Ok, back to the subject--from these records we know Henry George Fix attended rural country school and graduated from Garretson HS in 1916 with a class of 9. He was a bright, athletic, active student liked by all. He was involved with the ‘Evangelical League’ when it first started and continued until he left for the military. After graduation he worked on the family farm and in June of 1917 was one of the first from the Garretson area to enlist. He began his training in Sioux Falls assigned to Troop A with SD Cavalry. In September he was sent to Camp Cody near Deming, NM and assigned to Company A of 126th US Infantry. During that winter he became critically ill with Pneumonia. This must have been very serious as his dad came down to see him in Deming. Henry eventually recovered and was sent home on a month furlough before being sent overseas. He was given the honor of addressing the graduating class and it was reported that he gave a very “patriotic speech” and conducted a flag decoration ceremony at the school.
That June 20th he was transferred to Co 8th Infantry at Camp Merritt, NJ. From there he was sent overseas and I found very little about his military time. His headstone shows he served with Company C 165th INF. 42 DIV. (the same unit that Martin Haugse served and was killed in). One written record indicates he was killed by a sniper bullet on July 27, 1918 in France. In the Argus Leader archives I found some photos, but it is doubtful they were of Henry. The photos are graphic and give a sense of how brutal those battles must have been. Unfortunately space does not allow printing them or all the other Headlines that appeared in all papers at that time. We can almost imagine how Henry’s parents must have felt when they read the Argus Leader. Headlines on July 27, 1918, the day he was killed, state: “First Photos of front line in Trenches in France” (photo we ran earlier).
We don’t know if Henry’s family even knew he was in France. They did likely know from news articles that the Germans were massing forces on the Western Front. One newspaper article stated, “It is anticipated that a new and most ‘terrible engine of war’ than ever before used in war would be used by the German effort to break the allied lines. Another July 27th article stated, “The Germans poured through the old allied lines”.
From the Garretson paper we learned that Henry’s family awaited word all summer and never received a letter from ‘over there’—an unknown place surrounded by unknown circumstances. Each week they would have awaited word from their son. They knew soldiers were constantly on the move and conditions made it impossible to write. As a parent, I suspect they were hoping for the best but at times were likely thinking the worst. It was not until a Tuesday on September 24, 1918 that they received a message from Western Union telling them their son had been killed in action on July 27, 1918.
His body was likely buried in France near the battlefield where he was killed. A memorial Service was held in Garretson on October 29, 1918. It was not until 1922 before his body was exhumed and shipped back home. On June 19, 1922 a funeral and committal was held in Garretson with full Color Guard Honors. On behalf of all of us we honor and recognize Henry George Fix who was willing to serve our country by giving the ultimate sacrifice. It is perhaps because of his and others' willingness to serve that the first words of the American Legion are: ‘For God and Country.’
