April 17, 1919
"HERE IS FIRST COMPLETE ROSTER OF
DEFIANCE BOYS WHO SAILED FOR FRANCE WITH COMPANY G.
Had the armistice not been signed when it was, it is likely that very few of Company G would have returned to Defiance because orders had been issued for G company to go over the top the following morning, in event the armistice was not signed, and capture 89 German machine gun nests.
During the war, the old Defiance company had eleven different officers. The company went into the terrible Argonne battle with three officers and came out with none.
Herewith follows a complete synopsis of the fifty Defiance county boys who belonged to G company when the organization sailed for France last summer. This synopsis gives the present location of the boys. This information was secured from Company G members at Toledo:
Capt. A. B. DeKay - Transferred. Now in France.
Lieut. Douty - Transferred. Now in France.
Lieut. Herbert Anderson. Rose from rank of private to first lieutenant and had command of Company G when the organization went in battle of Argonne forest. Was commissioned captain at this time but was mortally wounded Sept. 28, last, before receiving commission. Wounded in two places in right leg with machine gun bullets. Refused to allow stretcher bearers to carry him to rear, directing them to care for another wounded comrade first. When stretcher bearers returned for him, he was dead, thought to have expired from loss of blood and exposure. Buried in little orchard between Iviory and Clerges, France.
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| www.findagrave.com - Riverside Cemetery, Defiance |
Sergeant Albert C. Hedricks. Well and still with G company.
Sergeant Otis D. Little - Well and still in France, being with an auto unit.
Sergeant Arthur Rothenberger. Transferred to F company. Well.
Sergeant Henry A. Flentje - With G company. Well.
Sergeant Jesse D. Bates - With G company. Wounded. Well.
Sergeant John R. Small - Wounded, in hospital at Camp Sherman
Sergeant John W. Simendinger - With G company. Well
Sergeant Fred McFeters - Killed in Argonne, Sept. 28, last.
Sergeant Harry R. King - In hospital at Hoboken. Sick.
Corporal Wm. H. Dixon - Wounded, in base hospital 78, France
Corporal Charles Schellenbarger - Transferred.
Sergeant Robert E. Anderson - With G company. Well.
Sergeant Orville Rangler - Killed in Argonne, Sept. 28, last. Location of grave unknown.
Corporal Ralph Willis - Wounded in Argonne, in hospital.
Corporal Walter G. Wirick - Transferred to H company
Corporal Glenn H. Camp - Transferred to supply company.
Sergeant Ray Cubberly - With G company. Well.
Sergeant Arthur F. Foelker - With G company. Well.
Corporal Garrett A. Fitzwater - Wounded in Argonne, Sept. 28, last, in hospital in France.
Corporal Raymond Slough - With G company. Well.
Corporal Dewey G. Karnes - Wounded in Argonne, Sept. 28, last, now in states
Corporal Melvin Schlosser - With G company. Well.
Cook - James Campbell. In hospital with pneumonia
Cook - Harry B. Curtland. With G company. Well.
Mechanic - Carl H. Bristol - With G company. Well.
Mechanic - Alvin P. Karr - With G company. Well.
Mechanic - Grover Wisda - Wounded in Argonne, with G company, recovered.
Corporal Byron Bennett - With G company. Well.
Fred Bruback - With G company. Well
Corporal John M. Conroy - With G company. Well.
Jesse O. Essex - G company. Well
Virgil H. Finney - G company. Well.
John H. Funk - G company. Well
John Figley - Transferred to H company
Virile H. Hubbard - Wounded in Argonne, in the states
John Hale - Practically well from gas. G company
Clarence J. Hammersmith - Transferred to supply company
Corporal Ezra J. Hammon - G company. Well.
Corporal R. C. Parcher - G company. Well.
Dewey Reynolds - G company. Well
Denzil C. Smith - Wounded in Argonne, whereabouts unknown
Clayton French - G company. Well. Anxious to get back to Defiance and organize a baseball team to take Bun's Veterans across.
Christy Smith - G company. Well and anxious for a cold bottle of Centennial Export.
Hollie J. Smith - Killed in Argonne. Buried beside Lieut. Anderson.
Clinton Ward - G company. Well.
Corporal A. Ward - G company. Well.
Sergeant Earl B. Wells - G company. Well.
Bert Prosser - Transferred to the Headquarters. Well.
Ambrose Imber - G company. Well.
Clyde Morse - Transferred to E company. Wounded in Argonne. In hospital in states.
Toledo, April 11 - With bayonets flashing, clad in their field uniforms, carrying their army jackets and wearing steel helmets, the 147th Regiment, which included Company G and the Sixth Regiment band of Defiance, looked that they were heroes as they paraded in Toledo today, and received the applause of the many thousands from Toledo and Northwestern Ohio who had gathered to welcome the boys. The crowds assembled along the line of march cheered lustily the returning soldiers.
With about a third of their number absent, because of being killed in battle and lying wounded in hospitals, the demeanor of the returned soldiers betrayed to the civilian the evident fact that these youths had undergone one of the severest tests that Ohioans ever faced. There were some of the boys who helped capture Montfaucon, that heavily fortified hill in the Argonne forest which German, French and British strategists said could never be taken by assault. It was in the Argonne that Lieut. Herbert Anderson, Sergeant Orville Rangler, Sergeant Fred McFeters and Hollie Smith of Defiance laid down their lives.
Co. G boys were among those who swam the Scheldt river in Belgium under a withering machine gun fire. This movement of the 37th Division, making possible the turning movement of the northern end of the line which was followed by negotiations for the armistice.
Only about half of the Defiance boys who sailed for France, last summer, were with Co. G when the boys arrived in Toledo at midnight Thursday. The names of those returning follow: Albert Hedricks, Henry Flentje, Jesse Bates, John Simendinger, Robert Anderson, Ray Cubberly, Garrett Fitzwater, Arthur Foelker, Raymond Slough, Johnson Cavanaugh, Dewey Karnes, Melvin Schlosser, Harry Curtland, Carl Bistol, John Hale, Alvin Karr, John Conroy, Grover Wisda, Bryan Bennett, Fred Bruback, Jesse Essex, Virgil Finney, John Funk, Ezra Hammon, R. Virgil Parcher, Dewey Reynolds, John Ward, Clinton Ward, Earl Wells, Christie Smith, Clayton French.
There are other Defiance boys in the 147th who are in other units, among them being Garth Weise, Glenn Camp, John Figley, Clarence Hammersmith.
Only seven Defiance men remain with the Sixth Regiment band, Wm. Tragnitz, Wm. Pracht, Ted Blue, Francis Shondel, Amos Hill, George Stitsel and Lawrence Cox.
The Sixth Regiment Band led the parade today while the Elks, Girls and East Side bands were heartily applauded. Defiance was so largely represented in the procession that a Cincinnatian said it looked as much a Defiance parade as a Toledo affair."
Check the Ohio Memory photos for more of Company G.
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