thedrifter
11-09-08, 07:06 AM
Observing Armistice Day
by Patricia K. Benoit
Published: November 9, 2008
Augustus Clayton Oliver died so that war would be no more. On Monday at 10 a.m., veterans of later conflicts will gather at his grave to honor his sacrifice during the “war to end all wars.”
The observance will be part of the 90th anniversary of the close of World War I, when the first Armistice Day was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Veterans of all branches and the general public are invited to attend the observance in the Mary Oliver Cemetery at Three Forks Farm, 6200 FM 436, Belton.
Pvt. Oliver, a Marine machine gunner, died on the bloody fields of France on Sept. 15, 1918.
The ceremony will be a bittersweet time for his family, who grieved him too long and too quietly, and for his family and comrades who saw more battles as the century rolled forward. Draft board records indicate that Oliver is the only Bell County Marine to die during World War I. Bell County lost dozens more serving in the Army and Navy, but Monday’s observance allows Marines to honor one of their own.
The Louis Wayne Qualls Detachment of the Marine Corps League is coordinating the event. Mike Sherrod, detachment commandant, will be master of ceremonies. Wayne Matthews, detachment chaplain, will give a brief history of the Oliver’s life.
Also expected to participate will be representatives from the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Texas Post 1876; Military Order of World Wars, Waco; Vietnam Veterans of America, Salado; Veterans of Foreign Wars posts from Belton, Killeen, Harker Heights and Temple; American Legion Posts from Killeen, Temple, Belton and Harker Heights; and AMVETS, Killeen.
Like so many Bell County men, Oliver was caught up in patriotic fervor as the United States entered the war in April 1917. He was among the 198,000 Texans who served, and among the more than 5,000 who perished.
Bell County, too, paid a heavy price. More than 1,100 men and women - white, African American and Hispanic - hailed from Bell County, according to draft registration records in the Railroad and Heritage Museum’s archives. In all, 17 Bell County men were killed in action, 12 died in accidents, 44 were wounded and five permanently disabled. Forty-two died of disease - mostly from the influenza pandemic of late 1918.
Patriotism and service to county was deep in his DNA. Augustus Oliver’s grandfather fought in the War of 1812 and his great-grandfather, the American Revolution. He was born in 1894, the son of William Henry Oliver, a Confederate veteran, and Eunice Walters Oliver. His two other brothers, Amos and John Walthall Oliver, also enlisted at the same time.
Their widowed mother, Eunice, dutifully, hopefully became a “Blue Star mother,” proud but anxious. Following custom, she hung a plaque with three blue stars in the front window, denoting three sons serving in the war, and she wore a small enamel collar pin with three blue stars.
After enlisting in June 1917, Augustus Oliver served 11 months at Parris Island and a New Jersey powder plant. By early September 1918, he joined the 80th Company, 6th Marines, and was sent to France. Two weeks later, he caught the lethal end of a German machine gun and was buried at Thiaucourt, Lorraine, France.
At the same time, his brother Amos contracted influenza. Hospitalized for six months, he could not return home. Family members say it took him nearly a year to recover fully.
All this weighed heavily on their mother, who kept clippings and letters folded in a safe place, her most cherished a 1919 letter from Augustus’ comrade in arms still stationed in Germany. “He was instantly killed …,” the letter writer said. “The Germans were counterattacking our position, which we had driven them out of that morning. We were giving them all we had when Gus fell.”
The family grieved deeply, stoically, silently. Eunice lived to be 106, dying in 1966, but the family rarely talked about him in front of her.
Yet, Augustus’ photo was displayed prominently in the Oliver home because he had been the linchpin, the glue that held the family together, said retired Air Force Col. Jack Oliver, former county commissioner. She never talked about his uncle Augustus, but his photo was always in a place of honor “right where she kept her knitting and sewing so she could see it.”
Another Oliver nephew agreed. “Uncle Gus took care of everybody; he was the leader,” said Augustus’ namesake and nephew, Gus Oliver, who splits his time between Tulsa, Okla., and his birthplace near Three Forks.
