http://www.grimescountytexas.gov/

Grimes County Historical Commission, 100 S. Main Street, Anderson, TX (2026)

06/24/2026

Grimes County Spotlight - Rocky Creek Bridge

The Grimes County Commissioners Court officially approved the donation and relocation of the historic Rocky Creek Bridge. The Warren pony truss bridge—originally located on CR 263 over Rocky Creek—is being moved to private property owned by Gary Fuqua.

The historic Rocky Creek Bridge (circa 1905) is a 50-foot Warren pony truss steel bridge. Once a vital north-south link between Anderson and Iola, it was preserved as an engineering landmark. Today, the actual marker is located at 283 S Main St in Anderson, Texas, just a short walk from the historic Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site.The Rocky Creek Bridge was relocated from its original path over Rocky Creek on CR 263 (CR 180) to the town of Anderson for preservation.

This historic bridge was originally located on CR 263 (known locally as CR 180) over Rocky Creek. Constructed around 1905, the Warren pony truss measured 50 feet in length and is a rare survivor of a once-common structure. The single-span, four panel bridge is comprised primarily of riveted and bolted steel channels, I-beams and plates and pin-connected Eye-bars. The main steel components were shop-riveted and then bolted into their final configuration on site.

A popular retreat through the 1890s, nearby Kellum Springs was likely a motivating force that resulted in the development of an early road north of Anderson that led to the springs and then connected with Iola to facilitate travel from the northern reaches of the county. The crossing of Rocky Creek with a bridge along this route was a necessity, as it remained a primary north/south route between Anderson and Iola into the 20th century.

The bridge now stands as an early landmark of Texas engineering history with a heritage proudly shared by the people of Grimes County.

The Warren truss was patented in 1848 by James Warren and Willoughby Theobald Monzani, and consists of longitudinal members joined only by angled cross-members, forming alternately inverted equilateral triangle-shaped spaces along its length, ensuring that no individual strut, beam, or tie is subject to bending or torsional straining forces, but only to tension or compression. Loads on the diagonals alternate between compression and tension (approaching the center), with no vertical elements, while elements near the center must support both tension and compression in response to live loads. This configuration combines strength with economy of materials and can therefore be relatively light. (Submitted on December 26, 2017, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

The Navasota Examiner published an article on September 14, 1992, detailing the relocation of the historic Rocky Creek Bridge, following approval by the Grimes County Commissioners Court.

The bridge relocation process officially began in 2011 when the 1905 Rocky Creek Bridge was bypassed and replaced. The physical structure was removed from its original site over Rocky Creek (on CR 180 / CR 263) and stored for safekeeping. It was subsequently moved to Historic Anderson Park, where its preservation is actively managed by the local historical commission.

Erected by Grimes County. Location. 30° 29.209′ N, 95° 59.187′ W. Marker is in Anderson, Texas, in Grimes County. It is on South Main Street (County Highway 245) south of West Apalonia Avenue, on the right when traveling south. Marker is located in a vacant lot behind the First United Methodist Church. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 283 South Main Street, Anderson TX 77830, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the Prairies & Lakes Region. It is also in the American South. Globally, it is in North America, a Gulf of Mexico state, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain, the Republic of Texas, one of the Confederate States of America, and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Steinhagen Log Cabin (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); La Bahia Road (about 600 feet away); Grimes County Courthouse (about 700 feet away); In Memory of Jesse Grimes and Mathew Caldwell (about 700 feet away); Grimes County (about 700 feet away); Veterans Memorial (about 700 feet away); Grimes County, C.S.A. (approx. 0.2 miles away); Fanthorp Inn (approx. 0.3 miles away). Click on the link below for a list and map of all markers in Anderson.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=111910
https://www.hmdb.org/results.asp?Search=Place&Town=Anderson&State=Texas

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/rocky-creek-grimes-county

06/23/2026

Pioneers of Grimes County are honored by an inscription tribute on a general marker which was placed on the Anderson courthouse grounds on August 27, 1938.

