# One of Ours — Character guide

> Key figures in One of Ours by Willa Cather.

- [Claude Wheeler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/claude_wheeler.md): Claude is the second son of a prosperous, teasing father and a gentle, devout mother, and he feels every small humiliation of provincial life — the stinking hides, the coarse hired men, the college winters he can't affor
- [Enid Royce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/enid_royce.md): Enid is the daughter of a grizzled mill owner who thinks she has more brains than a girl needs and would rather see her run a business than a household. She is good, disciplined, and slightly elsewhere — her father warns
- [Mrs. Wheeler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/mrs_wheeler.md): She runs the Wheeler household alongside Mahailey, absorbing her husband's jokes and her sons' moods without complaint, and she understands Claude's disappointments better than she can say. When she runs down the path to
- [Mahailey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/mahailey.md): Brought West by a family that scattered, Mahailey found a home with the Wheelers and never left; she can't read, counts herself lucky to have shoes, and senses every current of feeling in the household. Claude fixes her 
- [Ralph Wheeler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/ralph_wheeler.md): Ralph is the son who fits: he runs errands, sorts socks, laughs at Claude's tight shoes, and tells his mother the truth about how hard Claude is to manage. He is affectionate but conventional, and his easy competence thr
- [David Gerhardt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/david_gerhardt.md): Gerhardt moves through French households and officers' quarters with a grace Claude can only envy, teasing his friend out of a sulk and steering him through dinners he can't understand. He is educated, musical, at home i
- [Bayliss Wheeler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/bayliss_wheeler.md): Bayliss is the Wheeler family's model of success: shrewd, thrifty, and certain that the Erlichs will end up without a roof over their heads. He measures people by their habits and their interest payments, and his gentle,
- [Gladys Farmer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/gladys_farmer.md): Gladys teaches the children of dead men and has built a private philosophy from it: everything beautiful—love, leisure, art—is locked up, and successful men like Bayliss hold the keys. She has sacrificed small pleasures,
- [Victor Morse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/victor_morse.md): Victor is the kind of man who orders garnished toast in an officers' smoking-room and shrugs off a change of destination with 'c'est la guerre.' He came from a bank in Crystal Lake, a preacher's daughter, and two pairs o
- [Leonard Dawson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/leonard_dawson.md): Leonard belongs to the solid, working world of the Frankfort countryside—harvests, neighborly help, and old grudges settled with a slap. His coming marriage to Susie Grey resurfaces the memory of that quarrel with Baylis
- [Sergeant Hicks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/sergeant_hicks.md): Hicks is the battalion's practical memory—he has trained at Arras, heard the Tommies' tales, and can compare this wet, dragging march to Passchendaele two years back. He and Claude wonder together what the real front mus
- [Mrs. Erlich](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/mrs_erlich.md): Her parlor—books, a lamp, a Swiss woodcutter on the mantel, young instructors dropping in—is the one place where Claude feels life is charged with generous enthusiasms and romantic friendships. She welcomes him with exci
- [Ernest Havel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/ernest_havel.md): Ernest is the thoughtful young farmer Claude meets by a thorn hedge on the evening England declares war, and his calm, unhurried certainty sets him apart from the brag and bluster around them. Having sailed from Antwerp,
- [Mr. Royce](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/mr_royce.md): Enid's stern, religious father who runs the local drugstore.
- [Nat Wheeler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/nat_wheeler.md): Nat Wheeler is the county's most imperturbable man, a broad, tobacco-stained farmer who never speaks with full seriousness and treats even his own family to the same easygoing jokes. When Claude begs for the car to drive
- [Dan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/dan.md): A hired hand on the Wheeler farm.
- [Captain Maxey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/captain_maxey.md): Claude's company commander in the American Expeditionary Forces.
- [Madame Joubert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/madame_joubert.md): A French woman who hosts American soldiers in her home.
- [Tod Fanning](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/tod_fanning.md): A local man from Claude's hometown who also serves in the war.
- [Bert Fuller](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/bert_fuller.md): A soldier in Claude's company, known for his rough humor.
- [Julius Erlich](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/julius_erlich.md): One of Mrs. Erlich's sons, a friend of Claude in Lincoln.
- [Albert Usher](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/albert_usher.md): A young soldier in Claude's company.
- [Dr. Chessup](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/dr_chessup.md): A doctor in the town near the Wheeler farm.
- [Brother Weldon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/brother_weldon.md): A traveling preacher who visits the Wheeler community.
- [Wilhelmina Schroeder-Schatz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/wilhelmina_schroeder_schatz.md): A German-American woman who boards soldiers in Lincoln.
- [Annabelle Chapin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/annabelle_chapin.md): A young woman from Claude's hometown.
- [Dr. Trueman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/dr_trueman.md): A doctor who treats soldiers in the war.
- [Lieutenant Colonel Scott](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/lieutenant_colonel_scott.md): A senior officer in Claude's regiment.
- [Fritz Tannhauser](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/fritz_tannhauser.md): A large, good-natured soldier in Claude's company.
- [Papa Joubert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/papa_joubert.md): Madame Joubert's husband, a French farmer.
- [Oscar the Swede](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/oscar_the_swede.md): A Swedish immigrant neighbor of the Wheelers.
- [Willy Katz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/willy_katz.md): A soldier in Claude's company who dies in battle.
- [Ed Drier](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/ed_drier.md): A local man from Claude's hometown.
- [Susie Dawson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters/susie_dawson.md): Leonard Dawson's wife.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/one_of_ours_se/characters