Private, Co B, 309th Infantry, 78th Division.
Killed in action near Grandpré, France, October 20, 1918. Age 32.
Town: Pembroke
Burial: Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Alexander, Genesee County, New York
Chasie Meritt Good was born on July 12, 1886, in Alexander (Genesee County), New York. According to the June 21, 1919 Batavia Times article announcing his death, he had always been a county resident. He was the son of Edward Good of Alexander and had an older brother, Ludley. It appears that his mother was Elida nee Hallock Good, who according to the January 26, 1890 Buffalo Courier died on January 21 of that year, when Chasie would’ve been three years old. Apparently Chasie’s maternal grandmother, Mary Hallock (often spelled Halleck in sources) of Alexander, raised him during his youngest years. The 1892 NY Census shows Chasie (listed as Chase, grandson) at age 6 living with Mary Hallock, age 67, in Alexander. Also listed in the household is Mary’s daughter (and Chasie’s aunt), May E Hallock, who would later marry Edward H Simmons of East Pembroke. Correspondence between the War Department and Mrs. Edward H Simmons, who refers to Chasie as her nephew, appears in Good’s Burial Case File, and excerpts of letters written by Chasie to his aunt while in the service appear in the August 7 and September 9, 1918 Batavia Daily News.
The 1900 US Census shows Chasie at age 13 still living with his grandmother and her daughter May in Alexander. The 1905 NY Census lists his grandmother, but not Chasie, living with May, now married to Edward H Simmons, in Alexander. That same census, and also the 1910 US Census, shows Chasie’s father, Edward, living in Ludley Good’s home in Alexander. Database searches of both those censuses (1905 NY and 1910 US) failed to locate Chasie himself. The 1915 NY State Census lists him as a boarder in the C. Starr Searls household on Angling Road in Pembroke; his occupation is given as railroad laborer. Correspondingly, when Good registered for the draft on June 5, 1917, he stated that he was working in Pembroke for the New York Central Railroad. On 1917’s Genesee County “Militia Enrollment List,” however, his occupation is listed as farm laborer. The March 24, 1919 Batavia Daily News says he was working in Corfu at the time he was drafted, in the spring of 1918.
On April 4, 1918, Chasie Good left for Camp Dix, New Jersey, as one of 42 members of Genesee County’s fifth contingent of draftees. He was assigned to Company B of the 78th Division’s 309th Infantry, and in late May left the United States with his unit for overseas duty. By the middle of June the entire 78th Division was in France.
In November, 1918, Private Good was reported as missing. An announcement in the November 22, 1918 Batavia Daily News said that his father had received a War Department message the night before informing him that Chasie had been missing since October 4, 1918. More than a month later, on December 30, 1918, the Daily News reported that Good’s father had just received a War Department message revising the date, saying that Good had been reported missing since October 20.
Private Good’s status remained unresolved through the winter. The March 24, 1919 Batavia Daily News reported that word had been received from Washington that the government still had been “unable to secure further trace” of him. Finally, on June 21, 1919, the Batavia Times reported that official notice had been sent that Private Good was killed in action on October 20, 1918.
Actually, his remains had been located somewhat earlier in 1919. A “Report of Disinterment and Reburial” dated June 2, 1919, in Good’s Burial Case File documents that on April 21, 1919, his remains were removed from an isolated grave (presumably on the battlefield where he fell) and reinterred at the Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne. (The Burial Case File also contains one of Private Good’s identification tags, retrieved from the gravesite.)
On October 19, 1918, and into the early morning hours of October 20, the day Private Good was killed, the 309th Infantry was attacking well-defended enemy positions in the Bois des Loges, northeast of Grandpré. “On the 19th,” reads History of the Seventy-Eighth Division, “the 1st Battalion, 309th Infantry [which included Good’s Company B] . . . advanced twice almost to the northern edge of the woods but was driven back with heavy losses. The enemy was keeping up an incessant fire with machine guns . . . and was also sending over great numbers of high explosives, shrapnel, and gas shells.”
Speaking of the same fighting on October 19 and 20, 78th Division, Summary of Operations reads, “The attack of the 309th Infantry with the 1st Battalion and remnants of the 2d Battalion began at 5 a.m. [October 19] in conjunction with the 310th Infantry to the left. An advanced group of about 80 men of the 1st Battalion gained positions from 300 to 700 meters north of the Champigneulle – Ferme des Loges road without contact to either flank. Here they consolidated a position in which they remained until about 4 a.m. October 20, when they were withdrawn south of the Champigneulle-Ferme des Loges road. The remainder of the troops involved could hold no ground gained and the fighting resolved itself into combats between small groups.”
