Remembering Walter Edward Dier, 1892 - 1918

On this Memorial Day 2017, I want to remember Walter Edward Dier, who died on 1 November 1918 in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive that brought an end to World War I.

Walter Dier, born in 1892, was the younger brother of my great-grandmother, Mary Ann "Mayme" Duwe (nee Dier). His parents, Matthew "Matt" and Signe "Cena" Dier farmed in the Town of Sevastapol, northeast of Sturgeon Bay, in Door County, Wisconsin. Walter grew up to be a Cheesemaker, working in Ephraim at the time he registered for the draft in June 1917.

Walter's draft registration card tells us that, at age 25, he was of medium height and build, and had black hair and grey eyes.  Here is his signature on the card:

As part of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), Walter served in the 89th Infantry Division, 354th Regiment. The 354th, formed in September 1917 at Camp Funston, Kansas, was mostly composed of Missouri men, but was later filled out with men from Colorado, Wisconsin and Illinois.

By 20 October 1918, when the 89th Division moved to the front lines, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive had been underway for almost one month. This massive offensive in northeastern France sought to cut vital German rail lines by penetrating to the vicinity of Sedan and Meziere near the border with Belgium.

As the regimental history relates:

"...we were in the first wave launched against an enemy strong point, consisting of fourteen machine guns on a hillside just southeast of Barricourt. This was the hardest and fiercest resistance we had met during our whole time on the front."

It is likely that Walter Dier died in the assault on those machine guns. Ironically, Walter, a second-generation American, died less than 80 miles from his father's birthplace in Merzig, Saarland, Germany.

Here is Walter Dier's grave marker in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, located in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Departement de la Meuse, Lorraine, France.

According to the excellent interactive encyclopedia created by the American Battle Monuments Commission, 

"Over 1,200,000 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines took part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Of these, over 170,000 became casualties; and 26,000 died."

The same source tells us that the 89th Division suffered 5,625 wounded and 1,466 killed during the course of the war.

As a point of comparison, there are 58,300 names of American service men and women carved into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C.

Please consider visiting the Wisconsin Veterans Museum on the Capitol Square in Madison, where the exhibition "WWI Beyond the Trenches: Stories From The Front" will run until April 2019.

Sources:

History of Company F, 354th Infantry, 89th Division.

 

Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Wikipedia article.

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 26 September to 11 November 1918, interactive learning resource presented by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Meuse-Argonne offensive, map showing daily position of front line : Map Room G-3, G.H.Q., May 24, 1919. (Library of Congress)

The Virtual Wall Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

PVT Walter Ed Dier, Find A Grave record.

John Sankey Gilderson (1892-1972)

John Sankey Gilderson (1892-1927) was Caroline's paternal grandfather. Stresses at home led him to join the Royal Navy at age 18. Starting as a ship's "boy" on the HMS Ganges (actually not a ship but a training facility in Shotley, Suffolk, England), he rose to the rank of Lieutenant of Gunnery. JS Gilderson served from 1910 through the end of the Second World War. His small stature made him especially suited for duty as a diver and for work on submarines. 

The HMS Ganges is now a museum dedicated to the 160,000 "boys" who trained there from 1905 to 1976: (www.hmsgangesmuseum.com).

Valeria and the Wolf girls, circa 1940-1941

This is a group photo of my paternal grandmother, Itola F Duwe (nee Wolf) with her mother and sisters. Valeria Miatke (1880-1967), at far left in the photo, was born in rural Shawano County, Wisconsin. She married Albert J. Wolf (1881-1954) in 1902 and the couple had seven daughters. In the photo, I believe they stand in birth order from left to right: Evelyn (1903-1980), Hildegard (1904-1992), Audrey (1906-1975), Ila (1908-1992), Delores (1911-1966), Loraine (1913-?), and my grandmother, Itola (1920-1990).

Valeria and Albert's marriage broke up in the mid-1920s and they were divorced in 1925. Valeria married twice more, to Frank H Bibelhausen (1877-1937) and to Otto Holtz (? -1949). Albert spent the last 12 years of his life as a resident of the Hickory Grove Tuberculosis Sanitorium in West De Pere, Brown County, Wisconsin, dying there in 1954.

Ethel and Frank Radloff and Family, circa 1940

This is a studio portrait of my great-grandparents and their children. My best estimate is that this was taken around 1940. Ethel (1885-1990) and Frank (1883-1962) Radloff are front and center. Back row is Adeline (1925-2014), Harold (1914-1963), Wilma (1910-2001), Howard (1917-2009), and my maternal grandmother, Audrey (1921-2000).

Frank A Radloff, ca. 1906-1907

Frank Radloff (1883 - 1962), taken about 1906 or 1907. His parents came to the United States in 1874 from Pomerania, which was then part of Germany but is now in Poland. Frank (christened Franz) Hermann August Radloff was born in Watertown, Wisconsin, where his family had first settled after emigrating. Frank had seven brothers and sisters who lived to adulthood. 

