Private First Class, Co F, 147th Infantry, 37th Division.
Killed in action near Ancerviller, France, August 9, 1918. Age 26.
Town: Alabama/Tonawanda Reservation (also Erie County, Monroe County; see text)
Burial: Four Corners Cemetery (northwest corner at Meadville and Bloomingdale Roads), Alabama, Genesee County, New York
Ira Spring was a native Seneca, born and raised on the Tonawanda Indian Reservation, which straddles Genesee and Erie counties. Most sources, including his draft registration card, NYSS, and the 1910 US Census, say that Spring was born on February 17, 1892, so that is the date used here to calculate his age when killed. Note, however, that the 1915 NY Census lists his birth date as February 28, 1892, and that the Carlisle Indian School database and the 1900 US Census give his birth year as 1891. Ira Spring’s NYSS lists Basom, New York (Genesee County), as his birthplace, while the place of birth given on his draft registration card is Akron, New York (Erie County).
Ira was the youngest of three children (brother, Hanover; sister, Eleanor) of Solomon Spring and Alida (or Elida) nee Doxsteder Spring. According to a October 31, 1914 Batavia Times article about Ira’s brother, Hanover, their mother “died when young.” A report in the September 15, 1893 Progressive Batavian lists a Mrs. Solomon Spring among four recent deaths from cholera on the Tonawanda Reservation. In 1897, Ira and his siblings were enrolled at the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children on the Cattaraugus Reservation in Erie County. The 1900 US Census lists Ira and his brother and sister back on the Tonawanda Reservation in Genesee County with his father, a stepmother, and an infant half-brother.
From August 1903 through January 1911, though probably not continuously, Ira Spring was a boarding student at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The 1910 US Census shows him living there in Dormitory No. 1 at age 18. The 1915 NY Census shows him back in Genesee County, in Basom, with his father, working as a farm laborer. According to the February 27, 1922 Batavia Daily News, after attending school he “was employed most of the time in Batavia and Rochester.” At the time of his induction he was living and working in Rochester, and probably for that reason is listed as a Monroe County casualty in the NY Roll of Honor. Spring registered for the draft in Buffalo (Erie County) in 1917 and was sworn into the Army there on April 30, 1918. He was initially assigned to the 78th Division at Camp Dix, New Jersey, but was transferred to the 37th Division’s 147th Infantry in early June and left for overseas later that month.
On August 4, 1918, the 37th Division moved into the Baccarat Sector (Lorraine) in the Vosges Mountains, taking command from the 77th Division to participate in local actions and front-line patrolling and training. Pfc. Spring was killed five days later.
Ira Spring was initially listed as missing in Army casualty reports. A searcher’s report headed “Missing Aug. 8th 1918” quotes the recollections of Private Walter Szulian, also of Co F, 147th Infantry: “In the Lorraine Sector near Baccarat, we were out on a patrol, it was very dark and the ground covered with brush, several men were lost for two days but came back. Pvt. Spring must have been captured because he was never heard from afterward. However he may have been killed as there was heavy fire.” Spring was officially listed as killed in action in a November 6, 1918 casualty report, according to a document in his Burial Case File.
There are discrepancies concerning the location of Pfc. Spring’s death. His NYSS statement lists Ancerville under “engagements,” and a document in his Burial Case File quotes his death report as saying that he “was killed Aug. 9, 18 near Ancerville, southeast of Luneville.” It’s likely that both sources actually are referring not to Ancerville, which is some 125 kilometers (about 77 miles) west of Luneville, but Ancerviller, which not only is appropriately southeast of Luneville, but also was in the territory the 37th Division occupied at the time of Spring’s death. According to the 37th Division’s “Record of Events” in Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War (Vol. 2), the line occupied by the 37th Division in the Baccarat Sector from August 4 through September 16 stretched from “. . . 4-1/2 km east of Badonviller, through Neuviller and Ancerviller, to a point 2 km west of Domevre.” All the towns mentioned, including Ancerviller, are relatively close to one another and near Baccarat, forming a line of about 15 kilometers. Further suggesting that Spring was killed near Ancerviller and not Ancerville is another document in his Burial Case File that indicates he was initially buried at the “French Military Cemetery, Montigny, Meurthe-et-Moselle.” Montigny is barely 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) west of Ancerviller, which, along with all the other towns mentioned here (except Ancerville), are also in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. As far as could be determined, the 37th Division was never in or near Ancerville in August 1918.
