Name: Sidney Holland Durkee Rank: Private Service Number: Unknown Service: D Company, 101st Infantry Regiment 26th Division, US Army, American Expeditionary Force Date of Birth: July 28, 1899 Place of Birth: Danvers, Essex County, Massachusetts Date of Enlistment: July 26, 1917 Place of Enlistment: Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: East Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 17 Date of Death: April 8, 1918 Age: 18 Cemetery: Saint Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial, Thiaucourt, Lorraine, France Grave: Plot B, Row 23, Grave 7 Sidney was the son of Horace Cann Durkee (1870-1931) and Ann (Tisdell) Durkee (1876-1965). His siblings were Leslie Ernest Durkee (1895-1971), Ida Abigail ‘Abbie’ Durkee (1896-1989), Luella T. Durkee (b. 1904), and Lloyd E. Durkee (1909-1974). Sidney’s father was born in Ohio, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, and his mother was born in England. His parents were married on September 27, 1894, in Danvers, Essex Co., Massachusetts. Sidney and his family lived in Danvers, Essex Co., Mass. in 1900, and Wolfeboro, Carroll Co., New Hampshire in 1910. He was living in East Lynn, Essex Co., Mass. when he enlisted to serve in World War I in July 1917 and reported for duty the same day. He was a member of Co. D of the 9th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment (Massachusetts National Guard). The 9th Massachusetts Infantry, historically known as the "Fighting Ninth" due to its deep Irish American heritage tracing back to the Civil War, was called into federal service in late July 1917. On August 22, 1917, while organizing at Camp Curtis Guild in Framingham, Massachusetts, the regiment was officially reorganized and redesignated as the 101st Infantry Regiment of the 26th Division, or Yankee Division. Sidney departed the US for France from Hoboken, New York with the 101st Infantry aboard the USS Tenadores on September 7, 1917. His mother’s address is recorded as Somerville in Boston, Mass. Private Sidney Holland Durkee died in an accident the following April of 1918 and is interred at the Saint Mihiel American Cemetery in Lorraine, France. The Belleau Church (Église Saint-Étienne de Belleau) in France is both an active house of worship and the 26th Division Memorial, with over 2700 names of war dead inscribed on wall panels inside the church. Private Durkee’s name is amongst the names inscribed on the panels of the Belleau Church). The original church was destroyed by artillery fire in July 1918, and Yankee Division veterans funded the church to be rebuilt across the road from the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery.

Sources: findagrave Honorstates.org