Frank J. Turner

Members of the Armed Forces like Frank Turner are sometimes remembered as being “killed in action” by family and descendants. However, the U.S. Department of Defense gave him the more specific classification of “DOW” or “DWRIA,” which means Frank died of wounds received in action. The distinction is that he died after having reached a medical treatment facility, whereas “KIA” is reserved for those who didn’t. 

Frank’s sad ending is punctuated by a letter he sent home indicating that he was looking forward to making a career in the Army. But his life ended shortly after he sent it. His was a lifetime of several tragic moments but those experiences didn’t dampen his hopes for the future..

He was named after his father, who listed his occupation in the 1900 census as a carpenter and in 1910 as a printer. Frank’s parents married in 1886; by 1910 his mother had given birth to eleven children but five didn’t survive to adulthood. Frank learned at an early age about death; he may have known all of them, held them and played with them. 

The 1910 census lists Frank living with his parents and younger siblings, and his occupation was a carrier in a brickyard. He fell in love with a teenager, Maggie Holland, and drove her to Delaware to get married in May of 1912. One year later Maggie gave birth to their daughter, Florence, who was named after one of Frank’s little sisters who failed to thrive in 1896.

Tough times were on the horizon, however. In October of 1913 his mother died and was buried in Fernwood Cemetery alongside her several babies.  Then little Florence died after ten months from a bout with pneumonia and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery. Exactly five months later, on August 17, 1914, Maggie died of tuberculosis and was buried here at Mount Moriah. 

In registering for the draft in 1917, Frank listed his sister, Rose, as his contact person, and she was the recipient of his letters during the war. (His father was living with Rose at the time, and died in June of 1919.) Frank was drafted in May, 1918 and by the end of June he was on a transport ship as a private in Company M, 314th Infantry Regiment, 79th Division. 

The widowed doughboy marked his 30th birthday somewhere in France. By the last week of September the 79th was entrenched in the Meuse Argonne Offensive although its members had completed far less than half the prescribed training and had no combat experience.

General John “Black Jack” Pershing gave the 79th the most difficult task of the attacking divisions, the capture of Montfaucon, a butte that had been heavily fortified by the Germans. One of the lead units in the attack was the 314th Regiment, composed primarily of men from eastern Pennsylvania. They suffered the most casualties, but the mission was ultimately successful. On October 3,  Private Turner was wounded and died that same day. 

At Rose’s request Frank’s body was brought home in 1921 and buried beside his wife on August 9. Unfortunately the gravestone shows an incorrect date of birth and death. Frank’s father was buried in Section 19, Lot 20. His brother, Joseph, was buried in 1926 in Section D, Range 3, Lot 9 and so was Rose’s first husband, her second husband, and Rose herself.