Henry Smith was born 14-OCT-1896 in Foristell MO. He later lived in Wentzville. He was the son of Sam and Helen Smith. Entered service in the Army on 25-SEP-1918. Private Smith died just three weeks later on 10 OCT1918 (date of death is also reported as 10-16-1918) at Camp Funston of pneumonia. He was in the 164th Depot Brigade. The role of depot brigades was to receive and organize recruits, provide them with uniforms, equipment and initial military training, and then send them to France to fight on the front lines. The depot brigades also received soldiers returning home at the end of the war and completed their out processing and discharges.
Henry is buried at Smith Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Cemetery. (Also known as Blackwell Lemur Cemetery or Foristell Colored Cemetery.) Sadly, his tombstone is broken and hard to read. Smith Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded on this site about 1905. The adjoining cemetery predates the congregation with the earliest marked graves from the 1870s to the 1880s. Sometime in the 1970s, the church merged with Wesley Chapel in Wright City, Mo. In the St Charles County Cemetery book, it is known as Blackwell-Lemer. The cemetery is about 1 square acre that can be accessed by a gated gravel drive off State Hwy W. There is no sign for the cemetery.