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[Thursday, 31 Oct. 1912] |
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“Obituary” / Vern Wilson McAninch, the youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. D. A. McAninch, |
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was born at Coatesville, Ind., on the 20th [sic] day of September, 1890, died on the 20th day of |
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October, 1912, at the age of 22 years, 1 month, of an illness contracted in Alaska while in the |
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service of his country. He was a member of the Methodist church, uniting in 1899, and holding |
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his membership therein until his death. He enlisted in the United States Army Dec. 4, 1909, was |
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assigned to signal corps service, serving a portion of the first year at Fort Omaha. He was sent |
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thence to take charge of the wireless office at Fort Gibbons, spending the succeeding winters of |
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1910 and 1911 at that place. The extremity of the Northern winters, and their attendant exposure |
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and hardship, together with the impure food with which they were forced to maintain life brought |
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on the illness from which he was unable to recover. He was brought back in the late spring of 1912 |
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on a hospital boat with several other comrades who were similarly stricken [Note C.3]. He was |
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placed in the Government Army and Navy Hospital, Presidio, San Francisco, where, despite the |
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best of skilled treatment, his condition continued to grow worse and in order that he might get |
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home was given a disability discharge. |
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On Oct. 5 he started home and so convenient are the modern means of travel that there seemed |
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a decided improvement in his condition on his arrival. This, however, proved a false hope as he |
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sank rapidly from that time and gradually growing weaker passed into the great unknown with |
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that calmness of mind and serenity of soul which characterized his entire life. His mind was clear |
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and rational to the very last, and it was evident that he foresaw and prepared himself for the |
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inevitable dissolution of his earthly tabernacle. |
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As he lived in hope and held himself together despite physical infirmities until he reached his |
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home and parents, so may we be assured that he held himself clear and clean . . . |
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Those who survive him are his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. D. A. McAninch, of this place; |
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his sisters, Mrs. Dora E. Swain, of Terre Haute, Ind., Mrs. Maude Bilderbeck, Jonesboro, Ark.; |
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his brother[s], John Freeman and George Daniel Elwood of Chicago, Ill., William Morton, of |
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Coatesville, and Fred Thomas, of Indianapolis. |
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This obituary is fittingly closed by the following quotations taken from his papers, evidently |
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written down as they came to him from his studies, betokening as they do his realization and his |
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preparedness: / On the Praise of Death / By Knowles / [long poem] |
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Source: Coatesville Herald, Coatesville, Indiana, Vol. III, No. 44, Thursday, Oct. 31, 1912, pg. 1 |
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[image online: McA-Vern-1912-Obit-First-Paragraph.jpg] [Note 8.g. (image)] |
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Appendix C: Notes for Coatesville Newspaper Articles about Vern McAninch, October 1912 |
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[C.1] |
Indiana newspaper project, Reel 290022, Coatesville Herald, Jan. 1912 to Dec. 1913 |
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Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, Indiana [Tuesday, 26 May 1998] |
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[C.2] |
“Signal Corps Rapids” may have been a ‘slang’ term for Fort Gibbon, but that place |
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name cannot be found anywhere else, not in any of the Army records, and not in any |
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other Alaska records. There are no river rapids near Tanana [Note 21.d. topo maps], and |
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the only rapids on the whole Yukon River are far upriver in the Yukon Territory, Canada. |
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[C.3] |
There is no evidence for ‘all 22 men’ (poisoned) in any of the Army records, nor in any |
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Alaska records [newspapers etc.]. Army records only show ‘1 sick’ at Fort Gibbon, |
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with [medical] transfer(s) to San Francisco, instead of a return to Vancouver Barracks. |
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_________________________________________________________________________ |
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McAninch Family History NL v.XX n.3 / July 2012 / Frank McAninch, Editor / page 2012-38 |