May 3, 2024 - Elbert Alvie was born on New Year’s Day, Friday, January 1st, 1897, the same year Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope [first movie projector]. His birthplace was the far east Texas town of Center, which serves as Shelby's county seat. His parents, Arella Margaret McGee, and Alva King Williford, raised a large family of seven boys and six girls on a Joaquin and Center Road farm.
The United States entered the World War in Europe on April 6th, 1917, and the Selective Service Act of the same year required Elbert to register for the military draft on June 5th, 1918. Instead of registering, he voluntarily enlisted in the Regular Army at Jackson Barracks, New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 29th. Following basic training, he was assigned to the Coastal Artillery Corps. As part of the Jackson Barracks September Automatic Replacement Draft Unit # 2, Coastal Artillery Corps, Private Williford, serial # 2590619, boarded the troopship USS Northern Pacific on September 20th, 1918, and departed the port of Hoboken, New Jersey, bound for the war in France. He listed his mother, Arella, as the next of kin.
Arriving some eleven days later, Elbert was assigned to Battery D, 62nd Artillery Regiment, Coastal Artillery Corps, which had been in France since July 1918. The 62nd joined the 60th and 61st Regiments that formed the 33rd Brigade. They were trained at Operations and Training in the commune of Libourne and the Gironde department in southwestern France. However, only the 60th Regiment saw action at the front before the World War ended on November 11th, 1918. Elbert remained in France until February 6th, 1919, when his battery boarded the USS Pocahontas and departed Bordeaux for the journey home. He named his father, Alva of Joaquin, as the next of kin.
The New York Herald newspaper, February 17th, 1919, page 14, reported the arrival of the “Pocahontas from Bordeaux with 2,934 officers and men and five civilians, including the complete Sixty-second Regiment Coastal Artillery Corps of fifty officers and 1,711 men”. After docking at Hoboken, where his journey had begun five months earlier, Elbert and his fellow soldiers were transported to a nearby Army camp for physicals, pay, and discharge processing. He was honorably discharged on March 15th, 1919, and for his ten months of military service, he was awarded the World War I Victory Medal.
Returning to Louisiana, Elbert lived as a single farm hand until August 17th, 1925, when he married Miss Emma Foster in Shelby County. The 1930 census showed he and Emma worked a farm in Sabine Parish and now had four children: Cleo Jewell, Harold, Darrell, and Chester. Three years later, Emma passed away at the age of 29 and was buried in Zwolle, Louisiana. In 1938, Elbert contracted tuberculosis and died May 28th, 1938, when he was just 41 years old. He was buried in the Jackson Cemetery, Joaquin, Shelby County, Texas, with his parents. His daughter Cleo made an application for his veteran headstone on July 15th, 1940. Day is done, God is nigh.
Bartle Funeral Home, Center, Shelby County, Texas
Sources:
(1): Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 4, Shelby, Texas; Roll: T624_1588; Page: 23A; Enumeration District: 0150; FHL microfilm: 1375601
(2): "Texas, World War I Records, 1917-1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9MN-ZS9R-R?cc=2202707&wc=334L-T38%3A1560656702%2C1561323001 : 26 March 2015), Enlisted men > Williams, Russell B-Wise, Clifton, 1917-1920 > image 781 of 3348; Texas Military Forces Museum, Austin.
(3): The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 512
(4): https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~cacunithistories/military/62nd_Arty.html
(5): The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 251
(6): Year: 1930; Census Place: Police Jury Ward 9, Sabine, Louisiana; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0019; FHL microfilm: 2340553
