The name Walter Tripp more than likely doesn't ring a bell to many here in Faribault, but the Faribault-born man's namesake is tied to a popular American Legion post in Morris Minnesota. 

When Morris-area veterans decided to establish an American Legion Post in 1924, they chose to honor the soldier who was the first local death related to World War I. Except Walter Tripp didn't make it to battle, instead, he died of pneumonia while in training at Camp Cody in New Mexico in 1918.

According to the Stevens County Times Tripp was born in Faribault in 1897 and moved with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. L.D. Tripp, to Morris in 1901. He enlisted in the First Minnesota Infantry on Easter Monday, 1917. He died on Feb. 13. 1918 after having been sick for only three days.

Historical materials will often reference the flu that reached huge portions of soldiers during World War I, as having stages of three days of sickness. Many who contracted the flu died from complications such as pneumonia.