The younger Gus heard stories about his uncle from others. Born in 1923, Gus Oliver, the son of Augustus’ other brother William Love Oliver, never knew his uncle. When Eunice saw him shortly after he was born, she said he resembled his Uncle Gus. So, she asked his mother to name him after her fallen son. “Mother said she didn’t have nerve enough not to,” said Gus Oliver.
The two Augustus Olivers - nephew and uncle - also shared a deep sense of patriotism and love of the Marines. The younger Gus enlisted in the Marines for World War II, as did many of his other Oliver relatives who served in the Marines, Army and Navy in every conflict from World War II to present-day Middle East clashes. Many of them are expected at Monday’s observance, including some who have recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.
For three years, Augustus Oliver lay in a simple grave in Thiaucourt until 1921, when the federal government offered to return fallen soldiers to their families. Eunice agreed.
His reinterment on June 29, 1921, in the family cemetery gave the community a time for closure. Earlier that day, members of Houston, Belton and Temple American Legion posts escorted the casket from San Antonio to Belton.
At 5:10 that afternoon, a bugler summoned the posts and other veterans to “fall in” on East Central Avenue in front of the funeral home where Oliver’s casket lay. Color bearers, honor guards and firing squads stood at rapt attention as the casket was escorted out. Augustus’ boyhood friends and schoolmates served as pallbearers.
The somber procession - one of the largest Belton had ever seen - marched around the courthouse square, then on to East Street, where everyone got into autos to drive about four miles to Three Forks.
The hearse halted 50 yards from the grave so that the veterans could once again carry the casket in solemn procession. Rifles fired a salute, a men’s quartet sang, and a chaplain from a Kansas American Legion Post delivered the graveside homily, keyed to John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Finally, Eunice Oliver received the folded flag that had draped her son’s coffin as the casket gently eased back down into the earth.
Her boy was home at last.
pbenoit@temple-telegram.com
Ellie
by Patricia K. Benoit
Published: November 9, 2008
Augustus Clayton Oliver died so that war would be no more. On Monday at 10 a.m., veterans of later conflicts will gather at his grave to honor his sacrifice during the “war to end all wars.”
The observance will be part of the 90th anniversary of the close of World War I, when the first Armistice Day was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Veterans of all branches and the general public are invited to attend the observance in the Mary Oliver Cemetery at Three Forks Farm, 6200 FM 436, Belton.
Pvt. Oliver, a Marine machine gunner, died on the bloody fields of France on Sept. 15, 1918.
The ceremony will be a bittersweet time for his family, who grieved him too long and too quietly, and for his family and comrades who saw more battles as the century rolled forward. Draft board records indicate that Oliver is the only Bell County Marine to die during World War I. Bell County lost dozens more serving in the Army and Navy, but Monday’s observance allows Marines to honor one of their own.
The Louis Wayne Qualls Detachment of the Marine Corps League is coordinating the event. Mike Sherrod, detachment commandant, will be master of ceremonies. Wayne Matthews, detachment chaplain, will give a brief history of the Oliver’s life.
Also expected to participate will be representatives from the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Texas Post 1876; Military Order of World Wars, Waco; Vietnam Veterans of America, Salado; Veterans of Foreign Wars posts from Belton, Killeen, Harker Heights and Temple; American Legion Posts from Killeen, Temple, Belton and Harker Heights; and AMVETS, Killeen.
Like so many Bell County men, Oliver was caught up in patriotic fervor as the United States entered the war in April 1917. He was among the 198,000 Texans who served, and among the more than 5,000 who perished.
Bell County, too, paid a heavy price. More than 1,100 men and women - white, African American and Hispanic - hailed from Bell County, according to draft registration records in the Railroad and Heritage Museum’s archives. In all, 17 Bell County men were killed in action, 12 died in accidents, 44 were wounded and five permanently disabled. Forty-two died of disease - mostly from the influenza pandemic of late 1918.
