The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1924-03-06
Calls On Vets Bureau
dead" Indian Soldier
Will Correct Army Record of Arthur
Frazier-War Department Record
Shows He Was "Killed"

Arthur Frazier, Indian war hero in
sists as Mark Twain once did, that
the reports of his death are exaggerat-
ed.
The war department records show
that he was killed in action in France
on October 6, 1918. Later body,
supposed. to be his, was shipped to
his parents and buried with military
honors at the old home on the Santee
Indian reservation in Nebraska. The
American Legion Post at ST. Charles,
South Dakota, was named in his hon
or. The government has paid his life
insurance to his mother in regular
monthly installments. Thus his brief
life story seemed to end-but curl
GUS fate had decreed otherwise.
After five years of wandering
which he cannot account for and
which leads backwards towards that
battle field in France, young Frazier
was found down in Oklahoma suffer-
| ing from an almost total loss of men,
DRY, or aphasia, as the medical men
term it, but he Immediately recog-
nized his mother, and was recognized
by her, by his father, and by his
friends. This evidence, when present
|
to convince the War Department that
he was Arthur Frazier, and so the
veterans bureau is actively collect
ing more. ;,
| This week Frazier has been at the
Minneapolis office of the Veterans
Bureau, whose manager, c. d. Hlb-
bard, is making every effort to estab-
lish the identity of Frazier with the
soldier killed in action on October g.,
1918. Gradually, as former bud
dies" confront him the haze Of apha-
STA, the result of an intense nervous
shock, which for years has clouded
his memory, begins to disappear. He
recognized Duane Jones of Minneapo-
lis who served with him in Company
sd" of the 136th Infantry. He
could not recall his name but called
him "Blackie," which was Jones
army nickname. A moment later he
recognized George Klingonsnoth, al
SO Of Company "D", but the tense
moment came when he faced former
Sergeant Harry A. Svnott. his old
platoon officer. A smile lighted F.
Iier's face as he exclaimed, "that's
my sergeant! Say, plenty of times
hes bawled me out" 1t was nearly
six years ago that he last saw these
men and then they wore the uniform.
That he should recognize them now
is convincing proof of his identity,
which is further strengthened by
positive identification of Frazier. He
will be taken to Rochester, Mime
sofa, where a number of other mem
bers of Company ed" reside, to col
lect additional proof of his identity.
The affidavits of all these ex-service
men will be sent to the Adjutant Cen
erals office in order to secure the
correction of Frazier's military re-
cord. 1t is no easy matter to bring. a
man back to life on the army records.
i The Frazier case is one of the
strangest in the history of the Veter-
ans Bureau. Declared dead on that
fateful day in the Meuse-Argonne
drive when a sergeant declared that
he was an eye witness to Fra7ier's
death from shell fire about three
kilos from Exermont, France, suppos-
eddy buried with militory 'honors at
Niobrara, Nebraska, with years OF
his life's wanderings unaccounted FOL
because unremembered, he now visits
the manager of the Veterans Bureau
of Minneapolis, and insists upon his
identity, though unable to account fol
the intervening years except in
vague and fragmentary way.
Unidentified by parents, friends
and "buddies," and in turn, recognlz
ing them, as well as pictures of still