Obituary for Fred M Carr, Coopersville, Ottawa County, Michigan

Copyright © 1998 by Bruce Nordstrom. This copy contributed for use in 
the USGenWeb Archives.  

 

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Article in the OBSERVER, Coopersville, Michigan newspaper, dated September 9, 1898:

Funeral of Fred M. Carr. Company F's First Sacrifice to its Country in the Spanish-American War.

Word was received here last week Thursday evening of the death of Frederick M. Carr, Company
F., Thirty-Second Michigan, at Fort McPherson, Ga., from typhoid fever.
This is the first death occurring in Company F while in service. Carr is a Coopersville boy and
enlisted with several other of our young men at the first call for volunteers. He was attending the high
school at the time and left in order to go to the front. He was twenty- one years of age and leaves an
aged grandmother, Mrs. Griswold, and one brother to mourn his departure.

This sad news stirred us all and touched every heart with sympathy when we realized that one of our
brave boys had sacrificed his life on the alter of his country. It was hoped the Company F, and
especially the Coopersville boys
who belong to it, would come home without a break in the ranks, but the grim reaper of all humanity
has gathered one of our bright young men into his fold, bringing sorrow and sadness to his widowed
grandmother and all his friends. He
was stricken with typhoid fever while in Camp at Fernandina, Florida, and was transferred to the
hospital at Fort McPherson, Ga., where kind nurses did all they could to make him comfortable and
restore him again to health, but he failed rapidly and death claimed him as his victim on Thursday,
September 1.

The remains reached Coopersville Monday afternoon on the 6:06 train, and members of the G.A.R.
took care of it. The funeral was held Tuesday afternoon, in the M.E. Church, and the whole town
turned out to do honor to the first Ottawa
County boy to fall in this war. Business houses closed, the schools were suspended for the occasion
and friends were present from all parts of the country. A large number of members of Company F
Veteran Association of Grand Haven attended the funeral. Upon their arrival, they marched to Mrs.
Griswold's residence, keeping time to the muffled drum,
and then followed the remains to the M. E. Church, which was crowded to its utmost capacity to
pay the last respect to a brave soldier boy. The services were conducted in a fitting manner by Rev.
R. N. Middleton, pastor of the M. E. Church, of which Private Carr was a faithful member. A select
choir sang appropriate songs. His class in the High school, of which Carr was a member when he
enlisted, attended in a body. The services were very impressive, the floral pieces numerous and the
solo sung by Mrs. B. O. Goodrich, "Bury
Me Near My Old Home," was very fitting and appropriate. It was ably rendered and won for her
many encomiums.

The Muskegon Rifles kindly loaned eight of the Springfield rifles used by them at Santiago , to the
Company F Veteran Association, and they were used by the firing squad in giving he last salute
when all that was mortal of Private Carr was lowered in the grave.

Frederick M. Carr was born at Dennison, Ottawa County, Mich., May 27, 1877. His parents died
a number of years ago, his aged grandmother, Mrs. E. Griswold, being
the only near relative, who is nearly heartbroken over his demise. She lost two sons in the war of the
rebellion and her grandson was a great favorite with her. A brother, Perry, is in Company K, Fourth
Wisconsin Volunteers at Camp Douglas, and he was notified at his death, being present at the
funeral.

The dead soldier boy was highly esteemed and beloved boy all who knew him, and he was a model
young man.

It was thru the kind attention of Governor Pingree that the remains were sent from Fort McPherson
to Coopersville, and this act has endeared him to all of our citizens.

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