In February, 1922, Pfc. Ira Spring’s remains were returned to the United States under military escort and were interred at Four Corners Cemetery in Alabama, New York.
According to the April 1, 1922 Batavia Daily News, Ira Spring was one of 14 men from the Tonawanda Reservation who served in the war. The article also states that Private Spring was the only native American from New York State to be killed in the war. Some later sources, however, suggest that at least four others from New York also died in service. To this day in Ira Spring’s honor, VFW Post 273 in Oakfield (Genesee County) bears his name.
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August 31, 1918 Batavia Times p2 c2
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December 8, 1918 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle p37 c2
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February 27, 1922 Batavia Daily News p2 c3
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March 4, 1922 Batavia Daily News p7 c4
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April 1, 1922 Batavia Daily News p9 c2
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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 Ira Spring 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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Ira Spring headstone, Four Corners Cemetery, Alabama, Genesee County, New York
GPS Coordinates: Lat 43° 3’ 33.57” N, Long 78° 26’ 30.049” W (DD: 43.059325, -78.44168)
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Ira Spring Sources:
– County List 4
– Sep 15, 1893 Progressive Batavian p3 c5
– Oct 31, 1914 BT p14 c3
– Aug 31, 1918 BT p2 c2
– Dec 8, 1918 RDC p37 c2*
– Dec 15, 1918 Buffalo Express p59 c6
– Feb 27, 1922 BD p2 c3
– Mar 4, 1922 BD p7 c4
– Apr 1, 1922 BD p9 c2
– “United States Census, 1900.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Solomon Spring (head) and Ira Spring (son, age 9), citing Census Records, Tonawanda Indian Reservation, Genesee, New York; sheet number 1, line numbers 5 and 9, microfilm series T623, Roll 1038, page 356.
– “United States Census, 1910.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com [entry not indexed by surname; search by page number/microfilm series]. Entry for Ira Spring (age 18), citing Census Records, Carlisle Indian School, Middlesex, E.D. 32, Cumberland, Pennsylvania; sheet number 5B, line number 21, microfilm series T624, Roll 1335, page 268.
– “New York State Census, 1915.” Online index and images, Ancestry.com. Entry for Ira Spring, citing Census Records, Tonawanda Indian Reservation, Genesee, New York; page number 3, line 24.
– “New York, County Marriages, 1908 – 1935.” Online index and images, FamilySearch.org; Monroe County record entry No. 3953, 1 October 1921; (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KZ9Q-SN8). Elida Doxsteder [Spring mother maiden name] in entry for Harrison Poodry and Eleanore Spring.
– Email correspondence February 25, 2013 re Ira Spring Carlisle Indian School records with Barbara Landis, biographer, Cumberland County (Pennsylvania) Historical Society
– Correspondence March 4, 2013 with Joseph Cassidy, Town of Alabama (New York) historian; photo and biographical information, including Thomas Asylum enrollment
– “Historian’s Page, Alabama, NY” website (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycalaba/)
– NYSS
– Roll of Honor (NY State), p 86
– World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Ancestry.com)
– 37th Division, Summary of Operations in the World War, p 4
– “Buckeye Division at the Front, Operations of the 37th,” 25 May 1919 New York Times, p 54
– Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War. Volume 2, pp 231-237
– BCF
– Four Corners Cemetery tombstone transcriptions, R-S listings, online, Alabama NY Historian’s website, “Four Corners Cemetery” (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycalaba/4Corners.html)
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