LERMA researchers from Zacatecas

...Howdy all you LERMA researchers from Zacatecas. I just wanted you to know that I came across an article about a Solomon LERMA, in our archives in Oklahoma City, OK. I thought about all of ya, so I am including the article here. Heck, I wished at this time I could add this fine young man to my ancestors. Hopefully (I know it is a HUGE chance) one of you might have him in your database. BIF...I have added several obits to the rootsweb.com, Jalisco, Aquascalientes & Zacatecas boards. I wasn't for sure whether I should add them here or not. Okay, back to Solomon:

Oklahoma City, OK, newspaper archives dated:
12-23-1923
p.1

Mexican Youth Proves He Could Stand Great Test
Headboard Erected by Col. Sam Robertson Tells
Story of Marvelous Bravery of Fifteen-Year-Old Boy

EDITOR'S NOTE-The following story will interest Oklahoma City
overseas men who knew Colonel Sam Robertson. This little document
is one of these poignant human stories which grip the heart. It is
from The Brownsville, Texas, Herald, and was passed on by
General Roy Hoffman.

In the American National cemetery at Romange, France, lies the
body of Solomon Lerma, a Mexican boy, a native of the state of
Zacatecas, a derelict from the Villista army, which attacked Matamoros,
a hero who risked his life to save that of an American friend, and
who died in February, 1918, in a hospital in France after being
twice wounded and gassed. He was 15 years of age at the time of
his death.
Major M.T. Todd, now medical officer at Fort Brown, was assigned
to receive the bodies of American soldiers as they were being con-
centrated for burial in the American National cemeteries in France.
All marks of identification were brought to him by the details which
were removing the bodies from their temporary burial places on the
battle line, and one day his attention was called to a headboard
which was brought in with the body of a mere boy. The inscription
on the headboard read as follows:

HERE LIES
SOLOMON LERMA
MASCOT E Co. 28th U.S. INF.
15 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME
DEATH ABOUT FEB., 1918. A
NATIVE OF THE STATE OF
ZACATECAS, MEXICO, BUT A
CITIZEN OF SAN BENITO,
TEXAS. HE WAS ADOPTED BY
E CO. 26TH U.S. INF.
AFTER THE FIGHT NEAR
RANCH ANAQUITAS, TEXAS,
SEPT. 1915.
THIS SLAB ERECTED BY HIS
OLD COMPADRE LT. COL. SAM
ROBERTSON, C OF E US ARMY
WHO OWES HIS LIFE TO THIS
BOY. NO GAMER PERSON
EVER LIVED.
ADIOS MUCHACHO MIO.

This inscription was so peculiar that Major Todd took a photograph
of the headboard, and intended when he returned to the United States
to find Colonel Robertson and present the photograph to him. He did
not have the time to do this immediately upon his return, and after
being assigned to Fort Brown learned that Colonel Robertson was
now sheriff of Cameron county.

SOLOMON LERMA, whose headboard was inscribed by Colonel Robertson
while the American troops were engaged in the fiercest fighting of the
world war, was a derelict from the army of General Banco which attacked
Matamoros in 1914. He had accompanied the army from the state of
Zacatecas and while fighting was on near Matamoros, the lad, the less
than 12 years of age, got across the Rio Grande, and finally found
shelter with a Mexican family near Rancho Anaquitas, occupying his time
by herding a flock of goats in the chaparral.
In 1915 Colonel Robertson was building a highway through the
brush from the Browne tract to Buena Vista club house on Laguna Madre,
and he and the boy became fast friends. On September 15, while
Colonel Robertson was driving along the road to the club house
several Mexican bandits opened fire on him, and he was forced to
leave his car and take to the brush. He found a safe haven in a
clump of ebony trees, and opened fire on the bandits, who were eveidently
bent on looting the car. The fight started about 3 o'clock and some
time later the colonel heard someone creeping through the brush and
turned to find Solomon Lerma, who had heard the firing and came to
learn of the cause. The colonel's supply of cartridges was running
low, and Solomon crept to the car, brought back a large supply, and
while the colonel's fire kept the bandits under cover he again went
to the car and brought a canteen of water.
From 3 o'clock until after dark the colonel held the bandits at bay.
Shortly after dark a detachment from E Company, 26th Infantry, which
was then stationed at Harlingen and San Benito, and a number of
cowboys from Buena Vista ranch, accompanied by Deputy United States
Marshal Harold Jefferds, arrived on the scene and the bandits were
driven off.
The members of E Company adopted the Mexican waif on the spot,
taking him to Harlingen, where he remained, a permanent fixture in
the camp, until the 26th, Colonel Bullard's famous regiment, was
ordered to France, shortly after the United States entered the conflict.
No American regiment saw harder fighting than the 26th Infantry.
It was one of the first American organizations to enter the trenches,
and its record is replete with invidual and organized acts of heroism
which have never been equalled. Through all the fighting in which the
regiment engaged, Solomon Lerma took a part which won the respect
and friendship of his older comrades. He was the special protege
of Captain Kilbourn of E Company, who since the war has been promoted
to colonel, and was formerly inspection officer for the Eighth Corps
area with headquarters at San Antonio, but is now stationed at Fort
Benning, Ga.
Twice during the fight in which E Company engaged, Solomon Lerma,
was wounded, and later was badly gassed. After his recovery Captain
Kilbourn, who had also been injured, placed the boy in charge of
the mess sergeant of the company, Joe Hoeflin, now jailor at the
Cameron county jail. The boy never fully recovered from the effects
of the gassing, and contracted pneumonia, dying in a hospital in the
Arrencourt sector. Colonel Robertson was building a railroad in
that sector at the time, and learning of the death of his old
"compadre" prepared the headboard which marked his grave.
"No gamer person ever lived," was the comment of Colonel Robertson.
"Solomon proved that when he crept to my automobile to secure
cartridges when I was holding off the bandits, and he proved it
times without number in France. There was not a member of old
E Company who did not shed a tear when he learned that Solomon Lerma
had 'gone west.' I am certainly glad to learn that the body of
the little Mexican hero has been buried in the American National
cemetery in France, and I doubt if there is one in the cemetery who
was more loyal to the Stars and Stripes, or who was more loyal to
his friends than Solomon Lerma."