Peabody High School Lost Boys
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Benjamin H. Peabody High School (1911-2011) was located in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, and graduated its final class in 2011 before closing and is now know as today as the Pittsburgh Public Schools' Barack Obama Academy of International Studies.
On its grounds, there is a World War I Memorial honouring its 560 alumni and students who served in World War I, of which 17 were killed and was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1924 of which some are found below.
George Etherington Appleton (1894-1918)
George Etherington Appleton was a lifelong Pittsburgher, born on Sept. 23, 1894. He was the youngest son of Hewetson Etherington Appleton and Christine Huchel Appleton, and had two older brothers, Edward Webster Appleton and Samuel Etherington Appleton, who lived into their 70s and 80s.
According to the 1900 Census, the family lived on Broad Street. Sometime after her husband died in 1901, Christine Appleton moved to Harvard Street with her three boys.
By the time Appleton received his World War I Draft Registration Card, they were living in a rental at 311 Lehigh Ave. The draft card notes that he was of slender build and medium height, with light brown hair and gray eyes.
As a private in Company M of the 336th Infantry, Appleton set sail for Europe aboard the Rijndam on June 15, 1918.
George Appleton died less than four months later on Sept. 29, 1918 in Montfaucon, France. The Battles of the Meuse–Argonne had begun just three days before, a major Allied offensive that stretched along the entire Western Front. The campaign didn’t come to a close for another 47 days, or until Armistice Day on November 11, 1918. Horrific casualties resulted on both sides. Approximately 350,000 soldiers were killed, including 26,277 Americans.
George Appleton was killed just one week after his 24th birthday. He is buried at Homewood Cemetery.
Edward David Baker (1896-1918)
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The only child of Simon Strouss Baker and Grace Little Baker, Edward David Baker was born on Oct. 15, 1896 in Washington County. His father was a noted educator who later became president of Washington & Jefferson College in 1921. The family was relatively well-to-do: Both the 1900 and 1910 Censuses report the family had a live-in servant. By 1910, the family had moved to Brown Street in Pittsburgh, after formerly living in Chartiers Township in Washington County. They later located to 1232 N. Highland Ave.
On Mar. 23, 1918, Baker was called into active service as a 1st Lieutenant with the 96th Aero Squadron. The 96th was a designated day bombardment squadron that executed long-range and tactical bombing attacks in support of Army offensive operations. As a pilot, Edward also served as an instructor at the Flight Instruction Center in Foggia, Italy.
Baker piloted several missions in his Breguet 14, a French biplane bomber. Operations he participated in include the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, a major offensive that attempted to break through the German lines and retake the fortified city of Metz. The battle took place from Sept. 12-15, 1918 and involved both American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and French troops under the command of General John J. Pershing. Baker also flew bombing missions at Meuse-Argonne, specifically in the Toule sector of northeastern France.
Baker was killed on Oct. 24, 1918, when the airplane he was flying apparently experienced a malfunction and crashed at the Rumont airdrome near Verdun. He is buried at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. There is also a memorial stone at Washington Cemetery, Washington County, where his parents are buried.
Edwin Henry Bossinger, Jr. (1900-1918)
Edwin Bossinger was born on Aug. 4, 1900 in Pittsburgh. He grew up as an only child (a younger brother died from the croup at the age of 4). His parents were Edwin Henry Bossinger Sr. and Bertha Wright Bossinger. Edwin Bossinger Sr. was a public school building manager who eventually became a real estate executive at U.S. Steel. According to the 1900 Census, the family lived on East End Avenue.
ved to 6801 McPherson Boulevard.The draft card describes Edwin Jr. as having a stout build, of medium height, with brown hair and blue eyes.
By the time he was drafted, Bossinger had graduated from Peabody and matriculated as a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. He soon became a private in the Student Army Training Corps. The SATC was organized in early 1918 in order to streamline the training of soldiers for the war. Students would enlist in the SATC and take college courses and train for the military at the same time. After training, Bossinger no doubt anticipated going overseas.
