Mabel Ann Black: Love and loss in a time of war

Mabel Ann Black's was the first story told during Sunday afternoon's 18th annual Chariton Cemetery Heritage tour. The young nurse, who also shared the stories of her brothers, Tom and Walter, was portrayed by Deb Black (above) --- not related although surnames are identical.

Here's the text of the script that Deb worked from as she told this family's story from a first-person perspective:

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MY ASSIGNMENT this afternoon is to tell you a story about love and loss, war and peace, involving myself and my two brothers. I am Mabel Ann Black, a nurse by profession, and my brothers are Tom and Walter Black, soldiers who were two of Lucas County’s four losses during the Spanish American War.

The three of us died two years apart as the 19th century ended and the 20th began of typhoid fever, a disease rarely heard of in Lucas County today. Our heartbroken parents buried us in the shadow of that big tombstone over there inscribed “Black” and moved on. In the years since, memories of us have faded.

Our folks, Charles and Amanda Black, lived at first near Sandyville, east of Indianola in Warren County, and all nine of us children --- two boys and seven girls --- were born there. But in 1891, my dad brought us to a farm in Benton Township, near Chariton, and four years later, into Chariton itself after he bought a thriving grocery store on North Main Street.

Tom was the eldest in the family, born in 1873 and 18 when we moved to Lucas County. I was third, age 12; Walter was 10.

Our parents were firm believers in the value of higher education and supporters of Simpson College in Indianola, so both Tom and I enrolled there.

As 1898 dawned, I had completed my studies at Simpson and was enrolled in the nurse training program at the University of Iowa. Tom had completed his studies and returned to Chariton to launch a career in journalism. Talented and personable, he was local news editor of The Chariton Herald. Walter still was a student in the Chariton schools.

SHORTLY AFTER RETURNING home to Chariton, Tom had enlisted in Company H, an Iowa National Guard unit stationed in Chariton. Company H was part of the Guard’s 55th Infantry Regiment and had been headquartered in Chariton since 1893 when local attorney Warren S. Dungan, then Iowa’s lieutenant governor, arranged this political plum for his constituents. Enough funds were raised locally to build an armory, located at the intersection of South Main Street and what still is called Armory Avenue, south of the square.

Company H was very popular with Chariton’s young men. Memories of wartime horrors had faded since the Civil War and the Army reserve promised adventure and camaraderie, especially since there was little danger of actual combat. Tom advanced rapidly from private to corporal.

Walter was too young to be issued a rifle, but trumpeters were needed. So he was enlisted and at age 16, with our parents’ permission, was able to join the fun, too.

THE SITUATION changed dramatically during February of 1898, however, when the U.S.S. Maine sank in Havana Harbor after a huge explosion. Congress declared war on Spain on April 21 and Iowa Governor Leslie M. Shaw mobilized the National Guard, including Company H, the same day.

The men of Company H had been warned to expect mobilization and that evening marched to the depot, cheered by neighbors lining the streets. In Des Moines, they were mustered at Camp McKinley --- now the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

The Iowans left Des Moines in early May, expecting to see combat, but instead were put to work near Jacksonville, Florida, developing a new Army camp christened Camp Cuba Libre. The site of the camp was not wisely chosen, however, and was subject to flooding. Nor had the Army provided adequate sanitation or effective health care. The result was much sickness.

Tom, promoted to quartermaster sergeant, developed typhoid during early July, probably after drinking contaminated water, and the fever took his life early on the morning of Tuesday, July 19, 1898, at the age of 25.

His remains were escorted home to Chariton by our brother, Walter, and our parents purchased the lot here for his burial.

Walter returned to Camp Libre after a week’s furlough, but a few weeks later was diagnosed with typhoid, too, and hospitalized. On Sept. 12, the war winding down, the men of Company H were sent home. Walter traveled by hospital car, then was brought to our home where he died on Sept. 28. He was buried by Tom’s side. He was 17.

The Chariton Democrat eulogized Tom this way in its edition of July 22: “Handsome, earnest, brilliant, genial Tom. None knew him but to love him. One of the most gentlemanly soldiers in Company H, a man who would have made an unsullied citizen.”

Two months later, The Democrat remembered Walter this way: “A young man of exemplary habits, honest in business, faithful to himself and his God in life, and loving and kind to his parents and sisters.”

I RETURNED to Iowa City after Walter’s funeral and completed my nursing program, then worked for a time in the new University Hospital.

While doing so, I became acquainted with a young man from Iowa City who had completed his medical training about the same time I became a fully fledged nurse. His name was Dr. John R. Gardner. Romance blossomed, our match seemed ideal and during April of 1900 I came home to Chariton to prepare for marriage. Dr. Gardner moved to Lisbon, Iowa, to establish a practice and it was agreed we would marry in about a year.

I worked that summer and fall as a private duty nurse, caring for patients in and around Chariton.

During the late fall of 1900, I was called to the Keller home in Benton Township to nurse Mrs.Keller, ill with typhoid, a disease we as a family knew too well. I became infected, too, but after a month’s illness seemed by Christmas to be improving. Dr. Gardner had been called to Chariton to help care for me, so we were together at Christmas, still looking ahead to a bright future.

But then acute pneumonia set in and within hours I was dead --- on Sunday, Dec. 30. My sorrowing family and friends, as well as Dr. Gardner, brought me to my grave here at my brothers’ side two days later.

THREE YEARS later, my parents sold their grocery store and home in Chariton and moved back to Sandyville, where Father died during 1916 and Mother, during 1924. They chose to be buried in the Sandyville Cemetery rather than here.

Dr. Gardner continued his practice of medicine in Lisbon and during 1905 married Miss Pearl Smith and they had three children.

He was highly honored as a military veteran, veteran state legislator, outstanding physician and pillar of the Lisbon community when he died at the age of 89 on June 18, 1965. My brothers and I, by that time, had been largely forgotten. (Research and script writing by Frank D. Myers.)

This image from the Lucas County Historical Society collection shows Quartermaster Sergeant William T. Black's funeral cortege and was taken during July of 1898 in Jacksonville, Florida, as the men of Company H prepared to send his remains home to Chariton.