Biographical Notes |
Note: Harold's middle name of Frederick may have been in honor of his grandmother, Frederica Schreck, who came to Gallipolis to look after him and his brothers after their mother died when they were young boys. His father remarried in 1906 and Harold and his brothers were joined by two sisters, Olive and Della.
For his passport application Harold's year of birth was 1892, not 1891. His passport was issued on 15 November 1921.
Harold's World War I draft registration card written on June 4, 1917 in Columbus, Ohio, gives 1891 as his birth year. He was then 26 years old and a doctor of veterinary. He was described as tall with a medium build, blue eyes and fair hair, not bald. He was a graduate of Ohio State University and single. His home address was Second Avenue, Gallipolis, Ohio.
In 1920 Harold aged 28 was a First Lieutenant at Camp Gordon, a U.S. military reservation in Cross Keys, De Kalb Co., Georgia. He was in the veterinary corps.
In 1924 Harold was in a U. S. military home for disabled volunteer soldiers in Marion, Ross County, Indiana.
By 1930 Harold was a patient at the U.S. Veterans Hospital in Scioto Twp., Ross Co., Ohio. He was 38 years old and one of the youngest patients listed.
Harold died at the Veterans Hospital on 20 March 1967, aged 76 years. Did he really spend nearly thirty years in the Veterans Hospital? On his tombstone in Mound Hill Cemetery, the day of his death is 22 March.
How sad is this? A young man with a medical degree having finished the veterinary course at Ohio State, obviously able, spending half his life in a Veterans Hospital.
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