Arthur Alma Kerby

The ancestor I am writing about this week is my husband, Roy’s granduncle, Arthur Alma Kerby who was born April 16, 1894 in Pima, Graham County, Arizona Territory the son of Francis Kerby III and Rachel Isabel Riggs.  He apparently went by the nickname of Art, because we have always heard him called Uncle Art.

Arthur was the twelfth of the fifteen children his father Francis had with his two wives Rachel and Leah and the tenth child of his mother Rachel.  Arthur’s full siblings were: Francis Kerby IV 1874-1934, married to Mrs. Lenora ‘Lee’ Clubb Bandy; Annie Isabel Kerby 1877-1951, married to Charles Buchanan Gordon & Milton Fisher; John Nathaniel Kerby 1879-1902, who never married; William Kerby 1881-1966, married to Mary Lillie Farley; Charles Kerby 1882-1963, married to Clarissa Lorena Pulsipher, Flaville Watson Elmer, Mattie Haynie Taylor and Lou Annie Berry; Jane Kerby 1884-1887, died young; Jesse Kerby 1886-1951, married to Florence Eugenia Wilson; Joseph Lee Kerby 1890-1956, married to Mabel Jewell and Julia Zozaya; Mary Myrtle Kerby 1892-1969, married to Joseph Mortenson (My husband’s grandparents); Elmer Kerby 1896-1967, married to Florence Edna Brittain and Nellie Alice Kerby 1897-1966, married to Andrew Mortenson.  Arthur’s half-siblings were: Thomas Washington Kerby 1882-1973, married to Mary Cecelia Dillman and Josephine Mortenson; Mary Ann Kerby 1884-1926, married to Samuel Ezra Pollock and George Henry Kerby 1895-1970, who never married.

While reading from the life story of Arthur’s father Francis Kerby III, which was written by Arthur’s half-brother Thomas, I learned some of the following as well as from of my own research.  In the spring of 1884, Arthur’s parents and their first five children as well as Francis’ second wife, Leah, and their son, Thomas, left Pahreah in Kane County, Utah to go to the northern part of Arizona.  In those days the roads were very bad going southward, and there was much danger among the Indians.  After many hardships, they finally arrived in Taylor (now in Apache County) in the first part of June, destitute but with great hope.   Here the Anti-Mormons were very bitter against the Polygamists and while here two daughters were born one to Rachel, named Jane and one to Leah, named Mary Ann, just two weeks apart.  Francis saw that he had to take his wife, Leah, back to southern Utah, so after returning from Utah he decided to move to the Gila Valley in the southern part of Arizona, in the area that would become Graham County where he went in 1887 and settled near the Matthewsville/Glenbar area.

Arthur’s father bought a small farm and also had an orchard and part of the time freighted from Bowie and Wilcox to Globe to help make a living for his large growing family.  Indian troubles weren’t quite as bad as they had been in previous years, but the family still needed to keep an eye on things, or animals and food would and could disappear quickly.

After the Manifesto in 1890, he went back up to Utah and got his wife, Leah, and her children, Thomas and Mary Ann.  On this trip they met with many troubles and hardships among the Indians.  One night an Indian came to the camp and wanted to trade six horses for a gun, but Francis refused.  Had he have traded, the Indian probably would have killed them all and gotten the horses back.  Francis III moved over to Pima in 1892, which was only about 3 miles from where they had been living and there they remained for a number of years.  The children worked very hard in helping their parent’s clear away brush from the land and in growing their own vegetables, a necessity in those years.  Arthur’s father worked building homes, roads and ditches as well as keeping his orchard and farm running.  It was during his time freighting and selling some of his produce from their orchard, that he saw the Sulphur Springs Valley in southeastern Cochise County, Arizona.

    

The following family picture shows Arthur as a little boy with his parents and some of his siblings.  From left to right setting: Rachel holding Nellie, Elmer, Francis III, Arthur & Charles, standing behind from left to right: Jesse, Myrtle (my husband’s grandmother), Joseph and Annie.  I believe this picture was probably taken around 1899 or so, since Nellie was born in 1897.

This next family picture was probably taken around 1905 to 1908 possibly, with all the living children of Francis and Rachel, their son John had died in 1902.  Standing from left to right: William, Jesse, Myrtle, Charles & Arthur; setting from left to right: Joseph, Francis IV, Elmer in front of him, Francis III, Nellie in front of him, Rachel and Annie.

