Kohl & Shaw Family Robert E Kohl & Georgia "Fern" Shaw Georgia Fern Shaw, or "Fern" as she preferred to be called, was born 4 April 1896  at Weir, Cherokee County, Kansas. She was the daughter of Isaac Walter and Jessie (Simkin) Shaw.  By 1920, Georgia working as an Assistant Nurse at Maude Norton Memorial Hospital in Columbus, KS. Fern Shaw is on the far left, wearing glasses. (Click on photo to enlarge) "Georgia Meets George" George Edgar Kohl was from Lisbon, Iowa - having been born there 3 September 1896, to Samuel and Clarinda "Chloe" (Mann) Kohl.  On April 15, 1917, George volunteered to serve his country by enlisting in the military. He served during WW I as a Private in the Battery B, Artillery Field Battalion, the Ammunition Train.  He saw WW I up close as he experienced active duty in France. During the 1920 U. S. Census, he was working in Columbus, Kansas as a garage mechanic.   It's unclear when Fern and George became acquainted but it is certain they planned a December 1920 wedding.     George and Fern were married in Columbus on 1 December 1920. The wedding notice follows: (click on photo to enlarge) Shaw-Kohl Wedding The wedding of Miss Fern Shaw and Mr. George E. Kohl occurred Wednesday evening at the Christian church. Rev. Jones performed the ceremony. After the ceremony Mr. and MRs. Kohl went to the home of the bride's parents in Scammon. On Thanksgiving day a wedding dinner was served to about twenty guests at the cabin on Neosho river. Mrs. Kohl was assistant nurse at the Maude Norton Memorial hospital for several years and is well known in Columbus. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. I. W. Shaw of Scammon. After a few weeks among relatives here Mr. and Mrs. Kohl will go to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where they will make their future home. Those present at the wedding dinner were: Mr. and Mrs. I. W. Shaw, and son Charles, of Scammon, Mr. and Mrs. Mort Benham and son Donald, Mrs. F. W. Simkin, Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Simkin, and family, Miss Emma Louise Kurtz of Columbus, Mr. and Mrs. P. Cannon, Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Ervin and daughter, Eleanor, all of Parsons.(Source: Modern Light, Columbus, KS, 2 Dec 1920, Thu., pg. 1) Georgia "Fern" & George (click on photo to enlarge) Following their marriage, George and Fern lived in Lisbon, Iowa.  At that time, George worked as a Masonry Helper on Bridge Construction.  On 13 May 1929, Fern gave birth to their first and only child, Robert Trewin Kohl, in Cedar Rapids, IA.   Robert married Eloise Anderson, a native North Carolinian, and they had a son, Robert Trewin Kohl, Jr.  When the Korean Conflict arose, Robert was called to serve his country. He entered the Army in Iowa and was stationed at Ft. Bragg. He served as a member of Battery D, 82nd anti-aircraft unit of the Second Division.    In December of 1951, Robert was shown on the Government's list as Missing in Action.  Soon it was discovered he was one of 56 Iowans who had been taken as Communist Prisoners of War.  He was being held at Changsong's Camp # 1.  In August 1953, Robert, age 24, was finally on a list of GI's who had been freed from the Communist Reds.  Robert described the circumstances in which he was captured in an article featured in The Des Moines Register on 17 Aug 1953: Mrs. Robert Kohl & son Robert Jr. (click on photo to enlarge) Freedom Village, Korea - It is almost a miracle that so many American prisoners of war survived the ordeal of Communist barbarism, cruelty and inhumanity. Take the case of Pfc. Robert T. Kohl, 24, of Lisbon, Ia.  He was captured Feb. 13, 1951 in "Massacre Valley." He was in a convoy blocked on a road when a tank ahead of him was knocked out. "It was at night," Kohl said, "when we went into the mountains. We walked all night trying to go south. But next morning at 10 o'clock the Chinese spotted us. They moved in from all directions. There were too many of them. We could do nothing but surrender." Four hundred G.I.s in Kohl's group who started the march didn't make it. "They were just too weak to keep going," said Kohl, who was released by the Reds Sunday. "Chinese guards kept making us go faster. They beat us when we couldn't, jabbering in Chinese at us all the time. They beat me with a club three times. Three guys tried to escape. The Chinese tied their hands together and hung them from a log so they had to stand on their toes. They kept them that way all day. When it was over those poor guys were almost dead.  