Worcester, PA World War I Monument
The WWI monument was designed and approved in August, 1919 by a select committee of Worcester residents. To have one’s name appear on the monument required some form of association with the township. Thirty-five names appear, including two who were killed in action. If you look at the top of the monument, you will see their names: Claude B. Kriebel and Ralph H. Cowell. Who were these servicemen and where are their remains?
Claude B. Kriebel was born in 1890 and grew up in Worcester, the son of Joseph Heebner Kriebel and Mary Elizabeth Bickel. We do not know much about his early life. He enlisted in the naval reserve and attained the rank of Ensign. He served aboard the USS Lake Moor which was torpedoed off the coast of Scotland on April 11, 1918 with serious loss of life. Forty-four seamen were killed and seventeen survived. Mr. Kriebel’s remains were never recovered, and he is immortalized at Brookwood American Cemetery, Surry England, in the section “Tablets of the Missing”. His name also appears on his parents’ gravestone in the Schwenkfelder Cemetery, Towamencin.
Ralph H. Cowell was not a native of Worcester but was associated with Worcester through Lydia A. Bair, also spelled “Beyer” who was born around 1850. Lydia A. Bair, his grandmother, was listed as his next of kin. Cowell apparently worked for a while in a blacksmith shop in Fairview Village and was inducted into the army in 1916 to participate in the “Mexican Emergency, Call of President Wilson June 18, 1916”. Recall that General John H. Pershing lead an expeditionary force into Mexico at the time. Cowell was a Pvt. First Class in the Field Artillery, 28th Division. He was listed as a “Saddler” who cared for the horses and mules which pulled the guns, wagons, etc. Have you ever seen the movie War Horse? It depicts the horrible fighting in WW I which involved a terrible toll on horses and mules and the “Saddlers” who took care of them. Cowell, 24 years old, was killed at the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne one month before the end of the war. During the battle, 26 thousand Americans lost their lives. He is buried at Arlington. In 1919, a memorial service was held in Fairview Village, and a handmade, wooden flag pole was designated in his honor at the community hall.