In the spring of 1911, Francis, his wife Rachel and some of their children, including Arthur the subject of this sketch moved to the small town of Webb, this little town is now known as Elfrida located in Cochise County, Arizona.  Arthur’s older siblings were getting married and starting families of their own and so Arthur and his two brothers, Joseph and Elmer were mainly left to help their father with the farm and orchards during their growing up years.  Arthur’s father bought 80 acres there in the Sulphur Springs Valley and soon built a house where he lived until the day he died in 1925.  I need to do some more research to figure out exactly where his land was located.  Arthur had attended school in Pima as well as in Webb and is listed on the 1912 Webb School District #29 school records.

This next picture shows from left to right: Rachel, Francis and Leah Kerby with their friends James & Anna Mortenson in Webb at the old church house which was located on Mormon Road by the Whitewater Cemetery.  Arthur’s sister Myrtle married James and Anna’s son Joseph Mortenson in 1912 (my husband’s grandparents), so this picture may have been made about that time.  Also Arthur’s half-brother Thomas and his sister Nellie married two more of James and Anna’s children, Josephine (twin to Joseph) and Andrew Mortenson in 1914, so I am assuming this picture was probably taken between 1912 and 1914.

Life was soon to change pretty drastically for this family.  Arthur’s father’s second wife Leah died in 1915, which left an empty hole in all of them.  She had stayed up in Pima with her youngest son, when Francis and Rachel went to Webb, but was well thought of by all of the family.  Then World War I started in Europe and soon young men were being called up here in America to go and fight the Hun, as the Germans were called back in those days.

I have found World War I draft registration cards for Arthur and all of his brothers, Francis IV, William, Charles, Jesse, Joseph, Elmer, Thomas and George.  I don’t know for certain if all of them served overseas though, but I do know that Arthur and Elmer did.  First is Arthur’s draft registration card, then a picture of Arthur in uniform, he sure was a good looking young man.  The next picture shows Arthur and Elmer possibly at Camp Funston during training in 1917, before they went overseas.  Elmer had written on the picture marking him and Arthur thankfully.

Arthur’s sister Myrtle ended up with some of the cards and letters that Arthur had sent home during his military service and these items passed on to Myrtle’s daughter Anna, who passed them on to my husband and I, since she did not have any children and we were and are into family history quite a bit.  Following are just a few of the items we have and I love this cartoon postcard he sent home.

The following letter was written on December 11, 1917 at Camp Kearney, California thanking the Porter’s and others for sending them some things from home.  In the next picture you will notice an arrow pointed down and that is Arthur standing at attention before the parade was to start in San Diego according to what he wrote on the back of the card.  The next card the arrow is pointing up showing where Arthur was standing during this same parade in San Diego.

Arthur wrote a few cards and letters to Athena Porter and her parents, Alva Sylvenus Porter and his wife Eliza also wrote to Arthur while he was in France.  From the tone of the letters it looks like Arthur and Athena may have been sweethearts, or that may have been Arthur’s intentions when he returned from the war.  Just a side note but in 1932, Athena’s little brother Alva Rich Porter, 1907-1994, would marry Arthur’s niece, Anna Isabel Mortenson, 1913-1987, oldest daughter of his sister Myrtle.

Arthur according to his letters served as a private in Company H, 30th Infantry in the 3rd Division in the United States Army during World War I in France.  The 3rd Division arrived in France in April 1918 at the beginning of the last series of German offensives designed to end the war.  The 3rd Division contained the 7th, 5th & 30th Infantry Regiments and after July of 1918, the 3rd became known as the "Rock of the Marne" Division.

One of the letters from Arthur was written on July 28, 1918.  He mentions they have just left the front and he wrote the letter that night.  This matches exactly with the info I received from Glen Mortenson, one of my husband’s first cousin, about the Battle of the Marne.  “The Aisne-Marne Counteroffensive: On the night of July 22nd, the 30th Infantry after having been resupplied with new men and equipment was ordered to support the 38th Infantry which had crossed the Marne River into Mezy.  The French were on the right and the 4th Infantry was on the left.  The 30th Infantry arrived in Mezy at 1 p.m. on the 23rd of July.  At 6 p.m. on the 23rd were ordered to relieve the 38th Infantry during the night.  On the evening of the 23rd, 700 replacements reached Charteves.  However, only those assigned to the 3rd battalion (about 250) saw action.

