Kyle Truman McCleery (1895 - 1918)

Kyle Truman McCleery was born in New Salem, Pike Co., Illinois on 20 Jul 1895. His mother died of a flu type illness when he was only 6 years old. In this photo of the McCleery family home: Kyle is the toddler, standing with the hat on, next to his father in the front yard. His brother Harry is the baby. The two boys were very close in age.

McCleery Family

His sister Pearl, who was only nine years older than Kyle, became a mother figure for him. Sometime before 1910 his father loaded up Kyle, his younger brother, his sister and moved to Morris, Oklahoma.

His sister was planning to marry a man in Illinois, and his father felt that he needed her in their home to help him raise Kyle and Harry. Morris, Oklahoma was somewhat in the middle of nowhere at that time. Morris remains a very small town with not much there, as I write this, 110 years later. His older brother moved to Oregon, so there was just the four of them living on a farm near Morris.

Kyle and his two brothers were drafted into WWI. On 18 Jul 1918 Private Kyle McCleery went with Company "H" Infantry, 36th Division aboard the ship Rijndam for overseas duty in Europe. This company then went to France and Kyle died in WWI at the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge on 10 Oct 1918.

His sister Pearl grieved terribly over his death. Even though she gave birth to her son a week after Kyle’s death, she told her granddaughter that he was like her child, and she was grief stricken by his being killed.

The Ada Weekly newspaper listed Kyle T. McCleery as killed in action. He is buried at the Muese-Argonne American Cemetery in France.

Kyle McCleery Certificate of Gratitude

Sources

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSH7-5KZ : accessed 1 August 2019), Kyle Mc Cleery in household of Thomas Mc Cleery, New Salem Township Baylis village & New Salem town, Pike, Illinois, United St...

• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/ML7S-PML : accessed 18 August 2017), Kyle T Mccleery in household of Thomas W Mccleery, Morris, Okmulgee, Oklahoma, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 151,...

• "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KZDL-4BR : 12 December 2014), Kyle Truman Mccleery, 1917-1918; citing Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States, NARA microfilm

• "United States, World War I American Expeditionary Forces Deaths, 1917-1919", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPH7-2HRW : 30 May 2019), Kyle T McCleery,

• "United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WMVX-X4PZ : 23 October 2019), Kyle Truman McCleery, ; citing Military Service, NARA microfilm publication 76193916 (St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985), various roll numbers

• The Ada Weekly News (Ada, Oklahoma) 02 Jan 1919, Thur. Page 8 https://www.newspapers.com/clippings/download/?id=32679688

• Grave at Dept. de la Meuse, Lorraine, France https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55994871/kyle-truman-mccleery

• Find A Grave: Memorial #55994871 memorial page for PVT Kyle Truman McCleery (20 Jul 1895–10 Oct 1918), Find a Grave Memorial ID 55994871, citing Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Departement de la Meuse, Lorraine, France ; Maintained by LHR-R (contributor 50694968) .

Notes

• “Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery | American Battle Monuments Commission.” (https://Abmc.gov/ : 8 Oct 2021) https://www.abmc.gov/Meuse-Argonne.

• Wikipedia contributors. "Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Apr. 2021. Web. 8 Oct. 2021.

• After conducting training for the next few months, the 36th was sent to the Western Front in July 1918 and conducted major operations in the Meuse–Argonne offensive. On 9–10 October, the unit participated in heavy combat near the village of St. Etienne. Following this victory, which included the capture of several hundred men and officers of the German Army, as well as artillery, the unit launched an assault near an area known as "Forest Farm." The eventual victory brought World War I to an end. In the relatively brief period of time the 36th Division spent in action during the war, the division suffered 2,584 casualties, 466 of them killed in action and an additional 2,118 wounded or missing.