Florida Fallen Stories

Photo courtesy of Mark Krancer

Eston Drew Legree

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 married Frank Caldwell, a tailor and steam laundry owner. In 1910, Eston was living with his mother and stepfather in Tampa, his two older sisters, Ruth and Queen, ages 14 and 11, and younger brother, Mingo, age 7. When he enlisted, he named his mother as his next of kin, Mrs. Melissa Caldwell, 806 Third Avenue, Tampa. In 1932, still in Tampa, she participated in the government-sponsored Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimage to visit her son’s watery grave. (Veterans Administration Master Index; Burial Case File)

 

 

 

Eston Drew Legree was on board the USCGC Tampa. To read about the Tampa, please click here.