Grimes County Veterans Memorial Marker

Front:
In memory of:

Colonel Benjamin Fort Smith, Dr. Robert C. Neblett - Veterans of
The War of 1812

Colonel Benjamin F. Smith - Veteran of the Black Hawk War, 1832

Jared E. Groce, Joshua Hadley, William Robinson - Delegates to the
First Convention of Texas, 1832

Jared E. Groce, Francis Holland, Jesse Grimes - Delegates to the
Second Convention of Texas, 1833

Joshua Hadley, Dr. George M. Patrick - Delegates to the Consultation, 1835

Benjamin Briggs Goodrich, Jesse Grimes - Signers of the Texas
Declaration of Independence, 1836

Francis Holland, Anthony Drew Kennard - Soldiers in the Army, 1835

Sarah Rudolph Dodson Who made a flag for a military company
Army of Texas, 1835

Rear:
In memory of Tapley Holland, John Camp Goodrich, Alfred Calvin Grimes, - Martyrs of the Alamo

Anderson Buffington, Benjamin Fort Smith - Heroes of San Jacinto

Francis Holland, Michael Kennard, John F. Martin, Dr. Verplank Ackerman, William P. Zuber - Soldiers in the Army, 1836

Robert Holman Dunham Who was massacred in Mexico, 1842

Kenneth Lewis Anderson - Vice President of the Republic, who
Died in Anderson, July 3, 1845

William Carley - Veteran of the Mexican War, 1846

And all other pioneers who lived in this vicinity during the days of the Republic.

Erected 1936 by State of Texas. (Marker Number 8599.)

06/23/2026

Grimes County Spotlight - Francis Holland Family

Holland, Francis (unknown–1834). Francis Holland, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, traveled down the Coushatta Trace from Louisiana into Texas in 1822 with his own family, his brother William Holland and his family, and his sister Mrs. Mary (Holland) Peterson and her two sons. They settled on Ten Mile Creek (later Holland Creek) in what is now Grimes County on property bought from Andrew Millican. Holland received title to his Grimes County league on August 10, 1824. The census of March 1826 listed him as a farmer and stock raiser aged between forty and fifty. His household included two servants, his wife (a sister of Mrs. William Holland), three sons, and two daughters. Francis Holland was defeated by John P. Coles in the alcalde election in 1826 but was comisario in 1830 and represented Montgomery County (later Grimes County) in the Convention of 1833. Holland died in 1834. He is mistakenly listed on a monument at the Grimes County Courthouse as a soldier in the revolutionary army, but the mistake arises from the fact that two of his sons, Francis and Tapley, were killed in engagements in 1836.

Originally called Hollandale after Francis Holland who first settled the area in 1822, Navasota was situated within two Montgomery County land grants. Grimes County was created in 1846 but it would take the forward thinking of James Nolan and others like him before it would renamed Navasota in 1854.

Holland, Tapley (1810–1836).Tapley Holland, Alamo defender, one of six children of Margaret (Buck) and Francis Holland, was born in Ohio about 1810. His father later resettled his family in Louisiana. In 1822, when Holland was about twelve years old, his father, as one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred pioneers, moved their family to Texas. They settled on rich prairieland south of Ten Mile Creek in the Washington Municipality (present-day Grimes County). Their double log cabin home was known as the Holland House, which became a popular place of rest near the Brazos River crossing on the La Bahía Road. Future Alamo defenders Albert “Calvin” Grimes (son of judge and Texas Declaration of Independence signer Jesse Grimes) and John Camp Goodrich (brother of Texas declaration signer Benjamin B. Goodrich) also settled in the area. Francis Holland served as the local comisario and was elected as a delegate from the District of Washington to the Convention of 1833. The following year Francis and his wife Margaret both died in their home. They were likely victims of the cholera epidemic of 1833–34.

