Ernest Howard Sloan -- World War I Veteran

 

 

Ernest Howard Sloan was born on November 6, 1892 in Howell County.  Missouri, Howell County was the county that his grandfather, Orren Bridges, had settled when he and his family had moved from Trigg County, Kentucky in the 1890s.  Ernest was one of Orren’s 70 living grandchildren at the time of his death in 1904. 

Ernest was reared in the small farming community of Arditta being his home until he was eight years old when his father and mother, John Andrew and Jennie Bridges Sloan, moved to Brandsville, in the southeast corner of Howell County.  He was a Brandville citizen until the time of his death.

Soon after the United States entered World War I, on April 2, 1917, Ernest volunteered his service to the country he loved on June 4, 1917, in West Plains.  He was assigned to Company D, 130 M.G.B., 35th Division of the A. E. F.   He was one of company D's cooks.  Pvt. Sloan sailed for France on May 2, 1918.  He fought in the Argonne Forest battles, came out without being wounded and retired to a rest camp.  Later on October 20, he was called to the front again and was wounded on October 29, 1918.  

Several member of Company D were wounded at the same time and all went to the hospital together. Ernest remained in the hospital until February 28, when he was transferred to Northern France to a convalescent's camp at Algman-Noirs, France.  At the camp he was being prepared for sailing home to the ones he loved when suddenly he developed pneumonia and died on February 10, 1919.

Somewhere in France they buried him within a quaint, lonely grave, unknown save by his fighting mates who cheered the cause he died to save and for the sacrifice he made for the Stars and Stripes.

Ernest was 26 years old when he died and was the oldest of seven siblings, one brother and six sisters. He had married Nora Opal Rogers and they had one daughter, Geraldine Alfretta Sloan who was born in 1914.  Strangely, his wife and daughter were not mentioned in his obituary, only his parents and siblings.

Tombstone in memory of Ernest Howard Sloan in the Oaklawn Cemetery in West Plains, MO.

LINEAGE:

(Ernest Howard Sloan was the son of John Andrew and Jennie Bell Bridges Sloan and the grandson of Orren and Mary Elizabeth Hixon Bridges.  Orren was the first child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges. William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.  Mary Thomas was the fifth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)