Private First Class Turner Daniel Williams, United States Army, “Served His County”
July 7,2022 - Turner Daniel Williams was born February 23rd, 1913 in the Stockman Community of Shelby County, Texas to Nancy Ellen Wilson and William Daniel “Dan” Williams. His parents both had previous spouses giving him twelve known siblings and half siblings. Father Dan passed when Turner was only eight months old and Mother Nancy passed when he was age five. Although undocumented, he undoubtedly was raised by one the family members.
Military service listed on his War Department O.Q.M.G. Form No. 623, Application for Headstone shows two periods of active duty. (1) July 7th, 1934, to July 6th, 1937. (2) April 26th, 1938 to April 22nd, 1941.(1) The 1940 census shows him living as a soldier, rank of Private First Class with Service Company, 19 Infantry Regiment, 24 Infantry Division, Wahiawa, Honolulu County, Hawaii. In 1939 he earned $360.00 ($6,840 today) and worked 52 weeks of that year.(2)
The Selective Service Act of 1940 required that men who had reached their twenty-first birthday but not their thirty-sixth register with local draft boards.(3) Turner, a veteran of six years army service complied on June 3rd, 1941 in Kountze, Hardin County, Texas. His registration card, D.S.S. Form 1 showed his residence was Box 359, Silsbee, Hardin County. He was six foot, two inches tall and weighed 171 pounds with brown hair and eyes. His complexion was described as ruddy and had a mole over his left eye.(4)
Turner had been discharged eight months prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941, that sent the United States into a second world war. He was not called to duty again, possibly because of a medical condition. The war would end September 2nd, 1945.
No further documentation about his life was found until his death at the Hines Veteran Administration Hospital in Cook County, Illinois on February 1, 1946. The following is in part from the Timpson Weekly Times, Timpson, Texas, February 15th, 1946. “The body was brought to Stockman, Tuesday, February 5 and funeral services were conducted by Rev. C. J. Weimer, Pastor of the Timpson Circuit. Interment was made in the Mt. Olive Cemetery. He was a well-known citizen of Shelby County. Survived by; two brothers, H. R. Williams, Provencal, Louisiana and J. A. Williams, Beaumont; half-brother, J. O. Vaught of Orange and one half-sister Mrs. Stella Clary.” The family also issued a card of thanks in the same newspaper issue. Day is done, God is nigh.
Epilogue: On March 20th, 1946, his brother James made application for his veteran headstone that was to be a flat marble marker.
Sources:
(1): National Archives at Washington DC; Washington DC, USA; Applications for Headstones for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1941; NAID: A1, 2110-C; Record Group Number: 92; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General
(2): Year: 1940; Census Place: Wahiawa, Honolulu, Hawaii; Roll: m-t0627-04589; Page: 28B; Enumeration District: 2-185
(3) “Selective Training and Service Act of 1940.” In Wikipedia, November 27, 2020.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Selective_Training_and_Service_Act_of_1940&oldid=991001555.
(4): National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for Texas, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1638
