Max K. Stoms

Max Kenneth Stoms

Birth: 8/8/1891or 8/28/1891 or 1892, Frankfort, Indiana

Address: address at time of draft registration Michigantown, Indiana; address after marriage 2208 E. 68th St., Cleveland, OH

Demographics: age 25 and single at draft registration; married (see below) 7 months before deployment; Caucasian; native-born citizen; occupation Lineman at American Telegraph and Telegram, 212 W. Washington St., Chicago, Illinois

Appearance: Height short; Build stout; Eyes brown; Hair black

Draft Date/Enlistment Date/Rank: Draft date 6/5/1917; 6/27/1918; Private First Class

Service Number: 3531989

Deployment: 9/19/1918 from New York aboard SS Grampian 

Action: 20 Co 5 Tng Bn 158 Dep Brig to July 17/18; Co C 309 F Sig Bn to Nov 8/18; Hq Det to Nov 8/18; Hq Det 5 F Sig Bn to death. Pvt June 27/18; Pvt 1cl Sept 16/18. AEF Sept 9/18 to death. 

Death: December 16, 1918 at age 27; Cause of Death Pneumonia (presumably a victim of the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic)

Awards: listed on the Clinton County, Indiana, Gold Star Honor Roll for World War I Dead

Burial: initial burial Germany; remains disinterred 8/18/1920 and shipped home to the U.S. aboard SS Antigone (alternate record cites SS Arbroath as returning vessel) on 9/10/1920 from Antwerp, Belgium to Hoboken, New Jersey; arrival Hoboken 9/29/1920 then shipped to 6815 Cedar Ave., Cleveland, OH on 10/12/1920; arrival Cleveland 10/14/1920 and received by G.H. Busch & Son Undertakers and Hattie M. Stoms, widow; final burial at Lake View Cemetery, 12316 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH Section 4 Lot 654-13. At Lake View Cemetery in 2023, there is a burial location record in the office, but the grave has no marker. Max K. Stoms was buried in a single plot (not a family plot). Cemetery staff speculates that the family may have been too poor to install a gravestone, which was a common occurence in that era.

Next of Kin: Mrs. Max K. Stoms, wife, 2208 E. 68th St., Cleveland, OH; alternate address 6815 Cedar Ave., Cleveland, OH

Additional Information: 1910 Census showed family living in Clinton County, Indiana, where mother was a widow and living with 5 children ages 4-22, including Max Stoms, age 18, a farm laborer; Father: Albert M. Stoms; Mother: Sarah E. Nixon Stoms, born Indiana; 8 Siblings: Ethel Almira Stoms (1883-1964); Othel Jacob Stoms (1885-1954); Russell Carey Stoms (1887-1942); Marion Wright Stoms (1889-1969); Halford Hurrel Stoms (1893-1963); Helen Monroe Stoms (1895-1906); Richard Lee Stoms (1899-1948); George Nixon Stoms (1905-1979); Marriage Information: on 2/6/1918 Max K. Stoms married Henrietta Marie "Hattie" Swartz (1879-1935) who had divorced from Louis Cooper in 1912, had at least 2 children from the previous marriage, and was approximately 12 years older than Max (previous marriage not disclosed on marriage license); Max Stoms was deployed 7 months after this marriage and died 3 months after that; widow Henrietta Marie "Hattie" Swartz Stoms (1879-1935) remarried to Edward J. Magill in 1923, her 3rd husband