Every Veteran Has a Story: Stephen Oates

Stephen Hulon Oates
World War I Veteran – Killed in Action
Gold Star Family 

Gold Star BannerOctober 2, 2017 - Stephen Oates, known to his family and friends by his middle name Hulon, was the youngest child of ten born to Stephen Henry and Margaret Pierson Oates of Shelby County, Texas five days before Christmas in 1893. His father was born in Alabama around 1844 and the Oates family was living in Paxton, Shelby County, Texas by the year 1854. In the year 1862 with the Civil War raging Hulon’s father and his brother Jesse both enlisted in Company H, 11 Regiment, Texas Infantry. Jesse would be killed and his father survived but suffered from a face wound received in the mouth from a gunshot. His first wife Mandy died in 1871 and he married Hulon’s mother Margaret sometime after that. In 1910 when Hulon was 17 his mother passed away followed by his father two years later.

At the age of 21, Hulon married Hester Hughes on November 19, 1915 and they made their home in the Sardis Community of Shelby County. Tragedy struck eleven months later when Hester suddenly passed away at their home. Widowed he earned his living as a farm hand working for a Mr. Walter Paddy in Tenaha.

The first of three national draft registration days was held on June 5, 1917 and Hulon traveled to the county seat of Center and completed his draft card numbered 133. It did not take Uncle Sam long to come calling for him and over 60 others from the county. They were inducted on September 19, 1917 and sent to various Army Training Camps mostly in the state of Texas. For whatever reason, he and another local boy named John Temple (who would later become missing in action) were assigned to Company A, 360 Infantry Regiment at Camp Mills, New York. On March 10, 1918 they both were reassigned to Company I, 39th Infantry Regiment (nicknamed “Fighting Falcons”) of the 4 Infantry Division and began training for the war in France. The training became reality when on May 8, 1918 he and his unit shipped out from Hoboken, New Jersey on the transport SS Espagne. Hulon listed his brother John Charley Oates of Paxton, Texas as his next of kin on the passenger list.

PFC Oates and the 39th Infantry Regiment participated with the American Expeditionary Force and joined battle for the first time during World War I in the now famous “Aisne-Marne Offensive” which was destined to swing the fortunes of war in favor of the Allies. When the smoke of World War I cleared away, the 39th Infantry Regiment’s colors showed battled honors for the campaigns of the Aisne-Marne, Meuse-Argonne, Lorrain, St Mihiel and Champagne, a Distinguished Unit Citation from the grateful French government and the French Croix de Guerre with Gold Star. During this fighting Hulon was killed in action on September 30, 1918.

Initially buried with fellow fallen comrades in an American Cemetery in France his remains along with 5,823 others departed Antwerp, Belgium aboard the Army Transport SS Wheaton on June 19, 1921 for the voyage home to America. Three of those returning home were the first to die in battle against Germany. Arriving at the same time with the remains of 1,441 more fallen was the Army Transport SS Somme. A Memorial Service by the American Legion for the 7,264 men who made the supreme sacrifice during the World War was held at Pier 4, Hoboken, New Jersey at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, July 10, 1921. General John “Black Jack” Pershing who served as Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front was in attendance and eulogized the bravery, self-sacrifice and intense patriotism of American Troops. He ended with “all these your countrymen were great Americans. May they rest under the care of a patriotic people and may their deeds always inspire us to better things”. There were Jewish, Protestant and Roman Catholic services with music by a military band from Fort Hamilton.

Oates, Stephen - Sardis photo by HumeThe morning southbound train arrived in Center, Texas on Tuesday, July 19, 1921 with Hulon’s remains and those of two other soldiers from Shelby County who also died in the war. They were Norfleet E. Armstrong and Ira F. Hoffman. The train was met by hundreds of sorrowing friends and relatives and members of the Norman G. Crocker American Legion Post who escorted the remains from the station to the funeral locations with all caskets draped with an American Flag. The remains of Stephen Hulon Oates were taken to the home of Mr. and Mr. R. H. McCauley on Nacogdoches Street. That afternoon members of the American Legion accompanied his body to the Sardis Cemetery and assisted in the funeral service where he was laid to rest with his wife Hester with full military honors.


Greensboro Daily News, Greensboro North Carolina, July 14, 1921. Newspapers.com

(Sources: Sources: Ancestry.com Sept 2017; Family Search.org February 2017; Champion Newspaper, Jan 17, 1917, July 27, 1921; New York Times, July 4, 1921, July 9, 1921; Times Herald, Olean, New York July 11, 1921; 9thinfantrydivision.net, Sept 2017/ Nebraska State Journal, July 11, 1921).