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William Seach

Submitted by: William "Bill" Seach (grandson)

William Seach served in World War 1 with the United States Navy.

William Seach was a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his service in China during the Boxer Rebellion, prior to World War I. When he died in 1978, he was the oldest. and longest-living, recipient of the Medal of Honor, and the last surviving US veteran of the Boxer Rebellion to receive the medal. His story was shared with us by his namesake grandson, Bill Seach:

During WW I, William Seach was Gunnery Officer on board Troop Transport U.S. Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln was torpedoed/ sunk May 31, 1918 by the German submarine U-90. Lt Seach was wounded, but taken on board and briefly made a prisoner aboard the U-90. The German U-Boat crew had no idea they had captured a Medal of Honor recipient.

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Mary Darnaby Henton

Submitted by: Zack Austin

Mary Darnaby Henton born around 1894. Mary Henton 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

Darnaby (as she preferred to be called) was born the fifth child of farmers James Henton and Bettie Hampton in Versailles, Kentucky in 1894.

She was one of 7,600 women to volunteer for 100 positions advertised by the War Department in newspapers throughout the US calling for “patriotic women” to serve as “full-fledged soldier[s]” willing to face the dangers of submarine warfare and aerial bombardment. She followed her brother Sam, already serving as a Battalion Sergeant Major in the 326th Field Artillery Regiment, into the service, proud to be a member of America’s first unit of female soldiers outside of the Nurse Corps—the “Hello Girls”.

The first Hello Girls took the Army oath on January 15, 1918. By operating switchboards relaying orders and providing real-time translation from French to English, the women would “do as much to help win the war as the men in khaki who would go ‘over the top’” according to the War Department.

Darnaby is one of the 223 female telephone operators on wartime US Army Transport lists. She departed New York with the second group of women on March 29, 1918, aboard the armed ocean liner RMS Carmania. The Chief Operator overseeing her unit was Inez Crittenden from San Francisco.

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Ward Everett Duffy

Submitted by: Virginia Ward Duffy McLoughlin {Daughter} and Martha M. Everett {Granddaughter}

Ward Everett Duffy was born around 1891. Ward Duffy 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

The calligraphy ink on my father's journalism degree was barely dry when President Woodrow Wilson declared on April 6, 1917, that the United States would enter World War I. The military needed to enlist and train soldiers – fast. My father had just started his first journalism job with The Evening Herald in Manchester, Connecticut, and his employer didn't want to lose him.

April 30, 1917
To Whom It May Concern:
This is to certify that I have known the bearer, Ward E. Duffy, for the past year and can testify that he is a man of good character and exemplary habits. I hope whoever examines him physically will turn him down, as he is needed on his job.
Elwood S. Ela, The Evening Herald

But patriotism, idealism and a sense of duty stirred in my father. His employer's letter aside, he could have sought an exemption from service as the sole support for his wife, Louise Day Duffy, and their 3-month-old son, David. But my 25-year-old father enlisted to serve his country.

During two years of service, more than 400 letters passed between my father and mother. The act of letter-writing became a lifeline that sustained them, along with faith, love and little David.

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Henry Christian Klindt

Submitted by: Rebecca Nelson {Granddaughter}

Henry Christian Klindt was born around 1894, Henry Klindt 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

Henry C. Klindt served as an “Automatic Man” in WWI, U.S. Army National Guard, Company E, 130th Infantry, 33rd Division from February 26, 1918 to March 21, 1919, arriving in Brest France on May 16, 1918.

Prompted by his cousins, he wrote about his war experiences in a letter which is attached. He fought in various places in France and his biggest battle was the Argonne Forest Offensive. He was injured when he fell on his knees on railroad tracks but his buddies picked him and he went on.

The last battle he was gassed, picked up unconscious and carried by his buddies and woke up in a hospital in Vichey France. By the time he got out, the war was over. Somehow he dodged all the shells and bullets sent his way, survived near starvation and the nonstop noise of shelling; being gassed and dealt with not taking his shoes off for 45 days.

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Philip Martin

Submitted by: Michael Rauh {Grand Nephew}

Philip Martin was born around 1892, Philip Martin 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

In 1958, I was a 5th grade student. While studying world history, my class learned about World War I, also known as the Great War. We read about the terrible battles where trench warfare, poison gas, and modern weaponry took many lives. I learned then that America had entered the war on April 6, 1917.

To help mark the 100th anniversary of these events, I want to tell my family the story I learned so many years ago. 

