Private, Co E, 311th Infantry, 78th Division.
Killed in action near Grandpré , France, October 18, 1918. Age 27.
Town: Batavia (also Cattaraugus County and Erie County; see text)
Burial: Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Section B Lot 410 Grave 4, Kenmore, Erie County, New York
Frederick Nelson Kiernan was born on November 8, 1890, in Ellicottville (Cattaraugus County), New York, and lived there until age 11, when he moved with his parents (Frank and Bridget Kiernan) to Buffalo (Erie County). He is probably best described as being from either or both of those counties, though he did have family, including his wife, living in Batavia while he was away in the service—thus his inclusion on two Genesee County honor roll lists. Kiernan also is among the list of names of Batavians who died in the war inscribed on a memorial plaque in Batavia’s Williams Park. The NY Roll of Honor and History of Buffalo both list him as an Erie County soldier from Buffalo.
The 1900 US Census shows Fred at age 9 living in Ellicottville with his parents and two siblings (brother Frank, or Francis, and sister Mary Edith). A fourth child, Alice, was born in 1904, just six weeks before Bridget Kiernan died, on May 13; the family was living in Buffalo at the time. (Several 1918 newspaper announcements of Kiernan’s death incorrectly give his surviving brother’s name as William and misidentify his sister Alice as Agnes.) The 1905 NY Census shows Fred and his three siblings in Buffalo with their father, who’s listed as a house carpenter, and the 1910 US Census also lists the family, minus Alice, in Buffalo. Frank Kiernan died in 1912, when Frederick was 21 years old. The 1915 NY Census shows Fred and his youngest sister, Alice, living with his aunt, Maria O’Connor, on Massachusetts Street in Buffalo. The November 27, 1918 Ellicottville Post reported that Fred lived with his uncle, Matthew Kiernan, in Ellicottville “for some time” before returning to Buffalo a few years prior to joining the service. (The same article says he enlisted in “the old ‘Seventy Fourth,’” but this is an error.)
Frederick Kiernan’s address on his 1917 draft registration card (and NYSS) is 69 College Street, Buffalo, and his occupation is listed, as it also is on the 1915 NY Census, as millenary salesman. On February 11, 1918, he married A. Mildred Riley, a milliner who was born and grew up in Pavilion (Genesee County), New York, but apparently also was living and working in Buffalo at the time; area newspapers from as early as 1912 refer to her as “from Buffalo.”
Less than two months after his marriage, Kiernan was drafted in Buffalo and left with an Erie County contingent for Camp Dix, home of the 78th Division. Five weeks later, he was sent overseas as a member of Company E of the division’s 311th Infantry. In his absence, Kiernan’s wife appears to have moved to Batavia, at least for a time, to live with her mother and sister (Hannah and Grace Riley) at 2 Norris Avenue (she also apparently lived in Trenton, New Jersey at some point while Frederick was away). After Kiernan’s death, the three women moved again to Buffalo, which is where the 1920 US Census shows them residing together.
Private Kiernan had been overseas barely six months when he was killed during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Three days prior, on the night of October 15, 1918, the 78th Division had relieved the embattled 77th Division between Grandpré and St. Juvin, and on the morning of the 16th attacked northward. While the division’s 309th and 310th Infantry assaulted the heavily defended Bois des Loges on the right, the 311th Infantry, at the middle of the line at Chevieres, east of Grandpré, assaulted across open ground towards the Aire River and the Bois des Bourgogne beyond. The 311th’s 2nd Battalion, including Kiernan’s Company E, led the assault. Despite repeated attacks, the troops were held up by artillery and extremely heavy machine-gun fire from German emplacements on high ground to the east, north, and west.
On the next day, the troops managed to cross the Aire River and advance slightly before digging in near the Grandpré-St. Juvin Road. On the morning of October 18, when Kiernan was killed, the battalion pushed beyond the road toward Ferme des Loges and the Bois des Bourgogne, but was again driven back by withering fire, suffering heavy casualties. Documents in his Burial Case File place Private Kiernan’s battlefield grave in this area of fighting, south of the Ferme des Loges and north of the Grandpré-St. Juvin Road.
In July, 1921, Frederick Kiernan’s body was returned to the United States under military escort and interred at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kenmore, New York.
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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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November 21, 1918 Batavia Daily News p2 c5p6 c5
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December 4, 1918 Ellicottville Post p1 c3
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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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Identity Tag in Fred N Kiernan Burial Case File, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri
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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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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
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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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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
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Fred N Kiernan headstone, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Section B Lot 410 Grave 4, Kenmore, Erie County, New York
GPS Coordinates: Lat 42° 59’ 29.799” N, Long 78° 52’ 32.499” W (DD: 42.991611, -78.875694)
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Fred N Kiernan Sources:
– County Lists 1, 4
– May 18, 1904 Ellicottville Post, p8 c2
– Jan 24, 1912 Ellicottville Post, p1 c2
– Nov 21, 1918 BD p2 c5*
– Nov 25, 1918 RDC p5 c2
– Nov 27, 1918 Ellicottville Post, p8 c2
– Nov 27, 1918 LG p8 c2
– Dec 4, 1918 Ellicottville Post, p1 c3
– “United States Census, 1900.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Frank Kiernan (head) and Frederick Kiernan (son, age 9), citing Census Records, Ellicottville, Cattaraugus, New York; sheet number 9B, line numbers 65 and 68, microfilm series T623, Roll 1010, page 141.
– “New York State Census, 1905.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org. Entry for Fred Kiernan, age 15, citing Census Records, Buffalo (Ward 5), E.D. 05 Block 69, Erie, New York; page number 45, line 25.
– “United States Census, 1910.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Frank Kiernan (head) and Fred Kiernan (son, age 19), citing Census Records, Buffalo, Erie, New York; sheet number 4B, line numbers 58 and 60, microfilm series T624, Roll 946, page 162.
– “New York State Census, 1915.” Online index and images, Ancestry.com. Entry for Fred Kernan [Kiernan misspelled], age 24, citing Census Records, Buffalo (Ward 24), A.D. 01, E.D. 03, Erie, New York; page number 38, line 7.
– “United States Census, 1920.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Harriet Riley (head) and Mildred Kiernan (daughter) [actually daughter-in-law], citing Census Records, Buffalo, Erie, New York; sheet number 5B, line numbers 56 and 58, microfilm series T625, Roll 1108, page 257.
– History of Buffalo and Erie County 1914-1919, p 500
– NYSS
– Roll of Honor (NY State), p 45
– World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Ancestry.com)
– 78th Division, Summary of Operations in the World War, pp 20-28
– History of the Seventy-Eighth Division, pp 93-119, 232
– BCF
– “Fred N Kiernan,” tombstone transcription and photo, Findagrave.com online database (photo ©Phyllis Meyer, used by permission)
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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.