But after only one month of training, Bossinger was hit by the deadly influenza epidemic. He was hospitalized at Magee, which at the time had been leased to the Army for the care of stricken soldiers. It was thought, at least initially, that Bossinger’s condition was improving. But after one week he died from lobar pneumonia on Oct. 26, 1918. His funeral service was held at the family home on McPherson. Bossinger is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Wilkinsburg.
Arthur Rollo Boyle (1899-1921)
Arthur Rollo Boyle reminds us that not all soldiers die from injuries. While serving on the USS Mississippi, Boyle contracted tuberculosis. He died from the disease at his father’s Braddock home on Oct. 15, 1921. He was just 22 when he was laid to rest at Allegheny Cemetery.
Boyle - who was nicknamed Dutch - was born on Sept. 3, 1899, the son of Charles Franklin Boyle and Irene Magee Boyle Young, both of whom lived into their 90s. His twin brother Loren Irwin Boyle also served in the Navy and died young, just four years after Arthur.
The Boyles were quite poor and not all that stable. The 1900 Census reports that the family lived in Clearfield County, with Charles Boyle working as a day laborer. By 1910, the family had moved to Pittsburgh, where they rented a house on N. Beatty Street. Charles Boyle found work as a "clock farmer." In order to make ends meet, Charles' mother lived with them, along with a nephew and two boarders.
At some point, the parents separated or divorced, and both remarried. It appears that Irene Boyle had some troubles; in 1906, she was sentenced to the County Workhouse on disorderly conduct charges.
Arthur Boyle joined the Navy, and began his service aboard the USS Texas on Apr. 6, 1917 as an apprentice at the age of 17. He then moved on to the USS Mississippi as a yeoman, and eventually became a chief yeoman. He received an honorable discharge, based on physical disability, on Aug. 5, 1921. At that time, he was hospitalized at the Naval sanitarium in Fort Lyon, Colorado. The navy had established a sanitarium for sailors with tuberculosis at Fort Lyon in 1906, as it was believed at the time that the dry climate was beneficial for patients.
Arthur Boyle married Nelle Campbell on May 6, 1920 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. They had one son, Robert Campbell Boyle who lived into his 70s. Nelle Boyle never remarried. Upon her death in 1947, her body was shipped by train from Florida to Pittsburgh in order to grant her final wish: to be buried next to her late husband.
Joseph Richard Caldwell Jr. (1896-1918)
Joseph Richard Caldwell was the son of an Irish immigrant, Joseph Cardwell, and Nancy Graham Brown Cardwell. The Caldwells had a large family, with at least six children. The other children include Anna Jean Caldwell Disque, William Graham “Pete” Caldwell, John Blair Caldwell, Robert Brown Caldwell, and David Blair Caldwell. Joseph Caldwell was the third child, born on May 18, 1896 in Wilkinsburg.
By the time of the 1900 Census, the Caldwells had moved to 335 S. Linden Street in Pittsburgh. Joseph Caldwell Sr. supported his family by working as a wholesale merchant in the drygoods business.
Joseph Caldwell Jr. graduated from Peabody in June 1916. That year, the graduation exercises included a program honoring Shakepeare’s tercentenary.
Caldwell’s World War I Draft Registration Card describes him as tall with a medium build, with dark hair and blue eyes. On Apr. 4, 1918, he joined up with the First Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment, 67th (D) Company, as a private first-class. Over the next few months, they were subjected to a seemingly unending barrage of engagements with the enemy.
Caldwell suffered foot and shoulder injuries during the Battle of Belleau Wood in June 1918. During this month-long battle, allied forces fought back against the German spring offensive near the Marne River in France.
