South Similkameen Branch 192
SOLDIERS OF THE SOUTH SIMILKAMEEN
Leroy Hoxie
Service No. 2323386
Born: March 15, 1888 - Oregon, USA1
Died: December 11, 1918 - France2
Son of George R. & Mary Etta (Bryan) Hoxie3
56th Coy., Canadian Forestry Corps.
Resting Place:
Charmes Military Cemetary, France
Leroy listed his birthplace as Williams Creek, OR. With his family being railroad men, they spread between Oregon and California. In 1910 he is listed as being a ‘cut off man employed at a sawmill” in Talent, Oregon. At the time of his enlistment he was a lumberman residing in Keremeos.
As a sharp-shooter with the Forestry Corp his position would have been to protect the soldiers cutting trees and clearing forests for the construction of shoring timbers, duckboards and possibly the aerodromes being built in France4.
Notes:
…Official word from army headquarters has been conveyed to Mr. & Mrs. G.R. Hoxie, … of the soldier’s death. He succumbed to pneumonia at Detention Hospital No. 6 in France on December 11, 1918.
Hoxie saw action at the battle of the Dardanelles and Chateau-Thierry and was cited for bravery. He was picked as one of the three best sharp-shooters of his regiment…
SACRAMENTO BEE - JANUARY 29, 1919...
