First Boy from county is killed in battle

     Robert Berner, the first Wallowa county boy to die on the field of battle in France, was killed in action July 15, according to word received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Berner of Flora. Two other men from this county have died in service. Alfred Hagen, who succumbed to pneumonia in England, and Stanley R. Augusburger of a forest regiment who was lost on the torpedoed transport Tuscania.
     Robert Berner and Richard Garrett went to Spokane and enlisted in the artillery in July, 1917. Robert was born in this county and was 19 years old when he left home. At the time of his death he was in the 10th field artillery and undoubtedly had been in the thick of the fighting in the summer, and those who knew him feel sure he proved his worth on the field of battle, and laid down his life like a true American, of whom his country may be proud.
     The parents were prostrated by the blow, and, when a neighbor boy, William Bork, left home this week for the army, Mr. Berner made a touching appeal to him. He asked him, if he got to France, to try to find Robert's grave and have a photograph taken of it. Robert is survived by his parents and three sisters, Mrs. W. G. Ericson, Mrs. Claud Cole and Lavilla Berner, and one brother, James.

Enterprise Record Chieftain
September 26, 1918

HENRY BRUCE KILLED IN BATTLE
The Second Enterprise Young Man to
Give His Life on the Battlefield

     Word was received last evening by Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Bruce of the death of their son, Henry, on the battlefield of France during the later days of the severe fighting.
     Henry went with the contingent of Wallowa county boys on June 24th from Enterprise and was advanced rapidly arriving in France in less than two months after leaving Enterprise. He was one of Wallowa's finest young men and the county will cherish his memory as one who made the supreme sacrifice.
     The parents have the heartfelt sympathy of all in their great sorrow.

Wallowa County Reporter
Thursday November 21, 1918

DIES FOR HIS COUNTRY

     Word was received yesterday of the death of Grover C. Eckley on the battlefield in France on Sept. 28th. Johnny Eckley, as he was usually called, went from Enterprise in the call of April 26th, 1918 to Camp Lewis and was called overseas in about two months arriving in England in July.

Wallowa County Reporter
Thursday November 7, 1918

HAGEN, Alfred

     Died in France on February 7th, 1918, of pneumonia while in the service of his country as a member of the 162 infantry.

Wallowa County Reporter
February 20, 1918

KRUSE, Roy William

     Official announcement that Roy William Kruse of Wallowa was killed in action on Sept. 29th has been received by his parents. He is the ninth Wallowa county boy to give his life on the battlefield.

Wallowa County Reporter
Thursday December 12, 1918

Peter LeRoy Medesker
Enterprise
KIA October 8, 1918

BOY FROM JOSEPH MISSING IN ACTION
Everett Miller of Field Artillery, A.E.F. Probably Lost On The Field of Battle

     Everett Miller, Battery D, 18th Field Artillery, A.E.F., of Joseph is missing in action, according to information received Tuesday by Mrs. H.H. Cole, grandmother of the boy, from her daughter, Mrs. Emma Miller, who is visiting at present with her daughter, Mrs. Chester Kubil, at Jacksonville, Oregon. The father of the missing boy is John Miller and at present he is working at the shipyards in Portland. Everett is the first Wallowa county boy lost in action.
     The telegram was devoid of particulars. It reads, "Everett is missing in action." Whether he is dead or wounded or fallen as a prisoner into the hands of the enemy is not known. What part of the battle front he was on is also in the dark. Since his mother left last spring he has not written to his grandmother and consequently she could throw no light on his whereabouts other than he was in France.
     Everett enlisted in the Field Artillery at Medford, April 23, 1917, 17 days after war was declared on Germany by the United States. After being in several army camps from that time until spring of this year, he landed in Camp Merritt, New Jersey. While there he was ill in the hospital, but recovered so as to be able to accompany his battery when it left for overseas duty. Everett is just a lad and in 1916 was a freshman in Joseph High School.
     A rumor has been in circulation this week that one of the Southwick boys of Wallowa was lost in action in France. This seems to be only a rumor, for nothing definite is available.

Enterprise Record Chieftain
Thursday, August 15, 1918

MATHEW MAWHIN BURIED:
DIED AT CAMP KEARNEY

     The body of Mathew Mawhin of the regular army medical corps, who died Thursday, Oct. 29, 1918, at Camp Kearney, Ca., was brought to Enterprise for burial on Monday. Services were conducted at the cemetery by Rev. F.R. Sibley. A squad of the militia company attended the body from the railroad station and gave the soldier the honor of a military burial.
     Mathew Mawhin was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Mathew Mawhin of the Three Lakes district. He was born April 2, 1897, at Paterson, N.J. The family came here five years ago, and the young man responded to his country's first call and enlisted in April, 1917. Death was caused by pneumonia, following the influenza. The parents and four brothers survive, Leon, Gerald, Edgar, and Joseph Mawhin.
     Private Donald S. Taylor came from Camp Kearney with the body, bringing all the boy's personal effects, and also a message of appreciation and consolation from the government in whose service he had died. The funeral was attended by many neighbors and friends and the community paid its respects for the memory of a splendid young man who had done his duty faithfully.

Enterprise Record Chieftain
Thursday, November 7, 1918

PETER LEROY MEDESKER FALLS ON BATTLE FIELD

     From the battlefield of France there came yesterday notification of the death of another Wallowa county soldier, Peter Leroy Medesker, who was killed in action Oct. 8, 1918.  The telegram from the army came to his brother, Monroe Medesker, who lives on Crow creek.
     The fallen soldier was born at Black Rock, Ark., July 26, 1891, and his parents still live in the east.  He was inducted into the service June 23, 1918, and went to Camp Lewis, where he was accepted June 28.  The men who entered the army at that time were rushed to France after two months training and many of them played a heroic part in the terrific fighting by which the American drove the Huns back from Verdun to Sedan.  It is not known that Mr. Medesker was in this part of the line, but it is certain he died a true soldier and laid down his life for humanity and his country.
     It is possible that the Wallowa county boys had a part in an incident told in the last number of the Starts and Stripes, as follows;
     “When the fine, rangy soldiers from the Pacific slope celebrated their first entry into the line by attacking the Prussian Guard and chasing those ones redoubtable troops for seven kilometers they swept thru the little village of Vauquois.  Now the once – wooded hills around Vauquois are full of tunnels laboriously dug by the Germans, and in anticipation of this attack they had sown that territory with enough mines to blow to atoms all Vauquois and any one who might be passing thru it.
     But the westerners came so fast that on the morning of September 26, the agitated Prussians did not have time to wire their death traps.  Later they were removed at leisure by a company of chuckling engineers.

Harry A. Savage
Died January 17, 1918 in France

William C. Spencer
of Vincent, Oregon
KIA October 2, 1918

Ed Summerhouse Is Dead

     A message came to Lostine on Saturday with the news of the death of Ed Summerhouse, a Lostine boy who enlisted in the navy. He was a first class fireman on the steamer Harrisburg, and died of bronchial pneumonia aboard ship while returning from his second trip to France. The boat had made three round trips to England before that, after he was assigned to the ship. His body will be laid to rest in a government cemetery somewhere in the east. He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Wm. Kuhn of Enterprise, and two sisters, Gertrude of Enterprise and Carrie of Hutchinson, Kan., and three brothers, Henry of Enterprise, William of Hutchinson, Kan., and John of the hospital corps. A.E.F.

Enterprise Record Chieftain
Thursday, October 31, 1918