Map coordinates noted on the “Report of Disinterment and Reburial” in Private Good’s Burial Case File place his original battlefield grave within the Bois des Loges in the area described, north of the Champigneulle-Ferme des Loges road.
Private Chasie Meritt Good’s remains were returned to the United States in 1921. They arrived in Alexander under military escort on September 14 and were interred with honors at Mount Pleasant Cemetery on September 18.
– – – – –
—— [CLICK ON DOCUMENTS TO OPEN FULL VIEW IN SEPARATE TAB] ——
August 7, 1918 Batavia Daily News p8 c4
– – – – –
December 30, 1918 Batavia Daily News p8 c4
– – – – –
June 21, 1919 Batavia Times p2 c2
– – – – –
Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York
– – – – –
Identity Tag in Chasie M Good Burial Case File, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri
– – – – –
Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
– – – – –
Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
– – – – –
Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
– – – – –
Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
– – – – –
Chasie M Good headstone, Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Alexander, Genesee County, New York
GPS Coordinates: Lat 42° 57’ 13.749” N, Long 78° 13’ 53.94” W (DD: 42.953819, -78.23165)
– – – – –
Chasie M Good Sources:
County Lists 2, 3
– Jan 26, 1890 Buffalo Courier p7 c5
– Sep 9, 1902 BD p5 c4
– April 4, 1918 BD p1 c3-4, p7 c4-6
– Aug 7, 1918 BD p8 c4
– Sep 9, 1918 BD p7 c3
– Nov 22, 1918 BD p7 c3
– Nov 29, 1918 BD p7 c3
– Dec 30, 1918 BD p8 c4
– Mar 24, 1919 BD p8 c4
– Jun 21, 1919 BT p2 c2*
– Mar 26, 1920 BD p10 c3
– Sep 14, 1921 BD p1 c6
– Sep 17, 1921 BD p6 c5
– Sep 17, 1921 BT p2 c2
– “New York State Census, 1892.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entry for Chase M Good, age 2, citing Census Records, Alexander, E.D. 01, Genesee, New York; page number obscured.
– “United States Census, 1900.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Mary Hallock [indexed Halleck] (head) and Chasie M Good (grandson, age 13), citing Census Records, Alexander, Genesee, New York; sheet number 3, line numbers 1 and 3, microfilm series T623, Roll 1037, page 20.
– “New York State Census, 1905.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entry for Mary Hallock, age 78, in household of Edward Simmons, citing Census Records, Alexander, E.D. 01, Genesee, New York; page number 4, line numbers 21 and 23.
– “New York State Census, 1905.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entry for Edward Good, age 49, in household of Luddy Good, citing Census Records, Alexander, E.D. 01, Genesee, New York; page number 19, line numbers 27 and 30.
– “United States Census, 1910.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Ludley E Good (head) and Edward Good (father, age 54), citing Census Records, Alexander, Genesee, New York; sheet number 9B, lines 57 and 62, microfilm series T624, Roll 951, page 40.
– “New York State Census, 1915.” Online index and images, Ancestry.com. Entry for Chasie Good, age 29, boarder, in C. Starr Searls household, citing Census Records, Pembroke, A.D. 01, E.D. 01, Genesee, New York; page number 7, line 48 and page number 8, line 6.
– “Militia Enrollment List” (Genesee County, 1917), p G6
– NYSS
– Roll of Honor (NY State), p 65
– Soldiers of the Great War Vol. 2, p 286
– World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Ancestry.com)
– 78th Division, Summary of Operations in the World War, pp 27-29
– History of the Seventy-Eighth Division, pp 37-39, 111-115
– BCF
– “Elida Hallock Good” [Chasie Good mother], tombstone transcription and photo, Findagrave.com online (http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=109981526)
– “Good, Chasie Merritt,” Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Alexander, New York) tombstone transcriptions, online, http://files.usgwarchives.net/ny/genesee/cemeteries/mtpleas.txt
– – – – –
Click for Key to Source Abbreviations. See the Bibliography for complete title, author, and publisher information, with links to online access when available.