As Promised...

The Military Career of Oliver S. Aas

Oliver Samuel Aas was the son of Fjeld Township enumerator, Samuel S. Aas. Born on 3 October 1898 in Aneta, North Dakota, Oliver is listed as a teacher in the Ancestry.com database, North Dakota Military Men, 1917-1918. The information in this database is derived from Roster of the Men and Women Who Served in the Army or Naval Service (including the Marine Corps) of the United States or its Allies from the State of North Dakota in the World War, 1917-1918. Vol. I-IV. Bismark, ND, USA: Bismark Tribune Co., 1931. In particular, Oliver Samuel Aas is listed in Volume I Aaberg to Flagg.

According to this work, Oliver S. Aas was inducted two days after his twentieth birthday and was sent to the University of North Dakota, where he served in the Students Army Training Corps until Halloween of 1918. Then, he was sent to Central Officers Training School in Camp Grant, Illinois, where he remained until he was discharged as a Private on 12 December 1918.

Not much of a career.

His army number was 3,455,562 and he was a registrant of Barnes County, North Dakota. So it is likely that we may find other Aas relatives in Barnes, North Dakota around this time. In WWI Civilian Draft Registrations, another Ancestry.com database, he is listed as residing in Grant, having a relative in Valley City, North Dakota, and the state is listed as South Dakota. Looking at his actual draft registration card, we find that Grant is in South Dakota and Oliver claims to be a teacher there at Milbank Schools in Milbank. Oh, and the relative listed as living in Valley City? One S.S. Aas. Probably Oliver's father, Samuel. Valley City is in Barnes County, North Dakota, for those who don't know.

Two years later, the 1920 U.S. Federal Census finds Oliver S. Aas living as a lodger in La Moure, La Moure, North Dakota in the the Frederick Muralt household. There, his profession is listed as a high school teacher. So Oliver Aas, not unexpectedly, returned to teaching after the Great War.

He would later move to Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the 1939 passenger list of the S.S. Talamanca would reveal. In fact, he lived at 4817 East Lake Harriett Boulevard. There is an Oliver S. Aas listed as having died 22 Mar 1950 in the Minnesota Death Index, 1908-2002, in the county of Hennepin.