Pvt. William Bruce White (1893-1918)

White family photo. Used with permission.

Private William Bruce White was the fifth and final casualty for the staff of Base Hospital 50. His death, like most of his colleagues before him, was due to disease rather than injury. Private White succumbed to pneumonia, as a result of the raging influenza epidemic, just five days before Armistice on November 6, 1918.

William was one of eight children – four boys and four girls  – born to Lewis Pindle White and his wife Mary Ellen "Ella" Burke. He was the sixth child and fourth son and his older siblings included Clarence George Thornton, Jessie Pearl, Lewis Pinckney, Lily Darling and Harry Stanhope. William was followed by sisters Helen Frances Luella and Margaret Virginia. Born on January 1, 1893, in Terra Alta, Preston County, West Virginia, William and his family moved to Bellingham in 1897.

The large family lived for several years in a grand Victorian house at 1200 N. Garden St., in Bellingham.¹ Its distinctive turret topped by a bell-shaped dome made it a local landmark, then and now. The house still stands although it has since been divided into apartments.

Built in 1890 for banker James W. Morgan, the house plan was from a pattern book designed by Robert Shoppel. Stock market collapses in the mid-1890's led Morgan to sell his home to Lewis White and his business partner William G. Brown, Jr. Together with Brown, also from West Virginia, Lewis White had started the Bank of Whatcom in November of 1897. The acquisition of 1200 N. Garden proved fortuitous since, with eight children, the White family needed a large house!

Snow-covered 1200 N. Garden, c. 1916. 

Photo by J.J. Donovan #1995.6.12, 

Whatcom Museum of History & Art

The family was at the center of many enjoyments in Bellingham."Darlings of the Society column, the Whites hosted elaborate dinners, parlor dances, and card parties that were always “most recherché and artistic” with “choice table decorations,” “tasteful hand-painted place cards” and “dainty favors.” Their guests included the business elite of New Whatcom and Fairhaven. The White’s teenage daughter, Jessie, had her own chaperoned social calendar and often entertained the “younger set” in a “most charming style” with music, dancing, and refreshments."²

Jessie White christened the 200-foot, four-masted lumber schooner Sehome on December 30, 1899. Youngest sister Margaret Virginia won a national photo contest for Resinol Soap in 1903 at the age of four. Sadly, the White family was rocked by the untimely death of Lewis White on July 9, 1903.³ Lewis White had traveled back to the West Virginia home of his mother in Terra Alta where it was hoped the mountain air would restore his health. Although he had been in poor health and suffering from diabetes, his death was unexpected. He left his widow, Ella, and children ranging in age from 4 to 20. Just one month later, Ella White sold the house on Garden and moved to a slightly smaller house at 2007 G Street which she purchased for $3,300.

On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1908, Ella White was married to Frederick Schuh and the family continued to reside on G Street. It is there the family is enumerated in the 1910 census, with 17-year-old William's occupation listed as bank clerk.⁴ By the time William registered for the draft in June of 1917, he was continuing to follow in his father's footsteps working as a bank clerk at First National Bank in Sedro-Woolley.⁵

Bellingham Herald, 10 August 1918, pg 6.

It isn't known if William specifically volunteered to serve with Base Hospital 50, but he was mustered into service in June of 1918 with Base Hospital 50, training first at Camp Lawton, in Seattle, then onto Camp Fremont in Palo Alto, California, before traveling to Camp Merritt in New Jersey in anticipation of overseas deployment. Together with the other members of Base Hospital 50, William sailed for Europe on July 14, 1918, aboard the S. S. Karmala.⁶

His death from complications from influenza came just as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive – the final push towards ending the war – was taking place and Base Hospital 50 was inundated with casualties. Initially buried at the cemetery at the Mesves-Bulcy Hospital Center, William's mother elected to have her son's remains brought home to Bellingham after the war ended. His death was remembered in Whatcom County's Honor Roll and commemorated with a Gold Star on the service flag of Whatcom High school, one of six out of 364 students who served.^7,8 In January of 1921, William's journey was completed when he arrived home. He was buried in Bellingham's Bayview Cemetery on January 16, 1921, his loss deeply mourned by his friends and family.⁹

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References:

1. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. New Whatcom, Whatcom, Washington; NARA T623-1742; Enumeration District: 245, Page: 4A, Line: 30; Louis P. White.
2. Bellingham Business Journal. Victorian on Garden restored to 1890s style. November 30, 2007. (Accessed November 1, 2017.)
3. Prosser, William Farrand. A History of the Puget Sound Country, Its Resources, Its Commerce and Its People. New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1903. Biographical Sketch of Lewis P. White, pg. 338.
4. Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Bellingham, Ward 7, Whatcom, Washington; NARA T624-1688; Enumeration District: 320, Page: 5A, Line: 14; Fred Schuh.
5. United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Precinct 1, Skagit County, Washington; William B. White, June 5, 1917.
6. U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939; Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, National Archives Record Group 92, roll 457; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (Accessed 1 November 2017).
7. William B. White Funeral Notice. Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, WA), Thursday, January 2, 1919, page 6.  
8. Jacobin, Louis. With the colors, from Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan counties: an honor roll containing a pictorial record of the gallant and courageous men from northwestern Washington, U.S.A., who served in the world war, 1917-1918-1919. Seattle, Wash. : Peters Pub. Co., 1921.
9. "High School is Given Service Flag with 364 Stars Flag Presented to School by Superintendent." Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, WA) Saturday, January 15, 1921, page 8.

Pvt. Edward John Nesser (1895-1918)

The following day we had another shock, when Ed. Nesser died after a brief illness. This was the third death in less than two weeks, and everyone was beginning to get a little worried. It was the overwork that caused the weakened condition of the men and made them susceptible to the different diseases.¹

Just a day after surgeon William Kantner died suddenly from a heart attack, Private Edward John Nesser became Base Hospital 50's third casualty when he died of pneumonia on September 19, 1918. Ed was the third of eight children born to Andrew Nesser and his wife, Ida Goodmanson (Gudmanson). Five of the Nesser children survived infancy, but, like Ed, the entire family were victims of untimely deaths.

Ed’s father, Andrew Nesser, was an immigrant from Norway, arriving in the United States circa 1888, according to census records.² He married Ida Goodmanson, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on December 4, 1890.³  Ida was a native of Wisconsin and herself of Norwegian heritage. By late 1891, when their first child – daughter Dora Hattie – was born, Ida and Andrew Nesser had moved to Seattle. Sons Ingwal Andrew and Edward John followed in 1893 and 1895. Norman and Hattie arrived in 1904 and 1907, respectively.

The family lived in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood – a separate city until 1907 – at 5810 20^th Avenue NW. Andrew was a successful halibut fisherman and Ballard was home to the region’s burgeoning Scandinavian community and commercial fishermen due to its ready access to Puget Sound. Although Ida and Andrew lost several children in early infancy, their first major brush with tragedy occurred in 1905 when their oldest child, Dora, died of typhoid fever at the age of 13. Dora was buried at nearby Crown Hill Cemetery, which opened just two years prior.⁴

The family was next rocked by Andrew Nesser’s accidental drowning in 1915. His body was found floating in Elliott Bay three weeks after his family had declared him missing. A witness reported seeing Nesser leaning over the seawall the night he disappeared. He might never have been discovered had there not been a dynamite blast in the area which caused the body to float free from under the pier. The coroner conjectured Andrew became suddenly ill and had fallen into the bay.⁵ As the body was being transferred to the morgue a bouquet was dropped squarely on the casket by aviator Herbert Munter as he flew over the waterfront. Brothers Ingwal and Edward took over captaining their father’s fishing boat, the Ida N. 

The brothers responded together on June 5, 1917, to the mandatory draft registration. Both brothers were described as tall, blue-eyed, brown-haired fisherman.⁶ Although Ingwal is also noted as being ‘stout’. Ingwal died in December later that year in Los Angeles, of tuberculosis. Less than a year later Edward was dead from pneumonia in France, where he was serving with Base Hospital 50. Edward was buried at St. Mihiel American Cemetery.

Ida eventually remarried Timothy Small in 1926, a decade after Andrew’s death.⁷ Her two surviving children both succumbed to tuberculosis; Norman in 1926 and Hattie in 1928. Ida’s second marriage likely wasn’t successful as her marital status is listed as 'separated' on her death certificate. Ida Goodmanson Nesser died alone in 1934 – an inmate at Western State Hospital in Steilacoom – having outlived her first husband and all her children, a sad end to a large Seattle family.⁸

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1. United States. Army. Base Hospital No. 50. The history of Base Hospital Fifty : a portrayal of the work done by this unit while serving in the United States and with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Seattle, Wash. : The Committee, 1922. 
2. 1900 U.S. census, population schedule, Ballard, King, Washington. Enumeration District 58, sheet 23A, Andrew Nesser household; National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 1743; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (Accessed 17 February 2017).
3. Minnesota Marriages, 1849–1950. Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009, 2010. Index entries derived from digital copies of original and compiled records. Andrew Nesser and Ida Goodmanson. 4 December 1890, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
4. Dora Hattie Nesser. Find a Grave, http://findagrave.com, Memorial #6219036. (Accessed 23 January 2017).
5. Flowers Descend on Nesser's Body. The Seattle Daily Times. June 2, 1915, pg. 3.
6. "U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com, : accessed 17 February 2017); King County, Washington, Seattle, Draft Board 1. Ed. John Nesser and Ingwal Andrew Nesser entries, dated 5 June 1917.
7. Pierce County Auditor, Marriage Records, 1876-1947; 1984-2014, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.wa.gov: accessed 17 February 2017. Timothy Small and Ida Nesser. 
8. "Washington Death Certificates, 1907-1960," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQ98-NH3 : 17 February 2017), Ida Small, 30 Apr 1934; citing Ft Steilacoom, Pierce, Washington, reference 258, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Olympia; FHL microfilm 2,023,101.

