in the WWI Papers of the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina in Raleigh, N.C.
This blog post is part of the State Archives of North Carolina’s World War I Social Media Project, an effort to bring original WWI archival materials to the public through the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ (NCDNCR) various social media platforms, in order to increase access to the items during the WWI centennial celebration by the state of North Carolina.
Between February 2017 and June 2019, the State Archives of North Carolina will be posting blog articles, Facebook posts, and Twitter posts, featuring WWI archival materials which are posted on the exact 100th anniversary of their creation during the war. Blog posts will feature interpretations of the content of WWI documents, photographs, diary entries, posters, and other records, including scans of the original archival materials, held by the State Archives of North Carolina, and will be featured in NCDNCR’s WWI centennial blog.