After recovering, he returned to the front lines and subsequently saw action at the Battle of Chateau-Thierry on July 18, 1918; the Battles of the Meuse–Argonne, which began on September 26; and the Battle of Mt. Blanc Ridge near Reims, which took place between October 3 and 10.
Joseph Richard Caldwell Jr. was killed in action at Mount Blanc during the Battle for Saint-Etienne on Oct. 4, 1918. Upon hearing the news, his family held a memorial service at the Point Breeze Presbyterian Church on Dec. 22. Caldwell was finally interred at Homewood Cemetery after his remains were returned for burial in Sept. 1921.
William Royal Carlisle (1896-1918)
Peabody High School (1916)
William Royal Carlisle was born in Pittsburgh on Mar. 1, 1896, the oldest child of Samuel Carlisle and Margaret Louise Uffelman Carlisle. Both parents were immigrants; the father was from Ireland, the mother was from Germany. In 1900, the father worked as a gardener for wealthy families, with the family renting a place on Fillmore Street. They later bought a home at 1370 Missouri Ave.
Probably due to the mother’s influence, Carlisle was baptized at Pittsburgh’s St. Luke’s Memorial Lutheran Church on Mar. 22.
Future siblings included Samuel John Carlisle, Margaret Louise Carlisle Hebert, Jean E. Carlisle Klauss, and David Alexander Carlisle.
William Royal Carlisle graduated from Peabody High School in 1916. A talented musician, the Pittsburgh Press noted that Carlisle performed a violin solo during Peabody’s June commencement exercises. As a student, he had served as first chair in the second violin section of the high school orchestra, and took part in citywide music festivities.
Carlisle’s World War I Draft Registration Card describes him as having a medium height and slender build, with light hair and blue eyes. By this time, Carlisle had entered the workforce as an employee with the Standard Underground Cable Company, though still residing at the family’s Missouri Avenue home.
Eventually, he enlisted in the Army with Company I of the 320th Infantry, 80th Division. Perhaps unique among Peabody student soldiers, Carlisle served as a bugler.
He was first sent to Camp Lee (now Fort Gregg-Adams) in October 1917, and then shipped to France in June 1918.
Contrary to what one might think, being a bugler was not exactly a plum position. During World War I, buglers had far more responsibilities than playing morning reveille. In fact, buglers were assigned the task of playing command signals for the troops during battle. To do so required them to stand erect and play the bugle with enough force that their comrades could hear them above all the shouting, explosions, and gunfire. This made buglers strategic targets for the enemy.
William Royal Carlisle was killed in action on August 1, 1918—one of the first Pittsburgh men to lose his life for his country during World War I. His father was the one who received the sad news by telegram. Services in Carlisle’s honor were held at the Lemington Presbyterian Church.
Later on, the Trees-Carlisle Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in East Liberty would be named in honor of Carlisle and James Graham Trees.
Carlisle is buried at Mt. Royal Cemetery in Glenshaw.
Frederick Ridley Clark (1897-1918)
The son of Harry E. Clark and Harriet E Birch Clark, Frederick Ridley Clark was born in Erie, Pennsylvania on Oct. 22, 1897. Little information is available on his early home life.
According to Clark’s Draft Registration Card, the family lived at 726 N. Euclid Ave. in Pittsburgh. At the time, Clark was a student at the University of Pittsburgh, and was of medium build and height, with brown hair and blue eyes.
On Oct. 1, 1918, Clark was inducted into the University’s Student Army Training Corps.
Frederick Ridley Clark died at home two days after his 21st birthday on October 24, 1918. Like so many of his fellow student-soldiers, his cause of death was influenza that led to lobar pneumonia.
He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Wilkinsburg.
Lloyd Lefever Denlinger (1898-1918)
Pittsburgh Press, Oct. 8, 1918
Lloyd Lefever Denlinger was born on June 12, 1898 in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to Mennonite parents. His father, Amos Herr Denlinger, worked as a baker. His mother was Christiana “Christie” Keneagy Denlinger. The couple had one older son, Percy Keneagy Denlinger. By 1910, the family had moved to Pittsburgh, and father Amos picked up a job in the retail furniture business, and finally in an automobile factory. The family lived at 524 Paulson Ave.
