Frank Bruskofski† - The County and the Kaiser

Private, 1st Casuals Co, Corps of Engineers.

Died of pneumonia aboard Europe-bound troopship October 9, 1918. Age 30.

Town: Darien (also Erie, Pennsylvania; see text)

Burial: Listed on Tablets of the Missing, Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Romagne, France

According to his Petition for Naturalization, which he filed in August 1918 while serving in the Army Engineers Corps at Camp Forrest, Georgia, Frank Bruskofski was born in Danzig, German Poland, on March 26, 1888, and arrived in the United States (New York City) on December 24, 1903. Several documents in his Burial Case File, all pertaining to efforts in the early 1930s to determine whether any of Bruskofski’s relatives qualified under the government’s “loco parentis” clause for federal benefits, also give his year of immigration as 1903. Among those documents is testimony that in that year, after his parents died in Poland, Bruskofski was sent to the U.S. to live with his maternal aunt, Antonia Hudzinski, and his uncle, Andrew Hudzinski. In most sources, the Hudzinskis’ address, as well as Bruskofski’s, is given as Darien (Genesee County), New York. (Some sources misspell Darien as “Danrren” or “Darion.”)

Variant spellings of the surname of Bruskofski’s aunt and uncle among documents create some confusion. Bruskofski’s NYSS gives his uncle’s name as “Andrew Bruskofski,” but this is likely an error. The “Report of Death” document in Bruskofski’s Burial Case File gives his uncle’s name as “Andrew Halzinski,” and the “Service Record” in the same file uses the spelling “Andrew Halzinka.” Later Burial Case File documents pertaining to his relatives’ “loco parentis” status, however, clearly establish the actual surname as Hudzinski.

Conflicting details in the documents’ testimony regarding when and how long Bruskofski stayed with his aunt and uncle prevented the government from granting the couple “loco parentis” status, but Bruskofski apparently did live with the Hudzinskis for at least a few years. The 1915 NY and 1920 US censuses show the Hudzinskis living in Bennington (Wyoming County), New York, just across the county line from Darien. The 1940 US Census shows the Hudzinskis living in Darien. Research failed to determine Bruskofski’s or the Hudzinskis’ residence in the period prior to 1915. Nonetheless, Frank Bruskofski is listed as a Genesee County soldier in the NY Roll of Honor and on County Lists 2 and 3, and his city of residence in those sources as well as on several other official documents is given as Darien. Enough indirect evidence exists to leave open the possibility that Bruskofski indeed lived in Genesee County sometime between 1903 and 1915.

It is known, based on his draft registration card, that Frank Bruskofski was living and working as a woodworker in Erie, Pennsylvania, when he registered for the draft there on June 5, 1917. His NYSS and Burial Case File service record say that he was inducted at Erie a little more than a year later, on July 31, 1918.

Frank Bruskofski was sent to Camp Forrest, Georgia, and on August 15, 1918, was assigned to Company B of the 210th Engineers. This is the unit listed for him on county honor rolls, the NY Roll of Honor, and his NYSS. However, documents in his Burial Case File, including his service record, indicate that on September 14, 1918, Bruskofski was transferred to Casuals Company 1, which apparently was a detachment to be sent overseas. (The 210th Engineers, part of the 10th Division, never left for overseas as a unit; see Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War, Volume 3 Part 3, page 1343.)

Private Frank Bruskofski left the United States for overseas duty on September 30, 1918 aboard USS George Washington, and died of pneumonia nine days later, on October 9, during a widespread shipboard outbreak of influenza. The USS George Washington lost 79 passengers and crew to pneumonia and flu before arriving in Brest, France on October 13. Two others died before all the sick could be removed from the ship in port.

Compounding the tragedy of Bruskofski’s death was the apparent loss of his remains. Initial documents in his Burial Case File indicate that he had been buried in France. A later document reveals that when the government disinterred soldiers from the cemetery in which Bruskofski was thought to have been buried, for reinterment in a national cemetery, his grave was not found. A check of other records, according to the document, indicated that his body had been returned to the U.S. aboard USS George Washington, but when the ship arrived his body could not be located.

Ultimately, the government listed Private Frank Bruskofski on the “Tablets of the Missing” at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne, France.

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† Possibly not a former or contemporaneous Genesee County resident, but with close family ties and/or evidence suggesting but not confirming residency. Listed on at least two previous countywide honor rolls.

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Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York

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