"Enviable Record and Good Health"

OTD in 1867, Train Caldwell McClure (1843-1934) married Gulia Swain (1847-1920). Train was my husband's great-grand uncle.

Train was 23 at the time of his marriage, 159 years ago today. He was a veteran of the US Civil War, having fought for the Union while in the 89th Indiana Infantry, from 1862-1865. Gulia was 20 when she married Train. They had four children together. Train was active in the local Grand Army of the Republic and attended encampments and reunions for many years afterward. 

Recently redoing my newspaper research, I discovered a small item on the front page of the Wabash Plain Dealer (Wabash, Indiana), published August 4, 1917. The masthead is shown above. The news item reads:

LOCAL MAN HAS ENVIABLE RECORD AND GOOD HEALTH

Fifty-five years ago today, T.C. McClure was mustered into the United States service, company A, 89th Indiana, for three years and five days. During that time, he stated, he never was in the hospital or guard house, meaning he behaved perfectly and had excellent health.

He has resided in Noble township for 73 years and was born on September 23, 1843, about 74 years old [sic]. Mr. McClure has been married for 50 years, and will celebrate his golden wedding anniversary on the 15th of this month.

Other dusty statistics revealed by him today show that he has lived in one house for 48 years.

He is now a resident of 254 West Main Street, this city, and has behind him an enviable record. Notwithstanding his age and war service he seems to be enjoying good health.

Train and Gulia were married for 52 years in all, so I'm sorry to see that her name was not included in this news item, let alone names of their children. 

Gulia died after nearly two years of illness, in January of 1920. Train remarried in 1921, to Rebecca Abbott (1857-1935). He was 77, Rebecca was 64. In 1934, Train succumbed to pneumonia and influenza, at age 90, and was buried next to his first wife, Gulia. 

He had indeed enjoyed an enviable record and good health for a good many years. 

Check out Fold3 Links on Find a Grave Memorials

If you have military veterans in your family tree, take a look at the bottom of their Find a Grave memorials. More and more now have a direct link (see orange arrow) from Find a Grave to that veteran's Fold3 memorial page. 

This little link can lead to interesting genealogical information! It's there because Find a Grave and Fold3 are both owned by Ancestry.com.

Fold3 memorial pages are FREE

Go ahead and click the link leading to Fold3--because a memorial page is completely free to view (or create or improve).

Above is part of the Fold3 memorial page for Union Army veteran Train C. McClure, which popped up when I clicked the link from Find a Grave. I can navigate to facts (shown in timeline format), stories, gallery, and sources. 

In the facts section, you'll see that the sources of both the birth date and birth place are 1 Fgv Document. Translation: one Find a Grave page. 

What are the sources?

In the sources section of this memorial page, there are two records attached (see below). 

One is Civil War info from Fold3, and the other is the Find a Grave memorial for Pvt Train C. McClure, marked as a Fgv Document. Since Pvt McClure is in my husband's family tree, I examined everything in detail.

Other documents, images, even photos may be attached to a veteran's Fold3 memorial page, so definitely click to see what you can learn. Save whatever you can to your own computer, attach to your family trees, and follow up any clues.