Roma Mansfield - A Hero in World War I

As soldiers went off to fight in the battlefields of Europe in World War I, Defiance County was well represented.  The newspapers of the time were full of war news, letters home, and reports of injured and deceased young men from our own neighborhoods.  In those times, it was acceptable to use their stories in a plea for the purchase of war bonds.  Here is one such example from the Defiance Democrat, May 1, 1919. Roma Mansfield was just a boy of 17 when he died on the fields of France.

 Pvt. First Class Roma Mansfield was buried in the Meuse Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne, France after his death on October 4, 1918.  But, his parents memoralized his name on their own tombstone in Mansfield Cemetery, Defiance County, Ohio, too.

The cross is so weathered that it is difficult to still read the name.  Plot A, Row 46, Grave 39, Meuse Argonne American Cemetery

 

Mansfield Cemetery, Defiance County, Ohio