William Harden

William Harden (1878-1966)

William Harden is my Great Grandfather and the father of my grandfather, Jack Harden.  He was born May 28, 1878 in Brazil, Clay County, Indiana, and he died in January 27, 1966 in Indiana.  I have just the vaguest memory of him.  What I mostly remember is a grumpy old man in a wheelchair.  But I'd probably be grumpy too, if I had gangrene and had to have my leg amputated. 

Most of what I know about him I have learned from relatives, or from my research.  His parents were John William Harden and Jeanetta Frances Crawley.  He was one of eight children, being their fifth child and youngest son.  His father died when he was thirteen.  At that point he quit school and went to work in the coal mines in Indiana to help support his mother and sisters.

Most of the younger family generations called him “Pop”.  I’m not sure when he acquired this name, perhaps when he became a father.  Among family members there are discrepancies concerning his legal name.  The name that appears the most often on documents is “William Harden”.  Some family members say that his name was “William Dean” or “William Edward”.  I have not found proof for either of these name variations.

He married Delphia Maude Keiser late 1907 or early 1908.  Supposedly, they took the train from Terre Haute, Indiana to Paris, Illinois to get married.  But thus far, I have not found their marriage license to confirm this information.

Mary Virginia Hudson

Mary Virginia Hudson (1900-1941), circa 1908

I really would have liked to have known my paternal grandmother.  But unfortunately, she died when my father was just five years old and as a result I know very little about her.  Mary Virginia Hudson was named after her grandmother, Mary Virginia Tarvin and was the eldest child of Orin Tulley Hudson and Maude Belle Nicoson.  She was born in Brazil, Clay County, Indiana on August 27, 1900.  Both of her parents were also born in Clay County, Indiana.

Virginia married Russell McCullough on November 15, 1919 in Clay County, Indiana when she was 19 years old.  She and Russell had five children together, they are John, Marjorie, Orin, Dale and Claude.  Child number six was on the way, when she fell on the steps to their house.  She was fairly far along in the pregnancy and the fall triggered labor to begin.  The doctor was called and he tried to save the unborn baby’s life and her life to no avail.

When she died on July 27, 1941 in Clay County, Indiana she was 40 years of age.

Russell McCullough

Russell McCullough 1954

I never met my paternal grandfather, Russell McCullough. He was the oldest child and only son of John Russell McCullough and Emma Florence Boes.  He was born in Brazil, Clay County, Indiana on Jul 16, 1894, just the right age to be drafted into WWI.

Unfortunately, most of the federal records for the state of Indiana in WWI were burned in the 1973 fires at the NARA building in Missouri.  Most of the limited information that I have collected so far came from his Veteran's Burial Card.  It indicates that he was a part of the 52nd Artillery C. A. C, Battery D.

I am not a military buff, all the acronyms, ranks and organizations of the military are somewhat baffling to me.  I'm not sure that the information written above is in the preferred sequence.  To make matters more difficult there was a lot of  reorganization and renaming of his unit.  But still I wanted to learn more about this man so....

First I looked up C. A. C., and found that it stands for Coast Artillery Corps.  Why would Russell be drafted into this branch of the military?  Since when did Indiana have a coastal port that needed to be defended?  And why would a Coast Artillery Unit go to another country during war time?  Shouldn't they be at home defending their country?

It turns out that when the U.S. decided to enter World War I, there were not as many trained troops as needed to fight, so soldiers were pulled from every available resource.  My understanding is that as the war continued, new recruits were placed into already existing units.

Russell entered service April 3, 1918 and was honorably discharged January 24, 1919.  His rank was Pfc, or private first class.  The 52nd Coast Artillery Corp was a railroad gun unit responsible for building railroad tracks to maneuver large 320 and/or 340 mm caliber guns where they were needed.  Then they fired the guns on designated targets, To get a rough idea of what the guns looked like picture a large cannon on a flatbed railroad car.  Russell was in the military for less then a year.  But that was long enough for him to be sent to France and to be exposed to Mustard Gas according to some of the family reports.

The exposure to Mustard Gas would continue to be bothersome throughout the rest of his life.  Russell died just a little more than a year after this photo was taken on July 19, 1955.