Pvt. Samuel N. Parker (1897-1918)

Tyee, 1919, pg. 41.

By September, 1918, the overwork was beginning to show on the men, and this, along with bad drinking water, put a large number of our own men in the hospital. … It was at this time that the unit lost its first man, Sam Parker, who died the evening of September 7, just as taps was sounded. He was run down from overwork and contracted diphtheria.”¹

Private Samuel N. Parker was just twenty-one when he succumbed to exhaustion and diphtheria while serving with Base Hospital 50 in France. 

The only child of John William Parker and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Nichols, Sam's parents were married in Chicago on June 23, 1896.² Sam's exact date and place of birth are unknown, but the 1900 census indicates he was born in August of 1896, although 1897 is more likely.³ At the time of the 1900 federal census, Sam, his parents and maternal grandmother Edna Johnson Nichols Mitchell were living in Hampton Township, located in Rock Island County, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from Davenport, Iowa. By the 1910 census the family had relocated to West Seattle and were living on Alki Avenue.⁴ Their move had likely been a recent one as a biographical sketch of Sam's father was published in a Rock Island County history in 1908.⁵

News story written by Sam Parker.
Thursday, June 28, 1917, Morning Olympian
(Olympia, WA), pg 1. 

Sam graduated with honors from West Seattle School – later West Seattle High School – in 1915 and enrolled at the University of Washington with the class of 1919. While at the UW, Sam was a member of Pi Tau Upsilon Fraternity. He worked as a writer and editor for The Daily, the UW's student newspaper, and was a member of Sigma Delta Chi, a national honorary journalism fraternity.

A few months before he enlisted, Sam left college to take a position on the news staff of Seattle's Post-Intelligencer, where his work was highly esteemed. After having "tried in vain to enlist in a dozen different fighting units", Sam "did the next best thing and applied for a place in Base Hospital Unit No. 50."⁶

"He was not a man of robust health and for months he made futile efforts to enlist in the service of his country. Finally Dr. Eagleson, impressed with the young man's lofty patriotism and persistent attempts to serve, accepted him for the hospital corps, and on the day of his induction into service Parker bade his associates on the staff of the Post-Intelligencer goodbye."⁷

Original grave of Sam Parker.
The History of Base Hospital Fifty, 1922.

Sam enlisted early in the summer of 1918, traveling to Camp Merritt, New Jersey, for training and then deployed on July 14, 1918, for service overseas under the command of Major Eagleson. His death was a blow to the optimism and morale of the staff of Base Hospital 50 who lost two additional men not long after. Originally buried at the cemetery located outside the hospital complex, Sam was later reinterred at nearby St. Mihiel American Cemetery.⁸

His mother, Sarah, who lost her only child, participated in the Gold Star pilgrimages sponsored by the U.S. government and visited her son's final resting place in July of 1930.⁹

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References:

1. United States. Army. Base Hospital No. 50. The history of Base Hospital Fifty : a portrayal of the work done by this unit while serving in the United States and with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Seattle, Wash. : The Committee, 1922. Page 69.
2. Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920. John W. Parker and Sarah E. Nichols. 23 Jun 1896. Chicago, Cook, Illinois.
3. 1900 U.S. census, population schedule, Hampton, Rock Island, Illinois. Enumeration District 93, sheet 16A, John Parker household; National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 338; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (Accessed 20 January 2017).
4. 1910 U.S. census, population schedule, Seattle Ward 14, King, Washington. Enumeration district 218, sheet 10A, J.W. Parker household; National Archives microfilm publication T624, roll 1661; digital image, Ancestry.com, http://www.ancestry.com (Accessed 20 January 2017).
5. Historic Rock Island County: History of the Settlement of Rock Island County from the Earliest Known Period to the Present Time... . Kramer & Company, 1908. Volume 2, pg. 153.
6. University of Washington. Tyee, 1919, Sam Parker, War Memorial, page 41.
7. Sam Parker Dies in Country's Service. The Washington Newspaper. 4(1) Oct 1918, pg 12.
8. Pilgrimage for the mothers and widows of soldiers, sailors, and marines of the American forces now interred in the cemeteries of Europe as provided by the Act of Congress of March 2, 1929... Washington, U.S. G.P.O., 1930. Sarah Parker, Pacific Palisades, California, page 23.
9. Pvt. Samuel N. Parker. Find a Grave, http://findagrave.com, Memorial #56341596. (Accessed 23 January 2017.)

