Fourth Generation (Continued)
William Henry HARDY.
Born on 3 Mar 1891. William Henry died on 1 Jul 1974; he was 83.
This was “Uncle Henry” to my father, William Lasley. As a boy I knew Uncle Henry and I recall eating fried chicken and watching football on a small black & white TV at his home on Sunday afternoons in St. Louis in the late 1950s and early 1960’s with he and Aunt Elizabeth.
He served in the U.S. Army 1916-1917 with General “Black Jack” Pershing in Texas along the Rio Grande when Pancho Villa was raiding Texas. I have a photo of him in uniform and have information on his unit, etc., but his military records were possibly destroyed by a fire accoring to government archives. From the discharge information I have, he enlisted on February 20, 1916 and was discharged October 12, 1917. He served on companies A and L of the 155th Regiment. I have found some history of the 155th on the Internet at:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/j/r/jrr17/infantry/155inf.htm
He was a fireman in West Point, MS for 44 years and fire chief for many of those years. Various newspaper articles about his career exist.
The following has been transcribed from notes written by Sarah Blanche Lasley Swafford during an interview with her uncle William Henry Hardy. There is no date recorded but it was probably done in early 1970s.
"City Hall - Built in 1907. Went to work for city in 1912, worked for 44 years until 1956. 1916 went to army - June 24, 1916 - sent to Texas to put down Mexican Revolution - Pancho Villa was trying to take over (unreadable) gave him a ranch and he was later killed in ambush. Came back to be mustered out, this was in L company. Went to barbershop and Shorty Milsap came running in and told him they were going to have to stay (??? had gone right on). He started out and met Captain Barney Semelman and he told Uncle to report in for WWI - 18 months in army and came back to old job. Dane Cottrell was mayor when Uncle started. Night work. Job to wind clock every Sat. Wound it until he started day work - nephews wound it for 25 cents per - Jim Young, Thad Moseley - mayors. Mr. Devis, Thompson McCella, Barnes Marshall. Horses were in stalls one on right & one on left side - where we pay our light bills - when fire phone rang - chains dropped & horses got in their place at wagon - firemen pulled harness down and only had to fasten collar - when the big outside chain dropped uncle said everybody..." - (at this point the page ends and I do not have the rest of the pages, G. Lasley 13 September 2002).
On 8 Oct 1939 when William Henry was 48, he married
Frances Elizabeth CHANDLER, daughter of Thomas Kyle CHANDLER Sr. (1871-1939) & Evelyn BERRYHILL (1886-1918).
Born on 9 Apr 1904. Frances Elizabeth died in West Point, Clay Co., MS, on 21 Dec 1989; she was 85.
This was my “Aunt Elizabeth” as we knew her when I was a small boy. She and Uncle Henry moved to St. Louis in the late 1950’s so that her grandson Bob (by her marriage to Jack Bouchillon) could go to a deaf school there. I have many memories of our family going to Uncle Henry and Anut Elizabeth’s house on Sundays to eat fried chicken and watch the NFL football games on a small black & white television.
There is a webpage about the Civil War activities of A.M. Chandler--Aunt Elizabeth's grandfather at:
http://www.37thtexas.org/html/chboys.html
They had no children.