Iowa Old Press

LeMars Sentinel
March 12, 1918

KILLED IN FRANCE
PLYMOUTH COUNTY BOYS AMONG LIST OF DEAD
LOSE LIVES ON FIGHTING FRONT
Victims Members of the One Hundred and Sixty-Eighth Infantry
Edward Nash, of Kingsley, and Albert Hoschler, of Akron, Among the Slain

The names of two Plymouth County boys appear in list of killed from the
front yesterday. The names of the home boys who died for their country are
Edward Nash, of Kingsley, and Albert E. Hoschler, of Akron.

The death of Sergeant Walter Porsch in action is also announced. He is a
son of John Porsch, of Fort Dodge, a former LeMars resident, and is a nephew
of Mrs. Yerger, and a grandson, of J. Porsch, of this city.

A dispatch from Des Moines says:
“Somewhere in France” fifteen more Iowa young men have joined Merle Hay in
eternal sleep and have made the supreme sacrifice for their country in the
Great War of democracy. Four of the men are from Northwestern Iowa.

Capt. Harrison Cummins McHenry, of Des Moines, and fourteen of his fellow
fighters of the One Hundred and Sixty-eighth infantry, formerly the 3rd
Iowa, are dead and twenty more men of the same regiment, including three
from Cedar Rapids, representing all sections of Iowa, were wounded in the
first series of engagements participated in by that unit, which, as a member
of the Rainbow division, is the first made up exclusively of Iowa troops to
reach the front.

Particulars of how the men laid down their lives are not known. Their names
are included in a causality list given out by the War Department Saturday
afternoon, and which in addition contains the names of several more killed
and wounded, some of whom may be from Iowa.

Under the new ruling of the War Department, the addresses of the men were
not given and were supplied only by a comparison of the list with a roster
of the One Hundred and Sixty-eighth regiment.

John Porsch was born in LeMars and lived here when a boy. His father was
agent for the American Express company here until he went on the Illinois
Central railroad as express messenger.

Albert Hoschler is a son of Mrs. Hoschler of Akron, which is the family
home. Before enlisting he worked at the barber trade in his home town and
in Merrill.

Edward Nash, is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Nash, of Kingsley, where he was
born and raised and assisted his father in the carpenter trade until he went
into the service.

Page 3, Column 3:

     Mr. and Mrs. W. I. Jeffers of Stanton township, mourn the loss of their
fourteen months old baby which succumbed to illness on
Saturday.  The funeral was held yesterday at the Methodist church, Rev. J.
J. DeWall conducting the services.  The parents have the sympathy of many
friends and neighbors in their bereavement. The little one was named Rebecca
Elaine and was born (unreadable--but Rebecca Elaine was born December 26,
1916).

Akron Register-Tribune
March 14, 1918

This community was plunged into a deep sorrow Saturday evening when a
message was received conveying the word that Private Albert E. Hoschler, son
of Mrs. Bertha Hoschler of this city, had been killed in action with the
American forces in France on March 5th, 1918. Akron thus sustains its first
casualty shock of the great European war, and the true nature of the
terrible conflict waging across the sea is brought very close home to our
people. While the blow falls heaviest upon the mother, sisters and brothers
of this gallant soldier boy who gave his life so willingly and freely for
his country and the great cause of world democracy, yet there comes to each
of us a deep sense of personal loss in the knowledge that he will never
return to his home and friends. Definite details as to just how he met his
death are, of course, lacking at this time, but the press dispatches of
Saturday noted a strong German offensive upon the American sector in
Lurraine on the 5th. The German raid was repulsed, but it was given out
that quite a number of American soldiers were killed and wounded. The
casualty list later given out included the names of fifteen Iowa soldiers in
the 168th Infantry.

Albert E. Hoschler, third son of Mrs. Bertha Hoschler, was born near
Genesee, Idaho, July 20, 1898, and came to Akron vicinity with his parents
when he was about nine years of age. For a couple of years previous to his
enlistment, he was emplo9yed in Hitzeman Bros. Barber shop in this city and
became proficient at the trade. On March 29, 1917, Sergeant Bowers and
Corporal Eilers came over from LeMars to interest Akron young men in
enlisting in Co. K, Second Iowa infantry, of LeMars, and Albert Hoschler is
said to have been the first to sign their application here. He, with seven
other Akron men—Lester Stinton, Philip Maxson, Otto Post, Gilbert Mahood,
Carl Barr, Eric NyBlom and Albert E. Lipp—passed the examination and
enlisted in Co. K at LeMars on April 9, 1917. They went there for weekly
drills until the 1st of July, 1917, when Camp Faber was established at
LeMars and the soldiers went into training there. They remained there until
Camp Faber was discontinued and the men separated and sent to different
national cantonments. Private Hoschler was among those who left for Des
Moines on August 20, 1917, where he was assigned to the Third Iowa infantry
and soon went to Camp Mills, Hempstead, N.Y. The Third Iowa was there
consolidated with the 168th United States Infantry, 84th Brigade, 42nd
Division, which became known as the Rainbow Division—the first contingent of
the National army to leave this country and land in France for active war
service.

