Maurice C Laven
Submitted by: Robert Laven {Great Nephew}
Maurice C Laven born around 1897. Maurice Laven 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
Drafted in December 1917. Assigned to 13th Infantry Brigade part of 7th Infantry. Served in 20th Machine Gun Battalion.
Arrived in France in Summer 1918 and moved to rear area part of first Army !V Corps September 1918. In line when Second Army was created in October 1918 and participated in engagement at Preny Ridge (Lorraine) November 9-11 1918 as part of Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
November 12 to January 9 engaged in enforcement of Armistice terms.
Final pay Voucher indicates he was mustered out June 27th 1919 at Camp Dodge Iowa
John Joseph Buhr
Submitted by: Timothy A. Kensinger {grand nephew}
John Joseph Buhr born around 1891. John Buhr 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
John Joseph Buhr (Joseph, Antone M., John Peter)
b. 14 April, 1891 Stacyville, Iowa
d. 20 July, 1918 Belleau, Aisne Picardie, France. Aisne-Marne Cemetery Plot B Row 4 grave 24
m, never married
Joseph enlisted in Wyoming in 1917 and was sent to France in 1918 where he was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, Company M, 23rd Infantry Regiment. The 2nd infantry Division was founded in 1917 as part of the 8th Army.
Several days before the Germans launched their abortive Champagne-Marne drive, the French high command had made plans for a general converging offensive against the Marne salient. Petain issued orders on 12 July for the attack to begin on the 18th, with five French armies – the Tenth, Sixth, Ninth, Fifth, and Fourth, placed around the salient from left to right – taking part. Spearheading the attack were the five divisions of the French XX Corps (Tenth Army), including the American 1st and 2d Divisions.
Joseph Prephan
Submitted by: Jeffrey Prephan Great Grandson
Joseph Prephan born around May 15, 1893. Joseph Prephan 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
At the age of 19 or 20 years old, Joseph immigrated to the United States from Syria around 1912 or 1913 and settled down in Toledo, Ohio working as a merchant selling candy and produce on street corners.
On June 4, 1917 he was drafted into the US Army’s 147th Infantry, Company B, 37th Division (“Buckeye Division”); based out of Camp Lee, Virginia during WW1. While stationed as a soldier at Camp Lee, he was naturalized as a US Citizen on May 9, 1918.
Shortly afterwards on June 22, 1918, he left from Newport News, Virginia on the ship “Pocahontas” bound for France and the war front. While in France, he fought at St. Mihiel; Ypres-Lys; and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
Walter Clarence Henning
Submitted by: Debbie Reveles {Granddaughter}
Walter Clarence Henning born around 1899. Walter Henning 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
Walter was the oldest of 6 children born to Julius and Martha Henning. He enlisted in the Army 4 months after his 18th birthday. His basic training was at Camp MacArthur in Waco, Texas. He was a Private 1st Class In Headquarters Company 128th Infantry of the 32nd Division.
He arrived in France in March of 1918. He was in the Aisne Marne offensive, the Oise-Aisne offensive, the Meuse-Argonne offensive and the Army of Occupation. He was gassed 3 months before Armistice.
One year after he discharged from the Army he married Lillian Kapok. He never spoke about his service except to tell his granddaughter that he never had any desire to see Europe. And he never went on a boat, even a simple row boat on a lake.
Samuel J. Condren
Submitted by: Lt. Col Debra Conley {granddaughter}
Samuel J. Condren born around 1891, Samuel Condren served in World War 1 with the the United States Army . The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1919.
Story of Service
Purple Heart Recipient
Francisco P Lucero
Submitted by: Paul Moreno {Great Grandson}
.JPG)
Francisco P Lucero born around 1880. Francisco Lucero 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
Francisco Lucero of San Miguel New Mexico was a Captain in World War 1.
He was shot by a wooden bullet overseas and died later on due to complications form that wound.
Morris Henry Stadler
Submitted by: James P. Axtell {Grand nephew of his spouse}
Morris Henry Stadler born around 1896. Morris Stadler 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
Morris Henry Stadler and Irene Derse
Morris Henry Stadler was born in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 26 March 1896. He married Irene Genevieve Derse in Racine, Wisconsin 27 May 1925. My grand Aunt Irene Derse is one of the five sisters of my grandfather, Alexander Anthony Derse.
He was the son of Morris Christopher Stadler and Rosa Schantik. Morris and Rosa married in 1893 in Milwaukee. The elder Morris, a teamster, was born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin 3 Jan 1871 and died in Milwaukee 19 Aug 1904. Rosa, a native of Germany, died in Wauwatosa 8 April 1905. Both parents died of tuberculosis-type diseases, and their children were forced into orphanages.
Morris had an older sister, Alma, and a younger brother, William. (A brother, Edward, died at age two months in 1895.) After their mother’s death, Morris and William were placed in a Wauwatosa boys’ home.
At his June 1917 draft registration, Morris was living in Lake Forest, Illinois and worked as a brakeman on the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee (CNSM) Railroad. CNSM was an interurban railway operating between the south side of Chicago and downtown Milwaukee. It began service in 1895 in Waukegan, Illinois and extended gradually. Samuel Insull, organizer of Commonwealth Edison, purchased the line in 1916 and it was a financial success. After World War II, ridership fell off, and it ceased operations in 1963.
Ray Keegan
Submitted by: Rev. Lin McGee {Grand Niece}
Ray Keegan born around April 9, 1895, Ray Keegan 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
Ray Keegan was born in Mikado, Mi, on April 9, 1895. He lived in New Hartford, CT, with his family when he was a child. He was living in Harrisville, MI, when he went to Flint on June 5, 1917 to join the Army to fight in the first World War. He was sent to Ft. McArthur in Waco, TX, for his mi training – and then off to Hoboken, NJ, to leave the United States for combat in France on the Army Transport Service # 51 on February 9, 1918.
Private Ray Keegan was serving with the 125th Infantry Regiment, Company F, 32 Infantry Division = Red Arrow when he was KIA on July 31, 1918 fighting in The Battle of Château-Thierry which was part of the Second Battle of the Marne. He was 23 years of age at the time of his death. He is buried at the Oise-Asine American Cemetery – Burial Plot B, Row 18, Grave 10 – in Fere-en-Tardenois, France. He was awarded the Purple Heart.
William Jonathan Bock
Submitted by: Brandt "Bob" Bock {Son}
William Jonathan Bock was born on September 26, 1897. William Jonathan Bock served in World War I with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1917;and the service was completed in 1919.
Story of Service
This story of service is being submitted on behalf of all of William Bock’s ten children, (four alive and six deceased) his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great great-grandchildren, and descendants yet to be born.
Our father, William Jonathan Bock, (better known as “Bill”) was not one to discuss or even touch upon his military and World War I experience. That part of his life was over, he was now on to much more important things such as raising a large family and working, working, ever working. Fortunately we do have some of his military records and a letter to be able to recognize his stellar contributions to the effort to defeat Germany during World War I.
It is noteworthy to mention that Germany is where his ancestors lived and immigrated from, but our father was an American and was proud to be!
We know from his “Enlistment Record” that at age 19, he left his parents small farm in Smith Mills, New York to enlist in the U.S. Army on April 19th, 1917 at Buffalo, New York. After locating a copy of his service card we know he, along with other recruits, were transported to what was known then as the Columbus Barracks in Columbus, Ohio for the beginning of his basic training.