STEVEN G. MCKINLEY
(STEPHEN D. MCKINLEY)
Stephen D. McKinley was born in Dekalb County,Indiana, lived many places in Indiana, including Butler and Fort Wayne, but ended as a resident of Hicksville, Ohio. Although the war monument lists Steven G. McKinley, it is most probable it was Stephen D., killed in action in World War I, and a resident of Hicksville. No Steven G. could be found.
Stephen Douglas McKinley was the oldest son of Stephen D and Eva Hauser McKinley, born in Dekalb County, Indiana, on May 29, 1892. He had at least three sisters and three brothers.
Stephen joined the National Guard in Hicksville on May 25, 1917. He was in Company E, 2nd Infantry at Camp Sheridan, Alabama. He took some time off to marry in Hillsdale, Michigan, on July 17, 1917. His wife, Estella (Stella) Thankful Burlingame was a resident of Hicksville and remained so her whole life.
He grew quickly in the ranks, moving to corporal on August 22, 1917, and on to sergeant on May 31, 1918. On June 15, 1918, he boarded the ship, "Leviathan" in Hoboken, New Jersey, and sailed for France with Company F, 145th Infantry, 37th Division. He fought in both France and Belgium, but met his death on November 4, 1918.
Hopefully, he knew he was the father to his infant daughter, Vivian, born August 30, 1918. He would never see her on this earth.
Stephen died at about the same time as fellow Hicksville citizen, Tracy Clark. The newspapers reported:
"TWO MORE SOLDIER BOYS MEET DEATH. Tracy Clark and Stephen McKinley Give Their Lives to Great Cause.
A double shock came to Hicksville Wednesday night when two telegrams arrigved conveying the news that Stephen D. McKinley and Tracy Clark, Hicksville boys were slain while engaged in action.
The first message brought the news that Stephen McKinley, of the local Company E boys, had given in life in supreme sacrifice, having been killed November 4. McKinley went to Camp Sheridan with the troops last year and sailed overseas, landing in France in June, a member of the 37th division which saw such hot fighting in the two weeks before the signing of the armistice.
Young McKinley was the son of James McKinley, near Spencerville, Ind. About the time of his enlistment in 1917, he was married to Miss Stella Burlingame, and to this union was born a baby daughter, now aged 3 months. When the message arrived here, his wife and baby, with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Burlingame, had left to visit relatives in Illinois, the former home of the Burlingame family.
Since the ending of the war, the wife had been arranging plans and looking forward to the homecoming of her husband and preparing to go to housekeeping as soon as he would be mustered out of service..."
Hicksville Tribune, 5 December 1918, p. 1
Sergeant Stephen D. McKinley was buried in Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial, Waregem, Arrondisssement Kortrijk, West Flanders West, Viaanderen, Belgium.
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