While at Peabody High School, Denlinger was a member of the 1913 track team, and lettered in the sport. In general, Denlinger enjoyed the outdoors, and was an active member of the local Oneco Canoe Club.
On Jul. 27, 1917, Denlinger enlisted in the Army as a private first-class with the 107th Field Artillery Regiment, Battalion F, 28th Division (formerly the 1st Pennsylvania Field Artillery). Denlinger is described as being 5 feet, 6 ½ inches tall, with a fair complexion, light hair, and blue eyes. The 107th set sail from Brooklyn, New York for Europe aboard the Saturnia on May 18, 1918.
The military engagements that Denlinger participated in are not listed in his Veterans Service and Compensation files. However, the 107th is on record as participating in the Oise-Aisne Offensive, which began on Aug. 11, 1918. They also took part in the Ypres-Lys Offensive, which was launched on Aug. 19 to liberate Belgium and parts of northeast France. Neither of these offensives came to a close until Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1918.
Lloyd Lefever Denlinger was killed in action on Sept. 6, 1918. The location of his final resting place is not clear.
BC Jillson Fleming (1899-1918)
Benjamin Cutler (BC) Jillson Fleming was born on Apr. 27, 1899, the son of Dr. Richard Knowlson Fleming and Elizabeth Spear Jillson Fleming. There were two older children: Richard Knowlson Fleming, Jr. and Gladys R. Fleming.
At the time of Fleming’s birth, the family lived at 123 Larimer Ave.; they later moved to 315 S. Highland Ave.
Fleming’s World War I Draft Registration Card describes him as tall with a medium build, with dark hair and brown eyes.
After graduating from Peabody High School, Fleming enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh where he was inducted into the Student Army Training Corps on October 1, 1917.
Like so many of his comrades, BC Jillson Fleming fell prey to the “epidemic influenza” that swept through the Student Corps. He died from bronchial pneumonia at the Pittsburgh U.S. Troop Infirmary on Oct. 17, 1918.
BC Jillson Fleming is buried in the family plot at Homewood Cemetery.
Walter Dabney Frazier (1896-1918)
Walter Dabney Frazier was the son of Walter Atkinson Frazier and Mabel R. Dabney Frazier. He was born in Pittsburgh on Dec. 28, 1896; it appears he was an only child. Walter Sr. was a stockbroker by profession; by 1900, the family had moved to Brooklyn, New York.
Eventually, the family moved back to Pittsburgh, taking up residence at 5744 Ellsworth Ave.
From a young age, Frazier was drawn to the soldier’s life. While he was still a Peabody High School student, he organized a company of Peabody boys to do military drills. He also joined a group called the Pittsburgh High School Cadets, and was a member of the Highland Cadets, the United Boys Brigades of America, and the former 14th Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard, Company L, where he was a sergeant.
After leaving Peabody High School, Frazier sought training at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, which he completed in June 1917.
Frazer was so eager to join up in the “war to end all wars” that he wasn’t willing to wait for President Woodrow Wilson and Congress to take up a declaration. After finishing his coursework at Culver, he ran away from home and crossed the border into Toronto, where he enlisted as a private in Canada’s 208th Overseas Battalion, the “Irish Fusiliers.” As the Pittsburgh Press marveled in an account dated Aug. 19, 1917:
"For three months, he [Frazier] had intensive training, which, in addition to his four years at Culver, made him so proficient in the manual that he is qualified as a drill master. Because he is not yet of age and because it was inevitable that the United States would be in the war, his parents obtained a discharge from the Canadian battalion, and he returned to Pittsburgh."
