John Schola
image and information courtesy of andrew pestle
John Schola was born to British immigrant parents on March 10th, 1894, in Burnside, Pennsylvania. By the age of 16 he was working as a coal miner like his father and younger brothers and appears to have had a 6th-8th grade education. In 1917 John was working for the Bradley Coal Company of Gallitzin, PA, but he appears to have relocated with his family to Berryburg, West Virginia, shortly afterwards. He denied any deferments from military service at that time and was drafted into the US Army on May 28th, 1918.
John was assigned as a Private to the 4th Provisional July Replacement Draft Company and sailed overseas aboard the SS Czaritza on July 18th, 1918. Once in France, he was reassigned to Company "B" of the 111th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division. Campaign credit for Pvt. Schola is difficult to confirm, but he likely experienced action in the Fismes Sector, Oise-Aisne Offensive, Meuse-Argonne Offensive, and Toul Sector.
John thankfully survived his AEF experience uninjured and returned to the United States aboard the USS Minnesota on April 28th, 1919. He was honorably discharged as a Private on May 4th, and his service number was 3173221.
John continued working as a miner in West Virginia after the war, and married in the 1920's. He appears to have had two sons born shortly after the marriage but died on February 10th, 1934, at the age of just 39 years. I have been unable to locate his exact cause of death, but his occupation as a coal miner quite possibly contributed to his early passing (whether due to accident or diseases such as black lung). John is buried with a veteran's gravestone in the Masonic Cemetery of Philippi, West Virginia.