Ben Hickson
(1893-1918)
Embedded Files
Sergeant Ben Hickson, signature on WWI draft registration with lower left corner cut, indicating “colored” race
USAT Mount Vernon
Photo Credit: nps.gov
Insignia patch for the 92nd Infantry Division of the Buffalo Soldiers
Gravestone, Sergeant Ben Hickson, St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial, Thiaucourt, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France
Postcard of Boone Way Inn, Middleborough, KY, where Sergeant Ben Hickson’s stepmother worked
WWI Mothers' and Widows' Pilgrimage pin
Ben Hickson [surname spelling differs from Hixon, the spelling of his parents' surname, or Hickson may be an error, as his draft registration signature looks like Hixson]
*No plaque located*
*The List of Liberty Row Names indicates the possible original location of the plaque*
*No soldier photograph found in the following book: Doyle, A. C., Haulsee, W. M., Howe, F. G. Soldiers of the Great War. Washington, DC: Soldiers Record Publishing Company, 1920.
Birth: 2/15/1893, Spring City, Tennessee [founded 1870s as a stop on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, fewer than 1,000 residents in the 1890s with presumably an even smaller Black population at that time, a railroad shipping hub in the 19th and early 20th centuries]
Birth: 2/15/1893, Spring City, Tennessee [founded 1870s as a stop on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, fewer than 1,000 residents in the 1890s with presumably an even smaller Black population at that time, a railroad shipping hub in the 19th and early 20th centuries]
Address: 2215 E. 14th St., Cleveland, Ohio
Demographics: age 24 and single at draft registration [married later - see below]; race Black; native born citizen; occupation Porter at "S.H. Mutersbaugh at 422 Superior W City" [no information found about this place of employment]
Appearance: Height tall, Build medium, Eyes black, Hair black
Draft Date/Enlistment Date/Rank: 6/7/1917; 10/27/1917; Sergeant
Draft Date/Enlistment Date/Rank: 6/7/1917; 10/27/1917; Sergeant
Service Number: 1968049
Marriage: On 9/19/1917 at age 24 and employed as a Porter, he married Christine Turner Hickson (1892-1952), age 23, who was born in Winchester, Kentucky and employed as a Laundress at the time of their marriage in Cleveland, OH. They were married for less than one year when Sergeant Ben Hickson deployed for WWI and for just over one year when he was killed in action. In 1933, Christine Turner Hickson, who was living in Columbus, OH at that time, sailed aboard the SS American Banker as part of the U.S. WWI Mothers and Widows Pilgrimage to visit her husband's place of burial in France. She appears to have never remarried and was buried at Evergreen Burial Park, Columbus, OH. Sergeant Ben Hickson's stepmother, Julia Bell Hixson, sailed along with her [see below].
Deployment: 6/10/1918 from Hoboken, New Jersey aboard USAT Mount Vernon
Action: His unit was assigned to the 92nd Division, an all-African-American combat division also known as "Buffalo Soldiers."
Death: November 4, 1918 [one week before the Armistice on November 11, 1918] at age 25; cause of death Killed in Action
Death: November 4, 1918 [one week before the Armistice on November 11, 1918] at age 25; cause of death Killed in Action
Burial: 11/13/1918 buried at American Cemetery at Atton, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France; 6/13/1919 remains disinterred and reburied at St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial, Thiaucourt, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France; 8/18/1922 remains disinterred and reburied at new gravesite at St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial as noted above, Block B Row 5 Grave 33
Burial: 11/13/1918 buried at American Cemetery at Atton, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France; 6/13/1919 remains disinterred and reburied at St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial, Thiaucourt, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France; 8/18/1922 remains disinterred and reburied at new gravesite at St. Mihiel American Cemetery and Memorial as noted above, Block B Row 5 Grave 33
Next of Kin: Mrs. Christine Hickson, wife, 2361 E. 37th St., Cleveland, OH
Additional Information: Wife: [See marriage section above.]
Father: John Fountaine [aka Fount] Hixson (1875-1941), born Parkersville, Tennessee, married twice, occupation Coal Miner, burial place not found; Mother: name uncertain, spelled "Frohna Rega" and "Franny Ray," no additional information found; Stepmother: Julia Bell Hixson (1880-1968), living in Middlesborough, Kentucky and employed as a Chambermaid at the historic Boone Way Inn when she sailed in 1933 along with her daughter-in-law aboard the SS American Banker as part of the U.S. WWI Mothers' and Widows' Pilgrimage to visit her stepson's place of burial in France, buried at Reeves Memorial Cemetery [listed as an abandoned cemetery], Winchester, Kentucky; Siblings: no definitive information found. Research may have been impeded by the scarcity of records for Black Americans.
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