OBIT: Alton Chamberlain COLE, 1918, Altoona, Blair County, PA

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ALTON C. COLE DIES AS HERO IN GREAT WAR

Mr. and Mrs. J. Foster Cole Receive Word of His Death in a Hospital

HIS WOUNDS RECEIVED IN ACTION

  Alton Chamberlain Cole, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Foster Cole, of 2807 Fourth 
street, has given his life to his country in defense of the Stars and Stripes in 
the great struggle that is being waged on the soil of France for world peace and 
democracy.  He died of wounds received in action in a hospital in France.  The 
news was received by his parents last night.
  Mr. and Mrs. Cole were automobiling yesterday and on their arrival home at 
10:10 o'clock there was a telegram announcing the death of their son.  It was a 
brief message from Washington from the office of the adjutant general's office. 
It read: "We regret to inform you that Alton C. Cole died of wounds received in 
action on an unknown date."
  The blow was a stunning one but the parents on recovering from the shock 
expressed themselves as being more than proud of their son, for the reason that 
in his very last letter written them some six weeks ago he stated that he had 
been cheered by his comrades for some deed of valor.
  He spoke in this letter as their commander having asked for volunteers for 
some duty, what it was having been deleted in censoring.  It spoke of his having 
been cheered when he returned to his comrades.
  Alton Chamberlain Cole became fired with patriotism early in 1917 while he was 
attending Altoona High school.  It was on April 16, 1917, that he decided that 
his country needed him, he left school and enlisted in the army.  He was sent to 
Columbus barracks and then sent to Fort Ringgold, Texas, where he became a 
member of Company A, Twenty-eighth U.S. infantry. He went across the Atlantic 
with Pershing and his first force of Americans.  He was among the first 
Americans to reach the soil of France to lend his aid and finally to give his 
life to the cause of democracy.
  He was born in Altoona on March 12, 1899, and had resided all his life in this 
city until he entered the army.  Besides his parents he is survived by two 
brothers, Charles Edwin Cole, now in France, having been sent overseas last 
December, and James R., at home, and a sister, Mildred May, also at home.  His 
father is superintendent of operation of the Penn Central company and was well 
known among the student body of the High school and by a large circle of 
friends.

Altoona Tribune, August 12, 1918, page 1