The Lost Faces of World War One — Part Four

This is the continuation of a series of stories about men who died in World War 1, and whose photographs appeared in a publication called “Our Nation’s Roll of Honor.” The original post and explanation can be found at this link.  There will also be a complete listing of all the names researched at that same blog post.

LOST FACES OF WORLD WAR ONE: Our Nation’s Roll of Honor — Part Four

Lieut. Calvin Capps
Lucama, North Carolina
Died of Wounds

Calvin Leroy Capps was born 5 March 1892 Wilson County, North Carolina [per ww1 draft registration], son of George Matthew & Margaret K. “Maggie” (Phillips) Capps. In 1900 living in Black River, Cumberland, North Carolina with his mother Maggie 27, and brothers Edward F. (6), Carl W. (4) and George F. (2).

He was a 2nd Lieutenant, 74th Co., 6 Reg., U.S.M.C. and died 12 June 1918 of wounds he received in battle.  He is buried in Plot B Row 11 Grave 45, Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, Belleau, France. His life was mentioned several times in newspaper articles, and so I let those speak for themselves.

5 July 1918 The Western Carolina Times (Hendersonville) page 3– DIED IN FRANCE
Orphans’ Friend.  An official telegram from Washington was received last week by Mrs. Maggie Capps of Lucama, announcing the death of her son, Lieut. Calvin Capps of the Marine Corps., in France. He died in a French Hospital June 12 as a result of wounds received in action. A public memorial service was held in Lucama last Sunday in connection with the sad event. Lieutenant Capps was an old orphanage boy, as where his two younger brothers, who are in the navy and aviation corps, respectively. So far as we know this is the first death of a soldier who has been a former Oxford Orphanage boy. As the orphanage service flag bears 60 names–and there are some doubtless not yet heard from–sad news may reach us any time. Our deepest sympathy goes out to Mrs. Capps and her two surviving brave boys.

Greensboro Daily News, Greensboro NC, 20 June 1918: LIEUT CALVIN CAPPS of WILSON DIES FROM WOUNDS
Wilson, June 19.–Mrs. Maggie Capps, of Lucama, received a telegram from Washington this morning to the effect that her eldest son, Lieut. Calvin Capps, of the marine corps, died in a French hospital on June 12 from the effects of a wound received in battle. On May 4 he was slightly wounded in his right hand, but shortly afterward reported for duty. He is survived by his mother and two brothers–one in the navy and one in the aviation corps. This is the second one of Wilson’s everlasting peace–the first, Lieut. Robert Anderson, who was killed in action on May 29.

Chateau Thierry, France, c 1919, panoramic photograph; Library of Congress

News and Observer, Raleigh, NC, 21 June 1918: LIEUT CALVIN CAPPS WHO DIED IN FRANCE
Wilson County Man succumbs to Wounds; Memorial Exercises Next Sunday
Wilson, June 29–Wilson county has again given of her best in the effort to preserve civilization. The information that Lieut. Calvin L. Capps died in France on June 12 from wounds received in action, was conveyed by his mother Mrs. Maggie Capps, at Lucama, from the Adjutant General of the Army at Washington. No details of his death or wounded other than the fact that he died from wounds received in action were mentioned in the telegram. Lieutenant Capps left Wilson county at the same time that the late Lieut. Robert B. Anderson left the country for France. When America entered the war Lieutenant Capps was field manager in North Carolina of a corps of salesmen representing the P. Lorrilard Tobacco Company. He immediately applied for a leave of absence for the duration of the war from his company, which was granted. He entered the first training camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, to be trained as an officer and was commissioned as second lieutenant with the first class commissioned from this training camp. When volunteers were called for young officers for service in France, Lieutenant Capps, with his fellows, volunteered, and he deemed himself fortunate that of the number who volunteered he was selected with others to go to France to join Pershing’s forces. He left America last September, and after training in France and after attending a training school for officers there, he was assigned to the marine corps. In letter from him received by friends it was learned that he was in his first serious engagement on Easter Sunday, and since that time, with brief resting intervals, he has been at the front. It is not known, of course, where he fell, but it is assumed that it was at Chateau Theirry, for it is at this important point that the American marines have heavily engaged, repulsed and defeated the Germans in their repeated onslaughts at this point. Lieutenant Capps was about 25 years old, the son of Mrs. Maggie Capps, of Lucama, and of the late George Capps, and a nephew of Mr. E.B. Capps, who has prominent business interests in Wilson. His father died when he was a youth of only a few years, leaving a family of a widow and four young sons. He was educated at the Masonic Orphanage at Oxford, from which institution he graduated in 1910. After his graduation from the orphanage at Oxford he came to Wilson and worked for a while as a printer for Mr. J.E. Everett and served a short time in the employment of the Wilson Times. He subsequently was employed by the Atlantic Coast line Railroad Company in the capacity of a clerk to the superintendent at Rocky Mount from which position he resigned to accept employment by the P. Lorrilard Tobacco Company as a member of the squad of traveling salesmen, traveling in North Carolina [more left out]. He was a member of the Lucama lodge of Masons and was a Shriner in North Carolina Masonry. He was a member of the Greensboro lodge of Elks and also member of the Knights of Pythias. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Lucama. He has two brothers now in service, Carl Capps, first class yeoman on the transport Susquehanna, and Frank Capps in the aviation branch of the service in training at the University of Texas, etc.

