Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMarch 6, 1896
Place of BirthLutterworth, Haliburton, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Trade / CallingLogger
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number3645338
BattalionB Battery
ForceUS National Army
Branch13th Division 37th Field Artillery Regiment
Place of EnlistmentMontesano, Washington, USA
Address at EnlistmentOscosta, Washington, USA
Date of EnlistmentJuly 23, 1918
Age at Enlistment22
Theatre of ServiceUnited States
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathSeptember 26, 1939
Age at Death43
Buried AtLincoln Memorial Park, Portland, Oregon

Graham, Percy Horace

Percy Horace Graham was born on 6 March 1896 in Lutterworth, Haliburton, Ontario. His parents Richard Allen Graham and Rebecca Jane Bain had married in nearby Kinmount on 4 April 1894. With Richard first working as a labourer, the family was farming in the Lutterworth area by the time of Percy’s birth. The couple gave birth to son Malcolm Frederick in 1897 before moving to the town of Keewatin near present day Kenora in northwestern Ontario. While in Keewatin Richard worked as a general labourer. Children born in Keewatin were Anna Eleanor (1899), George (1902), and William John Henry (1904). Shortly after William’s birth the family moved to the Grey’s Harbour area in Washington, United States where Richard worked as a raftsman/logger. Children born after the move were Florence Ida (1906), Richard (abt 1908), Bertha May (1911), and Leland Bell (1916). Sadly both William and Richard Jr died in 1911 in Ocosta, Grey’s Harbour.

Percy signed his US WW1 Draft Registration on 5 June 1917 in Ocosta. Living in Ocosta at the time, he was working as a logger for the Seattle Pole and Pile Company in South Bay, Grey’s Harbour. His card gave his date of birth as 7 March 1896 in Minden, Canada and described him as tall and of medium weight with light brown eyes and light brown hair. He attested on 23 July 1918 at nearby Montesano and trained with the B Battery of the 13th Division 37th Field Artillery Regiment at Camp Lewis in Washington. He was discharged from service on 5 February 1919 at Camp Lewis, rank of Private 1st Class.

On 2 August 1919, in Montesano, Percy married Ruth Elizabeth Hopkins. Born on 2 August 1899 in Aberdeen, Grey’s Harbour, Ruth was the daughter of George Hopkins and Rilla Slocum. In 1917 she had married Ralph Benn in Montesano, the marriage ending in divorce. Percy and Ruth gave birth to daughter Barbara Bain on 29 May 1920 in Westport, another town in the area. Taken earlier that year, the 1920 US census listed Ruth as living with her parents in Westport, marital status as single and with her surname as Hopkins, and Percy as the next entry on the census, listed as head of the household and unemployed. At some point the marriage failed. Living in Ocosta, on 10 May 1928 Percy was admitted to a national home for disabled soldiers in Sawtelle, California, diagnosis as obesity and another unreadable cause on the home’s records. He was discharged on 25 February 1929, readmitted from 30 June 1929 to 4 October 1929, and then again on 4 June 1930, no discharge date given. At the time of the 1930 US census Ruth and Barbara, both with the surname of Johnson, were living with Ruth’s parents in Westport. Ruth married Roy Jacobsen in 1934 in Westport and later died on 25 January 1978. She is interred in the Wynoochee Cemetery in Montesano, Washington.

Percy died on 26 September 1939 in Portland Oregon. At the time of his death he was survived by his daughter Barbara (Roy) Anderson and grandson Roy, father Richard and his second wife Josephine, and siblings Malcolm (d 1965), Anna (James) Criel (d 1946), George (d 1962), Florence (Stanford) Gotchy (d 1967), Bertha (Ralph) Mathews (d 1991), and Leland (d 1963), all in the Grey’s Harbour area. He was predeceased by his two young brothers and his mother Rebecca in 1925 in Aberdeen, Gray’s Harbour. After the death of his second wife Josephine, Percy’s father Richard married Phyllis Mapes in 1953 and died in 1955 in Aberdeen. Percy is interred in Lincoln Memorial Park in Portland, Oregon.

By Judy Stockham

Grave marker photograph by The Angel Hunter, findagrave.com
Death notices provided by Mary Lynne Perkins Ellis, Facebook’s Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness


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