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PRIVATE
FRANKLIN F. FORTINER was born in Camden, New Jersey on April 7, 1896 to
Edward and his wife, the former Mary B. Stange. The family appears in
City Directories from 1897 through 1899 at 734 Spruce
Street. They were at 816 South
8th Street when the 1900 Census was taken. The 1906 City Directory
has them at 755 Bella
Place. The 1910 Census shows the Fortiner family at 615 Mount
Vernon Street. Edward Fortiner was working as a boilermaker. Soon
afterward, the family moved to Moorestown, New Jersey.
When he
registered for the draft in June of 1917, Franklin F. Fortiner was
living with his parent at 303 Linden Street in Moorestown. He was
working at the Keystone Leather Company factory in Camden.
Franklin F.
Fortiner was inducted into the United States Army at Beverly, New Jersey
on June 27, 1918. He was sent to Camp Dix and was assigned to the 153rd
Depot Brigade.
Private
Fortiner contracted spinal meningitis upon arrival at Camp Dix. He died
from the disease on June 30, 1918.
Franklin F.
Fortiner was an active member of Black Hawk Tribe No. 78 of the Improved
Order of Red Men. He was memorialized on the Red
Men War Memorial monument that stood at what was Pulaski Park,
Benson Street and Haddon
Avenue, from the 1920s into the early 1980s.
The monument, a bronze statue of an Indian chief by Camden sculptor Nicola
Berardo, was moved to Tuckerton, New Jersey where it stands today.
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