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Troy's Genealogue

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Family Histories:

WILLIAMS Family History, Part IV

Charles H. COLE, Jr. (1887-1972)

141A1. Charles H. COLE, Jr. was born September 12, 1887 in California. He married Edith "Birdie" Mary MCGREER about 1909 and had two daughters:

The COLES lived at 2901 King Street in Berkeley, Alameda County, California soon after their marriage, and Charles worked as telephone company foreman and electrical engineer.^{[Cen 1910]}

By 1920, the COLES had moved in with Birdie's mother Ella MCGREER, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew just around the corner at 2933 Harper Street.^{[Cen 1920]}

Edith "Birdie" Mary (MCGREER) COLE died on December 22, 1966 in Alameda County, California. She was 81 years old.

Charles H. COLE, Jr. died five years later on February 26, 1972 in Alameda County, at the age of 84. He had been living in Oakland at the time.

Elsie Alberta (WILLIAMS) HITCHCOCK (1914-2001)

141D1. Elsie Alberta WILLIAMS was born March 7, 1914. She had her first daughter by Corporal Claude Morgan MILLER, U.S. Marine Corps, who had served in Nicaragua. A year after their daughter was born, Claude deserted both his young family and the Corps while on temporary duty in Seattle, Washington. Claude was never heard from again.

Elsie later had a son with James FLETCHER, Robert, who was adopted at birth by Elsie's friend and future sister-in-law, Helen (HITCHCOCK) MICHALK. About six years later, Elsie married Max Robert HITCHCOCK, Helen's younger brother. Elsie and Max had four more children:

Claude Morgan MILLER's Service, USMC

Claude Morgan MILLER was born about May 10, 1906 near Kansas City, Clay County, Missouri. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps and went to Nicaragua in 1928 to take part in ongoing US occupation of Nicaragua (1909-1933), reinforce the conservative presidency of Adolfo DIAZ, and help put down the subsequent 1926 liberal uprising led by General Augusto César SANDINO. During the uprising he was said to have been hit with a "coke bottle bomb" in the buttocks and hospitalized. Afterward Claude was stationed for two years at Mare Island Naval Yard near Vallejo, Solano County, California. There he met Elsie and fathered their daughter, Bette Ann. Not long before Bette Ann was born, Claude was transferred to San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. There began a spiral of absences without leave that culminated in his desertion from Seattle, Washington while on a deployment from his home port of San Pedro, thus ending a 10-year carrier with the Corps and abandoning Elsie and his one-year old daughter, Bette Ann.

U.S. Marine Corps muster records for Claude M. MILLER show that he served three enlistments between December 18, 1822 and June 1933. He first shows up mustering in as a Private at Mare Island Naval Yard, California where he undergoes sea-going school (April through May) and is assigned to the battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43), the first of her class, (June through October 1923). From September 10 through October 16, Private MILLER was hospitalized at Mare Island because of an unspecified malady.

Come December 1923, Private MILLER had been reassigned to the New York-class dreadnought battleship USS Texas (BB-35) and served as a Cook 3rd Class through May 1924, while the USS Texas was transferred form the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic Fleet. Private MILLER was promoted to Private First Class on July 1 and, while still assigned to the USS Texas, underwent arms training at the Maryland State Rifle Range in Glen Burnie, Maryland that month, qualifying as a Navy rifle marksman on July 16 and Army pistol marksman on August 1. He then transferred back to the USS Tennessee where he served as Cook 4th Class until relieved on August 28.

The following year, Private First Class MILLER transferred to the Naval Ammunition Depot at Fort Mifflin, along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by August 1925. At Fort Mifflin he qualified as a sharpshooter at took a two-week furlough in November.

On December 18, 1925 (apparently the conclusion of his original three-year enlistment), Private First Class MILLER enlisted as a reservist and was attached to the Central Reserve Area in Chicago, Illinois and transferred to the 9th Regiment, Marine Corps Reserve. There his address was noted as 4242 West Adams Street in Chicago (December 1925) and later his home address as Box #7, Cleveland, Cass County, Missouri (November 1926) and 1405 Howard Street, Chicago, Illinois (June 1927).

MILLER returned to active duty service, reenlisting at the recruiting station in Kansas City, Missouri on September 12, 1927, and noted as being of "excellent" character. He was assigned to the Central Recruiting Division in Chicago and the Marine Barracks at Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois, north of Chicago. That same month he was dispatched back to the Naval Ammunitions Depot at Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia as a Private (perhaps losing a grade transitioning back to active duty from reserve duty). Private MILLER returned to Great Lakes the following month but went absent without leave for nine days from the evening of October 31 until the afternoon of November 9. He was convicted by a special court martial (for misdemeanor offenses).

On January 6, 1928, Private MILLER was transferred to the Marine Barracks, Naval Yard at Norfolk, Virginia and assigned to the Service Company of the 11th Regiment and immediately deployed to Leon, Nicaragua. That April he was noted serving in Ocotal, in the mountains along the northern border with Honduras, as a Pharmacist Third Class. He served there until May 1 when transferred to the 55th Company under the 55th Company, 2nd Battalion, 11th Regiment ("2/11"), 2nd Brigade in Yali, north central Nicaragua, serving as a Cook 2nd Class. There he was promoted to Corporal on July 1 and stayed with the 55th Company through the rest of the year. By May 1929, the 55th Company pulled back to the center of the country at Esteli. On August 22, Corporal MILLER transferred back to the Headquarters Company of the 5th Regiment, 2nd Brigade in Managua and the following month returned to the US for duty at Mare Island, California. It was while stationed here that he met Elsie.

