Claude Kruse

Claude on right.

Departure July 12, 1918 at New York, New York on the RMS Olympic
Residence Manning
Unit Company K, 364th Infantry
Rank Private
Service Number 3128459

Iowa City Press-Citizen, Iowa City, January 18, 1919

Claude J. Kruse

The Winona Daily News; December 7, 1967 (Winona, Minnesota)

Claude "Jake" Kruse (baptized Claus Julius Kruse), 73, Ormond Beach, Florida, a former barber in Winona, Minnesota; died about 6:30 am today at the Veterans Hospital, Lake City, Florida, following a brief illness.

He was a barber in Winona for 46 years. He and Clarence Thaldorf were partners. He retired nine years ago and moved to Ormond Beach.

Claude was born October 10, 1894, in Manning, Iowa, and was the son of Jacob Fredrick and Wilhelmina (Dressen) Kruse. He married Ruth Agnes Holland in Winona, Minnesota, February 10, 1920.

He was the recipient of the Purple Heart during World War I. He was a member of the First Baptist Church; the Veterans of Foreign Wars, of which he was a past commander; American Legion Post 9, and the Eagles in Winona.

Survivors are: his wife, two sons, Donald, Winona, and Wallace, Cedarville, Illinois; seven grandchildren, and five sisters, a son, Roger Allen, has died.

Funeral and burial services will be Monday at Ormond Beach with military honors.

Military information from Martin County, Minnestota, World War, 1917-1919 history book:
Claude Julius Kruse, Private. Son of Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Kruse, Manning
Born at Manning, Iowa, October 19, 1894. Resided at Ceylon, Minnesota, when inducted at Fairmont, Minnesota, May 26, 1918, as private in infantry, N.A.
Assigned to Company K 364th Infantry, 91st Division, at Camp Lewis, Washington. Embarked from Hoboken, New Jersey, July 12, 1918, arriving at LeHavre, France, July 20, 1918.
Engaged at St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. Wounded by high explosive shell, slightly, in Argonnes, September 27, 1918.
Returned to U.S. April 1, 1919, discharged at Camp Dodge, Iowa, April 19, 1919.

Information and picture from Claude's granddaughter, Kathy.

I continue to work on the Manning Veterans' history book project.
A Kruse descendant from Wisconsin has been sending me pictures and information about her grandfather to scan.
I always find something new, unusual, and interesting with every Veteran I work on...and this WWI Veteran's story is really unique but not all that unusual.
Here is a brief story for now about Claude Kruse...

Iowa City Press-Citizen Iowa City, Iowa, January 18, 1919

"Claude Kruse died September 27, 1918, with honor serving his country"
There is one BIG problem...he lived to be 73 years old!

August 19, 1950 - Jake (Claude) & Ruth Kruse on vacation in Chicago, Illinois, during Ruth's birthday
Here is what we know about this horrific mistake made by the military:
Claude Kruse was fast on his feet so he was a "runner" who delivered messages while serving in WWI. During one of his "runs" he was hit by German shrapnel. He was severely wounded and was marked as dead. Later, when the dead were being collected, someone noticed he was breathing. He was treated for his injuries and lived to be 73 years old, although he walked with a limp the rest of his life.
His family was erroneously sent the death certificate, and we don't know how or who eventually officially corrected the error.
Just imagine the anguish his parents would have gone through thinking he was dead and how relieved they would have been to find out he was alive.

Fortunately the granddaughter was told at least some of this story...just think if she had not been told and this information would not have gotten to me for use in the Veterans' book...I may have run across records that showed Claude had died and then never would have looked further to actually find out he had survived.
To make things more complicated he later changed his name to Claus and then went by Jake, so even if I had found him I might have not realized that Claude & Claus/Jake were one in the same person.

This is why more Manning connected living Veterans need to come forward so I can get their stories recorded as accurately as possible before all of their information is lost.
I have run into other recorded errors about Manning Veterans...Ralph Hagedorn's discharge papers had a wrong medal and wrong mission listed on his discharge papers.
Fortunately I found his copy that he corrected, otherwise if I would have gotten a copy from the county courthouse, I would have used the wrong information for his write-up.