A Mormon Missionary in WWI: Battling Spanish Influenza in American Samoa

March 19, 2020 / portraitsofwar / 3 Comments

Byron Miller in World War One

When searching for new portraiture to add to PortraitsofWar I generally tend to look for material with identifiable soldiers, uniforms, medals and other written or visual clues to help shed light on life during wartime. In this post, I will be researching a photograph of a US Navy sailor who caught my eye during a recent eBay search.

Reverse Side of Postcard

The information written on the back of the postcard shows an identification of the sitter as a B.G. Miller. He is identified as being a Pharmacist’s Mate 1st Class from Salt Lake City, Utah who was on duty at one point at a hospital in Samoa on August 1st, 1918. Additional info added to the photo includes an anecdote about his position as a Mormon missionary in Germany during the breakout of the war between Germany and France.

With a little luck and a lot of research I was able to track down our mysterious B.G. Miller. Byron Gardener Miller was found listed in the Utah World War 1 Military Service Questionnaire on ancestry.com. Please see his card below:

Byron’s WWI War Service Card

It looks like Byron attended the University of Utah for a year before being shipped off for his overseas missionary work. This is likely the reason for his service as a Pharmacist’s Mate with the US NAVY as can be seen in the details of his uniform.

Navy Pharmacist Rate Patch

The reference to his missionary service in Germany during the outbreak of war in July of 1914 is partially confirmed through my discovery of his listing aboard a ship ledger arriving in Montreal, PQ in September of 1914.

1914

His service in Samoa has also been confirmed through the same series of records.

Sadly, his arrival back in the US in 1919 wasn’t likely a time of joy for the Miller family; a Utah death certificate shows that he died of the Spanish Influenza only a few months later on February 7th, 1920. Interestingly enough, my research into the US Hospital in Samoa shows that a MASSIVE flu outbreak in the Samoan Islands lead to the deaths of nearly 25% of the population. With over 8500 deaths, the Spanish Flu was devastating to the island. In response, the US Navy set up an epidemic commission to deal with the issue. The results of the intervention in American Samoa were incredible. Apparently the method of using maritime quarantine lowered mortality rates to nearly 1%. It’s strange that Byron would die of influenza only a few months later while in the United States……

For the 1919 report please CLICK HERE

One of the main goals of this website is to help share photos and pertinent military service information with the families of the men and women depicted in the images I collect. In this case, I’m hoping a Miller family representative will discover a rare image of their ancestor who witnessed a formative time in history.

8th Vermont Infantry Regiment Civil War Soldier – Henry N. Derby Dies of Disease in Louisiana

October 1, 2012October 2, 2012 / portraitsofwar / 2 Comments

Henry N. Derby was born in Wardsboro, VT on April 15th, 1846, later moved to Townshend where he enlisted for Federal service on December 8th, 1863 and mustered in on December 29th. He signed up for a three year enlistment with Company C of the 8th Vermont Infantry Regiment and traveled from Vermont to Louisiana, where he quickly became ill. He died on March 31st, 1864 presumably of disease; one of 241 from the regiment that died of such causes.

This photo just arrived in the mail from an eBay auction where the name of the soldier was not revealed. Luckily, I was able to tweak the lighting/contrast with photoshop to discover the name of the soldier before I bid. CSI: Civil War style!

Henry N. Derby
Brennan C. Gauthier Collection

Brattleboro Backmark

Henry N. Derby Grave in Chalmette National Cemetery, LA
Source: http://vermontcivilwar.org/cem/virtual/getnatcem.php?input=13809
Photographer: Dan Taylor

Here’s a great link to a Vermont Historical Society collection from a Vermont soldier who also served with the 8th VT and also died in Louisiana.

http://www.vermonthistory.org/index.php/george-e-parker-letters.html

WWI Dogtag Collection – 1st Lt. Liva McLain – Evacuation Hospital No.7 in France

October 2, 2011December 13, 2013 / portraitsofwar / 5 Comments

I recently picked a nice WWI dogtag from a medical officer named Liva C. McLain, and found that he likely served as a surgeon with the 7th Evacuation Hospital at Chateau Montanglaust in France, a hospital especially equipped to deal with those wounded with mustard gas.

He is mentioned on page six of the following medical corps pamphlet,

http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/LXIX/25/2121.full.pdf

It looks like Liva served with the hospital during some key battles during the war. His hospital served the wounded at both Chateau Thierry and Belleau Woods. Here’s a good JSTOR article about the unit’s participation at Belleau Woods:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3405593?seq=2&Search=yes&searchText=7&searchText=no.&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Ffilter%3Diid%253A10.2307%252Fi278008%26Query%3Dno.%2B7%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=1&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null

Here is a link to a soldier in the 103rd Infantry Regiment of the 26th Division who spent some time recuperating at the 7th Hospital:

http://worldwar1letters.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/evacuation-hospital-no-7-at-chateau-montanglaust-8131918/

The 7th Evacuation Hospital was organized on 26 November 1917, at Fort Riley, Kansas, as Evacuation Hospital Number 7. The organization participated in WW 1 in the following campaigns: Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, St Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne. It received a decoration streamer with colors of the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star, embroidered St Mihiel-Msuse-Argonne. The organization was demobilized on 1 May 1919.

Updates – 12/12/2013

In an effort to reevaluate some of my WWI collection material, I decided to do a new ancestry search on Lt. McLain. I came up with an interesting document to confirm the above information. Nothing earth shattering, but it provides a bit of clarity to the presented information.