USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Newton war memorial > Part 12
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After graduating from college he studied for a year in the Graduate School of Business Administration, and then entered the Lancaster Mills at Clinton, Mas- sachusetts, to learn the cotton business. He remained there two years; he was then made assistant treasurer of the Becker Milling Machine Company at Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and he held that position up to the time when he enlisted in the aviation service.
He entered the Army Aviation School at the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology in September, 1917. At the end of October he was sent to Foggia, Italy, where he had seven months' training. He was com- missioned second lieutenant May 13, 1918.
From Foggia he went to Vendome, France, for further training, and later to Clermont-Ferrand, for practice in bombing and formation flying. Being anxious to reach the front as soon as possible, he chose bombing as likely to be the quickest means to active service.
At the completion of his training in August, 1918,
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he was assigned as a bombing pilot to the 96th Aero Squadron, 1st Day Bombardment Group, and proceeded at once to the front.
On September 13, during the great offensive at St. Mihiel, his plane was shot down in flames, and both he and his observer, Lieutenant Bertram Williams, per- ished. News that they were missing in action reached their families some three months before it was ascer- tained that they had been killed. They were buried at Charey, France.
Lieutenant Hopkins is officially credited with one enemy airplane.
It is a satisfaction to add that the Distinguished Service Cross which Lieutenant Roth felt should be awarded to Lieutenant Hopkins and Lieutenant Williams was finally conferred upon them.
A memorial service was held in Central Church. Newtonville, on May 25, 1918.
GEORGE STEWART HUGGARD
George Stewart Huggard enlisted July 5, 1917 in the U. S. Marine Corps, and was sent to Paris Island, where he trained for three months. He was then sent to San Domingo, D. K., with the 90th Drill Co. and was on duty there until the following May, when he and a few others were sent up to Quantico, Va., to the Marine Training School, where he won his commission as 2nd Lieutenant August 18th, 1918. He sailed September 13th, 1918 with the 13th Regiment, Co. M, and died on board the U. S. S. Henderson of pneu- monia, September 27, 1918.
A memorial service was held June 1, 1918. in Trinity Church. Newton Centre.
LEONARD JACKSON
Leonard Jackson was born January 14, 1897, the son of George West Jackson ( Harvard '79) and Grace Irving (Whiting) Jackson, and graduated from New- ton High in 1915.
His acceptance of the idea that America must one day play her part in the world conflict was unquestion- ing. Also that every citizen must prepare himself for such service as he was best fitted to render.
It was in no spirit of careless adventure that he joined the Harvard Regiment or enrolled in the Platts- burg Training Camp, 1916; for him it was the obvious course to pursue.
He was a member of the official Harvard Unit of the R. O. T. C. January 5, 1918, he enlisted as a private in the National Army at Camp Upton, N. Y., where his training began in earnest. He took and passed the examinations for a commission and on March 26, 1918 was recommended for a Second Lieutenancy. So great, however, was his desire to get over, that he with other members of the R. O. T. C. volunteered to join the 305th Infantry, 77th Division for immediate ser- vice in France. He sailed April 16th.
On July 13, he received his commission as a second Lieutenant of Infantry, dating from June 1st. About the 1st of August he was transferred to the 110th In- fantry, 26th Division, then stationed near Fismes. He was permanently attached on August 11th to Co. M. He was killed on the 25th.
The story of the final action in which Lt. Jackson took part is told in a letter from his Company Com- mander :
"One of the meanest jobs during the two weeks that we spent on the Vesle River fell to Lt. Jackson. With the detail of a portion of his platoon, he was entrusted with the task of cleaning out a number of machine-gun nests on the railroad track along the river, and at 4 o'clock on the afternoon of August 24, (official in- formation gives the date as August 25), he led his men to the attack with great gallantry, in the face of terrific machine-gun and one pounder fire, followed later by Artillery. Lt. Jackson advanced with his men, although wounded in the head and about the body, until stopped by a concentrated fire which wiped out the majority of the attacking force. Lt. Jackson, al- though rushed back to a first aid station, died without recovering consciousness. His loss was deeply felt by the men of the company and the officers of the regiment. Although he had been with us but a few short weeks, he had endeared himself to all of us.
"Always considerate of his men and ever ready to volunteer for a hazardous undertaking. Lt. Jackson exemplified at all times the highest traditions of the
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Army and the University of which he was an under- graduate. As a Yale man, it gives me particular pleasure to pay this tribute to a brave Harvard man."
