Memorial War: World War I

First Lieutenant Lukens Peirce Young, an officer with the 363rd Infantry of the Spruce Production Division, died at Vancouver Barracks on January 25, of pneumonia following influenza. Lukens was one of a handful of expert foresters working in the Division. He was responsible for selecting the trees to be cut. He received his commission in August of 1917 following his completion of Officers Training Camp at the Presidio.

Born in Pennsylvania, Lukens was the son of James Jefferis Young and Laura Peirce. Lukens entered the University of Washington from Colorado College and received a BS in forestry in 1915, followed by a Master of Science in Forestry in 1917. His graduate thesis was entitled “Comparison of different methods of estimating timber.” While at the UW, Lukens played class football and was a member of the Rifle and Forestry Clubs. His younger brother, James Arthur Young, followed him to the UW and studied forestry, as well.

His position in Vancouver gave him the opportunity to socialize and he was well known among the young people there and had a host of friends. Lukens was engaged to Isabel Eichner, a fellow UW student, who was wired with the news of his serious illness. Isabel was at his bedside when he passed away. Lukens is buried at the Peirce family plot in Fallowfield Cemetery in Coatsville, Pennsylvania. (bit.ly/uw_young)

First Lieutenant Harold Clarence White had just completed a cross-state exhibition flight of Ohio in support of the Fourth Liberty Loan drive when he was struck with influenza. His mother immediately set out for Dayton from Seattle, but Harold died of pneumonia and complications from the flu on October 16, 1918, before she arrived. Harold was stationed at Wilbur Wright Field and had recently graduated from the school of military aeronautics at Berkeley, California. He was looking forward to continuing his service at Wright Field as an instructor and test pilot with the 20th Aero Squadron. He is buried at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_white)

A native of Seattle, Harold was the youngest of three children born to Clarence Little White and his wife, Etta Belle Whitworth. Harold was a 1916 graduate of Broadway High School where he was a standout athlete. At the time of his enlistment Harold was a freshman at the UW studying business administration. A pledge of Phi Gamma Delta, Harold was also yell leader for the class of 1920. Harold waited three weeks after the declaration of war – until his 21st birthday – to enlist. His grandfather, Reverend George Frederick Whitworth twice served as President of the University of Washington – from 1866-1867 and again from 1874-1876 – and founded Whitworth University.

First Lieutenant Leon Herbert Wheeler was returning from a secret three-month mission in France when the transport ship he was traveling on, the SS Missanabie, was struck by a torpedo from German submarine UB-87 on September 9, 1918. En route from Liverpool to New York, the Missanabie was sunk off the coast of Kinsale, Ireland with a loss of forty-five lives, including Leon. A 1914 graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Leon was an ordnance expert and had been worked on adapting the Browning machine guns for airplanes. Leon was slated to receive a commission as captain upon his return to New York. Leon is buried at Brookwood American Cemetery outside of London. (bit.ly/uw_wheeler)

The older of two children born to Charles Wheeler and Mary Ella Gerrish, Leon was born in Winona, Minnesota and grew up in Ellensburg, Washington. His undergraduate thesis was “Design and Construction of an Automatic High Speed Steam Engine” and in July of 1917 he applied for a patent for a foot pump, which was granted June 21, 1921. (bit.ly/us1382603) After graduating, he worked in the automobile business with Schlesinger Redburn in Manhattan. He entered the army as a lieutenant shortly after war broke out. Leon is one of three men for whom the Austin-Rees-Wheeler American Legion Post No. 8 in Ellensburg was named. 

“Although death was becoming a common occurrence, and almost every day brought news of the death of some friend or relative, still the news of Homer Ward’s death shocked his many friends. It was hard to believe that a young man who had left home in the pink of health, could be so suddenly stricken with death.” (In the Service: The Great World War Honor Roll, Southwest Washington, 1920.) Lieutenant Homer Wilber Ward died of pneumonia at Base Hospital 53 in Marseilles, France on October 19, 1918. He is buried at Suresnes American Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_ward) At the time he registered for the draft he was at Officer Training Camp at the Presidio in San Francisco. 

Homer was one of five surviving children born to Wilber Solon Ward and his wife Lydia Ann Timmen. His twin sister was stillborn. Born in Concordia, Kansas, Homer’s parents moved to Centralia when he was young and he graduated from Centralia High School in 1909. He entered the UW in September of 1910 where he studied civil engineering and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. When war broke out Homer enlisted at once and was assigned to the forestry division of the 20th Engineers. He sailed for France on September 20, 1917, and on arrival was sent to Northern France to take charge of a saw mill. Promotions came rapidly and Homer had been commissioned as a First Lieutenant and was soon to be made Captain when he died.