William Carlyle Kantner, M.D. (1884-1918)

William Carlyle Kantner
4 Nov 1884 - 18 Sep 1918

Early on the morning of September 18 Lieut. Kantner died very suddenly of heart trouble. This was a great shock to all of us, as the end came very suddenly and most unexpectedly. The following day we had another shock, when Ed. Nesser died after a brief illness. This was the third death in less than two weeks, and everyone was beginning to get a little worried. It was the overwork that caused the weakened condition of the men and made them susceptible to the different diseases.

The above quote from The History of Base Hospital Fifty provides some insight into the intense work conditions at the hospital during the final months of the Great War.¹ William Kantner was the only member of the medical staff to die in service and yet was one of the youngest physicians in the unit.

William Carlyle Kantner was born on November 4, 1884, in Terre Hill in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County.  His father, William Calvin Kantner, was a Congregational minister and his work took the family -- including his mother, Anna Susan White, and siblings; Clifford, LaBlanche, Anna LaVerne, Penryn and Constance -- across the United States from Oregon to Pennsylvania and back again. 

Kantner grew up in Salem, Oregon, and graduated from Salem High School. He received his medical degree from Willamette University's Medical Department in 1907 and then completed an internship at Minor Hospital in Seattle.² Afterwards he opened a private practice which was well established at the time he went overseas.

He also served as a member of the medical staff for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition's Emergency Hospital in 1909. Dr. Edmund Rininger was the medical director and other staff included Dr. Mark McKinney and nurses Bertha F. Wiese and Mary Ethel Anderson.³

Kantner entered the Army with the rank of First Lieutenant with Base Hospital 50 on May 1, 1918. Together with other members of the unit, Kantner traveled from Seattle to Camp Kearny, near San Diego, and onto Camp Fremont, near Palo Alto, before leaving for France. He died of angina pectoris or heart failure at Mesves, France, 15 Sep 1918, exhausted after performing nine surgeries the previous day. He worked "strenuously, operating quickly and as continuously as human endurance would permit."⁴ 

In a letter of condolence from Dr. Eagleson, Base Hospital 50's medical director, he recounts Dr. Kantner had been in his usual good health, "full of fun and jokes"and goes on to say "we think his death was very sudden and was caused by a hardening of the arteries of the heart muscle. Eagleson described the funeral and how the French people brought offerings of flowers so numerous "the casket was covered over." An accompanying letter from the medical staff recalled Kantner's "thoughts were constantly of home" and that he had recently "purchased a little French apron which he hoped to send to his daughter for her birthday present."⁵

The Seattle Times (Seattle, Washington),
 7 October 1918, pg. 3.

William Kantner was survived by his wife, Nell Constance Thompson. The young couple were married by his father at his wife's family home at 1531 Rucker, in Everett. The wedding took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1913. Nell was a graduate of the University of Washington and a member of Chi Omega sorority. They were the parents of one daughter, Helen Constance. 

Following her husband's death, Nell returned to the University of Washington to earn two master's degrees and had a long career as a teacher, a principal, and eventually was appointed the Director of Vocational Education for the State of Washington. Nell never remarried and, as a Gold Star widow, accompanied Washington State's Gold Star Mother Pilgrimage contingent to Europe to visit her husband's burial site at St. Mihiel American Cemetery, located near the site of the hospital where he worked tirelessly to save the lives of so many others.

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1. United States. Army. Base Hospital No. 50. The history of Base Hospital Fifty : a portrayal of the work done by this unit while serving in the United States and with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Seattle, Wash. : The Committee, 1922. 
2. Pastor's Son Dies in France: Lieutenant William C. Kantner Succumbs to Heart Failure Abroad. The Oregon Statesman (Salem, Oregon), 8 October 1918, pg. 3.
3. Health, Medicine and the AYPE Old Times. Museum of History and Industry.
4. Base Hospital 50 Honors Its Dead: Lieutenant Kantner and Four Enlisted Men Gave Lives in Nation's Service. Seattle Post-Intelliencer. no date.
5. Dr. Kantner is Mourned: Letters from Major and Medical Staff Received by Soldier's Wife. The Oregon Statesman (Salem, Oregon) Sunday, December 1918, pg 3.