Private Hoschler was assigned to service in the telephone corps of
headquarters company of the 168th at Camp Mills. He was on the big U. S.
transport that left New York on October 18th and after being out two or
three days wads compelled to return to port because of trouble with the
ship’s machinery, rumored to have been the work of enemy spies. He made the
trip across to France shortly after that time and had since been in the
service of his country there. Private Hoschler was not quite 19 years of
age when he volunteered his services, but the true spirit of patriotism was
developed far beyond his years, and answered his country’s call in time of
greatest need.

Albert Hoschler was a young man of exceptionally fine characteristics and
was universally liked. He was quiet and reserved and his habits were most
exemplary. He was ambitious to make something of himself above the
ordinary. To show his thoughtful and generous nature, it is told of him
that after he enlisted he made it a point to accept all the tobacco
apportioned to him, although he did not use it in any form; but he stored it
away in his effects with the idea of parceling it out to his needy comrades
in the future.

To the grief-stricken mother, four sisters and three brothers, there goes
out the deepest sympathy of the community; yet there comes to all a degree
of consolation in the fact that Akron’s first soldier boy to make the
supreme sacrifice passed out while fighting the good fight for human
liberty, even though he may be one of the hundreds of thousands of uncrowned
heroes of the Great War for Humanity. The memory of Albert E. Hoschler will
ever be enshrined in the hearts of his friends and countrymen, and in
far-off France he realized a worthy boyhood ambition to make something of
himself above the ordinary in this life.

Due honor will be accorded Akron’s first soldier dead in this war, as
announced elsewhere in this issue, by a Requiem High Mass in Memoriam at the
Church of St. Patrick next Monday, March 18, at 10 a.m. By proclamation of
the Mayor and Council, all business places are requested to close from 10
a.m. until noon of that day as a mark of public respect.
-----
Another Plymouth County boy killed in action in France at the same time was
Private Edward Nash, of Kingsley. Sergeant Walter Porsch, of Fort Dodge,
also on the causality list, was a nephew of Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Stinton, of
this city. Both were members of the 168th Infantry. Corporal Albert E.
Behmer, of Sutherland, Ia., a former Morningside college athlete, was
reported killed in action in France in a later casualty list. He was also a
soldier in the Rainbow Division.

LeMars Sentinel, Friday, March 15, 1918, Page 4, Column 2:

    Seney--A large crowd from here attended the funeral of little Elaine
Jeffers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. (sic-W. I.) Jeffers, of Merrill, in
LeMars on Monday afternoon.

LeMars Sentinel
March 22, 1918

KINGSLEY:
All the churches of Kingsley withdrew their services Sunday evening and
united in a union memorial service at the Methodist church for Ed Nash, the
first boy of Kingsley, killed in France. A very large crowd gathered, so
much so that the church was completely filled and many turned away. The
audience was addressed first by J. M. Wormley and Rev. Ruming of the
Congregational church.

LeMars Sentinel, Tuesday, March 26, 1918, Page 1, Column 4:

FORMER RESIDENT KILLED

BARRIE McARTHUR IS VICTIM OF FATAL ACCIDENT.

Barrie McArthur, 40 years old, was killed and Paul Sargisson, 20 years
old, was injured when they were thrown into a creek four miles east of Luton
shortly before noon Thursday, when the bridge over which they were riding
collapsed.
The men were on their way to a field to work on the C. L. Flyter farm
when the accident occurred. They were crossing a small bridge over a stream
driving a four-house team hitched to a wagon. A rabbit is said to have
jumped out from under the bridge frightening one of the horses and causing
it to lunge, and the bridge collapsed.
McArthur fell under the wagon and was instantly killed. Sargisson was
bruised and shaken, but is not thought to be seriously injured. He was
taken to St. Joseph's hospital in Sioux City.
Mr. McArthur lived in the Luton vicinity for several years, where he
engaged in farming. He is survived by a wife and one child.
Barrie McArthur was a former resident of Plymouth county and lived on a
farm with his parents when a boy in Elgin township. He lived in LeMars at
one time after leaving the farm and of late years lived in Sioux City and
vicinity. His brother, Dan McArthur, who is employed in LeMars, went to
Luton on Friday to attend the funeral.