Fred Charles Rosenau (may have also been known as Fredrick)

*No plaque located*

*The List of Liberty Row Names indicates the possible original location of the plaque*

Birth: 2/9/1896, Monroe, Michigan

Address: 7010 Berwick Rd., Cleveland, Ohio 

Demographics: age 21 at draft registration; single [married 2 weeks after draft registration; Caucasian; natural born citizen; occupation Drug Clerk at Jacob Rolf Handmacher's Drugstore at 7226 Kinsman Rd., Cleveland, OH; claimed mother as a dependent; reported having served in the Naval Reserve for one year in Cleveland; 1910 Census listed a Fred Rosenau as an inmate at the Industrial School for Boys in Lansing, Michigan [established 1856 as a reform school for juvenile delinquent boys and closed in 1972]

Appearance: Height short, Build slender, Eyes gray, Hair brown

Marriage: 6/20/1917 at age 21 married Alma Dvorak in Cleveland, OH. Alma Dvorak Rosenau (1897-1971) in the 1920 Census was a 22-year-old widow working as a live-in servant in the home of Jacob and Antoinette Handmacher, the same Jacob Handmacher (1883-1975) who was the drugstore proprietor and employer of Fred C. Rosenau at the time of his draft registration. In November 1928, at age 31, Alma Dvorak Rosenau remarried to Nathan E. Burger, from whom she was divorced a short time after. In October 1929, at age 32, she married for a third time to Frederick William Sauer. There are no known children. She was buried at Riverside Cemetery, 3607 Pearl Rd., Cleveland, OH. 

Draft Date/Enlistment Date/Rank: 6/5/1917; 5/26/1918; Private First Class

Service Number: 2660202

Deployment: 7/22/1918 from New York aboard SS Orca

Action: 32 Co 8 Bn 3 Inf Repl Regt to July 9/18; 36 Co 3 Repl Regt Cp Gordon Ga to July 15/18; Cp Gordon Ga Repl Draft to Aug 16/18; Tng Sch for Sn Trs [see below] to death. Pvt May 26/18; Pvt 1cl Oct 23/18. AEF July 22/18 to death. Private First Class Fred Charles Rosenau appeared to have been in training school for Sanitary Train duty, which were specialized units within the medical department responsible for evacuating and transporting wounded soldiers from the battlefields to hospitals. He was stationed at The American Red Cross Camp Hospital No. 38 in Nantes, France, where he died of disease. His rank was also listed as Wagoner.    

Death: November 9, 1918 [2 days before Armistice Day on November 11, 1918] at age 22; cause of death Bronchopneumonia  

Burial: buried locally after death in Chatillon-sur-Seine, Cote d' Or, France; 6/12/1919 remains disinterred and reburied at same cemetery; 8/22/1928 remains disinterred and reburied at St. Mihiel American Cemetery, Thiaucourt, France, Plot B Row 10 Grave 28

Next of Kin: Mrs. Alma Dvorak Rosenau, wife, 9909 Ravenna Blvd., Cleveland, OH 

Additional Information: The name Rosenau is of German and Ashkenazi Jewish origin and translates as "rose meadow." Parents Herman Gustav Rosenau and Clara Eppinger Rosenau married in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan in 1892 in St. Paul's Lutheran Church. Their son, Private First Class Fred Charles Rosenau's grave in France had a Star of David marker, and his WWI Burial Card stated that he was "Certified Jewish."

Father: Herman Gustav Rosenau (1868-1956), born Marienwerder, Brandenburg, Germany, emigrated 1886, occupation Carpenter and Tinner, divorced first wife Clara Eppinger Rosenau, remarried 1906 in Detroit, MI to Freida Michailoff, divorced a second time, remarried 1913 in Detroit, MI to Mary Stobbe; Mother: Clara Eppinger (1866-1932), born Germany, emigrated 1888, occupation Domestic at time of first marriage, divorced first husband Herman Gustav Rosenau, remarried 1908 in Cleveland, OH to Fred Kleinschmidt, buried Crown Hill Cemetery, Twinsburg, OH; Siblings: Sibling list incomplete and uncertain due to multiple marriages. It appears that Private First Class Fred Charles Rosenau had at least 4 siblings and half-siblings: Gertrude Rosenau (1897-1935); Herman Rosenau (1899-1938); Ursula (1915-2012); ?Alfred or Arthur (?1912-?); ? a second Herman half-sibling