Private, Brenan School, U.S. Army.
Died of pneumonia while attending training school in Chicago, Illinois, October 13, 1918. Age 31.
Town: Elba (also Chicago, Illinois; see text)
Burial: Cary Cemetery, Oakfield, Genesee County, New York
Note: Warren Bignall was not listed on any of the primary previously published countywide honor rolls yet nonetheless fits the criteria as a Genesee County soldier. He was, however, listed among “Batavia’s Honor Roll” soldiers published in the February 1, 1919 and March 1, 1919 Batavia Times.
Warren L Bignall was born on May 9, 1887, in Elba (Genesee County), New York, and lived there until at least age 18, based on the 1892 NY, 1900 US, and 1905 NY censuses. He graduated from Elba High School. By 1907, his twentieth year, he had moved to Illinois (April 26, 1907 Batavia Times) and resided there until he died at age 31. He was married in June, 1913, and his son Robert was born in April, 1916.
Bignall was treasurer and business manager of JD Warren Manufacturing, makers of hardware store equipment, in Chicago (see his draft registration card and his obituary in the October 24, 1918 Iron Age). His initial death announcement in the October 14, 1918 Batavia Daily News states that he “was inducted into the service through the draft board and left on September 17th for Chicago,” implying incorrectly that he was inducted through the county draft board and living in Batavia at the time he was called. The same article states that he died “at the Drennan School of the United States Army, truck department.” This also is inaccurate.
Bignall’s draft registration card shows that he registered for the draft in Cook County, Illinois, on June 5, 1917, and his death certificate indicates that he died at his home in Chicago. According to his obituary in the October 24, 1918 issue of The Iron Age, a trade publication, he joined the service on September 19, 1918 and “within a few days contracted influenza, which soon developed into pneumonia.” At the time he fell ill, he appears to have started attending, or at least to have been enrolled at, the Brenan (not Drennan) School, a U.S. Army mechanics training school in Chicago (see the November 1918 American School Board Journal page 52 and Order of Battle Volume 3 Part 2, page 591). Though his service was brief and he had long since moved away, Bignall was indeed from Genesee County and had lived there for at least as long as many of the others listed on county rolls. Also, he had close family ties to the county. His father, Frank, and sister, Florence, lived in Batavia at the time of his death, and he was buried in the Cary Cemetery in Oakfield. His tombstone is engraved with the military designation “US Army, Unassigned,” although according to the cited Order of Battle listings and School Board Journal article the Brenan School was a recognized Army unit. This is reinforced by the “Report of Death” document in Bignall’s Burial Case File, which though it also designates Bignall as “Private. Unassigned.” also refers specifically to “Brenan School Unit S. A. T. C.” The initials stand for “Students’ Army Training Corps,” which were official Army training units during the war.
Private Bignall’s remains were returned to Genesee County from Chicago and interred at Oakfield’s Cary Cemetery on October 16, 1918.
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October 14, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c7
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October 16, 1918 Batavia Daily News p6 c5
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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
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Warren L Bignall headstone, Cary Cemetery, Oakfield, Genesee County, New York
GPS Coordinates: Lat 43° 4’ 01.85” N, Long 78° 16’ 32.83” W (DD: 43.06718, -78.275786)
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Warren L Bignall Sources:
– BHR
– Apr 26, 1907 BT p7 c4
– Sep 14, 1918 BD p7 c3
– Oct 14, 1918 BD p1 c7*
– Oct 16, 1918 BD p6 c5
– Jun 1, 1920 BD p5 c2
– “New York State Census, 1892.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entry for Warren L Bignall, age 4, citing Census Records, Elba, E.D. 02, Genesee, New York; page number 1.
– “United States Census, 1900.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Frank Bignall (head) and Warren Bignall (son, age 13), citing Census Records, Elba, Genesee, New York; page number 5, line number 14, microfilm series T623, Roll 1038, page 222.
– “New York State Census, 1905.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entry for Warren L Bignall, age 18, citing Census Records, Elba, E.D. 01, Genesee, New York; page number 17, line 43.
– “United States Census, 1910.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entry for Warren Bignall, (lodger, age 23), citing Census Records, Supplemental, Chicago (Ward 23), E.D. 978, Cook, Illinois, page number 19B, line number 89, microfilm series T624, Roll 266, page 139.
– “Warren L Bignall,” obituary, The Iron Age magazine, October 24, 1918, Vol. 102, Part 2, p 1059, accessed online via Google Books.
– “Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878 – 1922.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entry for Warren L Bignill [Bignall misspelled], died 13 October, 1918; citing death records, FHL microfilm 1309171, Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois.
– World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Ancestry.com)
– Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War. Volume 3, Part 2, pp 556, 591
– “The War and the Schools,” School Board Journal, November 1918, Volume LVII, Number 5, p 52, accessed online via Google Books.
– BCF
– Cary Cemetery (Oakfield, NY) tombstone transcriptions, online, http://genesee.bettysgenealogy.org/carycem.htm
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Click for Key to Source Abbreviations. See the Bibliography for complete title, author, and publisher information, with links to online access when available.