December 15, 1922, he was removed to his final resting place in the American Cemetery in Belleau Wood.
He received the War Degree of A. B. from Harvard College, 1919.
RICHARD KIMBALL
Richard Kimball enlisted in the Marine corps in 1917 and went to Pariss Island, South Carolina, on December 11, 1917, and later was at Camp Quantico, Virginia. He arrived in France on April 1, 1918 and was fatally wounded in the battle of Chateau-Thierry, on June 22, 1918, and died on June 24.
WALLACE MINOT LEONARD, Jr.
Wallace Minot Leonard, Jr., was born on January 8, 1895. at Germantown, Pennsylvania, the son of Wallace Minot and Caroline Emery Leonard, and the de-
scendant of staunch New Englanders, the first settlers in Massachusetts. He was educated in the schools of Newton, Massachusetts, and a graduate from Amherst College in the class of 1916. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Chapter. While at college he captained the gymnastic team, was managing editor of the "Amherst Stuckut," the college paper, was the head of the Sigma Chapter, and a member of Scarab, the Senior honorary society. On Class Day he de- livered the Grove Oration.
After leaving college he went into the medical pub- lishing business with his father, and in August, 1917, entered the Plattsburg Officers' Training Camp, where he was commissioned a First Lieutenant of Infantry in November, 1917, and went to France in January, 1918. There he attended the Second Corp School at Chatillon-sur-Seine until March when he was sent as an observer with the French army in the Champagne sector. Later he was assigned to the 79th Company. 6th Regiment, Marine Corps, with which command he served from March 15th until June near Bougee and Watrouville in the Verdun sector.
The first week of June he participated in the first battles of Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Bouresches.
On June 6th he led his platoon in the first wave that advanced on the village of Bouresches, and with only four surviving men, and Lieutenant Robertson with twenty men of the 96th Company, captured the village, strongly fortified by the enemy. For this action he received citations from both the French and American armies, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm.
On June 9th, after three days in which the Germans counter attacked three times and when in spite of a machine gun bullet wound in the left knee, he had re- fused to be evacuated, Lieutenant Leonard received his order to return to the United States as an instructor.
Ordered to Camp Sherman, Ohio, he served as in- structor with the 83rd and 95th Divisions, and there on December 12, 1918, he died of influenza-pneumonia. He was buried with full military and naval honors on December 15th, at the Newton Cemetery at Newton. Massachusetts.
He is survived by his widow, Dorothy MacLure Leonard, to whom he was married June 7, 1917, and a daughter, Wallace Minot Leonard, born on August 15, 1919.
Colonel Evans, U. S. M. C., in a letter to Head- quarters, has written, "He was the finest type of officer," but what higher praise than these few lines written home by one of Lieutenant Leonard's boys, "Say, he's a Prince, anyway-there isn't a gamer man in the A. E. F .! "
A memorial service was held in Grace Church, New- ton. on December 15, 1918.
KENNETH RODNEY LUCAS
Kenneth R. Lucas was born in Waltham, July 28, 1894, and graduated from the Newton High School in 1913. He enlisted as first class carpenter and was sta- tioned at Newport, R. I. in June, 1918, and died of pneumonia September 25, 1918.
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PAUL A. MAHER
From October 1, 1917 to early January, 1918, Paul A. Maher was in the U. S. Army Transport Service, having been assigned to S. S. Edward Pierce, engaged in conveying supplies to France and sailing from Norfolk, Va., to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where it joined a convoy for Bordeaux, France. The ship returned to the United States without convoy and alone.
On arriving at Norfolk he received an honorable discharge and came home January 11, 1918.
On March 18, 1918 he enlisted as a private in the
MALCOLM BROWN MARSH
Malcoln Brown Marsh was born January 22, 1900 at Brookline and died February 27, 1918 at Fort Bliss, Texas.
He left Newton High School to enlist in the 82nd Field Artillery on his 18th birthday, January 22, 1918.
He was sent to Fort Slocum and on the way to Texas developed pneumonia and died February 27, 1918, after but five weeks in the service.
Medical Department of the Regular Army and was ordered to Fort Slocum, New York. About two weeks later he was transferred to Camp Merritt, New Jersey, where he was assigned to duty as Captain's orderly.
His next transfer was to Hoboken as overseas casual to sail for France. On arrival at Hoboken he was taken very ill and sent to St. Mary's Hospital, where he died April 14, 1918, after only five days, of Quinsy sore throat apparently, but the autopsy revealed that he was suffering from a fatal disease, status lymphati- cus, which was the real cause of his death after an absence of only three weeks from his home.
