Private, Btry F, 36th Field Artillery, 12th Division.
Died of pneumonia at Camp McClellan, Alabama, January 21, 1919. Age 21.
Town: Alexander (also Crawford County, Pennsylvania; see text)
Burial: East Oakfield Cemetery, Lot 52, Oakfield, Genesee County, New York
Wesley Ray Shamp was born on April 16, 1897, in Titusville (Crawford County), Pennsylvania. His father’s given name varies in censuses and other sources, but appears to have been Flewellen (in some instances spelled Flewellyn, Flewellin, Flueller, etc.); Lewellen or a variant spelling of that name also appears. Wesley’s mother, Flewellen’s second wife, was Bertha nee Mitchell Shamp. Wesley was the second oldest of the couple’s five sons (Guy, Wesley, Joseph, Herbert and Walter).
In the 1900 US Census, the family, including Wesley at age 3, is shown living in the township of Sparta in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. It’s unclear when the Shamps relocated to Genesee County, New York; they were not found listed in any 1910 US Census. However, in an October 19, 1927 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle obituary of one of Wesley’s brothers, Herbert Shamp, born in 1901, it’s stated that “he came to Oakfield in 1912.” Because Herbert would’ve been only 10 or 11 years old at the time, it’s likely that was the year the family as a whole came to Oakfield. The 1915 NY State Census lists Wesley at age 18 living with his parents and four brothers on Old Albion Road in Oakfield. Wesley’s occupation is given as farm laborer. Likewise, he’s listed as a farm hand on Genesee County’s 1917 “Militia Enrollment List,” but his address has changed to RFD 20, Alexander. When he registered for the draft on June 5, 1918, he listed John Folk of Alexander as his employer. According to 1917’s Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County, Mr. Folk was a farmer living on Route 20 in Alexander.
Wesley Shamp was inducted in Batavia on August 8, 1918, and left the next day with a Genesee County contingent of 22 draftees bound for Fort Slocum, New Rochelle, New York. He was assigned to the 36th Field Artillery regiment of the newly formed 12th Division, and was sent for training to the Field Artillery Brigade Firing Center at Camp McClellan, Alabama. The division was preparing for mobilization to Europe when the Armistice was signed, and all overseas movements were suspended.
Outbreaks of influenza and pneumonia struck Camp McClellan in the final months of 1918 and continued through January 1919. Private Shamp was one of 32 patients who died of pneumonia during the week ending January 24, 1919, just a couple of weeks before the field artillery brigade was demobilized on February 8.
Private Wesley R Shamp’s body was returned to Oakfield and interred with military honors at East Oakfield Cemetery on January 26, 1919.
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January 22, 1919 Batavia Daily News p7 c3
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January 27, 1919 Batavia Daily News p6 c5
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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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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri
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Wesley R Shamp headstone, East Oakfield Cemetery, Lot 52, Oakfield, Genesee County, New York
GPS Coordinates: Lat 43° 5’ 52” N, Long 78° 14’ 44.45” W (DD: 43.097778, -78.245681)
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Wesley R Shamp Sources:
– All County Lists
– Aug 9, 1918 BD p7 c3
– Jan 22, 1919 BD p7 c3*
– Jan 27, 1919 BD p6 c5
– Jan 29, 1919 BD p3 c3
– Jan 31, 1919 Baltimore Sun, “Flu Epidemic at McClellan,” page number unknown, accessed online, “The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia” (www.influenzaarchive.org)
– Oct 28, 1920 BD p7 c3
– Oct 19, 1927 RDC, p28 c2
– “United States Census, 1900.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for F [given name illegible; indexed as FLU???] Shamp (head) and Wesley R Shamp (son, age 3), citing Census Records, Sparta, Crawford, Pennsylvania; sheet number 5, line numbers 28 and 31, microfilm series T623, Roll 1399, page 209.
– “New York State Census, 1915.” Online index and images, Ancestry.com. Entry for Wesley R Shamp, age 18, citing Census Records, Oakfield, A.D. 01, E.D. 01, Genesee, New York; page number 33 (page 6 crossed out on form), line 17.
– “New York, County Marriages, 1908 – 1935.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org; Genesee County record entry No. 236, p 191, 10 May 1922; (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FF5B-3CP), Herbert Elsworth Shamp and Florence Ella Hale [Shamp mother maiden name listed as Bertha Mitchell].
– “Militia Enrollment List” (Genesee County, 1917), p S15
– NYSS
– Roll of Honor (NY State), p 65
– 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 647-48
– The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War, Volume V, Military Hospitals in the United States, Chapter XXXI, pp 723-27, with statistical data chart (p 727), accessed online, U.S. Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History (http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwi/MilitaryHospitalsintheUS/chapter31.htm)
– BCF
– “East Oakfield Cemetery,” tombstone transcriptions accessed online, Village of Oakfield New York website, Oakfield Cemeteries (http://www.oakfield.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={BD54EE86-6503-4B60-B989-32B62F2C8607})
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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.