The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-07-30
Anxious to See the North
west, Where His, Uncle
-s-F
Was Missionary
TO THANK AMERICANS
FOR PART IN THE WAR
Col. J. S. Heron Tells About Burial of
$4,000 American Soldiers in France
One Grave Yard Contains $4,000
Bodies.

I5,UUU AiieTlCdH OOluleTS III fIdllce-
One Grave Yard Contains $4,000
Bodies.
NEW YORK, July 3O.-When Cardinal
MERCER visits the United States he is
looking forward to visiting the great
northwest, in order to satisfy lifelong
curiosity to travel over the country from
which his uncle returned bringing such
wild and woolly'' stories that the card
inal, then boy, used to delight in sit
ting up until he was summarily ordered
off to bed. The story was told by the
Rev. DR. Peter Joseph Stryckes, the
cardinals secretary, who arrived on the
steamship Lorraine With him came his
secretary, James Dupont, jr They come
| over to make arrangements for the visit
of the Belgian prelate, who will arrive
in New York between Sept. Is and 90.
Cardinal MERCER is coming to the
United States for the purpose of thank
| ing the American people for the part
| they took IN the war, acting as repre-
sentative of the people of Belgium DR..
Stryckes said He will visit New York,
| Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago and
! Baltimore. As many other cities as can
be arranged for will be included in the
visit, and the cardinal will go to Port
land Ore. and other points i'll the north
west, if it is physically possible for him
to do so. His great interest in the north
west is the result of the Indian stories
told him by his uncle, Mgr. Croquet
| when the cardinal was a boy
"The monsgneur was a missionary in
the northwest when that country was
real wild and when the principal inhab
itants were Indians. He had some thrill
ing experiences during the years he
preached to the Indians, and more thar
once he looked death in the face Whel
he became old the monsigneur gave III
| active missionary work and returned t
Belgium He made his home with Card
inal Merciers sisters until he died.
1T was his delight. to tell stories o
his exploits among the Indians, and, i
was an equal delight to the youth wht
afterward became a historic figure in til,
world war to sit beside the old man ant
listen to him draw from his stock of ex
periencc stories that had many thrill
The only thing that would arouse the Ole
| missionary to anger was to have som,
friend remark that the Indians in hi
district must have been wild and terrible
| This he always held was untrue Hi
former charges, he was wont to say. wer,
kindly people who lived simple life"
How 5000 American soldiers were bur
led, each in a grave marked with a whit,
cross bearing the name of the soldier anC
covered with sod of green grass. wa
told by Col Joseph S. Heron of Gin
cinnati and Sergt Major William ID
Holmes of Oneida \. Y Col Herrol
was in command of the $4,000 troops
which buried the American dead in thu
advanced sectors from the Swiss borde
to the North sea
"Of the total number of American sol
diers buried, he said, "a very small part
probably less than one-half of | per cen
were unidentified. We moved the bodie
from the temporary graves where the!
were buried under fire or at night il
shallow graves, some with only six inche
of earth over them into twelve large con
centration cemeteries and hundreds o
smaller burying places near hospitals.
The work of identifying each bod,
was done with the greatest pains :.
commissioned officer certified to the iden
tiication of every soldier. Sometimes w,
found wrong identification tags on tn,
bodies and many times the tags wer,
missing, but in each case we checked III
the idc. tifying marks with the laundr!
marks on the soldiers clothing and let
ters or papers in his pockets
The largest graveyard is at Romagne
where there are $4,000 graves, where tn,
Americans who were killed in the Ar
gonne and Mouse sectors are buried TIL,
- largest is at Thiaucourt, where Their,
are 1900 graves of men who fought il
the St Mihiel and Toul sections. TIL,
grave of Lufberry is there
The work of burying the American
lnaI IL, norma n1.a,-oc mas l,nn.,., Al,