Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon
First Boy from County Is Killed In Battle.
Robert Berner, the first Wallowa county boy to die on the field of battle in France, was killed in action July 15, according to word received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Berner of Flora. Two other men from this county have died in service. Alfred Hagen, who succumbed to pneumonia in England, and Stanley R. Augusburger of a forest regiment, who was lost on the torpedoed transport Tuscania.
Robert Berner and Richard Garrett went to Spokane and enlisted in the artillery in July, 1917. Robert was born in this county and was 19 years old when he left home. At the time of his death he was in the 10th field artillery and undoubtedly had been in the thick of the fighting in the summer, and those who knew him feel sure he proved his worth on the field of battle, and laid down his life like a true American, of whom his country may be proud.
The parents were prostrated by the blow, and, when a neighbor boy, William Bork, left home this week for the army, Mr. Berner made a touching appeal to him. He asked him, if he got to France, to try to find Robert’s grave and have a photograph taken of it. Robert is survived by his parents and three sisters, Mrs. W. G. Ericson, Mrs. Claud Cole and Lavilla Berner, and one brother, James.
Enterprise Record Chieftain, Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon September 26, 1918.