Three government caskets, draped with a beautiful American flag, and under escort of a United States soldier arrived in Fulton county on the midnight Burlington passenger train Thursday night, marking the first arrival here of overseas soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in the world war.
The body of Roscoe Johnson was the first to be officially returned by the army to his loved ones. The casket was taken from the train at Farmington.
Corporal Thomas Burnside and escort were met at the Burlington station in Canton by bereaved relatives and friends.
Albert Mann died of influenza at Brest, France, on Nov. 13, 1918. His body was taken to Lewistown.
Military funerals were held in each place Sunday afternoon.
Each of the caskets, hermetically sealed in a metal case with an outer covering of polished natural wood, is inclosed in a two-inch shipping case, the whole weighing about 600 pounds. They are the same cases in which the bodies made the entire trip from overseas.
Corporal Burnside and Roscoe Johnson were drowned off the coast of Scotland, Oct. 6, 1918, when the Otranto, a British armed mercantile cruiser, sank after colliding with the transport Kashmir. About 500 lives were lost when the ship sank, and many of the victims were from this section of the state.
Thomas M. Burnside was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, Nov. 3, 1892, a son of Mr. and Mrs. William Burnside, who now live in Peoria. He was married in Canton, Nov. 2, 1912 to Sarah Carruthers, who survives, and there is one daughter, June, aged six years. Four brothers and four sisters live in Peoria.
Due to the fact that the army records went down with the ship, it was several weeks before definite information was received here of those who perished. Only as the bodies were recovered and identified by clothing and army serial number was it possible to determine definitely who was drowned.
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LEWISTOWN — The body of Albert Main, who died of influenza at Brest, France on Nov. 13, 1918, arrived here on the 12:30 train Thursday night, accompanied by a guard from New York. The same soldier also brought the body of Roscoe Johnson to Farmington and the body of T. Burnside to Canton. Burnside and Johnson were drowned off the coast of Scotland, on Oct. 6, 1918, when the Otranto sank. The funeral was held in the Methodist Episcopal church, the Rev. M. S. Swisher officiating at the hour of 2:00 o’clock. The services were in charge of the local post and a full ritualistic service was carried out. Burial in Oak Hill cemetery. This is the first funeral of a Lewistown boy who died in France to be held here and the second funeral conducted by the post, the other being that of Robert Peak, who met death by accident early in the summer.