Frazier was soon commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps, and sent to Quantico, Virginia. He was finally sent overseas in November 1917 with the 49th Company, 5th Regiment—an outfit nicknamed the "Devil Dogs."
His mother reportedly sent him a cake for his 21st birthday, and he told her in a letter he had eaten it, "after illuminating it with the 21 lighted candles, in a trench."
Walter Dabney Frazier was killed by shrapnel at Chateau-Thierry on June 5, 1918.
Frazier’s honors include the U.S. Army Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Navy Cross, and France’s Croix de Guerre for extraordinary heroism and bravery:
"Frazier, during actions with the 5th Regiment in the Aisne Sector in June 1918, displayed extraordinary heroism in action at Chateau Thierry, [while] leading untrained troops in repulsing the German advance. He was killed in action while moving his men to shelter during a violent bombardment."
He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Lawrence Christopher Griffin (1900-1918)
On Feb. 23, 1900, Lawrence Christopher Griffin was born in Earlham, Iowa to Oliver Pendleton Griffin, a farmer, and Ida Mary Wilson Griffin. There were eventually at least nine children in total; they include Rachel Eliza Griffin Alther, Cecil Milton Griffin, Vivian Pierre Griffin, Lillian Griffin, Herman Lyle Griffin, Truman Maine Griffin, Dorothy Griffin, and Carolyn Griffin Connolly.
By 1910, the family had moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where father Oliver was employed as a lumberman in a sawmill.
By the time Griffin was issued his World War I Registration Card on Sept. 12, 1918, he was living at 211 S. Neville St. in Pittsburgh. According to the Registration Card, his “nearest relative” was his mother, Mrs. Ida M. Griffin, of the same address. It is likely the parents had separated, as his father, Oliver, died in Richmond, Virginia in 1942, while Ida died in 1971 in Pittsburgh. At the time, Lawrence Griffin was employed by Duquesne Light. He was described as being of medium height and build, with light hair and blue eyes.
On Oct. 1, 1918, Griffin was inducted as a private into the University of Pittsburgh Student Army Training Corps. A little over two weeks later, on Oct. 16, he was dead from pneumonia, probably brought on by influenza.
Lawrence Christopher Griffin is buried at Allegheny Cemetery.
Raymond Waldo Henderson (1895-1918)
Carnegie-Mellon University (1917)
The son of Thomas Henderson and Elizabeth ”Lizzie” Henderson, Ralph Waldo Henderson was born on Nov. 22, 1895 in Pittsburgh. The family lived at 5414 Coral St.
After graduating from Peabody, Henderson entered Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where he graduated with a B.S. in Building Construction in June 1917. While he was a student at Carnegie Tech, Henderson was a member of the Building Construction Club. He was popular with his fellow students. As the 1917 Carnegie yearbook notes, "Ray always has a smile for everyone and that probably accounts for his success with the ladies. Ray has the brains plus determination, he aims for success."
His World War I Draft Registration Card describes Henderson as tall and slender, with black hair and brown eyes. At the time, he lived at 512 Murtland Ave.
Henderson enlisted in the army on Sept. 20, 1917. He was initially assigned to Company L, 320th Infantry, but in April 1918, he was transferred to the Intelligence Section of Division Headquarters, 80th Division and promoted to corporal.
While in France, Henderson fought in the Battle of Arras, which took place in April-May 1918, and at the Battles of Meuse-Argonne.
On Oct. 5, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive, Henderson volunteered to carry rations under fire to an advance post. He was killed by shell fire. His sister Elizabeth received the telegram.
The memorial service for Raymond Waldo Henderson was held at St. James Memorial Church, in Homewood. He is buried at the Logan Ferry (Presbyterian) Cemetery in Parnassus, Westmoreland County. The inscription on his gravestone states “He gave his all for his country.”
According to his obituary, he was survived by his four sisters: Mary Henderson Buchanan, Nancy J. Henderson Campbell, Elizabeth P. Henderson King, and Adaline A. Henderson Spuhler.