During the night of the 23rd/24th an advance along the lines of the 30th Infantry was ordered to take place in the morning.  Six companies advanced Northeast above Jaulgonne, taking Franquate Farm and reaching the Bois de Le Charmel, where they dug in.  They suffered heavy casualties during an artillery barrage during their advance and while in the Bois de Le Charmel.  The six companies advanced slowly through the Foret de Ris, North of Barzy-Sur-Marne, meeting severe machine gun and artillery fire, finally reaching the ravine just South of Le Charmel Chateau on July 25th.  During the night of the July 25th/26th advance the 4th Infantry entered Le Charmel and then established a connection with the French on the right of the 30th Infantry.  No further objectives remained for the 30th Infantry.  On the evening of July 28th, the 30th Infantry was subsequently withdrawn to the St. Eugene area.

The casualties sustained by the U.S. 30th Infantry Regiment during the Aisne-Marne Offensive are as follows: 12 officers and 700 men.

Arthur would have been right in the thick of things during the war on the front lines and it is no telling what all he would have seen or endured during this battle alone.  The things the men and women of our military have gone through to ensure our freedoms is not something we should ever take lightly.  Here is the letter he wrote to Athena on July 28, 1918.

The following letter was written by Athena’s parents Alva and Eliza Porter on July 21, 1918 in Webb, Arizona and apparently Arthur never got to see it as the mail was hard to get to the front lines and it was sometimes months after they were written before they reached the intended recipient.

As you can tell from the above envelope Arthur did not survive the war and was killed in action on the front lines in France on October 30, 1918.  I do not know what battle it may have been or if it was just a skirmish somewhere on the way to a major battle.  I need to see about ordering his military records from the National Archives and see if that information is located in those records.  I don’t know how soon it was afterwards that his parents were notified, but my husband’s cousin Glen has the following picture and frame that must have been given to them afterwards.

According to Glen who has done some research on the time Arthur was in France, because of his service he could have received the following medals and worn the following type insignia's.

I found the following newspaper article from December 4, 1918 where Arthur is mentioned as having been killed in action.  I am working on this from our hotel room so I don’t have the name of the newspapers with me.

Arthur’s body was not shipped home immediately from France, but was he was buried there and then in 1921 he was finally shipped home to his parents.  From newspapers I found dated June 9, 1921 and from another dated June 12, 1921 we read the following:

I don’t know how his parents reacted to his death, but I am sure it was a heavy blow for both of them as well as for his siblings and for his friend and possible sweetheart Athena Porter.  Then almost three years later to have his body brought home for burial in a closed casket, I just can’t comprehend the sorrow they all must have felt.   Arthur’s mother Rachel passed away November 26, 1922 and his father, Francis followed on November 12, 1925 and are all buried at the Whitewater Cemetery.  Athena Porter finally married on November 20, 1920 to Roscoe Nephi Lofgreen a little over two years after Arthur was killed in France.  Athena moved to California and died December 21, 1968 in San Diego.

Arthur Alma Kerby was buried with full military honors at the Whitewater Cemetery in present day Elfrida, Cochise County, Arizona and the following is the tombstone that marks his final resting place.

May we never forget the sacrifices that our military men and women have given in war and in peace time, Uncle Art, we salute you, your service and sacrifice.

Update on the life and death of Arthur Alma Kerby

Uncle Art’s World War I draft card states the following: It is dated 5 Jun 1917 in Webb, Cochise County, Arizona.  Arthur Alma Kerby, age 23, born 16 Apr 1894 in Pima, Arizona – farmer for himself, single, medium build, tall, grey eyes and black hair.  I just found the above picture on FamilySearch in February 2024 and you can tell by this picture that his description on his draft card was pretty accurate.  He was a handsome young man.

The reason for this update is because I wrote a blog post about Uncle Art “Arthur Alma Kerby” and posted it on 26 Aug 2015.  I wrote about his young life and how it ended so tragically on a field somewhere in France during World War I.   Most of the records we had found stated Uncle Art had been killed in action.  At the time I wrote that post in 2015 I had no idea where he had died with any certainty, only that it was in France.  I knew his body had been brought home for burial almost 3 years after his death, but nothing about his actual death or where he had been interred.

Link to my previous blog post: Arthur Alma Kerby

We always knew that Uncle Art died on 30 Oct 1918 somewhere in France at the young age of 24 years.  As of 26 Jan 2024, we now know what happened and where it happened, thanks to Peter Wever of the Netherlands.

