 Soldiers of the Great War |
Remember...Arthur Thomas Hanline
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Arthur Thomas Hanline was born to Samantha Myers Hanline and John F. Hanline on June 10, 1895. A death notice in the Preston County Journal (January 16, 1919) would later claim he was born in Barbour County, but his military records reflect a birth in Grafton, Taylor County, West Virginia. Mr. Hanline died when Arthur was only four years old, and no birth certificate for Arthur can be located. However, it is possible to establish Arthur's likely father through the 1900 census and his sister Vernie's delayed birth certificate. In 1900, Arthur and his mother, Samantha, were living with Samantha's parents, John and Margaret Myers, in Barbour County. With them was Arthur's sister, then recorded as Vernie H., but later known as Hazel. A delayed birth certificate for Arthur's Vernie Hazel was filed in 1957 that records that Vernie's parents were Samantha and John F. Hanline, and it is reasonable to assume that John F. Hanline also fathered Arthur two years prior, in 1895. As part of filing Vernie Hazel's delayed birth certificate, Samantha Myers had to submit an "Affidavit of Mother" further attesting to its accuracy and increasing the likelihood that John F. Hanline was Samantha Myers's husband and fathered both children. The Myers family was a farming family. Samantha's brother, Jacob, was away at school. One of Arthur's sisters, Lillie, was not present in the home. Arthur may have been born Thomas Arthur since his name was recorded in the 1900 Federal Census as Thomas A. Perhaps due to his father's absence, the name Hanline was spelled in various ways, such as Hanaline in the 1910 census and on his headstone and Henline on Find A Grave memorials to his mother and his sister. However, the 1900 census and Arthur's military records show the name spelled Hanline.
Samantha Myers Hanline remarried on September 21, 1901, to Thomas E. Sigley. In 1910, according to the census of that year, the family was living in Preston County. The large, blended family included Thomas and Samantha, Thomas's eight children, Samantha's three children (by this time, one daughter was married), and Samantha's father.
World War I draft registration for Arthur Hanline. National Archives and Records Administration
Arthur Hanline is listed in the Ohio section of Soldiers of the Great War. At the time he entered the service, he was living in Akron, Ohio, and working there, according to the Preston County Journal article and his West Virginia Adjutant General service record. He joined the army on May 29, 1918. His service record indicates he was originally assigned to 3rd Company, 1st Replacement Regiment Camp Gordon, Georgia to July 13, 1918, and then to 3rd Company, July Auto. Replacement Draft, Camp Gordon, to August 13, 1918. He then was assigned to 330th Infantry to September 10, 1918, and to Company G, 60th Infantry to death. A further note in his Adjutant General record states: "American Expeditionary Forces October 21, 1918 to death, at St. Mihiel, Defensive Sector."
According to the website New River Notes, the 60th Infantry, in the time frame during which Arthur Hanline was placed with them, during September 1918,
the division then moved by bus to the St. Die sector, and on the 23d of August, moved by bus and road to the St. Mihiel sector. In the St. Mihiel operation this division was a part of the 1st Army Corps and was placed in the line northeast of Regnieville-en-Haye with the 2nd Division on their left and the 90th Division on their right. The division continued in the St. Mihiel offensive until September 16th when it moved by road and bus to the Argonne front and went into the attack on October 12th east of Montfaucon. ("Order of Battle–American Forces–World War I," accessed 7 August 2018, (http://www.newrivernotes.com/topical_history_ww1_oob_american_forces.htm.)
Arthur Hanline's service record and the inscription on his headstone indicate he died of wounds received in France on October 17, 1918. Research did not uncover the dates those wounds were received, but since the 60th moved from St. Mihiel on September 16, the wounds must have been received before then. The entry "American Expeditionary Forces October 21, 1918 to death" is not explained, since his death is recorded as October 17.
On January 6, 1919, the Preston County Journal carried a death notice for Private Arthur T. Hanline ("Pvt. Arthur T. Hanline of Tunnelton, W. VA., Killed in France"). Because little other information was found about Arthur Hanline, that death notice, in part, is quoted below.
Just before he left the states he wrote to his mother "not to worry over him that what God seen fit would be best. . . [and] in the allies [sic] darkest hours that from the way things look now I'll be a man when I get out of the army." The death notice author was credited as "a friend." He or she wrote, "We glean from that although the poor boy never got out of the army, he fought with a vim and died a hero for which we should all feel proud." [The death notice author continues:] "Arthur was very fond of his home folks, also of children. Every one loved him. In the words of a neighbor who knew him from childhood, when told of Arthur's death were: 'They could not have killed a better boy'."
In this Preston County Journal article, the friend quotes the following poem:
Send them home tenderly; guard them with care; eager eyes tearfully watch for them there.
Think how a mother and sisters hearts hourly hath bled; tenderly tenderly bear home our dead.
An internet search revealed that this quote is part of a longer poem that later became a song during the Civil War, credited to Harriet Gertrude Watres, who wrote under the name Stella of Lackawanna [Pennsylvania]. (Kristen Brown, ed., "Harriet Gertrude Watres, Poet, 1821-1886, Stella of Lackawanna," Wallenpaupack Historical Society website, July 2017, accessed 30 July 2018, https://www.wallenpaupackhistorical.org/Newsletter/2017-07.pdf.)
 Grave marker for Pvt. Arthur T. Hanline in Mount Israel Cemetery, Preston County. Courtesy Cynthia Mullens |
Private Hanline was buried first in Europe, and his remains later shipped to the United States. According to a list of military personnel returning to the United States, available on the Fold3 website, Private Hanline's remains were shipped from Antwerp aboard the USAT Wheaton on June 19, 1921, and arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey on July 2, 1921. The Preston County Journal carried the news of his burial on August 4, 1921 ("Private Arthur T. Hanline Given Full Military Funeral"), in the Mount Israel Cemetery near Fellowsville, Preston County. He was said to have been survived by his mother and stepfather; his sisters, Hazel Hanline and Lillie Funk; and his half-brother, Burl Sigley. |
Article prepared by Cynthia Mullens.
July 2018
The article was updated and edited with information provided by Jake Parsley.
February-March 2023
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
