Clair Hiram Keen

Bio and photos courtesy of Andrew Pestle

Clair Hiram Keen was born in Eden Township, Pennsylvania, on March 1st, 1887. He graduated from high school in about 1905 and later received a teaching degree from Millersville State Normal School in 1909. Clair taught for several years in rural Pennsylvania before starting a career in the banking industry. During the 1917 draft registration he was working as a teller for the Keystone National Bank. He denied any deferments from military service and later volunteered his services to the US Army.

Clair was sent to Fort Oglethorpe for officer's training and subsequently received a 2nd Lieutenant's commission on August 27th, 1917. He was assigned to the 56th Infantry Regiment, 7th Division, and sailed overseas aboard the USS Kroonland on July 26th, 1918. The regiment completed several weeks of overseas trench warfare training and were later sent to the Puvenelle Sector to relieve the American 360th Infantry Regiment on October 8th. A review of the 7th Division history shows that the 56th Infantry experienced considerable frontline combat in the final weeks of the war and consequently suffered heavy casualties. In addition to a strong enemy air presence in their area, the regiment was also victim to frequent German night patrols, gas attacks, and came under regular artillery bombardments.

The 56th Infantry conducted several probing attacks at Prény in the final 48 hours of the war, and unfortunately had several men killed just hours before the Armistice. In total, the regiment had 94 men killed in action during the war, with over 500 wounded and gassed. The regiment also had at least 16 Distinguished Service Cross recipients, in addition to numerous other individualized awards for heroism. Lieutenant Keen was thankfully spared from injury during his time along the front, and this overseas photograph depicts him in Nice, France, in February of 1919.

Clair was later reassigned as an officer with the 26th Infantry Regiment and returned home aboard The USS Zeppelin on July 29th, 1919. He received an honorable discharge on August 16th of that year and returned to his life in Pennsylvania.

Clair chose to continue his banking career after the war and was elected to cashier of the Keystone National Bank in 1939. He was later selected as the bank president and continued working into his early 70's. Clair married later in life, joining Elizabeth Weidman in union in 1953. The marriage lasted just 10 years, before Clair was widowed in 1963. He was also a past president of the Lancaster County Bankers Association, director of the Lancaster Automobile Club, member of the Mt. Eden Lutheran Church, and was a past master of the Manheim Masonic Lodge. Clair died of a thrombolytic stroke at the age of 83 years on September 28th, 1970, and now rests beneath a civilian gravestone beside his wife in the Quarryville Cemetery of Quarryville, PA.

(Rather oddly, he has a WW2 veteran grave marker beside the stone, rather than the appropriate WW1 marker)

https://www.findagrave.com/memo.../97929525/clair-hiram-keen