I received the following message on Ancestry.com on 26 Jan 2024 from Peter Wever.  “Hi Vickie, allow me to introduce myself.  I am Peter Wever from the Netherlands and I am researching American soldiers that were initially buried at the military cemetery of Bazoilles-sur-Meuse.  Among those was Arthur Alma Kerby of whom you listed a photo on Ancestry.  Would you be willing to share a higher resolution of this photo through email. Thanks in advance, Peter”

Peter stated the following in a subsequent email: “Bazoilles Hospital Center was situated in Bazoilles-sur-Meuse, a small village in the Vosges Department in North-East France.  Your Uncle Arther died there on October 30, 1918, from "broncho pneumonia following gunshot wounds of left shoulder and leg" at Base Hospital No. 18.  This hospital was one of the 7 hospitals that made up the hospital center.  He was buried at US Military Cemetery No. 6 on October 31 in Grave No. 348.  He was disinterred on February 8, 1921 for transportation to the US where he was reburied.  See the notes of Father Dinan, the chaplain of the hospital center, on the burial of your uncle.  It also mentions exact time of death.  700 Americans were buried there at US Military Cemetery No. 6.”  I received the following images from Peter.

Uncle Art died at 3:10 PM on Oct. 30, 1918

Cause of death listed as WRIA.  I asked Peter what that meant.  He stated the following: “WRIA or DWRIA means (died of) wounds received in action.  It indicates a soldier died after reaching a medical facility.”

This is where Uncle Art was buried until his body was disinterred to be sent home almost 3 years later.

Uncle Art’s body arrived in Douglas, Arizona on 10 Jun 1921 which was a Friday and his body was held there until Saturday when it was brought to Webb.  The next day, he was buried with full military honors by the Fred Hilborn Post of the American Legion on 12 Jun 1921 which was a Sunday, at the Whitewater Cemetery not far from Webb where he grew up.

Peter has written a book about the Bazoilles Hospital Center and on the front cover of his book is a picture from Base Hospital No. 18, the same hospital that Uncle Art was in when he passed away.  The following is the cover of that book.  After Peter contacted us, we ordered his book so we could read more about the hospital.  It is very interesting and very informative.

I asked Peter if he knew what battle Uncle Art was wounded in and he stated the following: “I noted you wrote you did not know in which battle he was killed - or wounded.  That was the Meuse-Argonne Offensive which lasted from September 26 to November 11, 1918 and is still the largest military activity in American history and also its deadliest military campaign.  See the PDF attachment.  The 3rd Infantry Division in which your uncle served was first in reserve but went into the lines around October 1.  If you look at the map in the PDF attachment, you go north from the grounds gained by the 37th and 79th Division.  Then you see the grounds gained by the 3rd Division (marked by a 3 in a circle) which curves to the east going north.  Your uncle must have been wounded somewhere on these grounds. From there he was probably transported to a Field Hospital of the 3rd Division, a non-divisional Evacuation Hospital and from there to Bazoilles Hospital Center.“

I made a cut of the PDF map to show it in larger detail and I have added blue arrows to show the different Divisions, that Peter mentioned in his email.  Uncle Art was in the 3rd Division.  For some reason I can not get my blue arrows to show up.  Right in the center in the pink you will see a 3 with a circle around it.  It borders the 37th & 79th Divisions which are to the south and then it kind of circles to the northeast still in pink with another 3 in a circle.  Uncle Art would have been wounded somewhere in that pink area.  The town of Cunel, France is about in the middle of that pink area.

Uncle Art would have been wounded possibly somewhere in the area around Cunel, then taken to a field hospital before being transported to the Hospital Center at Bazoilles-sur-Meuse where he died.  It is about 90 miles south of Cunel to Bazoilles-sur-Meuse.  The following is a modern-day Google map showing Cunel to Bazoilles-sur-Meuse.

As Paul Harvey use to say at the end of his broadcast, “Now you know…the rest of the story”.

Written by Vickie Beard Thompson for a blog post on 19 February 2024.

KCMO

Day 3 of our Kansas City trip and I am finally getting a chance to do a little post about the happenings so far in our little adventure.  Flying from Salt Lake City to Kansas City.

Driving over to our hotel from the airport.

We arrived in KCMO on Tuesday afternoon got checked into our hotel and then went to meet Roy's new found cousins over in Independence, for supper at the Pizza Ranch, an all you can eat pizza, salad and chicken place. The chicken was fantastic, as well as the salads, and I was good and did not eat any pizza, though I was quite tempted to do so.  We all started talking as soon as we got there so I forgot to take a picture of the restaurant and the food, but thankfully I remembered to take pictures of the people we were meeting.  😊

We set and visited with Wayne, his wife Viola, daughters Sharon and Susan and Susan's husband, David and son, Daniel, her daughter, Hannah was at work so we did not get to meet her.  We set and talked and visited like we had always known each other, even though we had just met for the first time that evening. We were there for over two hours talking and getting to know one another.

