Leon Walters Miesse
DRAUGHTSMAN
MECHANICAL ENGINEER
BIRTH
MONDAY | 30 SEP 1889
Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, USA
DEATH
WEDNESDAY | 18 APR 1979
Salem, Salem County, New Jersey, USA
Joe McFarland
The Far-Land Legacy
The Publishing Legacy Company
February 23, 2024
BIOGRAPHY
LANCASTER – Leon Edgar was born during the last year of the Civil War. He married Brunella Walters in 1888 and together they had two children, Leon Walters and Gabriel Ralph. Leon’s father was the prominent Dr. Gabriel Ralph Miesse who medically cared for the citizens of Lancaster. After both boys were born, Leon died on Tuesday, August 7, 1894, just after his thirtieth birthday, and left Nellie to care for the two young boys (ages 4 and 1) on her own. Recently widowed, Nellie then moved in to live with her parents, Henry Harrison and Catherine Louisa (Groff) Walters, on East Wheeling Street, while raising her two boys. Born on Monday, September 30, 1889, Leon Walters Miesse was not yet five years old when his father passed away and he grew up in Lancaster at 872 East Wheeling Street, located on the corner of East Wheeling and North Cherry streets. He attended the local city school graduating from Lancaster High School in 1907 and proceeded to further his education by graduating from The Ohio State University in 1911.
Four years later, on Tuesday, June 15, 1915, Reverend Kellogg wed the young couple in Franklin County. After they were married they lived in Lancaster before the onset of the Great War when the announcement came that the United States was going to send troops to assist the Allies.
As the United States entered the war and sent troops to the Western front, both Miesse brothers joined Company L and left Lancaster behind for their place in France. Leon Miesse secured the rank of First Lieutenant while his brother, Ralph, received the rank as Sergeant. Separate missions separated them early on as Ralph reported to officer training school and received the commission of Second Lieutenant and transferred to another regiment. Meanwhile, First Lieutenant Leon reported to command the London, Ohio Company L, replacing their commanding officer, Captain Kindler.
Enlistment on Sunday, July 15, 1917, took Leon on the path to serve with the U.S. Army in Company L, 166th Infantry, 42nd Rainbow Division. The Company shipped out on the ship Mount Vernon on Monday, October 29, 1917, from Hoboken, New Jersey.
The Miesse brothers managed to rendezvous again in the late autumn of 1918 after they were separated for
nine months in different areas within the French border. His brother, Ralph, sent their mother a letter letting her know the two of them had met again since their last interaction the previous February. When the two met, they realized neither one received wounds in the multiple battles they engaged with. They attributed it to their mother’s Christian training when they were young boys.Leon received the promotion, from the U.S. National Guard, to Captain on Wednesday, August 28, 1918. After returning from a two-week leave of absence back to where he was stationed in Rolandseck, Germany, Ralph joined him after his transfer from the 303rd Engineers to Company C of 166th U.S. Infantry.
On Tuesday, May 20, 1919, both Miesse boys arrived back home in Lancaster, after arriving in Columbus, and enjoyed a fifteen-day furlough from where they were stationed in Camp Sherman before their official discharge. Although Leon mainly stayed with his wife in Columbus, he did travel back to visit his mother along with Ralph. Captain Leon Walters Miesse was honorably discharged on Tuesday, June 3, 1919, the day after his brother, Ralph.
After the war, Leon settled back into civilian life after his honorable discharge on Tuesday, June 3, 1919. He worked as a Draughtsman at the Paper Mill in Baltimore, Ohio. Within the next few years he and Mary had a daughter, Glenna Leone Miesse, born on Wednesday, March 15, 1922.
By the 1930s, Leon worked at Anchor Hocking as a mechanical engineer and later as a maintenance superintendent. His reported annual income on the 1940 U.S. Census was $4,200, which converted to 2024, equates to $92,525.10. He and Mary lived at 338 Reber Avenue which valued at $6,500 ($143,193.61 in 2024) prior to their move to New Jersey. Anchor Hocking transferred Leon to their location in Salem County as he secured the position as Plant Engineer after 1940 and the family lived on Elk Terrace where they remained after retirement.
Captain Leon Walters Miesse passed away on Wednesday, April 18, 1979, in Salem, New Jersey, at 89 years old. He was laid to rest in the East View Cemetery located on Salem Quinton Road (State Route 49) later that month.
PARENTS
Leon Edgar Miesse
Brunella Walters
OHIO – Leon and Brunella were married in 1888.
BROTHER
Gabriel Ralph Miesse I
LANCASTER – Gabriel also rose to the rank of Captain during World War I.
FRANKLIN COUNTY – Leon and Mary were married on Tuesday, June 15, 1915 by Reverend Kellogg.
MARRIAGE
Mary Ellen Yontz
DAUGHTER
Glenna Leone Miesse
BURIAL
EAST VIEW CEMETERY – CPT. Leon Walters Miesse lies buried in the East View cemetery. All cemetery and tombstone photos courtesy of FindAGrave.com.
Check out others who lived in the same time and place, served in the military, buried in the same cemetery,
or select the Fairfield County map to go back to the Legend Page.
THE REFERENCES
R
THE REFERENCES
Ancestry.com. Ohio, Roster of Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in World War I, 1917-1918. Online Database. Columbus: The F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1926. Ancestry.com, Ohio, Roster of Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in World War I, 1917-1918. Website, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7895/images/011862-11630?pId=127988, p.1111 (19 FEB 2024).
“Brothers,” Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Friday, November 29, 1918, 4.
“Here On Furlough,” Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Tuesday, May 20, 1919, 8.
Mary Harrell-Sesniak. “Leon Walters Miesse,” Find A Grave, last modified October 30, 2007, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22568942/leon-walters-miesse.
BACKGROUND PHOTO
LT. John Warwick, Combat from World War I as officer led the 9th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) near Arras, France, 1917, photograph, Imperial War Museum, https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/photos-world-war-i-images-museums-battle-great-war/.
All Design Elements and Media by The Far-Land Legacy