Francis Fowler Hogan (1896-1918)
Peabody High School (1916)
Of all the World War I dead listed on the Peabody Memorial to Soldiers, located at the former Peabody High School (now Obama Academy), Francis Fowler Hogan appears to be one of the few who had already made an impact in the world outside of immediate family and friends.
Hogan was born in Pittsburgh on Nov. 13, 1896, the son of Thomas T. Hogan, a mechanical engineer, and Emma Sergeant Hogan. He had one older sister, Ruth Hogan Wildman. In 1900, the family lived at 730 N. Euclid Ave. Thomas died in 1908, just one day before young Francis turned eleven.
While a student at Peabody High School, Hogan was very active in extracurriculars, including the student newspaper, debate team, drama club, and the literary society. Many of his poems and short stories were first published in school publications during these years. His poetry includes such titles as “A Ballad,” “The Optimist,” “To Be or Not to Be,” “Basic Wretch I Envy You, “Referring to the Classics,” and “Ah Me.” There were at least two humor pieces, “To Whom it May Concern” and “Bluffing Backwards,” both from 1915. Short stories include “The Folly of the Fool” (1914), “The Insurrection,” (1915), and “How Would You Feel About It?” (1915). In an eerie foreshadowing, the latter story tells of a soldier who is fatally wounded by a bayonet.
Hogan was so prolific he was gently ribbed in a fellow student’s poem. In a piece called “To Francis H,” Margery Davis observes: “I turned one page, This no jokin’, There was written, ‘Francis Hogan.’”
Hogan also met with notable success on the stage. In a 1915 production of “The Magistrate,” Hogan was selected out for particular praise: “Francis Hogan, as Col. Lukin, a brusque, excitable, retired army officer, was a brilliant spot in the evening’s performance.”
After graduating with honors from Peabody in 1916, Hogan was admitted to the new School of Drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). In July 1917—two months after the U.S. declared war on Germany—Hogan enlisted in the U.S. Army; he was assigned to Company M, 4th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division.
Even as a soldier overseas, Hogan was still getting his literary work published, with five of his poems appearing in “Carnegie Tech War Verse” in 1918.
Just eight months before he died, Hogan’s poem, “Fulfilled,” was published in The New Republic—an essay by George Orwell appears on the same page. The poem was reportedly written while Hogan was aboard the troop transport heading to France. The poem was well received, and later included in the publication “The Poets of the Future - A College Anthology for 1917-1918.”
During the Aisne-Marne Offensive, Hogan was sent out to deliver an important message to a commanding officer then holed up in a 15th-century church in Gland. After accomplishing his mission, he connected with an old Pittsburgh friend, fellow poet William Hervey Allen, who was then recovering from serious injuries. According to Allen’s later reminiscences, the two of them “peered into each other’s faces in the dark and sat down on a stone together and had a close talk.” They vowed they would meet again, but that never came to pass. As Allen lamented, “I had an impulse to take Frank with me, but I only shook hands with him….I never saw him again. He was a brilliant and promising poet. He was killed in the Argonne in October a few days before the armistice.”
Hervey Allen survived the war, and later published a sonnet called “Soldier-Poet, dedicated to Francis Fowler Hogan.” The poem appears in Allen’s 1921 book of verse, “Wampum and Old Gold”, published as part of the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Allen also dedicated the book to Hogan, and reprinted Hogan’s “Fulfilled.” In “Soldier-Poet,” Allen mourned the loss of his friend and the premature spilling of his blood, all because of the “Hot lips of Liberty that kiss men cold.” Given the book’s success, Hogan’s name was preserved in some small way in the postwar literary world.
Allen’s belief in Hogan’s literary gifts never wavered. As he declared in a 1927 letter, “I am quite certain that he was one of the great losses that this country sustained and does not know about.”
