The news came through Miss Loretta Stucker of Barberton, Ohio, a niece of Mr. Stucker, who said that the usual brief official message from the war department announcing the death, but giving no details except the date.

Stucker was a commissary sergeant in Company D of the 138th Infantry, formerly the First Missouri National Guard regiment. He enlisted on July 20, 1917. The regiment, a unit of the Thirty-fifth Division, was sent to France several months ago. It had its training at Camp Doniphan, Fort Still, Oklahoma.

Nearly half the National Guard regiments from Missouri and Kansas were killed or wounded in fighting between September 26 and 29, according to information received by the Adjutant General of Missouri, as published in the St. Louis papers Thursday morning. Among them was Captain Skinner of the 138th regiment, the unit in which Stucker was enrolled.

The statement from the Adjutant General Clark contains the following:

“It is known here that the Missouri and Kansas National Guard Divisions had been designated to lead the American advance and that they were in the most desperate of the fighting and had distinguished themselves in the most glorious manner, but until receipt of these telegrams and letters, the extent of which the divisions had suffered in the fighting of twenty-four days ago was not known.”

“The official casualty lists from the war department are anxiously awaited, and it is feared they are very heavy.”

The attack by the Americans on September 26-29 is known to have been the blow that broke the German lines, and it will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the most glorious actions of the war.

It is not known here whether Stucker had been engaged in the trenches or was killed back of the lines. When the regiment sailed for France he still bore the designation of commissary sergeant. The dispatch from Washington to his niece spoke of him simply as “Sergeant Stucker.”

Stucker was 46 years of age. He was born and raised in Barberton, Ohio. In October, 1910, while engaged as a traveling salesman for American Type Foundry of St. Louis he joined with A.W. Schimpff in the founding of the Advertiser Press, and they opened for business as job printing plant in the Wilbert Building on West Main street. In March, 1911, they began publication of the Advertiser. In September, 1912, Stucker sold his interest in the Advertiser to Schimpff and on September 20 he came to the Herald as editor for the Collinsville Publishing Company. He continued as Editor and Manager until May 1, 1917, when the Collinsville Publishing Company sold the plant and business to James O. Monroe.

Stucker then took a position as traveling salesman for Barnhardt Bros. & Spindler of St. Louis, type founders, but only worked a month before enlisting in the First Missouri.

During all the time he lived in Collinsville Stucker was active in public affairs. He was the first secretary of the Collinsville Commercial Club, serving for two years from its organization in September, 1914. He gave without a stint of his time to all public matters in which he was interested, being known by all as a “booster” for Collinsville.

Stucker was a member of the Elks, the Eagles and the Moose lodges being a past dictator in the Moose. He was a Democrat in politics, but had many friends among the prominent Republicans of the county. He was a member of the Madison County Press club and took a strong stand for fairer and better rates for publishing and printing. He was a member of the Schmidt’s Mound Park Gun club and took a great delight in trap shooting events held at the Mound. He also was great outdoor hunter and fisherman.

Stucker leaves no relatives here. In fact he has no surviving relatives of his own blood nearer than nephews and nieces. His only brother died at Barberton, Ohio, about three years ago. He was married to Harriette Agnes McArthur, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Peter McArthur of St. Louis on November 4, 1897. Mrs. Stucker died here on January 16, 1916. They had no children.

The Stuckers on first coming here in 1910 spent a few months at the Commercial Hotel. They then moved into the Borsch cottage on St. Louis Road near “Hardscrabble;” then into the Bonn property on Clay, the Gaskill property in Kreela addition and then into the Linder bungalow on St. Louis road near the city limits. After Mrs. Stucker’s death, Stucker took rooms at the residence of Rev. M. Bierbaum where he remained until he entered the service.

Stucker made no claims to being a highly trained newspaper man, but took great pride in good printing. When the Edwardsville Intelligencer was planning its centennial edition in 1912 it turned over to him the enormous task of handling the mechanical work on it. He did the work with a care and skill that elicited the commendation of printers and publishers all over this section of the state.

Stucker had tried to enter the service in the officers reserve corps prior to entering the National Guard., but was informed that his age was against him. He had charge of the recruiting of volunteers here during the early months of the war, and inspired many a young man to enlist. Then when the opportunity presented he himself gave himself to the colors.

Stucker is the first Collinsville man to be killed in action in France. Two others, Leighton Hunphrey Evatt and Richard C. Dukes, have died of pneumonia overseas and six have died of pneumonia and influenza in camps and cantonments in the United States. A few have been wounded in action.

This is the word received by Bernhard Mueller of West Main Street from his brother-in-law, First Lieutenant Wm. F. Uthoff of the 138th Infantry, the regiment in which Stucker was a mess sergeant. Uthoff wrote that Stucker was passing food to the men in the trenches and in disregard of the warnings of his comrades raised his head above the fire swept parapet and was hit.

Uthoff letter in part follows:

“ I knew Stucker very well and was sorry to lose him. He was a very valuable man to my company, and we all miss him. Sergt. Stucker had many friends in Collinsville, and for their benefit I will tell how it happened. It was in the Argonne the first day of the fight. The company was dug in as far as it is possible to dig in under heavy machine gun fire they were subjected to. Sergt. Stucker was fearless. He would raise up his head, disregarding the warnings of his comrades. He raised once too often. When he raised to pass a can of beef to one of his comrades, a machine gun bullet passed through his head, killing him instantly. In his death company D loses one of its most valuable men.”

While Uthoff gives no other details of the fighting in this letter, in others he has related the terrible toll the 138th paid in the Argonne fighting. He himself was wounded and sent to the hospital. When he returned to the ranks he found that the captain had been killed and the second lieutenant had been promoted to the command of the company. But for the fact he was for the time being disabled Uthoff would have been given the captaincy.

Uthoff, who is a brother to Mrs. Bernhard Mueller, is a St. Louis man, having been in the employ of the Simmons Hardware company until the time of his enlistment in the First Missouri, which later was made the 138th U.S. Infantry.

The letter from Uthoff to Mueller is the only word that has come here regarding Stucker’s death except the official notice from the war department, received through his niece, Miss Loretta Stucker at Barberton, Ohio. The Herald some weeks ago addressed a letter to Miss Stucker asking if she received any details, and no reply was received, which leads to the conclusion that perhaps even she is uninformed of the manner of his death.

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Updated December 24, 2008
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