Holland Creek, a perennial stream, rises three miles east of Anderson in central Grimes County (at 30°30' N, 95°56' W) and flows southwest for eleven miles to its mouth on the Navasota River (at 30°26' N, 96°05' W). It traverses an area of gently sloping terrain surfaced by clay soils that support grasses and mesquite. Patches of post oak, elm, and pecan woodlands line the creek in its upper reaches. Settlement in the area began with the arrival of Andrew Millican, who took land on the middle creek about 1820. In 1822 Francis Holland bought Millican's land and helped other families move to the area, which became known as Hollandale. Settlement of the upper creek began in 1833 when Henry Fanthorp purchased the eastern third of Holland's tract and established the Fanthorp Inn the next year. The community of Alta Mira, which developed on the west bank near the inn, was renamed Anderson in 1846 and soon became the county seat. The still-extant lumbering community of Apolonia was founded about 1835 on the creek's headwaters three miles east of Anderson.

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1229&context=ethj

https://www.thealamo.org/remember/battle-and-revolution/defenders/tapley-holland

https://visitnavasota.com/visit/history_of_navasota.php

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/holland-francis

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15385707/francis-holland

06/22/2026

Grimes County Spotlight - Stephen F. Austin's Colony

Stephen F. Austin's colony was the first and most successful Anglo-American settlement in Mexican Texas, established in 1821. Often called the "Father of Texas", Austin brought in an initial group of 300 families—known as the "Old Three Hundred"—settling them along the Brazos and Colorado rivers.

The Empresario: Following the death of his father, Moses Austin, Stephen F. Austin took over the empresario grant to settle families in Tejas. The Mexican government granted the land on the condition that settlers be of good moral character, commit to the Catholic faith, and become Mexican citizens.

The Capital: Austin founded the town of San Felipe de Austin in 1823 to serve as the headquarters and political center of his colony. It featured early newspapers, a river trade, and hosted important conventions.

The Boundaries: The colony stretched northward from the Gulf of Mexico up to the Old San Antonio Road, extending between the Lavaca and San Jacinto rivers.

The Settlers and Land Grants Old Three Hundred: These pioneers received significant land grants; farming "labor" grants were 177.1 acres, and ranching "sitio" grants (square leagues) were 4,428.4 acres.

Slaves and Farming: Because of the focus on cotton and cash crops, many settlers brought enslaved people with them. Austin himself was known to use and promote slave labor on a large scale.

End of the Colony and Legacy

During the Texas Revolution in 1836, the town of San Felipe de Austin was burned by its own residents during the "Runaway Scrape" to prevent supplies from falling into the advancing Mexican army. The town never fully recovered its former prominence, but it remains a cornerstone of Texas history.

The main area of Austin's Colony was located in southeast Texas within an area bounded by the Lavaca and San Jacinto rivers, the San Antonio Road, and the coast. A small settlement, called the "little colony," was also established along the Colorado River above the San Antonio Road, near the present-day city of Austin. The town of San Felipe, founded on the Brazos River in 1824, served as the capitol of the colony and the location of Austin's land office. Other towns founded during this period in Austin's Colony include Matagorda, Brazoria, Columbia, Independence, and Washington-on-the-Brazos.

The area that is now Grimes County was an important, prosperous part of Stephen F. Austin’s Colony. Settlers began claiming land here as early as 1824, attracted by the rich, fertile farmlands along the waterways and prairies.History of the SettlementEarly Colonists: Approximately sixty-four individuals and families from Austin’s original colonial enterprises secured land grants in this region. Many pioneers, such as Francis Holland, settled on Ten Mile Creek and played pivotal roles in early Texan conventions.

The Coushatta Trace: A substantial number of colonists used the Upper Coushatta Trace—a prominent trail passing near what is later Anderson, Shiro, and Roans Prairie—to locate their homesteads.

