This information is offered FREE and taken from http://www.okgenweb.net/~okcaddo/ If you have arrived here using a pay site please know that this information has been donated by volunteers in a joint effort to provide FREE genealogy material online. ================================================== Caddo County Oklahoma - WW I submitted by C.C.G.S. volunteer email ccgs73005@yahoo.com *************************************************** Smithpeter, William V. Fort Cobb Born 08-Mar-1892 Died 13-Feb-1918 WWI Buried at Sea First Caddo County Casualty The Anadarko Tribune February 14, 1918 FT. COBB BOY LISTED WITH TUSCANIA DEAD In the Oklahoman of this (Thursday) morning appears from its Washington Bureau, under date of Feb. 13, the information that the latest report of the Associated Press gives identification of 164 dead bodies recovered and buried after the sinking of the steamer Tuscania, on which they were bound for France. In this number are twelve Oklahomans, as follows: William V. Smithpeter - Fort Cobb Capt. Leo P. Lebron - Guthrie Raymond T. Hurst - Pocasset William W. Wright - Bismarck Jesse M. Rhoades - Halbert George W. Tomlins - El Reno Ethan Allen White - Arnett Tulla B. Thompson - Dill City Fletcher D. Pledger - Norman John B. Bishop - Foster Luther W. Ozment - Broken Bow James A. Price - Boise City In connection with the foregoing notice of the death of a Caddo county boy, we wrench the following tribute from School Notes in South Pioneer, and use it here: "We, as a school, wish to extend our heartfelt sympathy to the Smithpeter family of Ft. Cobb in the loss of their dear son, who went to a watery grave on the recent sinking of the steamer Tuscania near the coast of Ireland. May God, in His infinite wisdom extend a helping hand and comfort the bereaved ones at this sad time." Short Story of the Soldier's Life The Tribune called up Mr. William G. Smithpeter, father of the dead soldier, and learned the story of the life of the patriot son. He had received from the government official notification of his son's death. He was born at Rockvale, Colo., March 8, 1892. He went, while yet a small child, with his parents to Johnson county in East Tennessee, where Mr. and Mrs. Smithpeter had lived before coming west. When the son was ten years of age, the family immigrated to Oklahoma, locating on a farm, two miles west of Oney. The family lived at various other places in this county until two years ago, when they moved to Ft. Cobb, where the father is manager of the telephone exchange. The son received a common school education. At about the age of 21, he went into the northwestern portion of the United States, working on farms in different localities. After returning from the Northwest, he took a course in a barber school in Oklahoma City, and after graduation worked in a barber shop at Cherokee, Okla. It was from that place that he, on the fourth of October, 1917, responded to the selection of him by the government for military service. His first station, after leaving Oklahoma, was Camp Travis, Texas. He remained there until something like a month ago, when, with others of his command, he was started to the Atlantic seaboard, preparatory, as it turned out, to taking transportation on the steamer Tuscania for service in France. The dead soldier is survived by his parents and four brothers and two sisters. One of the sisters and one of the brothers are married. The father's emotion was betrayed over the phone by the hesitation in his flow of words on our asking him what, in addition to the information which he had just given us, should we say concerning the lost son as an expression of the parental longing. The response was, "You cannot say anything too good of him. He was a dutiful boy, never causing his parents any worry." And thus closes the chapter of the first death offering made by Caddo county to the cause of freedom, which never will give way to despotism or fail to vindicate its cause though it involves the expenditure of the last dollar and the hanging of the last traitor!