He married Ethel May Davies on May 5, 1909 in Almond, Portage County, Wisconsin. For most of his adult life he farmed on leased parcels of land in Portage, Waushara and Waupaca Counties. For the last ten years of so of his life he worked for the municipal public works department in the City of Waupaca. He and Ethel had five children: Wilma, b.1910; Harold, b.1914; Howard, b.1917; Audrey (my grandmother), b.1921; and Adeline, b.1925.

Kip Christensen during the Great Depression, 1937 - 1938

Clifford Alvin "Kip" Christensen (1919 - 1972). The group picture shows my grandfather ("Grampa Kip") with two co-workers. Kip graduated from Waupaca HS in 1937 -- the depths of the Great Depression. He found work as a dishwasher at the Exchange Building cafe in Chicago. Letters from home during that time encouraged him to stick with the job, because work was so hard to find. These letters frequently mentioned the difficulties that one or another of his brothers were having finding steady work. One letter, from his married sister Mable, shows that Kip was already showing signs of the alcohol abuse that would shadow his life. The second picture was taken in Driggs, Idaho, the Teton Valley, in 1938. The 19 year old Kip was working on the Jack Buxton ranch in Driggs, Idaho, along with his older brother Earl.

Adeline Radloff skating on Shadow Lake, Waupaca, Wisconsin, ca. 1941

This is Adeline RADLOFF DEGODT AYRES (1925 - 2014) ice skating on Shadow Lake in Waupaca. I am guessing this is 1941-42 as she looks to be 16 or 17 to me. She had spunk in truckloads! I remember her working as a school crossing guard in the 1980s and slapping her stick down on the hood of a car that edged too far into the crosswalk. It is funny to think that today her grave marker is up on that hill in Lakeside Cemetery (behind her in this photo) with its inscription of "See You Later."

Kip Christensen at the union-sponsored rest tent, ca 1950

This photo of my Grandfather, Kip Christensen (1919-1972), shows him staffing a union-sponsored rest tent, probably at a county fair. The sign next to him says "Do You Have Any Questions About Unions? ASK US!" My Gramma Audrey was proud of her contributions to the United Auto Workers Local No. 21 in Traverse City, Michigan, which included service as its President. Kip and Audrey were dedicated supporters of the United Auto Workers, and its influential mid-20th century leader, Walter Reuther. Wikipedia has decent short articles on both subjects.

William Duwe and Family gravesite, Brockhausen Cemetery, Forestville, Door County, Wisconsin.

These photos are of our August 2016 visit to Brockhausen Cemetery on Hwy X (County Line Rd) in Door County. It is just Southeast of the Town of Forestville. 

The tall monument commemorates several people in the family of William Duwe and his wife Catharine Marie (nee Tagge). On the 1880 U.S. Census, both reported their birthplace as Holstein, part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of modern Germany. William was probably born Wilhelm on 20 Dec 1835. Catharine was born Catharina, probably in Friedrichskoog, Dithmarschen on 2 Aug 1847. 

In April of 1866, the Tagge Family sailed from Hamburg for New York and settled in Forestville, Door County, Wisconsin. William Duwe served in the 32nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War, from its formation in 1862 through the end of the war in 1865. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s web site, the 32nd Wisconsin “participated in the Siege of Atlanta, Sherman's March to the Sea, the Battle of Bentonville and the surrender of the Confederate army.” 

William’s occupation appears as “Farmer” on the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Censuses. He became postmaster of Forestville in 1889. He died two years later in 1891 at the age of 55 and Catharine only one year later at the age of 44. It appears that William and Catharine had ten children together. Two children died before they did: Anna (1871 – 1879) and Mary (1869 – 1890). These two, plus Emma (1875 – 1898) are commemorated on the same monument stone as their parents. A stone for Fred (1886 – 1903) is also in this cemetery, as well as a special civil war service stone for William near the combined family monument. William and Catharine’s son, John Henry (1877 – 1937) was the father of Donald Matthew Duwe (1911 – 1980), who was the father of my dad, Ronald Raymond Duwe (b. 1942).

C.A. Christensen & sons, February 1943

This is a photograph of Christian Andrew "CA" Christensen and all of his sons on the occasion of the death of his only daughter in February 1943. Mabel was married to Leon Dunn and mother of three when she died at the age of 34 "after an operation," as the newspaper death notice put it.

Front and center is CA Christensen, who was born in Denmark in 1881 and came to the USA in 1888. His sons, from left to right in this photo, are Oswald R. "Os" (1906-1989), Earl H. (1909-1981), Clifford A. "Kip" (1919-1972),  William M. "Bill" (1927-2007), Edward P. (1916-1986), Carrol G. (1915-1993), and Arthur C. (1913-1996).

This photo was probably taken on the Dunn farm in the Town of Dayton, Waupaca County, Wisconsin.