The Cotton Industry: Because of the fertile soil in southwestern Grimes County, settlers cultivated the staple successfully. Stephen F. Austin himself constructed what may have been the very first cotton gin in Texas here, as early as 1825

https://thc.texas.gov/state-historic-sites/san-felipe-de-austin/san-felipe-de-austin-history

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/old-three-hundred

https://www.glo.texas.gov/archive-collections/austins-colony-records

https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/AUSTIN/

https://drtinfo.org/Members/members/News-Public/Texas-Honor-Days/Stephen-F.-Austin-Birthday.aspx

https://www.amazon.com/Pioneers-Including-Montgomery-Washington-Counties/dp/0806314737

https://www.glo.texas.gov/archives-heritage/search-our-collections/land-grant-search

06/20/2026

Grimes County Spotlight - Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss

Fred Baldwin was born in Switzerland in 1929. His father, an American diplomat, died when he was five years old. He joined the Marines in 1950 and was dispatched to the war in North Korea where he was wounded and decorated. It was in Korea that Baldwin first began capturing his experiences through photography. After the war, he moved between France and the United States. While still a student at Columbia College, he charmed his way into Pablo Picasso’s residence in Cannes on the French Riviera, taking pictures that would launch him and his Leica around the world on documentary assignments—from arctic Norway to Borneo, India and Afghanistan. Early in his career, Baldwin photographed the Ku Klux Klan in Reidsville, Georgia, and in 1963 he began to document the civil rights movement, volunteering for Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His images would form the basis of the book Freedom’s March: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in Savannah (2008).

In 1970 he met Wendy Watriss, a freelance photographer and stringer for Newsweek and the New York Times. Born in San Francisco in 1943, she grew up in Greece, Spain, France and the U.S. In the 1960s, she worked as a political reporter for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida and later as a documentary television producer for the Public Broadcast Laboratory (the predecessor of PBS). In 1968-69 she worked across Eastern Europe, where she covered the Prague Spring and the evolution of socialism in Hungary and Romania.

During the 1970s Baldwin and Watriss forged a personal and professional partnership that continues to this day. In 1972 they started a project: “to rediscover our own country, places and people off the main roads.” They started their journey in the southern U.S., across Alabama, Mississippi, and the Arkansas Delta into Texas in a camper being towed by a 1957 220S Mercedes Cabriolet. They spent the next 15 years in Texas, capturing local life in compelling detail. They documented four distinct cultural frontiers in Texas, producing books and projects about each—black and white life in Grimes County; descendants of German settlers in Gillespie County; and Spanish-Mexican working families and ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley and Big Bend regions. They are now working on a film about race relations in he U.S., based on their work in Grimes County.

During the 1980s and 90s, they also pursued individual projects, including Watriss’s coverage of the effects of the herbicide Agent Orange on U.S. Vietnam veterans as well as the public response to the opening of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Her Agent Orange photographs won the World Press Feature Story Award and Leica’s prestigious Oskar Barnack Award for work about human society and the environment. Collectively and individually, Baldwin and Watriss worked as freelance photographers in Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, West Africa, and the southern-southwestern U.S.

Their works illustrate an array of social, cultural, and political currents in U.S. life since the 1950s. They have also photographed extensively in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe. In addition to their independent documentary projects, their work has appeared in publications throughout the world including Esquire, NationalGeographic, Life, the NewYorkTimes, Newsweek, Stern, Photoreporter, and Geo. Their books include: Coming to Terms – The German Hill Country of Texas (1991); Image and Memory – Photography from Latin America, 1866-1994 (1998); Looking at the U.S. 1957–1986 (2009); and Dear Mr. Picasso: An Illustrated Love Affair with Freedom (2019). In 2018, their documentary work in Texas was profiled by PBS National Newshour.

“For seven decades Fred and Wendy have worked tirelessly to capture the changing character of American life. They have done so with dexterity, elegance, and remarkable patience,” said Don Carleton, executive director of the Briscoe Center. “Many of the center’s photojournalism archives focus on news photography. Fred and Wendy’s work joins those of others at the center—including Russell Lee, Robert Freson, and Stephen Shames—whose careers have focused on documentary photography, which follows the patterns and stories of history, in depth and detail.”

Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss arrived in Texas in 1971 as globe-trotting photojournalists. They had met only a year earlier, but they were inseparable. Over the next fifty years, they would become celebrities in the global art scene, familiar to thousands simply by their first names, as the visionary founders of the pioneering Houston art organization FotoFest, which hosts the FotoFest Biennial, one of the world’s premier photography festivals. Always Fred and Wendy, they were a package deal.

So when Fred died suddenly on December 15, at the age of 92, I didn’t think first about what a larger-than-life figure he was. I waited a few days and called Wendy, who is 78.

“It was a shock and a surprise, but at least it was very rapid, and not painful for him,” she said.

They were home alone when it happened, in the Houston bungalow they have rented since the early eighties, across the street from the Rothko Chapel. It was 9 p.m., and they were sitting down to eat chicken pho. Fred was on a couch when his face went ashen and he put his right hand over his heart. “Call 911,” he said. Those were his last words.

https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/18820/navasota-grimes-county?ctx=74b95059c2e23340214963447ada096506cca962&idx=2

https://briscoecenter.org/about/news/the-fred-baldwin-and-wendy-watriss-archives/

https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/fred-baldwin-photographer-obit/

06/19/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1894arETh2/

06/18/2026

Grimes County Spotlight - Joshua Hadley

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hadley-joshua

The Hadleys of Grimes County descended from a line of English Quakers who migrated into Ireland from Somersett Shire, England, some time during the middle of the sixteenth century. One of them, Simon Hadley (born in Kings County, Ireland, February, 1677; died in New Castle County, Delaware, February, 1736), came to America with his wife, Ruth (born in Ireland; died in New Castle County, Delaware, December 18, 1750), and settled in New Castle County, Delaware, about 1712. Here they acquired considerable land and holdings, and here Simon Hadley died about 1756. Their children were Joseph (born August 25. 1698), Deborah (born February 25, 1701), Joshua (born March 6, 1703), Simon (born December 23, 1704), Hannah (born November 16, 1709). Ruth (born December 6, 1711), Katherine (born February 25, 1715) and Ann (born December 7, 1717). Of these children, we are here concerned primarily with Joshua who was the great-grandfather of Joshua Hadley, the Texas colonist. Joshua Hadley I served in the American Revolutionary Army as a lieutenant in Captain Taylor's Company, Sixth North Carolina Regiment. He later married (July 2, 1825) Mary Rowland (died 1733), daughter of Mary and Thomas Rowland. They were married at Newgarden Meeting, Pennsylvania. His wife's mother, Mrs. Mary Rowland, had purchased a tract of land (438 acres) from the Letitia Penn manor, along with some seven hundred acres, purchased earlier from William Penn, Junior. Two hundred and nineteen acres of this Letitia Penn purchase was given to Mary (Rowland) Hadley as a wedding present.

The children of Joshua and Mary Hadley were Ruth (born 1726), Thomas (born 1728; died September 1, 1781), Sarah (born 1730), and Mary (born 1732). This Thomas Hadley (born 1728, near Wilmington, Delaware) was the grand-father of the Joshua Hadley who came to Texas as a member of Stephen F. Austin's Colonial enterprise. He (Thomas Hadley) is said to have raised a company of militia, during the Revolutionary War, for the purpose of subduing the Scotch Tories in the neighborhood of Cross creek, North. (Early History of Grimes County by E.L. Blair M.A. 1930 - Transcribed by BZ)

Joshua Hadley, pioneer settler and public official, son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (King) Hadley, was born in North Carolina about 1786. In 1830 he moved with his wife and four children from Tennessee to Texas and settled in what is now San Augustine County. On May 7, 1831, he received title to a league of land near the source of Rocky Creek, four miles northeast of the site of Anderson in what is now Grimes County. There he constructed a two-story house and a log fort for the protection of his family and the surrounding community, which was known as Hadley's Prairie. This fort was the location of an Indian Massacre in Grimes County where indians attacked residents who sought shelter at the fort and a woman, Mrs. Mary Taylor was killed by Indians and buried nearby. Her husband was killed years earlier by Indians in this same area.

