Henry Leander Kramer joined the United States Army at the age of 18 in the summer of 1918 from his hometown in Williamstown, Pennsylvania.

He entered a cavalry unit and trained at Fort Bliss, Texas where this image was made. He had joined the Allied war effort in World War I.

“Lee” Kramer was shipped off to Europe with his unit for further training, and the war ended in November 1918. Kramer returned home to Pennsylvania’s Coal Region in 1919.

He came home to Williamstown to work in the mines, but was laid off in the 1930s when the Williamstown Colliery was shuttered. He found work during the Great Depression as a brick-layer on projects managed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Kramer died in 1946 at the age of 47, a victim of tuberculosis exacerbated by the damage to his lungs caused by working in the mines in his younger years. His final illness lasted more than three years.

He was buried at Williamstown’s Sacred Heart Cemetery. This image comes from the displays of American Legion Post 239 in Kramer’s hometown.

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