A poem entitled “The Adventure” appears to be the last work that Francis Fowler Hogan ever composed. It was included in a letter to his mother, Emma Sergeant Hogan. She later shared it with the Pittsburgh Dispatch in November 1918.
I have found a cave.
Dark and very deep;
Who may know what wanders
In the cannon sleep?
Maybe there are gems
And a heap of gold;
Maybe sacred volumes
Stored there of old.
Maybe there are poppies
Which the gnomes hoard;
Bit of dragon skin,
Or a broken sword.
Or a queen enchanted
Whom we may free;
Maybe only death -
Come, let us see.
Francis Fowler Hogan died Oct. 17, 1918, and was buried at Homewood Cemetery after his body was returned to the U.S. in 1921.
Frank Pierpont Price (1900-1918)
Peabody High School (1918)
Frank Pierpont Price was born in Oakmont on Dec. 23, 1900, the youngest child of Charles Bohlen Price and Florence Macrum Price. His six siblings include Philip Wallis Price, Benjamin Marsden Price, Eleanor Foster Price Thomas, Florence Louise Price Barton, Alfred Kellogg Price, and Gertrude Macrum Price. In July 1901, Price was baptized at Oakmont’s St. Thomas Memorial Episcopal Church.
The father, Charles Price, was employed in the railroad industry, and was prosperous enough to retire in 1902. He spent the next three years traveling through Europe. After his return he entered politics. He was appointed to the position of County Commissioner and later served on the Allegheny Board of Assessments. He then took a position in the insurance industry.
The family eventually settled in at a big home at 5817 Callowhill Road, Pittsburgh.
After graduating from Peabody, Price entered Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) and almost immediately became a private in Company E of the Student Army Training Corps. But as happened to so many Pittsburgh student-soldiers, the worldwide influenza epidemic wasted no time in sweeping through their ranks.
Price was sent to St. Francis Hospital on October 11, 1918 with a serious case of the flu which soon turned to lobar pneumonia. At the time, his brother Philip was serving in France, while Benjamin was stationed in Texas.
Frank Pierpont Price passed away on Oct. 20, 1918, and is buried at Allegheny Cemetery.
Paul Joseph Schmucker (1895-1919)
Peabody High School (1916)
The son of Joseph S. Schucker, a German immigrant, and Margaret Ellen Sullivan Schmucker, Paul Schmucker was born in Pittsburgh on Apr. 26, 1895. Joseph supported the family by working as a plumber. Paul was an only child.
In 1900, the family lived on Liberty Avenue with a grandmother and an aunt. They later moved to 242 Mathilda St., where they had a live-in servant and two boarders.
As a high school student, Schmucker excelled at track and field—he lettered in the sport in 1913—and was popular with his classmates. “While at Peabody High School,” the Post-Gazette reported in 1919, “Schmucker was a member of the track team which held the interscholastic relay championship for three years. He was a quiet and unassuming lad and had a legion of friends, especially among the athletes of this city.”
After graduation, Schmucker continued his studies at Carnegie Tech (later Carnegie Mellon University).
Schmucker’s World War I Draft Registration Card describes him as having a medium build and height, with light hair and blue eyes. By this time, Schmucker was working as an electrician at Westinghouse. His residence continued to be the family home on Mathilda Street.
In October 1917, Schmucker was sent to Camp Lee (now Fort Gregg-Adams) near Petersburg, Virginia for training. He was inducted into Company E of the 320th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division on Oct. 3. He was promoted to Private First Class on Apr. 20, 1918.
The 320th sailed for France on May 18. Less than a month later, on June 13, Schmucker was promoted to Corporal.
Schmucker fought at St. Mihiel in September, and in the Meuse-Argonne in October and November. According to an article describing his military exploits, “He was in the thickest of the fighting around the Argonne Forest section and the Meuse River and had been over the top three times and miraculously escaped injury. He was in the Argonne battle for 18 successive days.”