Corporal William Sherman Tucker died of wounds he received in action. A 1916 graduate of the University of Washington’s law school, William established a law practice in Chester, Montana. He one of the first men from Chester to enlist, on April 24, 1917, and was initially stationed at Fort Harrison, Montana, with Company C, 163rd Infantry, 41st Division; part of the Montana National Guard. His unit later became part of the 23rd Infantry, 2nd Division. He died on October 6, 1918, of wounds received during the battle of Chateau-Thierry, part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. William is buried in France at Meuse-Argonne Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_tucker) 

Born in Laddonia, Missouri, William was the only child of William Sherman Tucker, a Baptist minister, and his wife, Margaret Elizabeth Bibb. William’s father died two months before he was born. His mother later married Joseph Sisk and the family moved to Endicott, Washington, and later Galata, Montana.

Having already served in Washington’s National Guard for six years – and been posted along the Mexican border in 1916 – Truman Arthur Starr was already in training at the Presidio’s Officers Training camp at the time he registered for the draft. At the completion of his training he went to Camp Lewis, where he received his commission as lieutenant. He went overseas in June with the 363rd Machine Gun Company of the 91st Division and was killed in action of October 4, 1918, in the Argonne Forest, having done as “good work in the drive as any in the division, none barred” said his captain. (Seattle Daily Times, November 5, 1921, pg. 2.)

Truman was the seventh of Samuel Starr and Ella Eugenia Saunders’ nine children; eight boys and one girl. He was born and raised in Auburn, the first of Auburn High School’s graduates to be killed in action. He attended the University of Washington for two years, studying chemical engineering. Truman married Leah Clara Constance in Seattle on December 22, 1917. On October 29, 1918, Leah gave birth Truman Arthur Starr, Jr. Just two weeks later she would receive official notification from the war department of her husband’s death, her grief further compounded by the stillbirth of Truman’s twin, Marian Constance. Originally buried in France, Truman was reinterred at Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery in 1921. (bit.ly/uw_starr)

Excerpt from a poem dedicated to Clair by B.W. Brintnall:

His country’s call, it found him fit.
He’d been a-rowing on the crew;
He hadn’t been out nights with you,
He had so many things to do.
His country’s call – he answered it.

Walter Earl Shanly was serving in the Engineering Corps of the Navy at the time of his death from influenza on October 15, 1918. He died in his hometown, Bellingham, Washington, while visiting his parents as he waited to be called into service. He had originally enlisted in the Army but had been discharged for health reasons. He later successfully enlisted in the Navy.

The older of Walter Gregg Shanly and his wife, Minnie Hockey’s two children, Walter was a born in Globe, Arizona, and moved to Bellingham at a young age. He was a 1910 graduate of Whatcom High School. While at the UW he played football and basketball, served as sergeant major of the cadets, was a member of the Badger Debate club and Theta Chi Fraternity. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1916.

On October 29, 1918 — just days after Walter’s death — his only sibling, younger sister Mabel Lillian Shanly, succumbed to complications from influenza, as well, leaving their parents childless in the space of two weeks. Mabel was a graduate of the Normal School (now Western Washington University) and a teacher. Walter is buried together with his sister and parents at Bellingham’s Bayview Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_shanly)

Tuesday, November 12 — “I certainly would have loved to get across the pond. We had orders to leave before December 15, but I guess it’s all off now. I do know that I’m beginning to like the game and intend to stick as long as they will keep me now. It’s a great sport. Love—James, Jr.” The following day, November 13, 1918, James Russell Ristine, Jr., was killed in an aeroplane accident in Miami, Florida. He was flying at a height of 200 feet when his plane went into a spin and crashed to the ground. To avoid a collision with another plane, James attempted a nose dive from too low a position.

James was one of four students from the University of Washington to pass the stiff marine aviation examination. James enlisted on June 5, 1918, in the Aviation Corps and was sent to the Presidio, and then to Boston, where, at the Boston Institute of Technology, he finished with high honors in his ground instruction training. From there he was transferred to the flying field at Miami. News of his coveted commission as a lieutenant in the marine aviation corps arrived just three days after his death.

James was the youngest of ten children – five girls and five boys – born to James Richard Ristine and his wife, Augusta Henrietta Beegle. He was a freshman at the UW when he enlisted. He was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity and had been selected for the freshman football squad. He was just twenty years old when he died and is buried in Joplin, Missouri. (bit.ly/uw_ristine)