Hadley represented the District of Viesca in the Convention of 1832 and in 1835 became the first alcalde elected in Washington Municipality. He served in the Texas army from June 30 to September 30, 1836, and received for his services a bounty grant of 320 acres in Grimes County. He was a Mason and a charter member of Orphan's Friend Lodge No. 17, organized at the home of Henry Fanthorp in 1842.

Hadley and his first wife, Obedience (Grantham), had five children. Obedience died in 1839, and Hadley then married Joyce V. (Bostic) Floyd in 1840. They had three children. Hadley died during the summer of 1845 and was buried at his home in Hadley's Prairie. He died from a fall from his horse and was buried on a hill, the site of Joshua Hadley's fort very close to the Ratliff Cemetery. First Wife Obedience Grantham Hadley is also buried there. His grave is not marked. The site of the Hadley Fort is now the site of a modern day residence up on the hill, with the old Ratliff Cemetery on the property. The Ratliff family purchased the land (318 acres) from the Hadley's in 1866.

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2178411/ratliff-family-cemetery

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14524481/joshua-hadley
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~ldwom/genealogy/Hadley.htm

Old Oakland Cemetery Historical Marker Text
Founded in 1867 in connection with the Oakland Baptist Church which stood here until moved to Roans Prairie in 1913. Graves of many pioneers are located here. Oakland was once a popular way-station for the Bates and Black Stagecoach Lines, which ran from Austin to Huntsville until 1880. This road known as Coushatta Trace, was originally a trail of the Coushatta Indians, friendly tribe that hunted in this territory. In 1838, a Mrs. Taylor, the last known person killed by Indians in Grimes County, was murdered not far from this site.

Indians Kill Mrs. Taylor.—The writer has heard the old settlers of this vicinity tell many stories about a party of Indians killing a Mrs. Taylor. The story is that a party of Indians were making an attack on the home of Joshua Hadley about the year 18-10. It seems that the community had had some warning of the danger and the people, as was their custom, had hastened to the Hadley home, which was partly fortified. Another party had gathered at the neighboring home of A. D. Kennard. Mrs. Taylor, it seems, was at the Hadley house, while her husband was at the Kennard house. After the Indians had been repulsed from the Hadley house, Mrs, Taylor, who had become greatly excited, insisted upon going across to the A. D. Kennard house with her two children. The Kennard house was situated about a mile from the Hadley house, and in spite of warning, Mrs. Taylor started with her two children (some say two sons and others say a son and a daughter) across an open field toward the Kennard house. She was killed by the Indians within sight of the Hadley house, and the children were captured. The Indians were later pursued and the children recaptured. One, a boy, was shot through the hand, but the children were otherwise uninjured. They were taken to the home of Henry Fanthorp where they were cared for until their people came for them. It is said that this was the last person killed by Indians in Grimes county territory. According to Franklin Brigance, the last Indian raid took place in the winter of 1841. He states that the raiders then escaped through the Roan's Prairie community and that they were pursued by a company of nine men who left the Fanthorp home at about sunrise and pursued the Indians for about twenty miles, when they came suddenly upon them. The Indians made good their escape by leaving all their equipment in camp. Brigance, however, makes no mention of the attack on the Hadley home, nor does he mention the recapture of any white children. The writer is here fore, unable to determine whether he is speaking of the same raid as that referred to in the above story.

https://genealogytrails.com/tex/prairieslakes/grimes/historygrimesco.html

Hadley Last name meaning
The surname Hadley has its roots in England, deriving from the Old English elements "hædd" meaning "heath" and "leah" meaning "clearing" or "meadow." This suggests that the name originally referred to someone who lived near a heath-covered clearing, indicating a geographical connection to the landscape. The earliest recorded instances of the surname date back to the 13th century, particularly in the regions of Shropshire and Staffordshire. Over time, the name became associated with various occupations, including farming and land management, reflecting the agrarian lifestyle of the period. The Hadley surname may also carry connotations of resilience and adaptability, traits necessary for those living in rural settings.