HENRY D. MacLEAN
The first death in the Newton Company of the 101st Regiment, U. S. A., was that of Henry D. Maclean of Newton.
Mr. MacLean enlisted in the Spring of 1917 in Com- pany C of the Fifth Regiment. He died in the Newton Hospital after a brief illness of pneumonia contracted while in camp in Framingham. He was 27 years of age.
KARL C. McKENNEY
Captain Karl C. McKenney, who entered the United States service in the World War, from Newton, was born in Charleston, Maine, in 1890. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1912, in the Electrical Engineering Department. He entered the United States service as a volunteer in August, 1917. After three months' training at Fort Monroe, Virginia, he was given a commission as Captain in November, 1917, then at the age of twenty-seven. He was assigned to Battery E, 49th Coast Artillery. For some months he was stationed at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor. He sailed for France on October 4, 1918, from Hoboken, New Jersey. Was stricken with in- fluenza aboard the transport on the way to France,
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taken to a hospital at Brest, France, and died there on October 30, 1918.
He was married in February, 1918 to Virginia Courtney of Hancock, Mich.
GEORGE T. MAXWELL
George T. Maxwell, a resident of Thompsonville, enlisted in 1915 and first saw service on the Mexican border. In 1917 he went overseas and was killed at Chateau-Thierry on July 20, 1918.
He was 22 years of age.
HOWARD F. MITCHELL
Howard F. Mitchell was born in Newton, Novem- ber 1, 1896, and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Mitchell. He graduated from the Newton High School with honors in 1915 and then entered the employ of the Newton Trust Company.
June 14, 1918, he enlisted in the U. S. Naval Reserve and died September 16, 1918 at the Naval Hospital on Bumpkin Island, Boston Harbor.
THOMAS CUSHMAN NATHAN
Son of Frank M. and Elizabeth (Kimball) Nathan, of Newton Centre Mass., was born at Dorchester, Mass., January 21, 1897. He graduated from Newton High School, class of 1915; attended Dartmouth Col- lege one year; then transferred to M. I. T., class of 1920, leaving there to enlist at the end of his freshman year. He played four years on the Newton High School football team; was captain of the freshman football team at M. I. T. For three years he was on the school track team, winning many cups and medals.
On March 17, 1917, he enlisted, at the age of 20, in the U. S. A. Aviation Service. He trained at Miami, Florida, and at the Ground School, Berkeley, Cal. In August, he was made Commander of his Squadron, and a few weeks later was put in charge of the eight highest honor men, picked to finish their training in
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England. These were among the first 50 aviators ready for service abroad. He went to Oxford, Eng., for scout-patrol work on the coast. Later he was sent to the Flying School at Ayr, Scotland, to test planes. On March 3, 1918 he was commissioned 1st Lieutenant. and was ordered across the Channel. Lieutenant Nathan was to have sailed for France on March 22, but two days before that date he was killed at Ayr, Scotland, while testing a Spad plane, a wing of which collapsed, so that it fell. He was given a funeral with full military honors, both British and American.
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PAUL B. PALAMOUNTAIN
He responded to the draft and was trained at Camp Devens from April 20 to July 3. 1918, when he sailed for France, as private in the 301st Infantry. Company K. 76th Division. He was wounded in the Argonne and died from wounds, October 5, 1918.
DAVID ENDICOTT PUTNAM
American schoolboys have been nourished on the stories of Israel Putnam, killing a wolf in his lair at
Pomfret, and as "Old Put," the Revolutionary general, eluding the British by his spectacular ride down a flight of stone steps and turning the tables by the capture of his enemies. The exploits of his direct descendant, David Endicott Putnam, were the modern counterpart of these adventures, calling for not a whit less of personal courage, and in themselves more ex- traordinary. Happening in a time crowded with deeds that would have amazed antiquity, they take their place without special display in the annals of a new age. The spirit behind them remains unchanged.
The father of David Putnam, born in Jamaica Plain, Boston, December 10th, 1898, was Frederick Huntington Putnam, a Boston wool merchant, who died while his only son was still a schoolboy. His mother, Janet ( Hallowell) Putnam, is of English birth, and came to America as a child. When her son was four years old, the family moved from Jamaica Plain to Newton, and has more recently lived in Boston and Brookline. The boy received his preparation for col- lege at the Newton High School, where he acquitted himself well in athletics, scholarship, and social re- lations. The memory of his engaging personality is still vivid in the hearts and minds of his schoolmates and teachers.