Patriotism and service to county was deep in his DNA. Augustus Oliver’s grandfather fought in the War of 1812 and his great-grandfather, the American Revolution. He was born in 1894, the son of William Henry Oliver, a Confederate veteran, and Eunice Walters Oliver. His two other brothers, Amos and John Walthall Oliver, also enlisted at the same time.
Their widowed mother, Eunice, dutifully, hopefully became a “Blue Star mother,” proud but anxious. Following custom, she hung a plaque with three blue stars in the front window, denoting three sons serving in the war, and she wore a small enamel collar pin with three blue stars.
After enlisting in June 1917, Augustus Oliver served 11 months at Parris Island and a New Jersey powder plant. By early September 1918, he joined the 80th Company, 6th Marines, and was sent to France. Two weeks later, he caught the lethal end of a German machine gun and was buried at Thiaucourt, Lorraine, France.
At the same time, his brother Amos contracted influenza. Hospitalized for six months, he could not return home. Family members say it took him nearly a year to recover fully.
All this weighed heavily on their mother, who kept clippings and letters folded in a safe place, her most cherished a 1919 letter from Augustus’ comrade in arms still stationed in Germany. “He was instantly killed …,” the letter writer said. “The Germans were counterattacking our position, which we had driven them out of that morning. We were giving them all we had when Gus fell.”
The family grieved deeply, stoically, silently. Eunice lived to be 106, dying in 1966, but the family rarely talked about him in front of her.
Yet, Augustus’ photo was displayed prominently in the Oliver home because he had been the linchpin, the glue that held the family together, said retired Air Force Col. Jack Oliver, former county commissioner. She never talked about his uncle Augustus, but his photo was always in a place of honor “right where she kept her knitting and sewing so she could see it.”
Another Oliver nephew agreed. “Uncle Gus took care of everybody; he was the leader,” said Augustus’ namesake and nephew, Gus Oliver, who splits his time between Tulsa, Okla., and his birthplace near Three Forks.
The younger Gus heard stories about his uncle from others. Born in 1923, Gus Oliver, the son of Augustus’ other brother William Love Oliver, never knew his uncle. When Eunice saw him shortly after he was born, she said he resembled his Uncle Gus. So, she asked his mother to name him after her fallen son. “Mother said she didn’t have nerve enough not to,” said Gus Oliver.
The two Augustus Olivers - nephew and uncle - also shared a deep sense of patriotism and love of the Marines. The younger Gus enlisted in the Marines for World War II, as did many of his other Oliver relatives who served in the Marines, Army and Navy in every conflict from World War II to present-day Middle East clashes. Many of them are expected at Monday’s observance, including some who have recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.
For three years, Augustus Oliver lay in a simple grave in Thiaucourt until 1921, when the federal government offered to return fallen soldiers to their families. Eunice agreed.
His reinterment on June 29, 1921, in the family cemetery gave the community a time for closure. Earlier that day, members of Houston, Belton and Temple American Legion posts escorted the casket from San Antonio to Belton.
At 5:10 that afternoon, a bugler summoned the posts and other veterans to “fall in” on East Central Avenue in front of the funeral home where Oliver’s casket lay. Color bearers, honor guards and firing squads stood at rapt attention as the casket was escorted out. Augustus’ boyhood friends and schoolmates served as pallbearers.
The somber procession - one of the largest Belton had ever seen - marched around the courthouse square, then on to East Street, where everyone got into autos to drive about four miles to Three Forks.
The hearse halted 50 yards from the grave so that the veterans could once again carry the casket in solemn procession. Rifles fired a salute, a men’s quartet sang, and a chaplain from a Kansas American Legion Post delivered the graveside homily, keyed to John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Finally, Eunice Oliver received the folded flag that had draped her son’s coffin as the casket gently eased back down into the earth.
Her boy was home at last.
pbenoit@temple-telegram.com
Ellie