Walter Caldroney

Walter Caldroney was born on May 22nd, 1888 in New York City to Thomas and  Nellie Caldroney. He was the eldest of the couple’s nine children. His youngest sibling, Milton, was 17 years his junior. Walter was on the shorter side, a full head of hair, and gray eyes.

By 1910 the family was living in Teaneck, on River Road. He got a job as a wallpaper roller at the Wm Campbell Wall Paper Company in Hackensack, NJ. For Walter’s commute, he would have most likely used the train, which stopped at Fairmont Avenue Station, which was very close to the factory.

On June 5th, 1917, Walter registered for the draft in his home town.  He was sent down to Camp Dix on January 28th, 1918. He had his training with the 153d Depot Brigade at Camp Dix (now Fort Dix) in New Jersey. Walter was assigned to the 308 Field Artillery, and went overseas in June of 1918. He was later transferred to the 147th infantry Regiment, H Company, 37th Infantry Division.

Walter fought during the Hundred Days Campaign, which helped bring the war to an end. He fought in the battle of Saint-MIhiel, a town in France, where the Germans were dug in. While the facs are still hazy, it appears that Walter was wounded-in-action, badly grazed by an enemy bullet, late on September 7th, 1918 and was brought back to Saint-Mihiel, under Allied control, where there was to have been a Field Hospital 87. Walter Caldroney succumbed to lobar pneumonia, caused by the weaponized gas he encountered during the battle, and died on October 18th, 1918. He was 30 years old.

The St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial, in Thiaucourt (Meurthe-et-Moselle), France, may be the final resting place for Walter. He has a headstone with his family plot in Hackensack, yet the price of transporting a body back home to the States at this time was near to impossible. The tombstone was most likely a symbolic gesture. Three years after Walter died, the family moved to Hackensack.

Ancestry.com

1. 1910 United States Federal Census
2. U. S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
3. U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger List, 1910-1939 (6/11/1918)
4. U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger List, 1910-1939 (4/26/1921, Military Deceased)
5. U. S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Nellie Candroney, mother)
6. 1930 United States Federal Census for Nellie Caldroney (mother)

Veterans.Hackensackschools.org

1. Walter Caldroney
2. Article on Evening Record, Dec. 9, 1918
3. Caldroney Family Tombstones

Borough of Riverside Roll of Honor

1. Photo of the "Borough of Riverside Roll of Honor"

New Jersey State Archives Searchable Database

1. World War I Casualties: Descriptive Cards and Photographs - Walter Caldrony

Find A Grave Website

1. Walter Caldroney