Corporal MILLER was stationed at Mare Island for two years from October 1929 through January 1932 when he was transferred to the battleship USS Colorado (BB-45), the first of her class, on January 25 for a cruise to the Hawaiian Islands and return to San Pedro, California, arriving by March when he was reassigned to the Northampton-class heavy cruiser USS Chicago (CA-29) at San Pedro. Corporal MILLER then had opportunity for a four-day furlough in San Francisco (April 23-26) and returned afterward to San Pedro. MILLER was likely in the San Pedro at the time of his daughter's birth in Oakland, Alameda County, California on May 23.

Corporal MILLER appears to have been reassigned back to the USS Colorado as two months later, he again took a furlough from June 14 to 23 but failed to return. Branded a straggler from the USS Colorado, he surfaced aboard the USS Chicago at Mare Island at 10:55 PM on July 2. He was delivered under guard on the 9th to the USS West Virginia. On the 19th he was delivered under guard from the USS West Virginia to the USS Antares where he awaited the arrival of the USS Colorado. He was handed back over the US Chicago on the 22nd and convicted by special court martial on July 24 with a reduction in grade to Private First Class, effective August 8.

Private First Class MILLER stayed on with the USS Chicago for three months through October and finally rejoined the USS Colorado briefly in November, while at Newport Beach, California. A month later, he was again back with the USS Chicago at San Pedro where he was permitted a two-week furlough from December 16 to 29.

In Janaury 1933, PFC MILLER sailed with the USS Chicago to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and upon return to San Pedro, permitted a 10-day furlough from January 26 to February 5. In April they set out again, this time bound for Seattle. There he and many others were assigned temporary duty at Fort Lewis. On June 10, while still on temporary duty at Fort Lewis, PFC MILLER deserted and never seen again. He was reduced in absentia to Private.

After Claude's Desertion

About nine years later, Elsie had a son with James FLETCHER, Robert Edward, whom Elsie's friend and future sister-in-law, Helen (HITCHCOCK) MICHALK adopted. It was also about this time that Claude appears to have been living in Many, Sabine Parish, Louisiana and was engaged to Lille Mae LA FIETTE. They returned to Cass County, Missouri where they applied to wed on February 18, 1943.

Elsie later remarried to Max Robert HITCHCOCK, Helen's younger brother and a native of Montana, on December 14, 1949. They had four more children.

Elsie's husband, Max Robert HITCHCOCK, died on July 26, 1985 in Napa County, California. At the time they lived in either Napa, Napa County California, or Moraga, Contra Costa County, California. He was 68 years old.

Elsie Alberta (WILLIAMS) HITCHCOCK died 15 years later on February 15, 2001 in Napa County, California. She was 86 years old.

Gladys Elaine (WILLIAMS) CLARKE (1916-1998)

141D2. Gladys Elaine WILLIAMS was born June 30, 1916 in San Francisco, California, the only one of her ten siblings to have been born in a hospital. She married Willis "Bill" L. CLARKE, a brother of her sister Sonoma's husband, on July 21, 1933 in Napa and had four children:

Bill worked for many years on a pheasant ranch in Yountville, Napa County, California.

Bill CLARKE, Sr. died on April 4, 1982 in Vacaville, Solano County, California. He was 76 years old.

Gladys Elaine (WILLIAMS) CLARKE died 16 years later on March 29, 1998 in Vacaville and is buried in Vacaville. She was 81 years old.

Harold WILLIAMS (1918)

141D3. Harold WILLIAMS was born April 19, 1918 in Napa County, California. He died three days later on April 21, 1918 and was buried at Pioneer Cemetery in Calistoga, Napa County.

Edward C. WILLIAMS

141D4. Edward C. WILLIAMS was born at the WILLIAMS home on Gates Road in the hills above Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. He married Carrie Lee MOORE on November 19, 1944 at the Richmond Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Contra Costa County, California. They later adopted two children:

After their wedding in 1944, Ed and Carrie honeymooned in Santa Cruz for two weeks. As the war was on, they had gas ration coupons for five gallons of benzine gas to get back up over the Santa Cruz Mountains and to the Bay Area, where they lived in Berkeley, Alameda County, for three and a half years. They later bought a home in Richmond.

Carrie Lee (MOORE) WILLIAMS died on February 6, 2005. She was 84 years old.

Left to right:
Joe MARSHALL,
Ed WILLIAMS,
Larry STEELE

Bette Ann (WILLIAMS) SOEKLAND (1932-2003)

141D11. Bette Ann WILLIAMS was born on May 23, 1932 in Oakland, Alameda County, California. She married Donald Lee SOEKLAND, Sr. on April 23, 1950 and had three children while living in Montebello, Los Angeles County, California.

In 1959 the SOEKLAND family moved to Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California where they owned a restaurant off of Old Redwood Highway called the "Chuck Away Cafe". Don worked for OCLI as a production planner for 27 years before retiring to Brookings, Oregon.

In 2003 Bette and Don returned to Santa Rosa to be closer to family and to better manage their health concerns.

Bette Ann (WILLIAMS) SOEKLAND died on June 2, 2003 in Santa Rosa. She was 71 years old.

Bette Ann's daughter, Patti Joyce (SOEKLAND GRAVES) WEIR died two years later after a struggle with cancer and seven months later Donald Lee SOEKLAND, Sr. passed away at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital on New Years Day, 2006.