When Orlando Boys Went "Over There"

For a small community Orlando seems to have sent off a large number of its boys in every war. Pictured here are four young men who marched off to fight in the War To End All Wars.

To the right is Austin Skinner. He was a Corporal in the 27th Infantry. His parents were William Otto and Clara Oneta (Skinner) Skinner. Cousin Crystal Kearns is the source of this beautiful photo. Later Austin Skinner would work in the glass industry. He died from rheumatic fever in a Clarksburg at the age of 50

Clyde Skinner was the grandson of Alexander & Phebe (Conrad Skinner. His portrait is upper left.

Peter Blake's portrait is center left. He came back to Orlando, married and, like his father Patrick Newton "Uncle Zeke" Blake before him, worked for the B & O.

The day before he left for the war in 1918 Oras Stutler and his new bride, Edith (Skinner) had the photo at the lower left taken. He was working for the Hope Gas Company when he entered the service and he retired from there many years later.
Charles McNemar tells us that Okey Strader was gassed during his service in WWI.

Several sources speak of Orlando boys in the First World War. In the 1920s John Sutton1 listed James B. Blake and John Conley as Orlando boys who were wounded in WWI.

The second source is Lee Blake2. He told us "the second son of Thurmissa and Lucy (Skinner) Riffle, Clellie V. Riffle was killed in battle on October the 24. 1918." Clell was a private with the 7th Infantry 3rd Division and is buried at Aisne-Marne Cemetery Belleau in France.

Alfred Lee Skinner, son of Charles and Margaret (Cozer) Skinner born in 1892, was another of our boys. He was in France and and Germany.

West Virginia Archives lists one Orlando soldier killed in action. Private Solomon H. Brown AEF son of Homer Brown, belonged to Company M of the 128 infantry. He was killed in action on 8 November 1918, four days after the Germans asked for the armistace and three days before it was signed. He's buried in the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, France.

Below are a couple photos from the Meuese Argonne Offensive where we lost Homer Brown.4











Below is a Red Cross canteen.5






At both the the Meuse-Argonne and the Aisne-Marne Cemeteries the graves look like the photo to the lower right.
See also
Nov 20 '06 Selling WWI War Bonds
April 21, '06 Water Travel

1. Sutton, John Davison. History of Braxton County and Central West Virginia. (McClain Printing Co, Parsons, WV. reprint 1967) pg 457.

2. Blake, Lee. Monograph: Blakes and Riffles Going Back To The Seventh Generation. dated July, 1953 Weston, WV.

3. West Virginia Archives

4. The Doughboy Center The Story of the American Expeditionary Force

5. The Samuel Bloom World War I Archive: Diaries, Letters, and Related Printed Material, 1917-1919, from Samuel Bloom (1895-1976)

William Otto & Clara Onetta Skinner

William Otto (b. 1872), son of Granville (b. 1832) and Martha (Walton) Skinner (b. 1832) married Clara Onetta Skinner (b. 1878). , daughter of Jackson McWhorter (b. 1843) Patience (Duvall) Skinner (b.1846).

Yes, they were first cousins. On the right is a photo of William Otto with 4 of his and Clara's boys. Below is Clara.

This is the William Otto (b. 1872) who stayed home. A June 12, '06 entry discussed another William Otto Skinner (b. 1849) who married a California girl named Belle and finally settled in Independece, MO. (see entry for June 12. '06, William O. Skinner Went West.) He was this William O.'s uncle: brother to Granville and Jackson.

Recap:
3 of Alexander & Phoebe (Conrad) Skinner's children:
Granville B. + Martha Walton = William Otto (the younger)
Jackson McWhorter + Patience Duvall = Clara Onetta
William Otto (the elder) moved to CA, married Belle (Nichols? Fertig?) then moved to MO

Photos from Crystal Kearns. Many thanks.

Korean War POW

This story of a son of Orlando1 was published on Friday, Nov. 11, 1988 in an unidentified newpaper. Crystal Kearns2 shares it with us.

In November, 1950 Bill Skinner had been fighting in Korea only two months but he had been told the war would soon be over. Suddenly everything changed. The Chineese entered the war in November. "We fought all night in the freezing temperatures, and the next morning, Nov. 30, 1950, I was taken prisoner"

While a prisoner, all but three toes turned black and rotted off due to frostbite and he remembered with resentment the many friends who were tortured, frozen to death or died from starvation and disease. The article quotes Bill Skinner:
"When the boys would die, it was so cold they would take the bodies out and pile them up, placing brush or rocks upon them. They would let the pigs run wild and they would eat the bodies."

The following year Bill Skinner was moved from the Korean POW camp to a Chineese POW camp. His weight was down from 185 to less than 100 pounds at that time, but in the Chineese camp it was even worse. The article says that they were "given some rice, but not enought to stay healthy. It continues:
"Skinner said that there were many missionaries who were taken prisoners during World War II. [sic] 'One time, I was very ill and they fed us only watered-down rice and a missionary traded her dried rice for mine so that I could start eating again.' "

Bill Skinner spent two years in the Chineese camp. He wasn't released until the war was over.

1. Bill Skinner is the grandson of William and Clara Skinner. (See July 11, '06 entry William Otto & Clara Onetta Skinner.)

2. Crystal is an Orlando descendent through Gideon & Sarah (Bennett) Skinner. (See the Feb 26, '06 entry Clover Fork Family ca. 1905.), their son Hayward and his wife Reva (Pritt) and their son, Alan.