In September 1918 as the Spanish influenza was spreading across the United States, local newspapers tried to keep people informed of the progress of the war in far-off France. On Sept. 6, the New Jersey Courier carried a letter from a Red Bank sergeant saying, “My company lost one man killed by the name of Ambrose Matthews, of Lakewood, N.J. He surely was a fine boy and he died with a smile on his face. He never knew what hit him.