Florida Fallen Stories

The vast majority (96%) of Florida’s Fallen were enlisted men, the most common rank being private or its naval equivalent of apprentice seaman. Edward Cantey De Saussure was among the relatively few officers from Florida who…

Lee Brezel (pronounced “bre-zeal”) was born on May 25, 1890, in Gordon, Wilkinson County, Georgia, between Macon and Milledgeville. His father was Forrest Brezel (1868-1924) from Irwinton who married Mollie Brantley…

In 1922, The Women’s Overseas Service League, a national organization formed the previous year to recognize women who served overseas in or with the Armed Forces…

Laura Baird was born in Hague, Florida, a small community located between Gainesville and Alachua, on March 12, 1886, to Emmet Joseph Baird (1857-1925) and Mary Ann Eshelman (1860-1948). She had two older brothers…

Clara Summerlin was born in Fort Myers, Florida on December 5, 1880, daughter of Samuel Summerlin (1856-1944), a pioneer cattle rancher, and Katheryn (Kate) Deisher (1858-1901). In 1885, she lived…

At many as 108 of Florida’s Fallen died at Camp Wheeler, some 165 miles from the Florida-Georgia state line. Camp Wheeler was established in 1917 as one of 16 Army National Guard Mobilization and Training Camps…

More of Florida’s Fallen died at Camp Devens than at any other place in the United States.  Nearly three-quarters (72%) of the 124 known deaths occurred during the…

So, who made the metal box that contained the Scrolls until they were unearthed by the members of the Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department in November 2018? The only clue is the mark on the box with the initials…

Washington was born in Aiken County, South Carolina on August 6, 1890. In the 1900 Census, he is listed as a 10-year-old farm laborer in Windsor Township, Aiken County, with his mother, Sarah, age 45, as head of household…

When Marcus (nicknamed “Mike”) was 16, he moved with his with parents to Pensacola, Florida, where he attended high school. The 1916 city directory for Pensacola lists him as…

Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 4, 1894, Benjamin Lee II was the third son of Leighton Lee (1866-1898) and Mary Cooke Justice (1867-1949). Lee’s paternal grandfather, Benjamin M. Lee, was a practicing physician…

Scroll 2 # 730     Born in Dothan, Alabama, on January 1, 1898, Wade was the son of Richard (Dick) Lafayette Pilcher, Jr. (1871-1941), who, with his eight siblings and parents, had moved from rural Dale County to Dothan in 1882. They lived at the corner of...

Peter Giles was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky on January 13, 1892. By 1900, he had moved to Tampa, Florida, where his father, John Manson Giles (1856-1948), was a citrus grower. He was the youngest of seven…

Moon was born in Cartersville, Georgia on November 21, 1879. He graduated from Emory College (now University) with highest honors in 1903. Serving as a missionary in Cuba for six months…

Carl Oscar Anderson was born on March 3, 1892, in Orange County, Florida. Anderson’s parents, Axel Teodor Anderson (1858-1937) and Anna Augusta Wilhelmina Elisabet Nilsson (1864-1903), were Swedish immigrants…

Anderson was born in Pinewood, Florida, on April 15, 1890, son of John and Lucinda Anderson, farm laborers, who in 1900 lived in Milton, Santa Rosa County, along with their four other children…

Elizabeth (Bessie) Gale was born in New Marlborough, Massachusetts on April 24, 1872. Her father was Sullivan French Gale (1842-1909), former 1st Sergeant, Co C, 13th Vermont Infantry and a veteran of Gettysburg…

Trafford was born in Sanford, Florida on March 14, 1878. He appears in the 1880 Census for Orange County, Florida, with his father, Edward Robert Trafford, a civil engineer…

U.S. Revenue Cutter Miami, before it was renamed the Tampa.   In the summer of 1917, the Tampa was one of six United States Coast Guard cutters sent overseas on convoy duty. Only the Tampa did not return. The German submarine UB-91 torpedoed and sank the Tampa...