Marcus Alexander Campbell
Submitted by: Beverly Hector-Smith {3rd cousin}
Marcus Alexander Campbell born around 12/30/1890, Marcus Campbell 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
Marcus was my paternal grandmother's first cousin. who I remember was very shy and withdrawn. He seemed always working in the vegetable garden when visited—this was in the 1940's when I was a child. He never married and lived with his sister in the family home which was across the street.
When my grandmother died she was buried there, and I happened to notice another grave when I was there, and it was Marcus'. His gravestone read: " For his combat success and bravery on Nov.1918, the French awarded the Croix de Guerre to the First Battalion 367 Infantry Regiment." I have no written verification, no family stories survived. I would have thought there would be a military record but I was told the U.S. did not keep a record of awards given by other countries.
Since WW1 regiments were segregated so many regiments were attached to others. I have found 3 regiments the 369, 371, and the 372 received awards. There is no mention of the 367th, could it have been attached to one of the others?
In any case I began to see that quiet unassuming man in a new light.
Charles Wesley Darrow
Submitted by: Tracy Tomaselli {historian}
Charles Wesley Darrow born around 1898. Charles Darrow 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
Charles Wesley Darrow was born on 6 July 1898 in the Yalesville section of Wallingford, CT. He was the son of Nelson Edward Darrow and Florence Estella Calhoun. Charles was raised by his grandmother (Alice Rebina Spencer) and step-grandfather (Franklin Pierce Calhoun) who resided on Whitfield Street, Guilford, CT.
Charles Darrow joined Company D, 2nd Infantry Regiment, National Guard, on 19 June 1916 in New Haven, CT, at the age of 17, and served patrolling the Mexican border against raids. (service #64386)
The Connecticut 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiments, having been federalized on 28 March 1917 to serve in the First World War, were combined into one Regiment to form the 102nd Inf. Regt. (CTANG). Training with this regiment for Charles began at Camp Yale on 6 July 1917. The camp was located in the vicinity of the Yale Bowl.
During this time, Charles, who was a plumber at the Acme Wire Mills in New Haven, CT, married Katherine O'Connor (29 July 1917) in New Haven, CT. Katherine (O'Connor) Darrow had an affair which led Charles to tell his uncle, Albert F. Calhoun, that he was "not coming back from France and didn't want to live."
Clifton Flagler
Submitted by: Bradley W. Flagler {Grandnephew}
Clifton Flagler born around 1895. Clifton Flagler served in World War 1 with the United States Marine Corps. The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1918.
Story of Service
Private Clifton Flagler, United States Marine Corps, 55th Company and his Gold Star mothers quest for information about the death of her son.
Clifton Flagler was the sixth son of James Enos & Irene (Salisbury) Flagler. The eighth of ten children, he was born on October 28, 1895 and grew up on his parents farm in Reidsville, Albany County New York.
He enlisted in the Marine Corps on July 18, 1917 in Albany for "the duration of war". On his entrance physical he was noted as being 69 1/2 inches in height, weighing 152 Lbs, having blue eyes with 20/20 vision, light brown hair and a ruddy complexion. At the time of his enlistment he was 21 years, 8 months, 20 days of age and his occupation was listed as that of a teamster. Being that blue stone quarrying was a significant business in Reidsville at the time and there were some connections through his mothers side of the family to this enterprise,his work likely engaged him in transporting heavy loads of stone down steep, winding roads by horse and wagon from the Heldebergs of western Albany County to the city.
Douglas Mellen Burckett
Submitted by: Jenifer Burckett-Picker {daughter}
Douglas Mellen Burckett born around 1895, Douglas Burckett 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
My father, Douglas Mellen Burckett, was born in Brooklyn in 1895 and grew up in Montclair and Somerville, New Jersey. After finishing high school, plus a couple of years of military academy, he enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the fall of 1915 to study electrical engineering.
After his sophomore year, in the fall of 1917, he enlisted in the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). He was in Wagon Company #3 of the 23rd Engineers Regiment and spent his first almost five months at various training camps in Maryland (Camp Meade, Camp Glen Burnie, and Camp Laurel). At Camp Meade, he met his lifelong friend, George W. Duncan “Dunk”, from Missoula, Montana.
Dad and Dunk shipped over from Hoboken, NJ to Brest France in early April 1918 on the U.S.S. George Washington. They spent just over a week in Brest at Camp Pontanezen, before entraining to Nevers in central France, where they spent the next almost four months working on the most important American railroad project in France in WWI – unheard of and forgotten today, but of vital strategic importance to the war effort – the Nevers Cut-Off (or as the French called it “La ligne americaine”).
