Ward Everett Duffy
Submitted by: Virginia Ward Duffy McLoughlin {Daughter} and Martha M. Everett {Granddaughter}
Ward Everett Duffy was born around 1891. Ward Duffy served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1919.
Story of Service
The calligraphy ink on my father's journalism degree was barely dry when President Woodrow Wilson declared on April 6, 1917, that the United States would enter World War I. The military needed to enlist and train soldiers – fast. My father had just started his first journalism job with The Evening Herald in Manchester, Connecticut, and his employer didn't want to lose him.
April 30, 1917
To Whom It May Concern:
This is to certify that I have known the bearer, Ward E. Duffy, for the past year and can testify that he is a man of good character and exemplary habits. I hope whoever examines him physically will turn him down, as he is needed on his job.
Elwood S. Ela, The Evening Herald
But patriotism, idealism and a sense of duty stirred in my father. His employer's letter aside, he could have sought an exemption from service as the sole support for his wife, Louise Day Duffy, and their 3-month-old son, David. But my 25-year-old father enlisted to serve his country.
During two years of service, more than 400 letters passed between my father and mother. The act of letter-writing became a lifeline that sustained them, along with faith, love and little David.
Andrew C. Shagren
Submitted by: Charles Bohnenberger {Great Great Nephew}
Andrew C. Shagren born around 1895. Andrew Shagren served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1918.
Story of Service
Andrew C. Shagren was the son of a Swedish immigrant father and Irish immigrant mother. He was my grandmother's favorite uncle.
He was drafted on Sept 22, 1917 in Philadelphia PA, and served in Company K of the 3rd Battalion of the 315th Infantry Regiment. He rose through the ranks quickly, being promoted to Corporal on June 14th 1917, then Sergeant on October 23, 1918.
By that time he had seen action in the Meuse Argonne offensive, Verdun Sector. This area was one of the toughest sectors of the Allied line, facing the indomitable German emplacements at Montfaucon.
When the offensive began in September, a memoir from a Company K soldier describes the sound and fury of a six hour artillery barrage that preceded the infantry assault. I imagine my great Uncle's thoughts as he prepared to face battle for the first time.
Adele Suyder Poston
Submitted by: Carolyn Cathey Castelli {Researching this Veteran for my hospital and part of my nursing history research}
Adele Suyder Poston born around 1884. Adele Poston served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1918 and the service was completed in 1919.
Story of Service
As Directress of Nurses at Bloomingdale Psychiatric Hospital in White Plains, NY, Poston joined the American Red Cross as a volunteer in 1917. She was among those "called to the colors" from Bloomingdale Hospital in White Plains, New York, to become the Chief Nurse, Army Nurse Corps, for Base Hospital 117 in La Fauche, France.
She described this position as "the greatest challenge" of her psychiatric nursing career. The nurses, nursing aides, doctors, and occupational therapy aides at the hospital treated shell-shocked soldiers and those suffering from war neurosis. This base hospital, established under the direction of Thomas Salmon, MD, was the first psychiatric hospital to be relatively close (about 30 miles) from the front lines of a war. Poston said she could hear the sounds of battle--the "big Bertha's"--at the hospital, in a letter she wrote from France to Bloomingdale Hospital's Medical Director, Dr. William Russell.
John Bernard Clise
Submitted by: John Davis {Great-Great Grandson}
John Bernard Clise was born around 1899. John Clise served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1918.
Story of Service
My great-great grandfather served in the US Army during WW1. He was a 2nd Generation American of German Descent whose Family Originated from Bavaria in the early 19th century. He was drafted and also wanted to show he wasn't pro kaiser. He proved himself as American as those of Either French of British heritage.
Ken Kolbe
Submitted by: Ken Kolbe {Grandson}
Ken Kolbe served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1917.
Story of Service
I know this is long but some of you maybe interested World War One a Hundred years ago.
Lets start in the beginning. He was born in Grafton to a, as best can be figured, married couple. But it was later learned that the father was already married in another state so she divorced him.
The young son was sent to his fathers parents near Lyndon Station WI who was a German immigrant that was in the Civil war and received a land grant to a property in WI. The grandparents raised him along with his half sister.
When his mother remarried and moved to about 3 miles south of Wahpeton he returned to help on that farm and grew up and attended what is now NDSCS but was only a single building, Main, north of Wahpeton. He was one of the early graduates from the school. His step father had only agreed to help raise him and would not get a part of the farm so he went to work for his mother's family's traveling harvesting company.
Along came WWI, the war to end all wars and he was in Canada and registered at the American Consultant in Winnipeg. Now begins the rest of the story.
Robert Donald West
Submitted by: John West {Grandson}
Robert Donald West was born around 1895. Robert West served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1918 and the service was completed in 1919.
Story of Service
My grandfather, Robert D. West, served in Company B, 140th Infantry, 35th Division, during the World War. He trained at Camp Dodge, Iowa and sailed from New Jersey to Liverpool on the HMS Adriatic.
He trained with the British and French and fought in the Meuse-Argonne.
During 2018 and 2019, I am posting Robert's diary entries and the letters he sent home at mndoughboy1918.tumblr.com and on Twitter at @mndoughboy1918.
His story includes a broken engagement, a shotgun wedding, leaving his pregnant bride at home, and sailing to Europe to do his part "Over There." I am very proud to share his story with others.
Frank William Atkinson
Submitted by: Thomas E. Atkinson {son}
Frank William Atkinson born around 1897. Frank Atkinson served in World War 1 with the United States Marine Corps. The enlistment was in 1918 and the service was completed in 1920.
Story of Service
Frank William Atkinson, U.S. Marines, Serial Number 290676
Enlisted in the united States Marine Corps at Winston-Salem, NC taking the oath on March 20, 1918.
Born in Mocksville, NC on November 15, 1897 and leaving this life on August 30, 1970 in Asheville, NC.
Married on July 17, 1929 to Ethel H. Redish.
Served in the battle of Blanc Mont om October 3, 1918. Awarded the French Croix de Gere and the Silver Star.
John Alexander Palmer, Jr.
Submitted by: Ronald Palmer {Great-Nephew}
John Alexander Palmer Jr. born around 1892. John Palmer served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1918 and the service was completed in 1918.
Story of Service
Co. A 338th Inf. Killed in action, Nov. 7, 1918, Argonne Forrest. Killed by bursting shell.
Arthur Samuel Houts
Submitted by: Claude Humbert {great nephew}
Arthur Samuel Houts born around 1880, Arthur Houts served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1901 and the service was completed in 1918.
Story of Service
Note: The information below is from a trunk found at my great-aunt's home.
Arthur Samuel Houts was born on May 31st, 1880, in Mount Vernon, Posey County, IN. Arthur Houts was the youngest of a family of six: Annie (born in 1865), Alice (born circa 1866), Maud (born in 1868), Oscar (born in 1875), William (born in 1878), and Arthur.
His father, Samuel Houts, was from Illinois. His mother, Margaret, was born in Ireland.
In 1898, during the Spanish-American war, Arthur Houts enlisted as a private with Company I of the 19th Infantry Regiment. The Regiment went to Puerto Rico and stayed at Ponce for a year as an occupying force.
On Jan. 8, 1901, Arthur Houts enlisted in Company K of the 5th Regiment of the Ohio National Guard, based in Cleveland, OH.
On July 13, 1905, Arthur Houts was commissioned second lieutenant. On Nov. 6, 1906, he was commissioned captain. He became a major on Sept. 9, 1913.