Veterans Day

Veterans Day started as Armistice Day after World War I. This is my grandfather's letter home written the next day.

In 1954, November 11 became the day to honor all veterans. Here are my veterans:

Vietnam my cousin

Korea my Dad

World War II my Dad and Uncle, my Father-in-law and his brother. A cousin who was taken prisoner and received Combat Infantry Badge

World War I my grandfather, and my grandmother's brother (who possibly served his tour in Africa)

Civil War
Benjamin Griffith 140 Reg’t Indiana Infantry enlisted September 15, 1864
John Leachman 54th Kentucky
Charles Brooks 155 Illinois Infantry enlisted February 15, 1865
John H. Cate 3rd Tennessee Infantry enlisted February 1862, captured London, Kentucky August 1862
Elijah Cate (John’s son) 3rd Tennessee Infantry enlisted January 1863 died May 1863
Andrew DeShields 2 Reg’t Missouri Infantry enlisted August 7, 1862

Revolutionary War

Richard Lewis
Joseph Spangler

Seems like William Rodman Benson and Henry Arney should have served in the Civil War based on their ages and locations. They were both in Arkansas, although Henry went to Illinois and then came back after the war. There are also lots of Shamblin from Tennesse that served in the Civil War so probably some of those are related somehow.

Here are the two newspaper articles about Jake and Columbia's deaths. I so wish I had something from the Sherman paper. One of these days I need to try the Denison paper as well.

Amy

Mr and Mrs Jake Spangler

My grandmother's parents, Columbia DeShields Spangler and Jacob Spangler, died when my grandmother was quite young. The story she told me was:

Her Mother was very sick with something people get then and really don't now like TB or smallpox or scarlet fever or something. My grandmother was being cared for by a neighbor. They brought my grandmother back home and told her to say goodbye to her Mother because she didn't have much longer to live. After she died, her Father staggered into the front yard said, "I can't live without her, I just can't live without her" and dropped over dead. One of their sons lived some distance away and was coming home on the train. He read about the death of his parents in some newspaper before he ever got home. I think about that sometimes when I read in the paper, "Names withheld pending notification of family."

When I went home that day and told my Dad what she had said he was very surprised. My Grandmother rarely talked about it. My Dad said when he was growing up they had to go to church every Sunday but Mother's Day. Back then they gave out white or red flowers based on whether your Mother was still living or not.

My grandmother went to live with her second oldest brother, 21 years her senior. I always knew where she lived, I never thought about where her two brothers went to live. I found them on the census with their oldest brother. My grandmother always said if her brother hadn't taken her in, she would have gone to the Buckner Orphans Home (www.buckner.org).

I tried to find the story in the Sherman paper but there was a fire and there are no microfilmed papers from those years. I did find the story in both Dallas papers. The State of Texas does have a death certificate for both of them. Her cause of death in pneumonia, (which isn't exactly what my Grandmother told me.) And his is apoplexa, which I had to look up and it means like a stroke.

See the next post for the newspaper articles.

Amy