 At the end of the term where I learned about World War I, there was an old black & white movie on TV about the life of Sergeant Alvin York. He was one of the many American heroes who fought in the great war. For his actions, he received many awards and was the most decorated soldier of the war. I was very impressed with the movie and was surprised when my mother told me my great-uncle was a member of the same infantry unit as Sgt. York, and that he had fought in the same battles.

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Ward Burgess, Sr.

Submitted by: Kate {great grand daughter}

Ward Burgess, Sr. served in World War 1 with the United States Marine Corps. The enlistment was in 1917 and the service was completed in 1917.

Story of Service

Ward served in world war one and 2. The rest is not known.

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Vincent A. Luza

Submitted by: Lydia Luza Mousner {granddaughter}

Vincent A. Luza was born in 1895. Vincent Luza served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1918 and the service was completed in 1920.

Story of Service

Vincent Aloysius Luza was born on May 2, 1895 in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. His parents, Vincent and Mary Luza, and grandparents, Baltazar and Francis Gibble Luza, immigrated through the Port of Galveston in 1873 from Praha, Moravia. He was also the grandson of Frank and Angelina (Honozak) Luza. V.A.

Luza attended Allen Academy in Bryan, Texas. He was drafted into the army in 1918 and was assigned to the 344th Field Artillery in Battery F at Camp Travis, TX.

On March 4, 1918, the regiment with its two batteries of guns and six hundred-odd animals marched out to Camp Bullis (Leon Springs) for target practice. It was at Camp Bullis that reconnaissance gun squads were first able to put into practice their gun drill, which had in the beginning been executed on make-shift carriages of wood and later perfected by work on the eight three-inch pieces which had been assigned to the regiment.

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Donald Morris McCallum

Submitted by: Sandra Dunlap {Granddaughter}

Donald Morris McCallum born around 1890. Donald McCallum served in World War 1 with the United States Navy. The enlistment was in 1908 and the service was completed in 1917.

Story of Service

My Grandfather's Service on the USS Tennesse (ACR-10)

The Tennessee was the receiving ship at the New York Navy Yard from 2 MAY 1914 until the outbreak of World War I in August of 1914.

At the outbreak the war, the Tennessee made a European deployment as part of the American Relief Expedition, leaving on 6 AUG 1914 on a rapid crossing to Falmouth, England. She arrived on 16 AUG.

When she left New York, the Tennessee was carrying US Treasury officials, banking officials, and $3 million in relief funds. Part of the gold went to London by train and then the Tennessee departed on 20 AUG for Holland to deliver the remainder to The Hague. She returned on 28 AUG to Falmouth.

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George F. Russell

Submitted by: Russell J VanTine {Grand-nephew}

George Russell served in World War 1 with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1916 and the service was completed in 1917.

Story of Service

My Grandfather, Joseph Russell lost 3 brothers in WWI.

His brother Sergeant George F. Russell was in Company B, 307th infantry, 77th Division (the Liberty Division) died on Oct 5, 2018 in the Battle of Argonne forest and is buried in Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery plot C, Row 34, Grave 6. Many members of that company were part of the "Lost Battalion".

BUT.... The "REST OF THE STORY" is that he was one of THREE brothers lost during WWI.

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Higby D. Morgan

Submitted by: Mary Rohrer {Dexter County researcher}

Higby D. Morgan was born around 1896. Higby Morgan 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

On a cold winter day in January of 1896, Clarence and Henrietta Morgan welcomed their second child into the world, this one a son who they named Higby Deitrich Morgan.  Clarence was born in the town of Jeffersonville, Indiana, and still lived there with his family. Henrietta was born in Horse Cave, Kentucky, but the couple was married in Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1893.  At the time Higby was born, he joined his older sister Ophelia. By 1900 Henrietta had carried four children yet only two were living, but in 1915 the couple added a daughter named Evelyn to their family.  Evelyn was born in Indianapolis.

   At age twenty, Higby was working for the hospital in Peru, Indiana. He was well liked by the other staff and his patients. The following year he registered for the draft.  In September of 1917, the Fort Wayne paper ran an advertisement asking for black men to volunteer to enlist as stevedores. The spring of 1918 brought a series of disjointed reportings in the local Peru newspaper about Higby.  First he was listed as failure to appear, and then an article is published that he was already serving in France as an ambulance attendant. Another article reports he was in the navy. And yet another reports he was in hospital services in France.  But on the docket of a ship bound for France on June 6, 1918, there is listed a Higby Morgan whose next of kin is his mother Henrietta Morgan of Indianapolis, Indiana. It states he left from Newport News, Virginia on the SS Martha Washington as part of Company C, 336 Labor Battalion.  

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