01 August 2021

Canadian Patrick W. McLaughlin Buried Away from Family in Macon, Georgia

Patrick William McLaughlin died at US Army (training) Camp Wheeler near Macon, Bibb County, Georgia less than a week before Christmas in 1917. He was a private in Company G, 124th Infantry, and cause of death was tuberculosis.

Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
Friday, 21 December 1917
THREE MORE DEATHS AT CAMP WHEELER

Macon, Ga., Dec. 20. -- Patrick McLaughlin, of Company G, 124th Infantry, who died in the base hospital Tuesday night, is said to have seen service in the trenches in France in the present war. He was a Canadian. The body is still being held and efforts are being made to locate relatives...
That last line made me worry his family wasn't located in time, but then I found the following:

Atlanta Consitution (Georgia)
Sunday, 23 December 1917 - pg. 9
COMES FROM CANADA IN RACE WITH DEATH

Facing Zero Temperatures, Miss McLaughlin Arrives for Soldier Brother's Funeral.


Macon, Ga., December 22. -- (Special.) Miss Charlotte McLaughlin traveled all the way from Saskatoon, saskatchewan, in the Canadian northwest in response to a message that her brother, Patrick William McLaughlin, 24 years of age, was at the point of death at the base hospital at Camp Wheeler. She left Saskatoon on Monday morning while the temperature registered 45 degrees below zero and a heavy blanket of snow covered the ground, arriving here today.

Coming through the state of North Dakota on Wednesday Miss McLaughlin received a telegram that her brother was dead. She continued on to take charge of the burial, for Miss McLaughlin's parents are dead and the only other living member of the family is another brother, Bertrand Alexander McLaughlin, 21 years of age, who is a member of a Canadian artillery regiment mobilized at Kingston, Ontario.

Miss McLaughlin decided after her arrival to have her brother buried in Rose Hill cemetery in this city. Captain A. Wright Ellis, of Company G of the 124th Infantry, of which company her brother was a member, arranged for the service. All of the officers, including Captain Ellis and Lieutenants Giles, Simmons and Byrne, turned out yesterday morning for the funeral. The service was conducted by Captain L. A. Spencer, chaplain of the regiment. The funeral and burial were with full military honors and there was a large attendance at the service. There was an escort and a firing squad, the latter firing the usual salute at the grave.

This is the first soldier to be buried in Macon since the troops moved to Camp Wheeler and the base hospital was established there.

Miss McLaughlin left the city for her return trip tonight. She said that she had hoped, when she started out, to spend Christmas with her brother at Camp Wheeler.
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