Marion County Remembers

Remembering  PFC John Lee Ensminger (Watson) July 19, 1914 - December 3, 1944 ---- PFC John Lee Ensminger (Service #35375948) was born in Watson (Fairmont), West Virginia on July 19, 1914, the son of Fred and Jennie June (Hamilton) Ensminger. Fred was a coal miner (1920 Census) and track man at the coal mine (1930, 1940 Census), with their family living in what at the time was called the "Sandy Ridge" area of Watson. John followed in his father's footsteps, working at the Virginia & Pittsburgh Coal & Coke Company together in Kingmont (Draft card). On October 16, 1940, 26-year-old John registered for the draft. He was 5'11" and 160 lbs, with blue eyes. blonde hair, and light skin. Somewhere after the draft, and after the publication of the 1941 Fairmont City Directory, John married Dorothy Ellen Stealey. Military Service:  PFC John Lee Ensminger enlisted on April 7, 1942 at Fort Hayes. According to a December 29, 1944 article from the Fairmont Times, John ...

Remembering SSGT James Russell Trisler (Watson/Fairmont) November 27, 1910 - June 20, 1944* ---- * Note: June 20, 1944 seems to be the day that he was declared dead, rather than the day that he actually died ---- SSGT James Russell Trisler (service # 35275214) was born November 27, 1910 in Watson, West Virginia (Fairmont), the son of James L. and Laura (Howard) Trisler. James, who seems to have gone by his middle name, Lawson, was a coal miner (1910 census). By 1918, the family was living in Thornton, WV, about five miles outside of Grafton. Lawson was working as a brick setter for the Thornton Fire Brick Company when he completed his WWI draft card on September 12, 1918. Family records on Ancestry and Findagrave show that Lawson died in 1918, but I haven't been able to find a death certificate or grave marker reflecting that date. The findagrave page for Lawson's son, Carl , says that Lawson died of the Spanish Flu in the fall of 1918. The family remained in Thornton through J...