Mohan Singh
Submitted by: Tanveer Kalo
Mohan Singh born around 1884 or 1885, Mohan Singh served in World War 1 in the manner described below.. The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1918.
Story of Service
Mohan Singh was in Amballa Cantt, British India in either 1884 or 1885 to Heera Singh. He immigrated to the United States on December 13, 1913 from Southampton, England. Singh settled in Stockton, California. Mohan Singh attended the University of Utah and University of Minnesota for medicine. He is listed in the University of Minnesota's 1918-1919 student directory. The University of Utah has his student record.
Singh enlisted at ERC Fort Douglas, Utah on November 19, 1917. He was assigned to the Student Army Training Corps at the University of Minnesota. Private Singh did not serve overseas and was honorably discharged on December 14, 1918.
After the war, Singh returned to Stockton. In 1920 Singh applied for a U.S. passport to go to India for its southern climate on the advice of his doctor to help an infection of his lungs.
Chester Allen Bower and Charles Edward Bower
Submitted by: Valerie J. Young {Granddaughter and grandniece}
(l to r) Chester and Charlie Bower in 1918
Chester Allen Bower born around 1894, Chester Bower 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
Chester Allen Bower and Charles Edward Bower: “Brothers in Service"
Submitted by Valerie J. Young, granddaughter and grandniece
My maternal grandfather was Chester Allen Bower, and his brother, Charles Edward Bower (called Charlie), was my great-uncle. They were born in New Oxford, Pennsylvania and both served in the Great War.
Charlie was a Sergeant with the U.S. Army Medical Corps, and his dates of service were March 26, 1918 to October 20, 1918. He died of the influenza pandemic while at Camp Mills, Long Island NY; he was just 20½ years old.
Joshua Henry Bates
Submitted by: Joan Enders {niece}
Joshua Henry Bates born around 1895. Joshua Bates 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
Joshua Henry Bates' 22nd birthday was on the day Wilson declared war. He was a one-room teacher/principal in Wanship, Utah. In September 1917 he started the new school year, worked one week, and received his letter to report the following week.
Training began after a long train ride to Camp Lewis, Washington, a camp created for the AEF. He trained, studied French, recorded health reports for the 347th Machine Gun Battalion at the camp hospital, and became a private first class. After a camp illness in March 1918, they continued training.
By July 4, 1918 the 91st Division was in New York City, shipping off to England and then to France for more training. The full history of the Battalion can be read in History of the 347th Machine Gun Battalion by John U. Calkins, Jr.
Joshua serves as a messenger for the officers. Their battalion and others held the line against the German forces in the Meuse-Argonne, and received a letter of relief on 3 October 1918.
Wilbur Raymond Welton
Submitted by: Randy Harvey {Great Nephew}
Wilbur Raymond Welton born around 1892. Wilbur Welton 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
Wilbur Welton enlisted on September 5th,1917 and underwent training at Camp Sherman, Chillcothe Ohio. Upon completion of training he was assigned to the 83 Infantry Division, Co. F, 308th Engenieers.
Welton was promoted to the rank of Sergeant on May 21st, 1918 while serving in France from February 27, 1918 to June 10th, 1919. He was Honorably discharged from service June 1919.
Wilbur Welton went on to very good job after his Army experience, married and had one son. He died in August 1969 in Elwood City Pa. He lies resting at Eastlake Cemetery alongside wife Abigail, in North Kingsville Ohio just a few hundred yards from the house that he was born in.
Joseph E. Hiner
Submitted by: Mary Rohrer Dexter (3gr Niece)
Joseph Eli Hiner was born around 1895. Joseph Hiner served in World War 1 with the United States Navy. The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1920.
Story of Service
Joseph Eli Hiner grew up in the same small town in Indiana in which he had been born. He was the third child of Asa Hiner, and Asa’s second wife, Georgia Wilson. Joe, who was born in 1895, was named after his grandfather whose father John had emigrated from Germany in 1770.
John Hiner had settled in Virginia and married a woman named Magdalena, whose grandfather had emigrated from Switzerland. John and Magdalena had twelve children. They named their fifth child John. He was born in Virginia in 1781.
The younger John had served in the Virginia Militia. His wife’s name was Rachel. His occupation was both that of a blacksmith and a farmer. The family were devout Methodists.
John and Rachel migrated with their children to Miami County, Indiana in 1836. One of their children was named Joseph. After arriving in Indiana, Joseph married a woman named Minerva Thomas. Joseph and Minerva had six children. They named their third child Asa. Joseph and Minerva were married 22 years when Joseph died after being thrown from a horse.
Joseph Eli enlisted in the U.S. Navy in April of 1917, shortly before his country declared war.