It is idle to conjecture what Putnam would have done at Harvard, which he entered in the autumn of 1916, for the United States entered the war while he was a freshman. He left college immediately and passed the examinations for the aviation service, but after some weeks of waiting suffered the disappoint- ment of rejection on the score of his age; he was only a few months beyond his eighteenth birthday. It did not take him long to form other plans, and, finding himself a job on a cattle ship bound for Europe, he reached Paris early enough to enlist on May 31st, 1917, as a private in the Foreign Legion. Transferred to the aviation service, he went into training, June 10, at Avord. Proving an exceptionally apt pupil, he was breveted October 17th, continued his training at Pau and G. D. E. and was assigned, December 12th, to Escadrille Spad 94 at the front. Later assignments with the Lafayette Flying Corps were, February 7- June 1st, 1918, with the Escadrille Spad (and M. S. P.) 156, and June 1-14 with Escadrille Spad 38. His final rank in the French service was that of sergeant. On June 10, 1918 he received his commission as first lieutenant in the United States Aviation Service. From June 24 to September 12th, the day of his death, he served at the front, first as commanding officer of the 134th Pursuit Squadron, then as flight commander with the 139th Squadron, 2d Pursuit Group.
In the nine crowded months which Putnam spent in active service, he made a record which won him, after the death of Raoul Lufbery, the appellation of "Ameri- can Ace of Aces." No other American attained his distinction of bringing down five German planes in a single day, and only one Frenchman and one English- man surpassed this record of a day's work.
Credited officially with fourteen and unofficially with twenty planes brought down in combat, it is not surprising that he won the French decoration of the Legion d'Honneur, the Medaille Militaire, and Croix de Guerre, and the American Distinguished Service Cross. The large number of unofficial scorings was due to his frequent crossing of the German lines and the fall of enemy planes in territory where official confirmations could not be made on the ground. His
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qualities as an aviator are suggested in "The Lafayette Flying Corps."
The end came on September 13th, when Putnam and another pilot were attacked by eight Fokkers. Putnam shot down one enemy but as he attacked, a brace of Germans got into position behind him and he fell mortally wounded, probably dead before he reached the earth. It was a splendid death in the midst of combat, certainly the ending that he would have chosen for himself, but the loss was a bitter one to every mem- ber of the Lafayette Flying Corps.
The Distinguished Service Cross of the United States was awarded to him in these terms :
For extraordinary heroism in action near La Chaussee, France, September 12th, 1918. After de- stroying one of the eight German planes which had attacked him, he was turning to our lines when he saw seven Fokkers attack an allied biplane, but was himself driven down, shot through the heart.
At the Harvard Commencement of 1920 the degree of Bachelor of Science was bestowed upon him in post- humous recognition of honorable service in the war.
JOHN L. REILLY
John L. Reilly, the son of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Reilly of West Newton, enlisted at New Haven, Conn., November 26, 1917, at the age of 20 years.
He trained in the South and was sent overseas in April, 1918, where he was a private in Company K, 30th Infantry, A. E. F.
At midnight the 14th of July, this company was stationed at the Marne River opposite the German front lines. That night the Germans sent over a heavy barrage which was the beginning of the Second Battle of the Marne. This company held its ground in face of terrific fire, and runners had to continually expose themselves to flying shrapnel in order to deliver mes- sages which were necessary for the maintenance of laisson with other units holding the line. Private Reilly was one of the company runners and had been sent by the Captain to Battalion Headquarters with a verbal message. He had not gone over fifty yards when he was struck by shrapnel. He managed to crawl about fifteen yards to a small dugout where two comrades at
once administered first aid. First Lieutenant A. J. McMullen, second in command of the company, came to the dugout and Private Reilly said to him, "Lieuten- ant, I am sorry, I could not deliver the message," those were the last words he spoke as he then became un- conscious and died a few minutes later.
Private Reilly was wounded about 3 A. M., the 15th of July, and died about an hour later. Ile was buried with all military honors on the bank of the River Marne.
EARL J. REINHALTER
Earl J. Reinhalter of West Newton enlisted in 1913 in Company C, Fifth Infantry, Massachusetts National Guard and served at the Mexican border in 1916. He responded to the call of the president and enlisted July 25, 1917. and sailed for overseas September 7, 1917, as a member of Company C. 101st Infantry, and took part in all the engagements of the 26th Division. Later he was transferred to the Band Detachment, 1st Depot Division, and died December 22, 1918, at Base Hospital No. 15 of pneumonia.
