Walter Risor

The following profile was researched and compiled by Candice L. Buchanan and Glenn J. R. T. Toothman III, for www.RainDayBoys.com.

Birth: 27 March 1891 New Freeport, Greene County, Pennsylvania

Parents: Joseph M. Risor and Elizabeth Antill

Residence at time of enlistment: Greene County, Pennsylvania

Physical description: Tall, medium build, blue eyes, light hair

Death: Influenza epidemic, 11 October 1918 Chattanooga, Hamilton, Tennessee

Age at death: 27 years old

Last resting place: Sugar Grove Cemetery, Aleppo Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania

Military rank: Private. Company B.

Additional information:

Walter's mother died in 1898 when he was a young boy. Relatives took in the five Risor children, but they were split up into different households. Walter's father died in 1909, leaving his property to his second wife and the four surviving children.

At the time Walter completed his draft card on 5 June 1917, he was suffering from tuberculosis. He had been employed as a rubber worker for the Firestone Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, until March of that year when his illness disabled him. Nevertheless, Walter joined the military and went to training at Camp Forrest, which was located alongside Camp Greenleaf and Camp McLean at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Each camp had an area of expertise, Camp Forrest specialized in the training of infantry engineers. Like so many US soldiers and citizens in the Fall of 1918, Walter was afflicted by the influenza epidemic during his training and died in nearby Chattanooga, Tenessee, where he had likely been sent for medical care.

SOURCES:

  • Elizabeth Risor obituary, Waynesburg Republican, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, 3 March 1898.
  • Greene County, Pennsylvania, Will Book, 11: 268, estate no. 6675, Joseph M. Risor Will and Estate; Office of the Register & Recorder, Greene County Courthouse, Waynesburg. Joseph M. Risor signed his Will 21 January 1908 and it was proven 9 August 1909.
  • Sugar Grove Cemetery (Aleppo Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania), Walter Risor tombstone; read and photographed by Candice Buchanan and Glenn Toothman, 1 July 2018.
  • Tennessee, City Death Records, 1872-1923, Chattanooga, page 456, Walter Riser entry, 11 October 1918; digital images, Ancestry.com (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=5076 : viewed 1 July 2018); citing Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.
  • "United States, World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6482 : accessed 1 July 2018), Walter Risor draft card, serial no. 67, Local Draft Board, Aleppo Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania; citing National Archives microfilm publication M1509, FHL roll 1892940.