Veterans' Day: Thomas Percy Riley & Thomas Bowen Riley

Thomas Percy Riley (son of Thomas Roberts Riley)
Captain Infantry
Dates of Service 5 Aug 1917 to 7 Apr 1919

According to his obit, he first served on the Mexican Border and later in France with the  26th Division.  Here is info from the obit about his activity with the American Legion:

World War II "Old Man's" Draft Registration:

Thomas Bowen Riley (son of Thomas Percy Riley)
Dates of Service:  4 May 1942 -- 31 May 1946
Last Rank Major
Photos from 1943

Tom and his Aunt Sue in Akron

Lizzie Riley, Sue Riley, Theda Hill and Tom 1943

Thanks to Alice Addy Neal for this picture:

Family Picture Friday: Thomas Percy Riley & Thomas Bowen Riley

Alice Addy Neal sent this picture recently and didn't know who was in it.  It is Thomas Percy Riley and his wife Jessie (on the couch), on the floor is Thomas Bowen Riley with their three children Robin (the baby), Ty and Dave. Marquerita is on the couch between Tom and Jessie.  My guess this picture is from the late 50's or very early 60's.


It is nice to know that it could be identified and I will be forwarding the original onto Robin.  Don't forget that you can click on the picture to look at it bigger.

Thomas Percy Riley: Missed a date

For most of May and June, I have been away from home and my records.  I missed the anniversary of Thomas Percy Riley's death on June 14, 1958.  He was the eldest son of Tom and Lizzie Riley.  He was a third generation Riley in the Steel business.  He died in Johnston, PA. Here are a couple of obituaries that tell his story.

Military Monday: WWI Thomas Percy Riley

There is no draft registration card for Thomas Percy Riley (son of Tom and Lizzie) as he enlisted prior to being drafted.  It appears that he was in the National Guard.  From this record it appears that he was a Captain in the Infantry coming out of the National Guard.  It appears that he was in Europe from 1 Oct 1918 until 7 Apr 1919.  Tom was involved in the founding of the VFW and I'll write more about that later.  

It appears that the 151st Infantry Division was part of the Indiana National Guard and not Ohio.


He was then discharged from the National Guard into the American Expeditionary Forces.


Here is some information from Wikepedia about the AEF:
President Woodrow Wilson initially planned to give command of the AEF to General Frederick Funston, but after Funston's sudden death, Wilson appointed Major General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing in May 1917; Pershing remained in command for the entire war. Pershing insisted that American soldiers should be well-trained before going to Europe. As a result, few troops arrived before 1918. In addition, Pershing insisted that the American force would not be used merely to fill gaps in the French and British armies, and he resisted European efforts to have U.S. troops deployed as individual replacements in decimated Allied units. This attitude was not always well received by the Allied leaders who distrusted the potential of an army lacking experience in large-scale warfare.^[1]

By June 1917, 14,000 U.S. soldiers had already arrived in France, and by May 1918 over one million U.S. troops were stationed in France, half of them being on the front lines.^[2] Since the transport ships needed to bring American troops to Europe were scarce at the beginning, the army pressed into service cruise ships, seized German ships, and borrowed Allied ships to transport American soldiers from New York, New Jersey, and Newport News,Virginia. The mobilization effort taxed the American military to the limit and required new organizational strategies and command structures to transport great numbers of troops and supplies quickly and efficiently. The French harbors of Bordeaux, La Pallice, Saint Nazaire and Brest became the entry points into the French railway system which brought the US forces and their supplies to the front. American engineers in France built 82 new ship berths, nearly 1,000 miles of additional standard-gauge tracks and 100,000 miles of telephone and telegraph lines.^[3]

The first American troops, who were often called "Doughboys", first landed in Europe in June 1917. However the AEF did not participate at the front until late October 1917, when the 1st Division, a formation of experienced regular soldiers and the first division to arrive in France, entered the trenches near Nancy....

American Army and Marine Corps troops played a key role in helping stop the German thrust towards Paris, during the Second Battle of the Marne in June 1918 (at Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood). The first major and distinctly American offensive was the reduction of the Saint Mihiel salient in September 1918.^{[citation needed]} During the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, beginning September 12, 1918, Pershing commanded the American First Army, comprising seven divisions and more than 500,000 men, in the largest offensive operation ever undertaken by United States armed forces to date. This successful offensive was followed by the Meuse-Argonne offensive, lasting from September 26 to November 11, 1918, during which General Pershing commanded more than one million American and French combatants. In these two military operations, Allied forces recovered more than two hundred square miles (520 km²) of French territory from the German army. By the time the Armistice had suspended all combat on November 11, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army.^[7] 

Happy Anniversary Mary Jane and Paul Lacke

They were married on this day in 1953 so this is their 58th Anniversary.  This is a picture from that day, with her mother, Jessie, on the left and her father, Thomas Percy Riley, on the right.

Family Picture Friday: Sue, Sid, Ezra, and Tom Riley

I have reached out to some of the Riley Second Cousins (my second cousins, the kids of Ray's cousins) and some are now reading the blog.  I thought they would like this picture of the Riley siblings (missing from the picture is their sister, Grace).  I think this was taken around the time of Lizzie's Funeral in Akron, Ohio.

On this day in 1920...

Thomas Percy Maybury Riley and Jessie Bowen were married in Lake County Indiana.  Tom was the eldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth Riley.  He was 27 years old and had returned from his service in Europe in World War I.  Sorry no age appropriate picture to go with this posting. 


I was verifying this info before I made the posting and I had the place of their marriage wrong. Here is the record and I noticed something very interesting:

Thomas P. Riley
Spouse Name:	Jessie Bowern
Marriage Date:	24 Jan 1920
Marriage County:	Lake
Source Title 1:	Lake County Indiana
Source Title 2:	Index to Marriage Record 1850 - 1920 Inclusive Vol
Source Title 3:	W. P. A. Original Record Located: County Clerk's O
Book:	37
OS Page:	479

The Works Progress Administration had created indexes. T he WPA began to index vital records, county-by-county for the entire state of Indiana, but the agency was abolished before the indexing was completed. The WPA index includes marriages for eighty-six of the ninety-two Indiana counties.