06/13/2026

The Texas Aggie Magazine January 15, 1946

06/13/2026

Grimes County Spotlight - McCluskey brothers

U.S. Army Private Wilbur Taylor McCluskey and his brother, First Lieutenant John Brown McCluskey Jr., were both from Anderson, Texas, and made the ultimate sacrifice during WWII. American Legion McCluskey Post 640 in Anderson is named after them to honor their sacrafice.

Private Wilbur Taylor McCluskey
Military Unit 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division
Date of Death: February 20, 1944
Location of Loss: He was killed in action in Italy. Burial in Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy.

Wilbur Taylor McCluskey was the son of John Brown McCluskey Sr and Robbie Taylor. His older brother 1st LT John Brown McCluskey Jr was serving with the Philippine Scouts when he was captured by the Japanese. He was reported missing when the POW transport ship he was on was torpedoed in the South China Sea on 24 October 1944.

Wilbur Taylor McCluskey was serving his country during World War II when he gave his all in the line of duty. He had enlisted in the United States Army. McCluskey had the rank of Private. Service number assignment was 38050338. Attached to 36th Infantry Division, 141st Infantry Regiment.

He was born on 19 November 1915. According to our records Texas was his home or enlistment state and Grimes county has been included within the archival record. We have Anderson listed as his city. During his service in World War II, Army Private McCluskey experienced a critical situation which ultimately resulted in loss of life on 20 February 1944. Recorded circumstances attributed to: DNB - Died Non-battle. Incident location: Italy.

https://www.honorstates.org/profiles/345224/

https://www.fold3.com/record/90208727/wilbur-t-mccluskey-us-wwii-army-enlistment-records-1938-1946

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85714411/wilbur-taylor-mccluskey

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56311914/wilbur_taylor-mccluskey

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John Brown McCluskey Jr was the son of John B McCluskey Sr and Robbie Taylor. His younger brother Pvt Wilbur Taylor McCluskey served with the 141st Infantry Regiment and was killed in action in Italy on 20 February 1944. He was a graduate of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M), Class of 1936.

John Brown McCluskey Jr was serving his country during World War II when he gave his all in the line of duty. He had enlisted in the United States Army. McCluskey had the rank of First Lieutenant. Service number assignment was O-342105. Attached to 91st Coast Artillery Regiment, Philippine Scouts.

He was born on 17 June 1913. According to our records Texas was his home or enlistment state and Grimes county has been included within the archival record. We have Anderson listed as his city. During his service in World War II, Army First Lieutenant McCluskey was reported missing and ultimately declared dead on 24 October 1944. Recorded circumstances attributed to: Died while prisoner of war, lost at sea, missing. Incident location: POW ship Arisan Maru, South China Sea.

First Lieutenant John Brown McCluskey Jr.
Unit: 91st Coast Artillery Regiment, Philippine Scouts
Date of Death: October 24, 1944
Location of Loss: Lost at sea while a Prisoner of War aboard the Arisan Maru in the South China Sea. He is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Army or Service Code: Coast Artillery Corps Or Army Mine Planter Service
Area Served: Southwest Pacific Theatre: Philippine Islands
Detaining Country: Japan
Camp: Philippines Philippines 14-121
Status: Executed, Died in Ship's Sinking or Result of Ship Sinking, or Shot While Attempting Escape
POW Transport Ship: Arisan Maru,
October Sinking: 24 October 1944

Name: John B Mc Cluskey Jr
Inducted From: Texas
Rank: First Lieutenant
Combat Organization: 91st Cavalry Regiment Philippine Scouts
Death Date: Oct 24 1944
Monument: Fort William Mckinley, Manila, the Philippines
Last Known Status: Missing
U.S. Awards: Purple Heart Medal

https://www.honorstates.org/profiles/351112/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/87741110/john_brown-mccluskey

Grimes County Historical Commission

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