PRIVATE FIRST CLASS FOSTER MARK LINTON
 |
| Forest Home Cemetery, Hicksville, Ohio - Lot 28 |
The oldest son of John Walker Linton and Bertha Mae (Teegarden) Linton, Foster, was born in Hicksville, Ohio, on November 1, 1901. It was the second marriage for his father, one that had lasted ten years, and a first marriage for his mother, Bertha.
In the 1910 census, John, 40, was working on his own as a lumberman, while Bertha, 30, stayed home with the five children: Foster and Sarah, 8; Unward, 5; John, 3; and Pearl, 1 year and 4 months. The couple had lost one child.
When only 17, Foster decided he would enlist in the world war army. In August 1918, he was promoted to Private First Class and by September, he was on a ship headed for Brest, France. As an infantryman, he was involved with the Allies fight to liberate France and Belgium from the Germans.
"Four American divisions fought alongside their Allied counterparts in the Ypres-Lys offensive, providing critical reinforcements to war-weary armies that had been fighting for four long years. The offensive featured recurrent major assaults as the Allies brought forward supplies and reinforcements to renew the attack. Shortly after the offensive began, the Germans sought to withdraw from exposed forward positions back to the formidable defenses of the so-called Hindenburg Line.
The Germans delayed or stalled Allied positions using intense machine gun fire, gas attacks, booby traps, snipers and artillery. The Germans were forced back to the Lys River, and then to the Schedlt River, in less than three months." (Wikipedia)
This was the situation PFC Linton was in the midst of on November 1, 1918, when he was killed by shrapnel. An Armistice was declared soon after on November 11, 1918. Ten days too late for PFC Foster Linton.
"THIRD HICKSVILLE LAD GIVES LIFE FOR LIBERTY
(Special to the News)
HICKSVILLE,O. Nov. 26
Another blue star on the service flag of Defiance County has turned to gold since the news Sunday morning that Foster Linton, a former Hicksville boy, had been killed in action in France.,
Young Linton was the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Linton, who resided here until about two years ago. At the time of his death, he was about 18 years of age and had enlisted in the service in the early part of this year and was soon sent overseas.
The flag on the municipal flagstaff was floated at half-mast Sunday in honor of his memory as another to give up his life on the field of battle, this being the third Hicksville son to have made the supreme sacrifice."
(Fort Wayne News & Sentinel, Nov. 16, 1918, p. 3)
His body was returned home for burial, and on May 5th, 1919, in the Huber Opera House in Hicksville, a memorial service was held for a group of solders from Hicksville and vicinity who sacrificed their lives, among them Pfc Foster Linton.
In the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, May 6, 1919:
"HICKSVILLE HONORS HER SOLDIER SONS
...Foster Mark Linton, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Linton, was born Nov. 29, 1902 at Hicksville. He enlisted July 26, 1917. He trained at Camp Sheridan with Co. B of Paulding and sailed for France in June 1918.
On his arrival overseas, he was assigned to Co. K 146th infantry and was sent to Belgium. He was killed by shrapnel while delivering a message to his commanding officer in one of the last drives that marked the ending of the conflict."
The Memorial Service featured speakers, one of which was Amelia Bingham, the Hicksville actress from New York City. Veterans of the Spanish-American War and World War I marched there in uniform led by Hart's Girl Band. Other choral music was included along with the reading of the military biographies of deceased or missing soldiers: Earl Myers, Edward Smart, Tracy Clark, Stephen McKinley, Ralph Mabry, Donald Cottrell, George Tustison, Charles Headley, Lewis Newman and Ellis Dull.
"Hicksville and vicinity furnished over 300 of her sons for the military and naval service of our country, twelve of whom sleep on foreign soil and one having died while enroute home and brought here for burial.
The Huber opera house proved too small to accommodate those who desired to attend the memorial services, notwithstanding the very inclement weather of Sunday."
(Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, May 6, 1919, p. 18)
No comments:
Post a Comment