Private, Co G, 74th NY Infantry.

Killed when struck by a trolley in Buffalo, New York, September 8, 1917. Age 22.

Town:  LeRoy

Burial: Machpelah Cemetery, LeRoy, Genesee County, New York

 

Thomas Clark Illes (listed as Clark or Clark T in censuses) was born on June 22, 1895, in Pavilion (Genesee County), New York. He was one of nine children (sisters Louise, Jennie, Rebecca, Lillian, Harriet, and Jessie; brothers Ernest and William), of Joseph and Mary A Illes. According to the September 10, 1917 Batavia Daily News, Illes had lived in LeRoy for at least 11 years prior to his death. The 1900 US Census shows him living with both parents and six siblings in Pavilion. The 1910 US Census and 1915 NY Census show him living with his mother, now widowed, at 69 Wolcott Street in LeRoy, with four and five siblings respectively. This is the same address given for Mary Illes in 1917’s Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County, which lists her with seven children, and is also the home address given for Thomas Clark Illes on the 1917 Genesee County “Militia Enrollment List” and on other military source documents.

According to his draft registration card, Illes was working as a farm laborer in Perry, New York, at the time he registered in LeRoy on June 5, 1917. Just over two weeks later, on June 20, 1917, two days prior to his twenty-second birthday, he enlisted in the 74th Regiment of the NY National Guard in Buffalo. A month afterward, on July 15, 1917, all state National Guard units were called into federal service, and at the end of August the 74th was ordered to prepare to move to Camp Wadsworth, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, for training.

Illes was killed by a trolley car in Buffalo a little more than a week later, only a few weeks before the regiment departed. “The young man had just alighted from an Erie engine on which he had ridden down town from the army camp,” reported the September 10, 1917 Batavia Daily News, “when he was struck at the Kenmore crossing by a Lockport car. He was so badly injured that he died within a few minutes.”

Private Illes was the first Genesee County soldier to die in service after the United States entered the war on April 6, 1917.

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September 10, 1917 Batavia Daily News p8 c3-4

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September 12, 1917 LeRoy Gazette-News p1 c6

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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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Source: Burial Case Files, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives — St Louis, Missouri

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Thomas C Illes headstone, Machpelah Cemetery, LeRoy, Genesee County, New York

GPS Coordinates: Lat 42° 59’ 18.579” N, Long 77° 58’ 57.049” W (DD: 42.988494, -77.982514)

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Thomas C Illes Sources:

– All County Lists

– Sep 10, 1917 BD p8 c3-4*

– Sep 12, 1917 LG p1 c6

– “United States Census, 1900.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Joseph J Illes (head) and Clark Illes (son, age 4), citing Census Records, Pavilion, Genesee, New York; sheet number 8B, line numbers 56 and 63, microfilm series T623, Roll 1038, page 307.

– “United States Census, 1910.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Mary A Illes (head) and Clark Illes (son, age 14), citing Census Records, LeRoy, Genesee, New York; sheet number 3B, line numbers 70 and 73, microfilm series T624, Roll 951, page 231.

– “New York State Census, 1915.” Online index and images, Ancestry.com. Entry for Clark T Illes, age 19, citing Census Records, LeRoy, A.D. 01, E.D. 01, Genesee, New York; page number 21, line 20.

– Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County (1917), p 127

– “Militia Enrollment List” (Genesee County, 1917), p I1

– New York, 74th Infantry National Guard Enlistment Cards, 1889-1917 (Ancestry.com)

– NYSS

– Roll of Honor (NY State), p 65

– World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (Ancestry.com)

– The Story of the 27th Division, Vol I, pp 85-86

– The Story of the 27th Division, Vol 2, pp 584-87

– BCF

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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.