Private Ernest Keeling Jr.

Early Life

Private Ernest Keeling, Jr., was born in Niles, Ohio. He was the third of eight children born to Ernest and Agnes Brooks Keeling. Between 1900 and 1910, the family relocated across the state line to New Castle, Pennsylvania. New Castle was known as a manufacturing town, and his father worked in the tin mill industry throughout his life. Ernest was raised on the south side with the other mill workers’ families. He enjoyed hunting in the local area for small game, and as a young man, the New Castle Herald reported that he killed two rabbits with a single shot!

After attending school, Ernest worked at the New Castle Electrical Company before being drafted at the age of 25.

Home Front

Keeling’s hometown, New Castle, Pennsylvania, was known as the “Tin Plate Capital of the World” in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tin plate is steel or iron coated with a thin layer of tin, which made it more durable and resistant to corrosion. The American Tin Plate Company played a crucial role in producing tin cans, which were essential for preserving food for soldiers, and made them ideal for long-term storage and transportation.

As the twentieth century arrived, steel manufacturing started to gain momentum in the area. In 1892, the Shenango Valley Steel Company opened. By 1903, the Carnegie Steel Company took it over, and the plant became known as the New Castle Works of the Carnegie Steel Company. In 1913, the company constructed a large playground on its property along South Jefferson Street, which was open during the summer months. It featured an auditorium for movies and an athletic field, which offered adult sports leagues. This steel was crucial for producing weapons, vehicles, and infrastructure during the war effort.

The new wave of labor for those industries often included southern Europeans—Italians, Slovaks, Russians, and Jews. They supplemented the Germans, Irish, and Welsh who arrived in the late 1800s. These immigrant groups formed the social fabric of the community. When the war began, they enlisted in large numbers to proudly protect their new country. The community often sent the boys off with parades and fanfare. As war bonds became a way to support the troops on the home front, many mills “strongly encouraged” workers to buy them. New Castle was proud of the fact that it often went above the quotas set for the area.

Military Experience

In early October 1917, Keeling’s draft number, 2461, came up, and he left with many other local boys for basic training at the U.S. Army’s Camp Sherman. Camp Sherman was a World War I training camp located in Chillicothe, Ohio, about 250 miles southwest of New Castle, Pennsylvania. Built in 1917, it was one of the largest training camps for the war effort.

Once there, he became a member of the 40th Company, 10th Training Battalion, and, later, the 40th Company, 11th Training Engineers, 158th Depot Brigade. As a member of the Depot Brigade, he helped equip soldiers as they departed for war, and he collected the equipment of those fortunate enough to return.

He was then transferred to Company D, 348th Infantry at Camp Pike in Little Rock, Arkansas. Although no formal records exist regarding Keeling’s actual job, he likely received training on the use of machine guns while serving with Company D.

Finally, he was transferred to Company E of the 47th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, at Camp Greene in North Carolina. He arrived soon after the unit’s formation. The 4th Division was known as the Ivy Division, with an insignia that featured a green four-leaf ivy within a green circle. His infantry training continued as troops prepared to become replacement forces for the American Expeditionary Forces in France.

Keeling was then stationed at Camp Mills on Long Island in New York, where he embarked for the front on May 10, 1918, aboard the USS Princess Matoika. Keeling and his fellow soldiers were sent to Brest, France, as replacements for the American Expeditionary Forces, which had been in France since June 1917.

The company was moved inland and, by July, was placed under the command of the French VII Corps near the Bois du Châtelet. As the Aisne-Marne operations continued, the enemy was in retreat, and Keeling’s Company continued its advance to the Vesle River. The Vesle River was the front line of the Western Front. Both the Germans and the Allies coveted its strategic location. During this advance and entrenchment along the river, Private Ernest Keeling, Jr., was mortally wounded.

Commemoration

In the uncertainty of the offensives and counteroffensives of the Aisne-Marne operations, Keeling was initially reported as Missing in Action between August 3 and 13, 1918. The family received a letter from the U.S. War Department in April 1920, which changed his status to Killed in Action. His death was listed as occurring on August 8, 1918, near the Vesle River in St. Thibaut, France. He was initially buried near the site but was later moved to the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in Seringes-et-Nesles, Aisne, France, in April 1921.

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