Black Navy Veteran David Franklin Gets Gravestone 100 Years Later-- Part 4

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was the nation's firts veteran's organization.  It was dissolved after the last member died in the 1950s.  Loran Bures belongs to the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), the successor of the GAR.

Bures worked with Oakwood Hills owner  Corey Gaffney to confirm that Franklin was buried there and missing his tombstone.

The SUVCW  is considered by the Veterans Administration as being Franklin's legal next of kin and therefore, Bures was able to apply for a government headstone.  This is at no cost to the SUVCW or Bures.

Marking David Franklin's grave is also personal to Bures because his great-great grandfather, another Civil War veteran, is buried  just steps from Franklin's grave.     Both men were members of the Custer Post of the GAR in tacoma.

Thank You Mr. Bures and Mr. Gaffney.  --Old B-Runner

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

Black Navy Veteran Finally Gets Tombstone, David Franklin-- Part 2: Service on the USS Dawn

Not much is known about David Frankin's early life except that he was born free in New York in 1840.  He enlisted in the Union Navy on Nocvember 13, 1863 at age 23.

The young  sailor was assigned to the USS Dawn as an officers' steward and cook.  The steamer Dawn  was 154-feet long and  had a crew of 63 with 3 officers.  Seventeen percent of the crew were Blacks.  It was a part of te North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and spent most of its time on the James River.

On May 24, 1864, about 2,500 Confederates attacked the Union supply depot at Wilson's Wharf, Virginia.  They were repulsed by two black regiments totalling 1,100 men, with the help of the USS Dawn's guns.  The Confederates lost 200 men and Union just 40.

Franklin was discharged from Union service on March 31, 1865.

What happened to him after the war is lost to hostory until he appears on the roster as a member of a Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) camp in Tacoma, Washington.  An 1899 Tacoma city directory lists him as a  broiler at Donnelly Cafe, which was attched to the Hotel Donnelly.

--Old B-Runner

Black Civil War Naval Veteran Finally Gets Headstone in Tacoma, Washington-- Part 1: David Franklin

From the October 6, 2022, Stars and Stripes  by Craig Sailor, The News Tribune.

For the past century, a row of military graves in Tacoma's (Washington) Oakwood Hill Cemetery has had a conspicuous gap.  Only a patch of grass marked the final resting place of  David Franklin, Tacoma's only black naval veteran from the Civil War.

That changes this Saturday when a years-long effort speared by a Civil War historian will finally bring Franklin the white marble tombstone that was forgotten in 1920.

Historian Loran Bures' quest for that tombstone began in 2017 when he was researching Pierce County's Civil War veterans and found documents listing David Franklin and his burial at Oakwood Hill.  But when he visited the cemetery, he was unable to find his grave.

Using cemetery records, he founjd that the gap in that neat row of military graves was indeed Franklin's last resting place.

"As any veteran of the United States they should receive their proper burial honors," said Bures.  "That's what we're trying to rectify after 102 years."

So Proud of Mr. Bures for His Accomplishment.  --Old B-Runner