4 May 1920: News and Observer, Raleigh, NC, page 12 — UNVEIL BRONZE TABLET TO LIEUTENANT
Gallant Soldier on Eve of Death Asked Mother to Make Gift To Orphanage
Oxford, May 3. — a bronze tablet to the memory of Lieutenant Calvin Leroy Capps, who lost his life in France, was unveiled in the Orphanage chapel Sunday afternoon, May 2….A large number of visitors were present, among them Mrs. Margaret Capps, mother of the dead soldier; Messrs Frank and Carl Capps, brothers, with their wives, Mr. E.B. Capps, uncle, and … friends of the family… The tablet, a handsome memorial placed on the wall back of the rostrum on the right hand side from the speaker’s stand was erected pursuant to a last request written by Lieut. Capps the night preceding the battle in which his life was sacrificed. The history of this request, written in a letter to his mother and his fiance, as the last chapter in a heroic drama was drawing to a close, was tenderly told in the fine address of Hon. W.A. Lucas, of Wilson, intimate friend of the hero of Chateau-Thierry. In that solemn and thoughtful hour, when he must have had a prevision of the end to come on the morrow, Calvin Capp, besides leaving all his property and personal effects to his mother, was reminded of his foster mother, the Oxford Orphanage, and requested his mother to make a suitable contribution to the institution in his name. In conformity with this last will and testament, written almost from the battlefield, Mrs. Capps, through Mr. Lucas, made a donation of $500 which was in most appropriate terms received by Superintendent R.L. Brown.
. The following inscription was placed on the tablet:
In memory of
Calvin Leroy Capps
Lieutenant 74th Co., 6 Reg., U.S.M.C.
Killed in action June 12, 1918
Chateau-Thierry, France
Age 26 years.
The program follows: One stanza The Star-Spangled Banner, Prayer by Rev. J.D. Harte, Duet: “My Faith Looks up to Thee” and Scripture reading by R.C. Craven. [more not listed here]

Private Charles H. Carey
Salem, Ohio
Died of Wounds

Charles Herbert Carey was born 8 January 1898 in Perry, Columbiana Co., Ohio, the son of Charles M. & Effie (Campbell) Carey.   In 1900 he was living with his parents, siblings, and maternal grandfather (Angus Campbell) in Perry, Columbiana Co., Ohio. Siblings at that time included: George A. Carey, Bruce R. Carey, and Donald C. Carey.

Charles H. Carey enlisted on 11 April 1917, as a Private in Company “H” United States Marine Corp, and was stationed first at the Marine Barracks, Port Royal, SC.

He was killed in Action June 13, 1918, at Belleau Wood, France, near the end of the German Montdidier-Noyon Offensive.  After the war his remains were brought back to the United States and re-interred at Grandview Cemetery, Salem, Columbiana Co. Ohio on 27 July 1921.  Carey Post 56, American Legion of Salem, received its charter in 1921, to honor Charles H. Carey, the first man from Salem to die in WW1.

Photograph of Doughboy monument in 1927 at Salem, Ohio

The Doughboy monument dedicated Armistice Day in Grandview Cemetery, Salem, is the gift of James Carey Bolger, of New York, former Salem man and son of J.C. Bolger of this city. It cost over $5,000 and was formally turned over to Charles H. Cary Post, American Legion, at the dedicatory service. The figure shows an American soldier–from Salem–in action in one of the battles of the World War. In his right hand he holds a hand grenade, ready to toss it into the trench before him. His rifle is held in his left hand, ready for use. His coat is off, his shirt collar turned out and on his head is a steel helmet. On the bronze plate on the base of the monument is the following inscription: “In Honor of the Men and Women from Salem, Ohio, Who Served Their Country in the World War and in the Memory of Those Who Made the Supreme Sacrifice. Let Those Who Come After See That They Shall Not Be Forgotten. Present to Charles H. Carey Post of the American Legion by James Carey Bolger, 1927.” Legionnaires participated in the service at the monument prior to their annual memorial service at the grave of Charles H. Carey, first Salem boy to die in action in the war.” — Sunday, November 13, 1927, Repository (newspaper), Canton, Ohio, page 8

Private James F. Carson
Dutton, Alabama
Died of Wounds

James Franklin Carson was born 9 December 1891 in McLarty, Blount Co., Alabama, son of John Bruce & Mary Wellington (Turner) Carson. In 1900 he was living with his family in Burgetts, Blount Co., Alabama.

