NORMAN W. WOHLKEN

PRIVATE NORMAN WILLIAM WOHLKEN was born in Brooklyn NY on October 27, 1893, the son of William and Amanda Wohlken. The Wohlken family had come to Camden by June of 1900, when they were living at 2011 Federal Street. William Wohlken was then working as a ship carpenter.

By 1910 the family had moved to 2006 Cooper Street. William Wohlken was by then working as a watchman in a factory, and would remain in that line of work into the 1920s. By June of 1910 Norman Wohlken had left school, and was working as an apprentice at a tank and seat mill.

After registering for the draft in 1917, Norman Wohlken was called to duty on February 25, 1918. He was registered by Bernard J. Tracy, who lived around the corner from the Wohlken family on Federal Street. Norman Wohlken was sent to Camp Dix for training, where he was assigned to Company C, 309th Infantry, 78th Division. He sailed for France with the 78th in May of 1918.

Private Wohlken died of wounds in the Argonne Forest battle on October 26, 1918. He was wounded in the back and died from loss of blood. Norman Wohlken was survived by his parents, of 2006 Cooper Street, Camden NJ, and a brother, Leroy Wohlken, of the same address.

On November 24, 1918, at the request of his father William Henry Wohlken to the Adjutant General, Dept. of the Army, Washington, D.C., the remains of Norman were returned from the American cemetery in Chaumont, France.

Norman was laid to rest in May of 1921 at Arlington Cemetery in Pennsauken, New Jersey.

Leroy Wohlken would remain in East Camden until his death in January 1978, at age 81.

Thanks to Peter V. Sellars for his help in creating this page