Private Kirt Calvin Ramey
United States Army, World War I – Died of Wounds
Company I – 142nd Infantry Regiment – 36th Division
May 21, 2025 - During the Christmas season in the community of Tenaha, Texas, 1895, an early gift came to the Ramey household in the form of a second son, Kirt Calvin. His parents Sarah Caroline Whitten, a native Texan, and Jessie Anderson Ramey, born in Illinois were married August 12, 1891, in Shelby County, Texas, and had their first born Jim, four days after Christmas the year before Kirt’s birth. By 1907 three additional sons, George, Jesse, and Carter would complete the family. Father Jessie provided for the family as a Blacksmith, owning his own business and having five sons to help out was no doubt a blessing.(1)
With the United States declaring war on Germany on April 6, 1917, nearly three years after the World War began in Europe, a national army through conscription was needed. The Selective Service Act of 1917 called for three registrations, the first being June 5th, 1917 for all men between the ages of 21 and 30. Kirt now 21 complied by registering at Precinct 14, Shelby County, Texas. He listed himself as, unemployed, single, born in Tenaha, tall and stout with blue eyes and brown hair. He also claimed no exemption from the draft.(2)
Uncle Sam came calling eleven months later and he was inducted at the County Seat in the town of Center on May 27th, 1918 with over 100 others. He took his basic training at Camp Travis, San Antonio, Texas with the 30th Company, 8th Battalion, 165th Depot Brigade. On June 19th, he joined Company I, 142nd Infantry Regiment, 71st Infantry Brigade, 36th Infantry Division that had been organized the year before at Camp Bowie, Fort Worth, Texas.(3) The Thirty-Sixth was composed mainly of National Guard troops from Texas and Oklahoma and arrived in France between May and August 1918. Private Ramey and the 142nd Infantry departed the port of Hoboken, New Jersey on July 18 aboard the troop transport USS Lenape. He listed his mother, Sarah as his next of kin in the event of an emergency. Six other known Shelby County boys were also assigned to his regiment, James Collins, Robert Daniels, Austin Hammer, Early Lane, Ray North, and Albert Windham.(4)
Arriving in France approximately eleven days later, they were sent to the Thirteenth Training Area in the vicinity of the Commune of Bar-sur-Aube southeast of Paris and near the front where they remained until September 26th. The division then moved by rail and established headquarters at Pocanoy, Department of the Marne. To the north, only a short distance, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive was underway. The Seventy-First Brigade that Kirt was a part of relieved the Second Division on the night of October 6th, and on the morning of the eighth they attacked the Germans. Sixty-six officers and 1,227 enlisted men were lost during the day. On October 10 an attack by the 142 Infantry north of Saint Etienne failed and Private Ramey was seriously wounded that day.(5) Fifteen days later, on October 25, 1918, he died of wounds and meningitis. He was buried in temporary Grave 7, French Military Cemetery, Commune of La Cheppe, Marne Department, northeastern France.(6) His comrades would fight on to the Armistice that occurred just seventeen days after Kirt’s death. The division then established headquarters at Cheney where it remained until May 23rd, 1919, when it sailed from Brest and arrived at the port of New York on June 4th. The 36th Division spent 23 days in active sectors and none in quiet ones, capturing 549 prisoners and suffering 2,528 casualties.
Following the Great War, now known as World War I, America faced a problem it had never encountered before; thousands of her citizens both male and female were buried on foreign soil. In October 1919, families were given the choice of leaving their loved ones buried in an American Cemetery in Europe with their comrades or bring them home for reburial. The Ramey family chose to bring Kirt home to Shelby County, Texas. With this decision in hand, the Graves Registration Service of the Army Quartermaster Corps began the process that was not an immediate one given the huge number of 46,000 remains. It did not help that the French took until late 1920 to finally lift their band on the return of bodies. The cost to recover the dead would reach $30 million or $400 million in today’s dollars.(7)
On May 2nd, 1921, the remains of Kirt Calvin Ramey were disinterred and prepared for shipment to the United States. Reaching Antwerp on June 6th, Kirt’s remains along with 5,656 other fallen American soldiers departed thirteen days later aboard the USS Wheaton. Among the deceased were seven others from Shelby County, Texas: Norfleet Armstrong, Freddie Choate, Tom Franks, Bert Gordon, Ira Hoffman, Stephen Oates, and George Yeats. Arriving at the Port of Hoboken on Saturday, July 2, 1921, the USS Wheaton was docked at Pier 4. The Times Herald, Olean, New York, July 11th, 1921 reported “Sunday, July 10th, a Memorial Service by the American Legion for 7,161 men (brought home by transports Wheaton and Somme) who made the supreme sacrifice during the World War was held at Pier 4 at 3:00 p.m. General John “Black Jack” Pershing who served as Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front was in attendance and eulogized the bravery, self-sacrifice, and intense patriotism of American Troops. There were Jewish, Protestant, and Roman Catholic services with music by a military band from Fort Hamilton, New York”.
July 22nd, 1921, saw the last leg of the trip home for Private Kirt Calvin Ramey as his remains along with a military escort left Hoboken and arrived in Tenaha, Texas four days later where his father Jessie was the consignee. He was buried Thursday, July 28th, for the final time at the Old Home Cemetery, four miles west of Tenaha with full Military Honors. The Shreveport Journal reported a large number of ex-servicemen from local communities were in attendance. Day is done, God is nigh.
Epilogue: Gold Star Mother Sarah died in 1929 at the age of 59. His father Jessie married Minnie Ola Hert the following year and they had two children together. He passed in 1940 at the age of 75.
SOURCES:
(1): Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 5, Shelby, Texas; Roll: T624_1588; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 0151; FHL microfilm: 1375601
(2): Registration State: Texas; Registration County: Shelby County
(3): "Texas, World War I Records, 1917-1920." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 18 July 2022. Texas Military Forces Museum, Austin.
(4): The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 470
(5): Brief Histories of Divisions, US Army, 1917-1918. Historical Branch, War Plans Division, General Staff, June 1921.
(6): The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 231
(7): https://www.historynet.com/rest-in-peace-bringing-home-u-s-war-dead.htm
(8): The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 231