After surviving gun and mortar fire, Schmucker succumbed to a fatal illness on Jan. 17, 1919. While visiting a service hut maintained by the Knights of Columbus, a priest in attendance noticed that Schmucker appeared to be seriously ill. Schmucker was immediately sent to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with the bronchial pneumonia that took his life.
Paul Joseph Schmucker is buried at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial in Belleau, Departement de l'Aisne, Picardie, France. According to a letter later sent to Schmucker’s father, “the young soldier was buried with full military honors, all the staff officers attending the funeral, accompanied by a band.”
Robert Wakefield Spring (1896-1918)
Robert Wakefield Spring was born in Baltimore, Maryland on Mar. 15, 1896. He was the son of Robert Wakefield Spring Sr. and Minnie Pulman Hugg Spring. There was also a younger sister, Katherine N. Spring Masten.
After the death of Robert Sr., Minnie and the children moved to Pittsburgh around 1908. By 1910, they were living on Summerlea Street, with Minnie supporting the family by working as a nurse. Minnie married a physician, Joseph Malvern Douthett, in 1913, and the family moved again, this time to 5704 Darlington Rd.
After graduating from Peabody High School, Spring attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University). While a student, Robert Jr. was a member of the Carnegie Tech Glee Club and the BU Fraternity, and managed the Tech Tennis team. He was also a member of Calvary Episcopal Church.
During his senior year, Spring enlisted as a private with the Army’s 29th Engineer Regiment, and left for Fort Slocum, located in New Rochelle, New York, for training.
In March 1918, Spring became ill, and was admitted to the base hospital at Fort Devens in Massachusetts. He died there from pneumonia on Mar. 24, 1918.
Robert Wakefield Spring is buried at Homewood Cemetery.
John Charles Williams (1895-1918)
Pittsburgh Post, Sept. 23, 1918
Born in Pittsburgh on Sept. 17, 1895, John Charles Williams was the son of two Welch immigrants: Evan Williams, a carpenter, and Mary Ann Charles Williams. There was one older sister, Elizabeth Williams.
Sadly, mother Mary Ann died from pulmonary tuberculosis when John was just three. Father Evan eventually married Katherine Morgan Williams. The couple had four additional children: Evan Morgan Williams, Charlotte M. Williams, Katherine May Williams, and Sarah E. Williams. The family owned a home at 213 Rebecca Street.
According to Williams’ World War I Draft Reservation Card, Williams had now moved to 5141 Kinkaid Street, which was the home of his maternal grandfather, John D. Charles. Williams was described as short and slender, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was employed as a clerk for a wholesale grocer, and he indicated he was the sole support of his “invalid sister,” as father Evan had died in March 1917 from pneumonia--three months before his youngest child was born.
The “invalid” was apparently his older sister Elizabeth, who, like her mother, suffered from tuberculosis. Elizabeth died in December 1917. The family appeared to be under a lot of stress, as their half-sister Katherine had died from diptheria the year before at the age of 4.
Williams was inducted into the Army on Feb. 12, 1918 as a private assigned to Company F, 320th Infantry. By the time he enlisted, he was working for the Carbon Steel Company. He trained at Camp Lee (now Fort Gregg-Adams), and left for France in May. His military engagements are not reported in his Veterans Service and Compensation files, but it is noted that he was promoted to Corporal on Aug. 15.
According to the Pittsburgh Post, “In letters to more distant relatives and friends, he wrote of the manner in which his unit was being moved nearer and nearer the battle line and into earshot of the heavy artillery, but he never permitted his grandparents to know that he was on the verge of actual fighting.” The grandparents apparently had no idea Williams was even in France before they received the telegram announcing his death in late September.
John Charles Williams died three days after his promotion, on Aug. 18, 1918. He was buried at Allegheny Cemetery in 1921.
REFERNCES
Photos from the Peabody Soldiers Memorial Restoration at Obama Academy website.