Black Navy Veteran David Franklin Finally Gets His Gravestone-- Part 3

Of interest, records show that David Franklin enlisted in the hospital corps of the 2nd Regiment of the Washington National Guard Infantry in 1906.  (Quite an elderly age to be doing that.)

According to census records, Franklin died March 16, 1920, at age 79 at home on South 4th Street.

His death certificate shows that he was a widower, but no other records have been found that he had a wife or children.  They are still looking for family descendants.

The discovery of  Franklin came about when Bures was trying to identify every single Union veteran buried in Pierce County.  He was aided by a 1939  survey conducted by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Depression-era New Deal agency aimed at employing people for government projects.

WPA workers created  biographical cards for all war veterans of Pierce County.  The original cards are stored in the Tacoma  Public Library.  About 75% of the 2,000 cards are of Civil War veterans.

--Old B-Runner