Wayne and Roy are just second cousins on their Mom's side of the family, Roy's Mom, Elnora and Wayne's Mom, Rachel were first cousins.  Elnora's mother was Mary Myrtle Kerby Mortenson, 1892-1969, and Rachel's father was Joseph Lee Kerby, 1890-1956.  Myrtle and Joe were siblings and two of the children of Francis Kerby III and Rachel Isabel Riggs.  Rachel had gotten married in 1938 and within a couple of years she and her husband and their baby son, Joe, left Arizona and lived in a number of places over the years while her husband was in the military and working as a miner. Wayne said he had only been to Elfrida twice I believe it was and that was for the funeral of his grandfather, Joe Kerby in 1956 and one other time.  My husband, Roy was born and raised there and so he was able to tell Wayne a lot about the area and about the Kerby family as well.

We are planning on getting together again next year when Roy comes in for his meetings.  If we have time on the return trip from Kentucky to KCMO we may stop and visit with them before we go to the airport, just depends on traffic and how quickly we can get up and packed on that day.

Well, Roy went to work the next morning and I got ready to meet a new cousin of mine from my Mom's side of the family.  This cousin is a lot more distant than Roy and Wayne.  Kellene and I are 10th cousins 2 generations removed from our common ancestors who were Richard Stout and Penelope Kent.  I come through Richard and Penelope's son, James B. Stout and his wife, Elizabeth Truax and Kellene comes through Richard and Penelope's son, David Stout and his wife, Rebecca Ashton.

Kellene stopped and picked me up at our hotel and took me to lunch at the Smokehouse BBQ in Gladstone, Missouri.  I love BBQ and their burnt end sandwich and baked beans were the bomb!!!!! Thanks again for a fantastic lunch Kellene.....  We set and talked for at least two hours there at the restaurant and then came back to my hotel and I showed Kellene how to go about doing some searches and some websites for family history research for another couple of hours, before she had to leave.  We are planning on getting together again when we come back next year.

When Roy got home from work last night we went for supper to Jazz, A Louisiana Kitchen.  We usually eat there every time we are in Kansas City, the food is dynamite and the entertainment is always really good as well.  I had the catfish po' boy with New Orleans coleslaw and hushpuppies and Roy always gets the shrimp fettuccine.  For dessert we shared a strawberry stuffed beignet. Again Roy ate most of my bread and I had a few bites of the beignet, after all I am trying to be good and keep my carb count down, but I only let him have a little bite of one of my hushpuppies, I had to eat all of them.  😉

Our waiter, Jack, was fantastic and johnny on the spot with drinks, food and just to make sure we were being taken care of.  The place is mainly a dive bar, but the food, well you need to go and check it out for yourself.  A very eclectic place to be, for sure.

Jazz has live entertainers there every night from 7 to 10 and we have not seen any we did not like and last night was no exception.  Just a little video clip of one of the songs this man did last night, I never did catch his name but he was good and man could he play the guitar.

Live at Jazz in KCMO May 24, 2017

After we left Jazz we drove over to the National World War I Memorial that is located here in Kansas City.  That is how Wayne found Roy, his mom, Rachel had always told him about her uncle, her dad's brother, Arthur Kerby, who was killed during World War I in France on the front lines at the Battle of the Marne.  My husband Roy had always heard about this uncle as well and so one of my stories for my blog I wrote about Uncle Art and when Wayne punched in his name on google, it took him to my blog and the story I had written and posted in August of 2015, and the rest as they say is now history. 

There are brick walkways with many names of men and women who either died or served in the many conflicts throughout our nation's history.  The memorial is just beautiful and the grounds around it and the surrounding areas are very nice. I even found a brick for a Henry Doss, which was my Mama Jessie's maiden name.  I need to figure out who he was and tie him to the family, he is bound to be related in some way.  They have walls of pictures of some of the battlefield areas that are really cool too.  Here are just some of the pictures I took from there last night.  

From the monument you can see the building where Roy was having his meetings this week and then the cityscape too.

Tonight we are going to McCoy's for supper, we found it last year, they have the best chicken and waffles and Roy wanted to have them again.  I will have the chicken, but that darn carb thing will make me skip the waffle, but I might just take a bite of Roy's anyway.  😋  I will add a couple of pictures later after I take them tonight.

Tomorrow we will drive across the middle of the great state of Missouri following the trail, Roy's 2nd great-grandfather followed in 1834, from Liberty, Missouri over to his property in Monroe County, Missouri.  More about this in my next post.