Chris F. Vunderink

Christopher Frederik Vunderink

(Plaque is missing)

Birth: 1/12/1894; Groenlo, Oost Gelre Municipality, Gelderland, Netherlands (Holland)

Address: 6933 Colfax Rd., Cleveland, OH (parents); 4004 Memphis Ave., Cleveland, OH (wife)

Demographics: age 23 at draft registration; married; Caucasian; citizenship status not known; born Holland; immigrated 1896; multiple occupations: Cartage (self-employed) at the time of draft registration, Laborer at a tool company, Driver, Decorator; claimed draft exemption "on account business"

Appearance: Height tall; Build stout; Eyes gray; Hair brown 

Draft Registration/Enlistment/Rank: 6/5/1917; 4/2/1918; Private

Service Number: 2428847

Deployment: 6/12/1918 from port of New York aboard SS Carpathia

Action: 33 Co 9 Training Battalion 158 Depot Brigade to 25 Apr 1918; Co G 330 Infantry to 29 July 1918; Headquarters 83 Division 2 Depot to 1 Aug 1918; Co K 16 Infantry to death. Private St Mihiel; Meuse-Argonne; Defensive Sector. American Expeditionary Forces 12

Death: October 4, 1918 at age 24, 7 days before the Armistice and 6 months after marriage; Killed in Action or Missing in Action 

Burial: Name inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing Memorial (memorial of 954 names of missing soldiers out of the 14,246 U.S. military dead buried nearby) at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France 

Next of Kin: Mrs. Hilda Vunderink, wife, 4004 Memphis Ave., Cleveland, OH 

Additional Information: Private Vunderink and his 2 brothers all died before the age of 35; his 2 siblings were Albert Vunderink (1895-1913) and Harry H. Vunderink (1901-1935); father Christopher G. Vunderink (1872-1942), born Holland; mother Grada Theodora "Dora" Rosink Vunderink (1868-1905), born Holland, also died young at age 37 of pnuemonia when son Christopher was 10-11 years old, buried in an unmarked grave at Woodland Cemetery, 6901 Woodland Ave., Cleveland, OH; father remarried in 1906, one year after wife died, to Louisa Schultz Vunderink (1878-1933) and together they bore 3 additional children; Private Christopher Frederik Vunderink married Hilda Reinke Vunderink (1897-1958), a Bookbinder, on 4/1/1918, 2 months before deploying and 6 months prior to his death; widow Hilda remarried in 1927 at age 30 to Frederic Thieret, appeared to have no children, and was buried at Brookmere Cemetery, 3645 Broadview Rd., Cleveland, OH alongside her second husband