When the Fairport National Bank first opened its doors on West Avenue in 1 July 1916, the bank’s  twenty-two year-old assistant cashier was not there. Howard Shephard—the bank president’s son--was down in Texas with his National Guard company, guarding the Mexican border. Shepard kept the folks here in Fairport informed of life as a soldier in many letters he wrote to the Fairport Herald.

  

After Shepard’s company returned home and demobilized in October 1916, he returned to his work at the bank. Howard was a youth minister at the First Methodist Church at 31 West Church Street. His return home was cut short when Congress declared war on Germany and his company was once again mobilized, this time as Company G, 108th Infantry of the 27th Division. By the time Company G arrived in France in May 1918, Shepard was a sergeant serving in an intelligence billet. Shepard continued to write to the Fairport Herald, and his letters a reveal he was a highly conscientious young NCO dedicated to doing his duty.

Shepard’s company first entered the front lines near Ypres, Belgium in August 1918. On 30 September, the 108th Infantry assaulted the Hindenburg Line, Germany’s last fortified belt. One New York doughboy stated the German artillery and machine-gun fire was so brutal that the attacking infantry had "just become figures going down, like pins in a bowling alley.”[1]

One of those struck down was Howard Shepard. He was seriously wounded in his right thigh. Shepard was brought to a field hospital, where he slipped into unconsciousness and passed away the following evening.

The Fairport Herald called Howard "one of the finest principled young men it has been our privilege to become acquainted with.” In November 1919, Fairport’s American Legion Brooks-Shepard Post was dedicated in honor of Sergeant Shepard and Private Willard Brooks, another Fairport man killed in France. Shepard’s unit, the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry, continues to serve to this day as one of New York’s National Guard units.

Arthur Teeter lived with his parents on Hogan Road while attending Fairport High School. Evidently, Teeter was a bit of a daredevil. When he was nineteen, he and a friend were arraigned for driving down High Street at 70 mph.Arthur Teeter lived with his parents on Hogan Road while attending Fairport High School. Evidently, Teeter was a bit of a daredevil. When he was nineteen, he and a friend were arraigned for driving down High Street at 70 mph.

In 1942 Arthur left his wife in East Rochester and his job at the American Can Company here in Fairport and enlisted in the army. Arthur was assigned to the famed 101st Airborne Division, where he served as an 81mm mortarman in the 1st Battalion, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment.

Teeter was one of the first Americans to land in Normandy on D-Day. He was in action continuously until he was wounded after four days of fighting. After recuperating in England, Teeter made his second airborne operation, landing in Holland during Operation Market-Garden in September. Teeter fought in Holland for another six weeks until getting wounded a second time.

When German panzer divisions crashed through the Ardennes forest in December, the 101st rushed up to the town of Bastogne. Teeter, now a sergeant, was back with his mortar platoon, even though he had been wounded just six weeks earlier.

The German panzer divisions soon encircled the 101st Airborne at Bastogne. On a bitterly cold Christmas Day, an enemy company penetrated into the mortar platoon’s position. Sergeant Teeter fetched two American tanks and brought them to the aid of his platoon. Perched on top one of the tanks, Arthur Teeter fired its .50-caliber machine-gun into the German infantry. Teeter then dismounted and led his squad into a new defensive position. Crawling forward, Teeter was mortally wounded by an enemy hand grenade. Teeter was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal.