Almost forgotten: moved WWI vets markers tell their stories

Joe Kernan
Posted 12/11/14

Most people see something unusual in an everyday setting, take note of it and then let it fade from their thoughts. Historians react differently, such as when Les Rolston, a full-time building …

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Almost forgotten: moved WWI vets markers tell their stories

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Most people see something unusual in an everyday setting, take note of it and then let it fade from their thoughts. Historians react differently, such as when Les Rolston, a full-time building inspector for the City of Warwick and a part-time historian who has written several first-rate local histories, came across several veterans’ grave markers in a Warwick yard around five years ago. He was working at the time and had to put off the gravestones while he did his inspection routine.

“A couple of months ago I was back at this address for another inspection and wondered if the stones were still there,” he wrote. “They were. I told my wife Elaine that we should do something about what I felt was a desecration.”

Rolston knew that the house had been vacant for some time and his impression of the owner was that she didn’t seem the type to use historical or religious markers in such a disrespectful way. The stones were face down and being used as pavers.

“I thought I’d do my own research and, if I could learn the stories of these men, she might respond in a positive way.”

Rolston was heartily encouraged by his wife’s enthusiasm for “our boys,” as they referred to them. It wasn’t easy. Most of the people who could tell the Rolstons about the three Rhode Island veterans were long gone or moved away. But they persevered and found some very basic facts.

“With the help of a great genealogist, Ms. Margaret Matteson of Coventry, I was able to track down several leads regarding these veterans,” said Rolston. “Elaine and I spent several hours at the Providence Public Library searching for obituaries of these men. We found them. This led us to churches, funeral homes and cemeteries. So much information came back to us.”

The current owner of the property, Alyssa Brown, was very happy to hear about the men behind the markers in her yard and wanted to do the right thing by them.

Starting with the name at the top of the row of stones, the Rolstons learned that Martin J. Kelley was born on Aug. 17, 1895. He was a private first class in the 341st Aero Squadron. The squadron was founded on July 7, 1918 and went to France as part of the American Expeditionary Force.

Military aviation was in its infancy and the 341st was one of many support groups keeping the planes in the air. It was essentially on a training mission. Mechanics and technicians learned how to work on the French and English airplanes that were flying, and they maintained an aerial gunnery school on the coast of France, near the mouth of the Loire River, The St. Jean-de-Monts Aerodrome. The school was built on the Bay of Biscay because the French government was concerned about civilians being hit with bullets and they wanted the pilots to fire their weapons out at sea, far from the peaceful countryside of the Loire Valley.

The American engineers built runways along the relatively flat coastline and left them there when they “demobilized” in 1919. The runways became the nucleus of a network of roads that allowed the sleepy fishing village to become a popular resort for French vacationers.

“The Demoiselles District lies partly in Saint-Jean-de-Monts and partly in Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez; the former bed of the Besse Channel marks the boundary between the two towns,” according to the French Department of Tourism. “In 1918, 3,000 Americans set up an airfield there and built a tarmacadamed [root of ‘tarmc’ for runway] road to make it easier to move the planes. This road was extended to the sea in 1925 and renamed Avenue Valentin. When the troops left, a vast area of land remained unoccupied. Its owner, Valentin Guérin, who had inherited the land from his aunts, the Misses (i.e. the “Demoiselles”) Chaillou, sold it to an industrialist from Angers. The new district was named after them.”

After the war Kelley married Mildred Lythgoe. He died in 1951 and was buried in St. Francis Cemetery in Pawtucket. The stone in Alyssa Brown’s yard was the stone used until Mildred died in 1994. It is customary to remove the veteran marker when a new marker is placed on a grave, which explains why Kelley’s marker is not on his grave anymore.

The second stone, of Joseph J. Dempsey, was also first located in St. Francis Cemetery after Dempsey died in 1952. Dempsey was a bugler on the USS New York. He enlisted in the Navy in 1911 and was discharged in June of 1927.

Rolston said his research indicated that “The Old Lady of the Sea,” as the New York was called, never actually saw battle in World War I but was distinguished as the only warship to sink a German submarine by accident. “In the accident, the ship lost a propeller,” wrote Rolston. But it was in good repair when it transported President Woodrow Wilson to France for the Versailles Peace Conference after the armistice. Dempsey was also buried in St. Francis Cemetery in Pawtucket.

The last of the mysterious veterans is John F. Silvia. The Rolstons learned that he was a cook for a U.S. Army Field Remount Squadron. Although they were a disaster as fighting units in World War I, there was still a cavalry in the Army then. But even after horses were left out of the battle proper, horses and mules did much of the hauling and pulling of equipment on rough terrain. John married Evelyn Belaire and they lived on Ocean Street in Providence. Silvia died in 1958. He is buried with his son in St. Ann Cemetery in Cranston.

How the stones ended up in a yard in Warwick is still unclear. From various Web searches in connection with this story, the only thing clear about the disposal of veterans’ markers is that they should have been ground up and recycled.

After a story broke in 2010 about gravestones found in a stream at Arlington Cemetery, the Washington Post reported, “Headstones are replaced if they are damaged or if the writing on them becomes illegible, she said. At one time, gravestones were discarded in landfills. The cemetery ended that practice because Washington area residents were plucking the stones and using them for patios, driveways and other home improvement projects. Under the current disposal policy, headstones are to be ground up so the names cannot be recognized and then recycled.”

A Web search also turned up more stories of markers used as pavers on patios, with people not being very clear if it is illegal or immoral.

“The manager of St. Francis Cemetery said he would be pleased to take the stones back and bury them in the gravesites, as a way of honoring the men,” said Rolston, who said he is waiting to hear from The Diocese of Providence about what to do with the stones.

“It would be great if people could see the stones,” he said. “It’s a shame to lose all that history.”

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