PVT Maurice Cletus Small

courtesy of Karl Stelly

PVT Maurice Cletus Small was born 20 Dec 1906 in Hanover, Pennsylvania. He was the first of the 17 children born to Walter Augustus and Ada Grace (Leese) Small. 4 of his siblings died in infancy. His father worked as a pressman and printer in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where the family lived for many years. Maurice worked in a silk mill and then for local plumber C. J. Staub. Later he went to work for the Bethlehem shipbuilding yards where he worked as an acetylene welder. Maurice had married Martha Emma Miller on 1 Mar 1936 but the couple would have no children.

Maurice was drafted in November 1943. After his basic military training at Fort McClellan, Alabama he was sent to the European theater. PVT Small was transferred from the replacement depot to C Company 116th Infantry on 5 Jul 1944. He was killed in action on 13 Jul 1944 near Saint-Lo, France.

PVT Small was repatriated and re-interred in the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

4 of Maurice's brothers also served during the war. Thomas in the Navy, Norman and Philip in the Army and William in the Coast Guard.