World War I -- Ernest Albertson and Marvin Smalley

Two of my grand uncles served in World War I. They were the brothers of my Albertson grandparents, Oran and Lucie (Smalley) Albertson.

In 1915 they were both living in Washington Township, Sherman County, Kansas. In fact they are listed on the same page of the state census schedule. Both Ernest and Marvin had been listed as farmers for their occupation. But someone has crossed that out and added A.L. which I believe would mean agricultural laborer. Ernest was listed as age 21 and Marvin was 19, so by 1917 they were the ages preferred by the Army.

From his tombstone, we can see that Ernest was in Co H, 353 Infantry. Checking that online I found that a book written about the Kansas 353rd Infantry Regiment was available in the "Kansas Collection." Ancestry has a database of that regiment based on the book, so I entered Uncle Ernest's name and there he was. It showed that he was in Company H and his address was Goodland Kansas and he was on page 292. So I checked the book on page 292 and Ancestry was correct, he is listed on that page.

My memories of Uncle Ernest was of someone who was an invalid. I was told that he had problems due to his service in World War I. I remember that he spent some time in the Veterans Hospital in Vancouver Washington. Before his death he moved to Louisiana and his obituary states that he died in the Veterans Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Uncle Marvin's gravestone shows that he was in the 145 Field Artillery. In his obituary it is stated that he "served in France with the US Army's Sunburst division." Again I checked online and discovered that this division, 145, was called the Sunburst or Sunshine Division.

A book published in 1968 of History of the 145th Field Artillery of World War I is also available online on the familysearch.org website.

It is interesting to see family members who served in the military.