Ward, Robert E. 1895-1918

WARD, SANDERS

Posted By: S. Ferrall IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 3/15/2014 at 14:51:58

The obituary of Private Robert E. Ward will be published next week. The remains arrived Tuesday and the funeral was held from the M.E. church and he was buried with military honors.

~Postville Review, April 12, 1918

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Robert E. Ward was born in Postville, Iowa, March [?19], 1895, and died in a military hospital at Camp Fremont, California, April 4, 1918, aged 23 years and 15 days.

He attended the Postville schools until his Senior year, when he left with his mother and two sisters for Florence, Colo., graduating from the High School of that city with honor in 1914. Later he attended a business college in Los Angeles. March 7th of this year he enlisted in the 319th Engrs. at Camp Fremont, and shortly thereafter he was stricken with pneumonia which terminated fatally.

Robert Ward was as upright and honorable a young man as it was ever our good fortune to know. He lived the good and the true, the clean and the pure, and lived well his high ideals. On the eve of his departure from home to enter his country's service he told his mother and sister that to the best of his ability he would perform such duties as might be asked of him, but of one thing they might rest assured, "I will do nothing to disgrace you," and with this parting assurance he left his home which fate decreed he should never enter again. And thus has another of "our boys" gone "over the top" for his country's cause with a clean record and a clear conscience, and from Him who sitteth as the Judge Supreme he has heard the welcome words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

The remains arrived in Postville on Wednesday of last week accompanied by his mother, Mrs. J.W. Ward, and on the afternoon of the following day the funeral was held from the M.E. church, the Rev. Hadwin Williams preaching a beautiful sermon from the test, "Greater love can no man show, than that he lay down his life for his friend." The business houses of the city closed during the funeral hour, and the entire community, accompanied by the teachers and pupils of our schools, Postville Community Band and a firing squad paid just and fitting tribute to our soldier dead.

The floral offerings were profuse and beautiful. Interment in Postville cemetery.

Robert is survived by his mother and three sisters, Florence and Ora of Upland, Cal., and Mrs. Gilbert Sanders of this city.

In this connection the family wish to thank the many old friends for their kindly assistance in the burial of their loved and for the numerous expressions of sympathy.

~Postville Review, April 19, 1918