My father....

[ccheese]

I know a lot of the members can say, my father was in Iraq, or Viet Nam,
or Korea, or even World War II. But how many of you can say, "My father
was in World War One ?" I can.....

Arthur Henry Cheeseman, was born in Cinnaminson Township (now the city
of Cinnaminson) in Burlington County, NJ, on 4 March 1891. He enlisted in
the US Army, in Philadelphia, PA at the age of 23, on 27 July 1917. He was
honorably discharged at Fort Monmouth, NJ, as a Sargeant, on 7 April 1919.

He served with the A.E.F Headquarters 58th Infantry S.D.F.R.S. 322.
And spent eleven months in France. He received a dose of mustard
gas, and was hospitalized in France in December of 1918. I am not
aware of any medals, altho he was an "expert pistolman rifleman",
and a "sharp shooter"

How do I know all this ? I have his discharge papers from WW-1, and I
am going to put up a copy of the front and the back with this note.

I also have five letters that he wrote to his mother, while he was in
the hospital, and will put them up at a later date. These letters are
dated in December of 1918

If someone is interested in this, I will put up more of his papers that I
have in my collection.

Charles

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Very Cool Charles - I have a similar one from my Grandfather - during WW1 he was sent to the Canal Zone.

 

[evangilder]

Very neat stuff to have in your possession. I have my great great grandfather's civil war records. It is neat to look at all of the item in the older service records.

 

[ccheese]

I forgot to mention, my father died on 13 Sept 1935 (it was a Friday),
from the effects of the mustard gas. I was eighteen months old, and
do not remember him. There are no known photos of him, and I have
no idea what he looked like. My mother said he was very short, and
his discharge sez he was 5' 2". He died at 42, and by a strange
coincidence, my sister died at 42 also. He is interred in Lowden Park
Military Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

My mother re-married four more times....... but thats fodder for another
post.

Charles

 

[timshatz]

Great post Charles. Very cool.

Have heard a lot of guys who were gassed die between the wars.

 

[Gnomey]

Very cool Charles, great piece of history you have there.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Here's My Grandfathers...

 

[ccheese]

Joe:

Nice document. Keep that in a safe place, you can't replace it. I also have
my great-grandfather's discharge from the Civil War. He was a member of
The Jersey Volunteers. I don't remember the dates on it, but it's old.

Me and Edna Mae have been chasing ancestors for thirty years or
more. She's found out she's related to Princess Diana..... umpteeenth
cousin or something.

Charles

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Joe:

Nice document. Keep that in a safe place, you can't replace it. I also have
my great-grandfather's discharge from the Civil War. He was a member of
The Jersey Volunteers. I don't remember the dates on it, but it's old.

Me and Edna Mae have been chasing ancestors for thirty years or
more. She's found out she's related to Princess Diana..... umpteeenth
cousin or something.

Charles

Pretty cool.

I starting to do my family's genology a few years ago - its amazing when you stumble on to information. I manged to get my wife's grandfather's miltary record. He was a B-24 pilot in the PTO.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Very cool! Allways cherish that Charles and thanks for sharing it.

I wish my discharge papers looked neat like those though.

 

[ccheese]

Chris:

I have his discharge papers from the National Guard, too, plus letters
and cards he sent to his mother. The letters are in his own handwriting,
which makes them a bit more special.

Charles

 

[rogthedodge]

Interesting documents to remember him by.

I have a relative who was mobilised on 4th August, '14 fought in Palestine, Galipolli and France/Belgium, and died of wounds 11th November '18. Unlucky huh?

He and his only brother (killed in '15) were the end of that line of the family.

Due to Luftwaffe action in WW2 available records are very limited for both no photos found so far.

 

[ccheese]

Rog... In an earlier post, I mentioned that my mother was married five times.
Her third was an Army Cpl. named Frank Waski. He was killed on D-Day and
is buried at St. Lo. I can barely remember him, but I do remember the
telegram.

Charles

 

[evangilder]

Wow, your poor mom. Losing one husband in one war and another in the next is a heartbreaker. It's neat that you have the original documents. The ones I have for my great great grandfather are copies from the National Archives. It's amazing how much is documented in the old service records.

These days, so much gets redacted, you get words followed by blacked out lines. I had a buddy get his, and he had about 4 pages of just blacked out lines! I got a chuckle out of that. Here's your record, but you can't read these four pages, so we will photocopy that for you! LOL

 

[Njaco]

Have heard a lot of guys who were gassed die between the wars.

I know of one who should've died when gassed...a little corporal from Austria.

Cool stuff, Charles. Both my dad and his father were 'tweeners. Nevermade the wars but did serve. I have my Dads stuff from late 50s from the Air Force.

Hope you have those papers preserved somehow.

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

This is a great thread.

 

[trackend]

Thats interesting items cc my father died recently and when clearing out his gear we came across loads of stuff both from his WW2 service and my grandfathers WW1 including a couple of post cards sent by my grandmother to him when he was at Pashendale. All the items you have are very important as they are historic documents that give a glimps into the ordinary foot sloggers life which considering that they make up the majority is suprisingly thin on the ground compared to the higher ranks documented exploits.

 

[Thorlifter]

Wow. Thanks for sharing Charles and Flyboy. To me, those are a priceless treasure. I remember asking my grandmother a few WWII stories and I asked, "Do you remember when WWII ended?" She said, "WWII? I remember WWI ending!"

She was only 3 or 4 when WWI ended, but she remember playing outside the farm house, all the men were out in the fields, (my paternal side all the men have been farmers for 100+ years) and her mother came running out of the house screaming, "It's over, It's over!" All the men came in, listened to what she said and they all shared in some fresh lemonade, then went back to work. She only guesses her mom's screams scared her so bad is the reason she remembers it.

 

[Negative Creep]

I know at least 2 (but probably all) of my great-grandfathers served in World War One. One was a cook on HMS lion, and was at Jutland. The other was with a West Kent infantry regiment, and served on the Western Front, but that's all I know. Great bit of history you have; I'd love to find out about my side. My dad did discover that one of my ancestors was at Waterloo - on the French side. Seems to be quite a long record of my family in the military until my dad

 

[Bf109_g]

Hi guys.

I know that my great-grandfather Thomas Greig served in World War One as a driver. I have his 1914-1915 Star and a photograph of him taken during his time in France. I think I might try to find information from the Royal Engineer museum.