EMORY LERANZO FRAME

   Branch: U. S. Army

   Rank:  Private First Class

   Status: Killed in action

   Date of Service: WWI

   Home Town: Backus/Dudley       Township

Emery Frame’s marker in Saint Mihiel American Cemetery

Emory Leranzo Frame was born January 3, 1896 in Dow City, Crawford County, Iowa to parents John Elvis and Mary Serelda Rudd Frame.

John and Mary were native-born citizens who married in Mary’s home state of Iowa on October 1, 1882. They had a farm in Paradise Township of Crawford County where they became the parents of seven children, five of whom survived to adulthood: Fred E, born in 1884, Delbert F, born in 1886, Arthur F, born in 1891, Viola E born in 1893 and Emory, the youngest, born in 1896.

The family moved up to Cass County, Minnesota in 1902 where John farmed in an unorganized township near Backus.  Arthur and Delbert were still at home helping their dad on the farm while Viola and Emory attended school.

Emory grew to adulthood and started working away from home. He was a laborer in Dudley Township near Leonard, Minnesota for J. P. Hemmingson of Shawnee, North Dakota when the WWI draft was instituted. He was a single man of medium height and build, blue eyes and auburn hair and claimed no exemptions from military service on his draft registration signed June 5, 1917.

It is not known what date Emory enlisted or was drafted, but it is known that on April 16, 1918 Private Emory Leranzo Frame boarded the troop transport ship Czaritza at Hoboken, New Jersey. The Czaritza was a Polish passenger ship originally named SS Kościuszko after Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Polish national hero. She was bought by the Cunard Line in 1917 and used as a troop transport between the U.S. and Europe. Private First Class Frame and other members of Company L, 61st Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division were en route to an unknown destination in France.

Emory never returned. The Fifth Division arrived at Havre, France in May, 1918, then moved several times before being sent to the St. Mihiel sector on the 23rd of August. Here it was part of the 1st Army Corps and was placed in the line northeast of Regnieville-en-Haye with the 2nd Division on their left and the 90th Division on their right. The Division stayed in St. Mihiel until the day Emory was killed in action – September 16, 1918, when it was sent to the Argonne front. Between May 1 and the Armistice on November 11, the Fifth Division captured 2,405 prisoners, 98 pieces of artillery, 802 machine guns and made a total advance of 29 kilometers against resistance. It sustained battle losses of 1908 men killed, 7,975 wounded, and 98 men taken prisoners of war.

Emory is buried in Grave 17, Row 12, Plot D of the Saint Mihiel American Cemetery in Thiaucourt-Regnieville, Departement de Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France beneath a white cross.