Mr. Frodo said:
Thank you! This guys story has always been compelling to me for some reason.
Grows up around Austin probably farming. Signs up for the Tx National Guard when he's 19 or 20. Trains in Ft Worth for a year… probably the first time out of Travis Co. Makes his way to NJ by train in July of '18 … probably the first time out the state. Same month he lands in France. Not even two months later he's dead… three months out of the state. 45 days after his death terms are reached and the war is over. 75 days after his death, knowing the war is over and a week before Christmas, the family learns of his death. Damn… it nearly gets dusty just thinking about it and writing this.
There is a book called "Last of the Doughboys" and it was written by a guy who traveled around interviewing the final three or four dozen Doughboys. One thing from the book was that most of these young men had never before left the United States, many of them never had left their home state, and more than a few of them had never left the area where they were born and grew up.
I went on a tour in 2018 for the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War. I had dived into my father's service in World War II, but very little into his father's service in World War I. There were 38 of us, grandsons, granddaughters, great nieces and great nephews, and one girl who was a daughter of one of the soldiers (she was quite old, and he was quite old when she was born). At one of the American Cemeteries, one of the superintendents pointed out the headstone of a young man who had only been in the country for a day or two when he was killed. And some of the guys who had immigrated to the United States, from places in Europe, then a few years later returned to fight and die.
One of them pointed out one of the last casualties of the war. Since our involvement in the war was of such short duration, so many were like your relative, hardly got there and killed in action.
I highly suggest that you and your wife tour where he fought and died, and the cemetery where he rests. We visited 5 or 6 American cemeteries, passed by many French and German ones, some had two men to the grave. History is an amazing thing, but to stand where someone you are kin to actually fought, or fought and died, well it changes you. It is your history. As we traveled around for 11 or 12 days, I wondered if our ancestors looked down on us and wondered what all our fuss was about, why we had traveled 10,000 miles round trip to be where they had been. Though I suspect they were at least a little pleased we had shown the interest.
The cemeteries are immaculate, pristine, and well-kept. The monuments are massive and all around the country. Say what you want about the French, but so many things I witnessed and experienced, were impressive. One superintendent of the smallest cemetery said that French families adopted the graves of the men buried there. It wasn't a hollow gesture, they were required to visit and do something (i forget what duties) two to four times a year (again, I forget the frequency). All for boys they never knew, from another country, who died on their soil, now over a hundred years ago. He said there was an extensive waiting list to adopt a grave.
Another superintendent said he received a call from a local school's headmaster wanting to know if he and some of his students could borrow the chapel in the cemetery. He said perhaps, but it depends on what for. (I think this was the one for the Meuse-Argonne, with around 14,000 buried there). The headmaster said that his students wanted to recite aloud the names of all those buried there, as a tribute to their sacrifice. He said that doing so would be their way of bringing them back, if only for a moment.
This sort of stuff happened time and time again. So go! You might want to check with Valor Tours, the gal that runs it is named Vicky (used to be her dad's company). She is beyond lovely. I have been to Tarawa twice with them and France/Belgium once. Not a single hitch. Here is a brief thing on the upcoming tour:
WWI TOUR - September 10 TO 19, 2023. With Mike Grams. From Paris to Meaux, Belleau Wood, Chateau Theirry, Douamont, Verdun, Reims, Bellicourt, Albert, Compeigne, ending at Paris. $4200 per person, twin share.
You can look at the full itinerary on their website. Mike spent a day with us on our tour as he was taking over from Mike Hanlon. Very knowledgeable. Not sure if the tour will visit your areas of interest. Mike has lived in both Verdun and St. Mihiel. Also, if the tour gets anywhere near Belgium, Ypers to be exact, be sure to go see the Call to the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. They have a ceremony
every evening at 8pm and have since 1928 (other than the years of Nazi occupation). They honor the around 54,000 men whose names are inscribed at the gate and around 35,000 at another site who were killed and never found or identified, never given a proper burial.
Good luck in your search!