Siblings included: Sarah E. Carson (b Jan 1881), Nora I. Carson (b Nov 1883), Charles R. Carson (b Feb 1885), Nancy E. Carson (b March 1887), John E. Carson (b March 1888), Arthur E. Carson (b Dec 1889), Anna R. Carson (b July 1897) and Lizzie M. Carson (b Oct 1899).

He served in the United States Army during World War 1, and died of wounds,  14 May 1918, in France.  When the War ended, his remains were returned to the United States, where he was re-interred in Burial Zion Hill Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, in Snead, Blount Co., Alabama.  There is another photograph of him at his Find-A-Grave memorial.

The name of James F. Carson is inscribed on the Hall of Honor Temple, at the Alabama Veterans Memorial, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Sergt. Thurston R. Chamberlain
Guerneville, California
Died, Airplane Accident

Thurston Roy Chamberlain, was born September 1893 in California, son of William W. & Edna B. (Graves) Chamberlain.His father was a forman in the Korbel winery on the Russian river.

The local newspaper reported that Thurston had attended San Rafael High School and had been a resident of Novato, Marin Co., California for many years. He enlisted from Woodland, California in the aviator corps [another newspaper says signal corps] in 1917.  In addition to his parents, he had a sister at the time of his death, Mrs. Alger Scott of Novato, California, along with a brother and sister living at Woodland, California.  He was 25 years old at the time of his death.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Plot: 18, 856.  The inscription reads: THURSTON R CHAMBERLAIN California SGT 400 Aero Squadron May 15, 1918.

Thurston Chamberlain was probably a flight instructor at Issoudun, Frances, as his name is inscribed on the 3rd Aviation Instruction Center, a monument located southeast of Tours, France.

Lieut. Henry W. Clarke
Boston, MA
Killed In Action

Henry Ware Clarke, was born 19 November 1893 in Chicago, Illinois, son of Charles Atherton & Georgianna (Whiting) Clarke.  In 1900 he was living with his parents and siblings in Newton, Middlesex, Massachusetts.  His siblings included: Helen Clark (born Nov 1881 MA), Caroline W. Clark (b. Aug 1889 MA), and Margaret C. Clark (b. Sept 1895 MA).

Henry W. Clarke graduated from Harvard University in 1916, and his biography, along with another photograph of him, is published in “Memoirs of the Harvard Dead in the War Against Germany.”  He was a Mason.   Before the war he was a secretary for the Universal Boring Machine Co.

Photograph from “Memoirs of the Harvard dead in the War against Germany.”

The book, “Memoirs,” referenced above, goes on to describe Henry’s genealogy thusly: “His grandfather, Henry Ware Clarke, for whom he was named, was the son of the Rev. Robert Clarke, a Unitarian minister of Princeton and Uxbridge, Massachusetts, who named his only son for his friend and colleague, Henry Ware (Harvard, 1812). The first American Clarke of his family, Robert Clare, settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire in 1725.  His mother’s first American ancestor was the Rev. Samuel Whiting, came in 1636 to the Massachusetts town which in 1630 was incorporated as Saugus, but in 1687, in complement to the new minister, from Lynn, in England, was re-named Lynn.  Through many later generations the Whiting family lived in Charlestown, Massachusetts.”

Henry W. Clarke volunteered in the regular United States army in August 1917 as a private, and trained in Plattsburg, NY; He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant before he was killed in action at Cantigny, France on May 28, 1918. His Harvard biography states: “He was commanding a platoon of machine guns, and putting on indirect fire during the attack, and he had not been firing more than three minutes when a Boche 155 shell exploded near him.  The shrapnel shattered his knee, and one piece went through his head just above his eye. He was killed instantly, and there was a smile on his face when we carried him out.”

He was originally buried at Bonvilliers, near Cantigny. When the war ended, he was re-interred at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge MA on 23 December 1921, on GERANIUM PATH, Lot 1859.

The official recognition of his valour was expressed in the following citation:
HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION
General Orders No. 1. January 1, 1920.
The Division Commander
cites for gallantry in action
and especially meritorious services
2d Lieutenant Henry W. Clarke, M.G. Co. 16th Inf.
who was killed in action
near Cantigny, France, May 28, 1918
by command of
Major General Summerall.

A portrait relief was made of him, commissioned (apparently) by his mother, by the famed sculptor, Frederick Warren Allen.  [To see the relief and details, see this link].