Florida Fallen Stories

Fireman. Born November 7, 1892. Enlisted U.S. Coast Guard April 8, 1917. Residence: Mulberry, Florida.

Water tender. Enlisted U.S. Coast Guard at Tampa, Florida, on April 18, 1917, age 21 years, 8 months. Lived in Tampa and worked for the American Supply Company and Ferman Motor Sales, founded in 1895….

Assistant Master at Arms. Enlisted at Tampa, Florida, April 7, 1917. Born Okaloosa, Florida, May 6, 1894. Next of kin: Thomas Hanley Bell (father), Dover, Hillsborough County, an orange grower from Alabama…

Fireman – Born on March 8, 1896, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard at Key West, Florida, on June 29, 1917. Next of kin: Mrs. Eunice Melvin Agee (mother), Fort Lauderdale, Florida…

Cabin Steward, African American. Born in Key West on December 30, 1894. Enlisted in U.S. Coast Guard at Boston, Massachusetts, on August 7, 1913; age 18 years, 7 months. Employed by the Ybor City Ice Company prior to…

Wardroom Steward, African American. Born May 24, 1897. Enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard at Tampa on February 2, 1917. Next of kin: Mrs. Freddie Weech (mother), 58 Lopez Lane, Key West. American Legion Post No. 168…

Boy 1st class. Son of William Harrison Webb (1853-1910) and Verona McDaniel (1867-1958), both native Kentuckians who moved to St. Petersburg about 1905. One of nine children, Webb was born on April 28, 1900. He enlisted…

Ship’s Writer. Son of John Franklin Vaughan (1874-1931) and Ellen Mobbs (1882-1957), one of seven children. Vaughan’s father served for nearly forty years as superintendent of the Peninsular Telephone Company in Tampa…

Boy 1st class. Enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard at Key West, Florida, on April 28, 1917. Residence: 418 White Street, Key West. Born February 18, 1899, one of eleven children of John Thompson (1853-1911), a sponge…

Fireman. One of eight children and the oldest of three sons of John Edgar Talley (1867-1945) and Sarah Elizabeth Giddens (1871-1940), John was born in Hernando, Florida, January 7, 1898. By 1910 the Talleys had relocated…

Ship’s Writer. An older brother to Homer, born on December 24, 1893, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard at Key West on July 20, 1917. Worked as a bookkeeper for the Exchange National Bank in Tampa and roomed…

Ordinary Seaman. One of nine children of Jefferson Davis Sumner (1862-1906) and Mildred (Mittie) Roberts (1866-1941). Born in Dade City, Florida, December 31, 1899, he moved to Tampa, where he attended Hillsborough…

Coxswain. Born in the Baltic port city of Libau, Russia (Latvia today), on June 3, 1890, Skelte (using the name John Smith) immigrated to Key West in 1914, entering the U.S. via Havana, Cuba. An expert seaman, Smith joined…

Boy 1st class. Nicknamed “Tootsie.” Born in Talladega, Alabama, on October 8, 1899, one of five children, “Tootsie” lived in Tampa in 1910 with his family at 309 Pine Street. His father, James B. Robertson, was in the brokerage…

Cook. Born June 2, 1878, Roberts enlisted in U.S. Coast Guard at Baltimore, Maryland on June 17, 1914. Next of kin: Mrs. Maria E. Bamas (cousin), 803 Whitehead Street, Key West…

Seaman. Born January 19, 1897, one of seven children of Thomas Abel Reynolds (1867-1939), a Georgia-born sawmill worker. His two older brothers, Arley Rance Reynolds (1887-1955) and Hassie C. Reynolds (1894-1967), both…

Ordinary Seaman. Born in Sharpes, Brevard County, Florida, on January 6, 1899, one of seven children of Robert Clayton Poppell (1859-1940), a citrus grower and county tax accessor, and Isabella Franklin Faulkner (1871-1945). Enlisted in…

Son of Joseph Norwood (1851-1908) and Alma Penn (1858-1945), missionaries for the American Bible Society in Mexico, the Caribbean and South America from the early 1880s through 1900s. Robert was born in Antioquia, Colombia…

Boy 1st class. Born on October 10, 1897, Nobles enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard on April 7, 1917, at Tampa and gave Gasparilla, Florida, a fishing settlement on Charlotte Harbor near Boca Grande, as his hometown. In 1910 he…

Ship’s Writer. Nix was born in Hampton, South Carolina, on July 31, 1888. By 1910 he moved to Tampa, where he worked as a stenographer for Exchange National Bank. He and Wambolt Sumner (see below) worked in the…

Electrician’s mate 3rd class. Born on July 8, 1899, Newell gave an address of 920 West Adams Street in Jacksonville, Florida, when he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard on March 29, 1917. His family owned and operated a bakery…

Seaman. At the time of death, his reported residence was corner of 18th Avenue and Third Street, St. Petersburg, Florida. He joined the U.S. Coast Guard in August 1917 as a wireless operator. Before entering the service, he worked…

Boy 1st class. Younger brother of Frederick and George Mansfield, born on February 9, 1899. Enlisted a day earlier than Frederick. Like his brothers, attended Hillsborough High School and lived at 318 Fulton Street Tampa…

Fireman. Born in Manatee County on August 22, 1896, but raised in Tampa. His father, James Okie Mansfield (1861-1940), was a carpenter and truck farmer. Enlisted in U.S. Coast Guard at Tampa on Easter Sunday, April 8, 1917. Worked in Dixon…

Fireman. Enlisted in U.S. Coast Guard at Tampa on April 8, 1917. His father, John Marion MacLean (1858-1942) was a Georgia-born farmer and carpenter in Jackson County, Florida. Born November 22, 1894, Angus was one of six children…

Boy 1st class, African American. Enlisted in U.S. Coast Guard at Tampa on February 8, 1917, age 17 years, 7 months. Eston’s father, Prince Legree, Jr., was a farmer in Alachua County in 1900 before he and his wife, Melissa, divorced. Sometime later Melissa…

Boy 1st class. Born July 29, 1895, Madison, Florida. Enlisted U.S. Coast Guard at Tampa on April 8, 1917. Bert’s father, Arthur Higdon Lane (1869-1931), worked in the naval stores industry in Pine Mount, Florida, in 1900, and as a…

Boy 2nd class, African American. Born in Ocala, Florida, September 17, 1898. Enlisted U.S. Coast Guard at Tampa on December 15, 1916. “Willie” lived with his parents, Henry, a butcher, and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Wilson Holland, and seven siblings…