Category: Soldiers

This could have been the words from the United States department of war, or the American Battles Memorial Commissions (ABMC), when it was discovered that her brother, who they buried in Siloa Lutheran Church Cemetery in Minnesota, April 18th, 1922, wasn’t the soldier they thought it was.

Gustaf E Hoglund was killed in action in France, November 1st, 1918.

I am amazed over that I haven’t seen more of these cases, where the soldiers have been mixed up during their repatriation back home to the USA, when the relatives had the opportunity to be able to get their sons or husbands repatriated and reburied close to the family, instead of still be buried at their last resting place in France or Belgium, or other places.

It must have been a huge logistic operation to take care of the remains from the soldiers that may have been buried directly after their death, disinterred and reburied into a larger cemetery and then be removed from that burial, to finally be buried in a cemetery, close to their descendants, or other cemeteries, like American Military Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, depending of the specific situations.

In this case, Frieda Carlson (born Frida Christina Catharina Höglund) received the remains of her brother, Gustaf E Hoglund (Einar Gustaf Höglund), back to Minnesota where Frieda lived at the time. The body was buried in Siloa Lutheran Church Cemetery, April 18th, 1922. It is noted in the church book from that moment. See below.

Einar Gustaf Höglund was born in Nysätra parish in Västerbotten County, Sweden, November 12th, 1888. He was raised by his parents, his father Gustaf Höglund, and his wife from a second marriage, Anna Serafia Persdotter, who also was Einar Gustaf’s mother.

There is no specific note in the Swedish church books about when Einar Gustaf left Sweden, but he is noted to have arrived to Ellis Island in the USA in May, 1908, and he also stated that year in his petition for Naturalization, in July 29th, 1918.

Before that he was drafted in June 5th, 1918. He left the USA with the 343rd Infantry regiment 86th Division, who became a reserve unit for other units when they arrived in France. The transport arrived to France around September-October 1918, no specific date is mentioned on Einar’s shipment.

He must have been integrated in the 78th Division, in 311th Infantry regiment, as it is this unit that is mentioned on his Burial Card. He was killed in action November 1st, 1918, and we can read the following from the unit diary:

“On November 1st Hill 180 in the southeastern part of Bois de
Bourgogne was taken. The capture of this position rendered the Bois des-Loges
untenable. and on November 2 these woods were completely cleared of the enemy,
and the division pushed on, capturing the town of Briquenay, advance elements
entering the town of Boult-aux-Bois.”

Einar Gustaf Hoglund was initially buried just around 2 km north of Grandpré, just beside of the road, in the cemetery. It looks like he was the only burial described on the blueprint from that time.

On May 22nd, 1919 he was finally reburied into the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, and he should have been shipped to his Next-of-Kin, Mrs Frieda Carlson, his sister, in Braham, Minnesota. The body is noted to have been disinterred in February 22nd, 1922, and then shipped from Le Havre in France, February 27th, 1922, to finally arrive in Hoboken, New York, March 19, 1922.

The body was finally buried in Siloa Lutheran Church cemetery in April 18th, 1922.

But it wasn’t him.

It seems that the body that was shipped the above mentioned dates was the body of William H Scott.

William H Scott seems to have been in the same unit as Einar Gustaf, Company I, 311th Infantry Regiment, 78th Division. The interesting thing is that the same position of the original burial in the woods, north of Grandpré, is also noted on the burial card of William H Scott. But on the blueprint above, I only find Gustaf Hoglund’s name.

I don’t know how or when they discovered that the body was the wrong body, probably through some documents. It must have been after the notes in the Church books from the Siloa Church, from April 1922.

It may have been in 1926, when they shipped, as I can read from the document, the correct body of Gustaf Einar Hoglund, back to the USA. There is also a new note in the church book from Siloa Lutheran Church, which says that he is buried again on September 5th, 1926.

I haven’t been able to find much history about William H Scott, or what happened to his body, which probably was buried in Einar Gustaf’s place in the USA. I can’t find any information or a photo from the last burial of Gustaf Einar Hoglund, but I hope I can follow some more leads, and find it later

Please feel free to give your opinion on my thoughts above.

It makes me glad to read that Einar Gustaf Hoglund finally was buried again in 1926, I wish I could find a photo of his last burial. I also hope that Frieda, his sister could find some peace after the mix up finally was cleared up.

“In the end, more than 45,000 American families opted for repatriation, and throughout the early 1920s ships bearing flag-draped caskets, sometimes thousands at a time, landed in Hoboken, New Jersey, where military and civilian dignitaries, including President Warren G. Harding (1865-1923), were on hand to receive them. From there, the caskets went by rail to cities and towns across the nation, where a posthumous hero’s welcome awaited each one. Behind the patriotic hoopla, however, were gruesome realities.