WESLEY EVERETT RICH
Wesley Everett Rich, the eldest son of William Thayer Rich and Abbie Leonard ( Everett) Rich, was born August 13, 1889, at Chelsea, Massachusetts. When he was three years of age, his parents moved to Newton, Massachusetts. He attended the Newton public schools and graduated with honors from the Newton High School in the class of 1907.
He then entered Wesleyan University, of which institution his father was a trustee. In 1911 he grad- uated with the degrees of A. B. and A. M. From 1911 to 1914 he was a graduate student in economics at Harvard, and an assistant in the department during one year ; in 1917 he received the Ph. D. degree.
In 1914 he was appointed instructor in economics and social science at Wesleyan University, and in 1917 he was made associate professor. In the autumn of that year he sought and secured leave of absence in order that he might enter the military service.
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While studying at Harvard he was married to Miss Mary S. Rand, of Newton. Having a wife and two children, to whom a third was added after his enlist- ment, December 7, 1917, as a private in the army, he might have claimed exemption ; he might easily have sought service that would not have exposed him to danger ; but he chose to go into the army as one of the rank and file and to depend for advancement on the quality and character of such service as he might render.
When the opportunities for advancement came, a sense of duty forced him to decline them. At Camp Devens he was assigned to work in the intelligence service and made himself so useful that on the two occasions when he was offered appointment to an Officers' Training Camp the officers with whom he was working urged him to remain with them for the good of the service. He made the sacrifice without repining.
On September 25, 1918, after a brief illness he died of pneumonia at Camp Devens.
A memorial service was held in the Newtonville Methodist Church on November 24, 1918.
FRANK HARRISON RIDEAL
Frank H. Rideal was born in Manchester, England, January 11, 1895, and resided in Newtonville for about a year, returning to England in 1914, where he enlisted in the 17th Batallion, Manchester Regiment, on Octo- ber 22nd. He trained in various camps in England until June, 1915, when he was sent to the Dardanelles where he was killed by a sniper on August 8, 1915. He was appointed a corporal a few weeks before his death.
GEORGE J. SPINNEY
George J. Spinney was born in Brighton and was 22 years of age at the time of his death. He saw service in Texas as a member of Company C, Fifth Regiment and went overseas as a Corporal of Company C, 101st Regiment. He was killed in action in the Argonne Forest, France. Ile was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with this citation :
"George J. Spinney, corporal Company C, 101st Infantry. For extraordinary heroism in action north of Verdun, France, October 27th, 1918. While ad- vancing with the first wave Corporal Spinney with another soldier, attacked a machine gun nest and killed two of the crew. While attempting to capture the remainder of the crew this gallant soldier was himself killed."
ELLSWORTH OLMSTED STRONG
Ellsworth Olmsted Strong was born July 12, 1894, in Beverly, the son of Rev. William E. and Ellen O. Strong.
He graduated from the Newton High School, 1912, and Dartmouth College, 1916 (Psi Epsilon Fraternity ).
He enlisted in New York City in the spring of 1917, was commissioned second lieutenant at the 2nd Platts- burg camp and sent to Camp Upton in September of that year and later was transferred to 305th F. A., on December 10th.
He was killed in action August 25th, 1918, while on
liason duty with the 307th and 308th Infantry at Ville Tavoie on the river Vesle near Fismes. He is buried in the American Military Cemetery at Belleau Wood, France.
A memorial service was held on May 25, 1918, in Central Church, Newtonville.
EDWARD M. SULLIVAN
He was born at Newton Centre, Massachusetts, January 14, 1896, the son of Mrs. Nellie Sullivan and the late Patrick J. Sullivan. He was educated in the Newton schools. A member of Co. C, 5th Mass. Infantry, which went to the Mexican Border in 1916.
He sailed for France with Company C, 101st Mass. Infantry in 1917. Took active part in the fighting at Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse- Argonne and Defensive Sector.
He was killed in action in the Argonne on October 27, 1918. He was rated as a First Class Private and served with honor.
RALPH O'NEAL WEST
Although Ralph O'Neal West entered Harvard Col- lege as a member of the class of 1919, he would have been known as a Columbia rather than a Harvard man had he lived. But Harvard will always count him with pride among her sons. The degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon him posthumously in 1919.
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