They accused us of all kinds of crazy things, like signaling our planes. They made us hold our hands out, palms up. Then they beat our hands with heay boards. Group of 700 Kohl said if he had known that the worst was yet to come he wouldn't have had the will to keep on. He was in a group of 700 G. I.s who started the march Apr. 25 from oBean Camp 7 to Camp One at Chongson. Only 300 were left when the march was finished on May 17, and many of those 300 died later in camp. Kohl said, "We just trudged along, always wondering who would be next to die. I kept praying I'd live to see my wife and kid again. One night I tried to escape. I never should have tried it. But I tried...God, how I tried. I had no socks and got terrible blisters from rubber shoepacks. Every step was torture." Dark Cave "I only got 3 miles. The North Koreans spotted me. They threw me in a dark cave. Once in a while they threw me a ball of rice. Sometimes Koreans came by and stared at me kinda like a monkey looks at you. They saw me tied with my arms behind me and they took me away." I asked Kohl what he thought about while miserably alone in the cave. "Nothing - nothing at all." he said. "I was too low. I didn't care. I thought sure I was going to die." Kohl's misery continued at Camp One. He had dysentery and "fever in my feet - don't know what it was. But the pain was awful." He weighed 208 pounds when he came to Korea. He got down to 135. "We were all skin and bones," Kohl said. "They gave me size 32 shorts and they wouldn't stay up. They slid down my thighs. The Chinese treated us like dogs. They called us warmongers, rapists and all that stuff. Then when the truce talks started, things got better. They  made us go to lectures but we just sat there. Everything went in one ear and out the other, most of us, that is. Some guys fell for their line." Grew Stronger Gradually, Kohl grew stronger in body and spirit. And he longed for freedom. Rumors constantly swept through the camp raising false hopes. "We heard Americans had started a push and thought they might liberate us. When one of our planes would fly over, for a few days afterwards we'd try to make ourselves think it meant the truce was signed." Kohl said he was a member of the "KKK," an organization that tried to straighten out a few of the progroeossives and wise them up a little." Prisoners called men they considered too friendly with the Reds "progressives." In camp, Kohl tried to keep up the morale of the prisoners, organizing social clubs and leading the men in singing at dusk. Wants to See Wife As Kohl became a free man he appeared surprisingly strong, bronzed from the sun, clear eyed and steady. Now  he's longing to see his wife, Eloise, and his 3 year old boy, who was only 3 months old when Kohl last saw him.  Kohl also is yearning to see his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Kohl.  Robert finally arrived home, in Cedar Rapids, IA, for the first time in two years,  on Sunday, September 6, 1953. George Kohl had served as Marshall for the town of Lisbon for a number of years before he went to work as a county jailer. On 28 November 1955, and at the age of just 59, he died suddenly while on duty at the jail.  Georgia "Fern" (Shaw) Kohl passed away on 27 February 1977 in Manatee, Florida.  Both George and Fern are buried in the Lisbon Cemetery, Lisbon, Linn County, Iowa. Bette Shaw and Chase Shaw Jr My name is Terri Sluder and I am looking for family members that are related to Georgia Fern Shaw. She married George Kohl - they lived in Lisbon, Iowa and had a son named Robert T Kohl and one grandson named Robert Trevin Kohl Jr. I would like to find relatives of Fern Shaw (Kohl) so her family can have her pictures. I just feel these things need to be with family that is left and I just don't have the heart to toss them.  I am sure she had sisters out there somewhere and they have family yet today. My Uncle was a prisoner of war and we have some of his things that need to be placed in a Military museum.  Georgia Fern Shaw (Kohl) was born 1897 to Isaac Shaw and Jessie G. Simkin. Fern liked to be called by her middle name because she didn’t like Georgia. Fern was well known and liked in that town of Lisbon. She had joined several clubs while living in Lisbon, IA. My Uncle said, “I do hope u can get back to me on this I hate to throw things away when others could have a chance to find out more about their family tree”.  Terri Sluder e-mail: classylass58@gmail.com More Family Photos "Uncle Fred Simkin" b: 1925 - d: 2015 He was a brother of Fern's mother, Jessie (Simkin) Shaw Unidentifiable Family Photo This photo was included with the Shaw & Kohl photos, however, the only thing noted on the back side of the photo is "Hanelock Iowa June 1st 1891". There doesn't seem to be a town of Hanelock in Iowa but there is a town in Pocahontas County, Ia called Havelock. Unidentifiable Family Photo This photo was included with the Shaw & Kohl photos, however, there is nothing on the back side to help identify the family. Photos are courtesy of Terri Sluder Home