Civil War - Civil Union:
Chapter 5: William W. Elderkin (1867 - 1909) |
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Homepage Civil War-Civil Union Introduction Prologue: 1600s-1842 Chapter 1: 1842-1862 Chapter 2: 1862-1863 Chapter 3: 1863-1882 Chapter 4: 1883-1912 Chapter 5: 1912-on Conclusion Bibliography Descendancy Chart (to come) For Questions or
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William was David and Mary�s oldest child. Even though he came from a humble family, he had ambitions. He may have attended college, for he was listed on the 1900 census as a chemist[i] and on his death certificate as a �druggist-conductor.�[ii] William married Ora Bennett in 1892 and moved to the Chicago area.[iii] They had one child, who died.[iv] Then they adopted a boy they named Wesley Oliver sometime after 1900.[v] He was born January 8, 1898[vi] to poor Irish immigrants named John and Mary Ann Regan, who left him at an orphanage.[vii] The Elderkin family moved to the booming city of Los Angeles a few years later, where William took a job as a conductor for the L.A. Railway.[viii] Unfortunately, luck was not with William, Ora and Wesley. William died of tuberculosis at Sierra Madre[ix] where many went to recover from consumptive diseases,[x] on June 27, 1909.[xi] He was 41 years old. Ora was left with little money and few job skills, a situation which compelled Wesley to start working early. He was a messenger when he was just 12[xii] and enlisted in World War I[xiii] when he was 18 or 19. Ora died in November 1918 of �pernicious anemia.� Wesley married early and had one daughter, who was still alive in 2003.[xiv]
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[i]
1900 U.S. cens., Chicago-Jefferson Township, Cook County, IL, p. 13B,
line 88. |