Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Veteran's Day Eve

Since tomorrow is Veteran's Day, (and Dearest Sister's turn to post, in our tag team blogging adventure) I thought I would share a bit of ephemera from the family flotsam and jetsam.

This photo is a post card that was in a stack of vintage cards that came from my Aunt Ruth's house. Most of them are correspondence addressed to her from friends, (sent with a penny stamp).

On the back of this one, it just says, "From Henry Newton Chase To Miss Ruth Kruse".

I did not recall seeing his name in her diary of 1916, so I was thinking of ways that I could research who he might be, but then I remembered the magic of Google! Crossing my fingers, I entered his name and this entry was in the first two or three that popped up. Galena, KS is a couple of hundred miles from Greensburg, but it certainly seems likely that it could be a match.

CHASE, HENRY NEWTON, seaman, second class, United States Navy.
Enlisted: St. Louis, Mo., June 5, 1917.
Died: U. S. S. Mercy, October 9, 1918.
Cause: Influenza.
Next of kin: Father, Elmer Chase, 115 Short Street, Galena, Kans.

He apparently enlisted soon after the US entered the war and died from the flu a month before the armistice was signed.

Aunt Ruth kept his photo for a long time. Maybe he was just an acquaintance, or maybe a special acquaintance. Of course, it is too late to ask her.

On Veteran's Day, this year, we remember him and the many thousands of other young men and women who have served their country.

Those that came home, and those that didn't.

8 comments:

Iron Needles said...

Isn't that something...on many levels.

(But then, my girls might find a school photo of some guy and think...'Mom sure kept this for a long time. Maybe he was special!')

PS Also. The Marine Corps b-day today. As I have been reminded...

Gaynell said...

The "flu" that claimed his life was the pandemic that also claimed the life of Daddy's mother in 1918 when Daddy was two years old.

Happy B'day, Marines!

Gaynell said...

Do you realize that in our electronic missives there is the lost opportunity for our great-nieces and nephews to wonder about us? (Do you suppose that is a good thing?)

Martha said...

What a wonderful photograph and how great that you were able to find out who he was. I really should write more information on the back of all our old photos.

Allie said...

That was right at the time of the Spanish flu pandemic - how sad is that, to go to war and die of flu.

Lynne said...

Hah! We post posted Veteran posts!

I love this, Jan. It does make you wonder who he was to her and why she kept his photo for so long. You were lucky to find him on Google! There's a story in there somewhere ...

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Wow. What a cool photograph! Amazing, isn't it? That everything, past and present can be found on the mighty google.

Stickhorsecowgirls said...

Okay, I have been known to be a bit dramatic, but I am thinking how neat it is that this man is "remembered" here. Almost a century later there is something of his life that is still here. I am going to stop myself right here before I write a post into this comment! Thank you for sharing, and thank you for remembering him. C