For understandable reasons, some of the caskets contained the wrong bodies, others no bodies at all – just body parts thought to belong to the same individual.”

(Source: https://verdun1916.eu/?p=7073)

I always want to know who the soldiers were, where they came from and how their life were, before it ended on the battlefields. I seldom give up. This case is not an exception.

I was looking through some lists from the American National Archive, some lists of those who fell in the great war and never came home again. I am looking through the documents about the soldiers from different states, in this case Wisconsin.

I know that I won’t find many soldiers that I don’t already have in my database, but there are other things to learn from these lists, such as finding those Swedish born soldiers who were brought home to America and reburied in a new American Cemetery, or in another local cemetery.

I look for Scandinavian names, and I can see a lot of Swedish, Norwegian and also some Finnish names, and this gives me a good picture over where the immigrants lived, in what county, in what state, and learn from where the different groups settled.

In this case I found the name Fred Orquist, and “quist” gives me a clue that this might be a Swedish born soldier, or a soldier from a Swedish family, born in America.

I searched for more information about Fred on Ancestry, but that gave me quite few results,. I managed to find some notes from Veterans Administration Master Index, that gave me some date of birth, and date of death. The date of death was the same as in the list over dead soldiers from Wisconsin. Now I also had some other dates to look for.

I also find a photo of his headstone, from “Findagrave”, and also the document over his present burial on Arlington American Cemetery in Virginia. On the card it says “White European, Died in France”

I decided to stay on Ancestry and search for Swedish versions of his surname. This is when I use my earlier experience.

Could it be Örquist? No, no more result from that. Maybe Årquist? No, not at all. I start to take away information, to find more clues, but no result.

I tried Öquist. without the “R”. Ah, another hit, here I get his draft document, and in this case it says Fred Oquist. The date of birth is also the same. This must be the same soldier as Fred Orquist. When did they put in the extra “R”?

Fred Oquist was from Sweden, but from where in Sweden? “Hökenso”? Hm, can it be “Hökensås” a place quite near to where I live today?

I decided to look in the Swedish Archives, but Fred is not a common name in Sweden at that time, not now either, so Fred must a nickname from something else, more Swedish like.

I know from earlier that Fred has been “Fredrik”, “Gottfrid” or “Enfrid” before, but this time I use only the surname, “Öquist”, to search for more clues. It gives me a quite long list as it seems to have been a quite common surname at that time.

I decided to take the chance to search for “Fredrik”, and also use the date of birth, December 22nd, 1891. I don’t use “Fredrik Öquist”, as it seldom comes up with both name and surname in those cases, as they mostly only had the name in the church books, and the surname on the row of the father or mother.

I get several hits, and then something suddenly caught my eye. I saw the name of a farm, “Håkansö”. Could this be “Hökenso”?

On one row I find an individual whose name was Fredrik August, born December 22nd, 1891, in Piteå parish, Norrbotten county, on the farm of Håkansö. Could Fredrik August Öquist be “Fred Orquist”?

Yes, most likely Fred Orquist was Fredrik August Öquist from Håkansö. The name on the list of Wisconsin dead soldiers, has now become an known individual.

Fredrik August Öquist is noted in the church books to have left Sweden in 1910, but I went back to Ancestry and used the real name, and found passenger lists from 1907, when he went over to North America. I can read a weak note in the church book, that he is in Kalix, and that correlates with the destination in the passenger list, Nederkalix.

He first went to Chicago, via Copenhagen, and later ended up in Sandstone, Minnesota, where he lived when he was drafted.

Fred went over to France in February 1918, and as his Next of Kin, he gave his friend’s wife, as his friend, Archibald R Mix, also were on the ship. Fred seems to have been in the States alone, without any relatives. Fred belonged to Company “G”, 127th Infantry Regiment.

Fred seems to have been involved in heavy fighting around the area of Juvigny in France, when he was killed in action. Fred was buried in the field among other Americans who also fell in the region. He seems to have been moved directly from his first grave to the site he has now on Arlington Cemetery, and I find that quite unusual.

Maybe that was a common thing, but I think it was more common that the soldiers were moved to the larger American cemeteries in France, and then moved to another locations, depending on what their relatives wanted.

On his casualty card we can also see his friend’s wife’s name, Mrs A. R. Mix, the same as on the passenger list.

“I now know who you were, Fred Orquist. I really wonder how you were as a person, and what you did in North America, except working as a Concrete Labourer. Maybe I will find out more about you, but most of all I want you to rest in peace.”