William Charles Zeigler, a resident of Berrien County, GA, was among the victims of the Otranto tragedy in the closing days of World War I.
William Charles Zeigler of Berrien County, GA was a victim of the Otranto disaster in the closing days of WWI
William C. Zeigler grew up in Lowndes and Berrien county Georgia. It appears that he had a difficult boyhood. He was a son of Jesse William “Jake” Zeigler and Lula Tyson, born October 25, 1889 at Blanton, Lowndes County, GA. His mother suffered from mental illness and allegedly mentally and physically abused his father before abandoning the family.
For the 1900 Census, the family was enumerated in Berrien County, GA in the 1487 Georgia Militia District, the Sparks district. William was then ten years old .
Although court testimony later assert that Lula Tyson Zeigler was institutionalized about 1898, it appears from the census records that she was still with her family in 1900 and was sent to the Georgia State Sanitarium at Milledgeville, GA shortly thereafter.
State Lunatic Asylum, Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia, ca. 1870-1899 (later known as Central State Hospital). Lula Tyson Zeigler became an inmate of the institution some time prior to 1910.
After the institutionalization of his mother, William C. Zeigler continued to live with his father and siblings near Lenox in Berrien County. They were enumerated at Lenox, GA in the Census of 1910. Lenox is situated about 7 miles north of Sparks, GA on the route of the Georgia Southern & Florida Railroad.
At the time of the draft for World War I, William Charlie Zeigler was 27 years old. He gave his home address as Sparks, GA,. He was still unmarried and listed his occupation as farming in the employment of his father. He registered for the draft for WWI on June 5, 1917. His physical description was medium height, slender build, with grey eyes and light hair.
WWI draft registration of William C. Zeigler, June 5, 1917, Berrien County, GA
On July 16, 1918 William Charlie Zeigler was inducted into the Army, along with other Berrien county men at Nashville, GA.
WWI Inductees at Nashville, GA Courthouse, 1918.
The men boarded a train at Nashville, GA. William C. Zeigler along with Early Stewart, Benjamin F. McCranie, Jim Melvin Boyett, John Guy Coppage, Shelley L. Webb, Hiram Marcus Bennett, Lafayett Gaskins, Ralph Knight, James Grady Wright, James M. Deloach and other men of Berrien County were bound for training camp at Fort Screven, GA.
July 16, 1918 induction of William C. Zeigler into the US Army during WWI
Colonel Archibald Campbell confirmed the arrival of the men at Ft. Screven, GA on July 19, 1918. Fort Screven, on Tybee Island, GA was a part of the U.S. Atlantic coastal defense system and served as a training camp. The fort’s six batteries of coastal artillery defended the port of Savannah, GA.
Fort Screven in 1917
After training, the men were sent to the Port of Embarkation at Hoboken, N.J. The Embarkation Service reported the steamship Otranto sailed for England from New York, N.Y. on September 25, 1918 at 12:40 P.M. with 699 military passengers, including the men and officers from Fort Screven, GA.
But the troop ship Otranto went down on October 6, 1918 off the coast of Islay, Scotland after a collision with the SS Kashmir. The Army could not immediately produce a list of the soldiers who were on board. It was not until October 18, that a passenger list for the Otranto was finally cabled to General Harbord in Europe. The name of Zeigler, William C. 2595855 Pvt. was on the list.
Ray City and Berrien County, GA paid a heavy toll in the disaster. Among the hundreds of Otranto dead were dozens of soldiers from Berrien. For weeks news of the disaster trickled into American newspapers. Facts were sketchy at best – In some cases, soldiers who perished in the sinking were incorrectly reported as survivors. It would nearly two months before the names of the lost were known to the folks at home…
A number of soldiers, including James Deloach were rescued by the heroic efforts of the HMS Mounsey, first to arrive on the scene. Many others went into the sea and were lost forever. Only a slim few who went into the water survived the swim to the Isle of Islay, Scotland. The bodies of 489 soldiers washed up on the coast where the ship went down.
William C. Zeigler, of Berrien County, GA was among the dead recovered at Islay. He and the other American dead from the Otranto were buried in the little churchyard at Kilchoman in wide graves accommodating twenty bodies each.
Military Salute to Otranto Victims, Kilchoman Cemetery, Island of Islay, Scotland. A military salute being fired over the mass graves of American troops killed in the wreck of the Otranto which occurred October 6, 1918. Among the dead were soldiers from Ray City, GA, Shellie Loyd Webb and Ralph Knight, and William C. Zeigler of Sparks, GA.
William C. Zeigler and the other Otranto victims lay in the Bivouac of the Dead at Islay for nearly two years. In June 1920, the Graves Registration Service made the decision to bring the bodies home, and exhumation began on July 1, 1920.
William’s body was transported on the U.S.A.T. Antigone arriving at Hoboken, August 7, 1920, from Southhampton, Brest and Liverpool.
After the war, William C. Zeigler and other Otranto dead were transported back to the United states aboard the U.S. Army Transport ship Antigone, photographed here during the war while in service as the USS Antigone troop transport.
According to the New York Times, Antigone carried the largest number of coffins brought home on one ship, 1,575 dead soldiers. “The dead were landed at Pier 4, Hoboken, where preparations were completed to forward the bodies to their last resting places in home cemeteries, as has been the custom with all returned dead soldiers.” There was no ceremony or funeral observance at the pier, as that detail of honor was rendered when the bodies were consigned to their temporary graves in foreign lands.
William’s father elected to have his son’s final interment at Arlington National Cemetery. The body was accompanied by a guard of honor on the final journey.
World War I service record of William C. Zeigler.
The re-internment of William C. Zeigler occurred August 20, 1920 at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1934, a headstone of marble from Tate, GA was ordered for his grave.
Arlington Cemetery internment record, William C. Zeigler
Grave of William C. Zeigler, Arlington National Cemetery. (The middle initial is incorrectly engraved as “O”) Image source: Paul Hays.
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After William C. Zeigler died, his father finally filed for divorce from his mentally ill mother. By this time she had been institutionalized for nearly 20 years. It was an unusual case; as a mental patient, Lula Zeigler was deemed not responsible for her actions. Therefore, any cause brought for divorce could only be valid if it occurred prior to the time her mental capacity was diminished.
The divorce case was reported in the Valdosta Times:
April 4, 1919 Tifton Gazette: Jesse Zeigler files for divorce
Tifton Gazette
April 4, 1919
Unusual Divorce In Berrien.
Husband Asks Separation From Wife Who is Inmate of the State Sanitarium
Most unusual grounds are given as a reason for securing a divorce in a suit which has been filed in Berrien county. It is believed that no similar case has ever been filed in the state says the Valdosta Times.
Mr. Jake Zeigler has filed papers asking for a total divorce from his wife, Mrs. Lula Zeigler, charging that she treated him in a cruel manner some years ago. The unusual part of it is that Mrs. Zeigler is now an inmate of the state sanitarium at Milledgeville and has been there for several years, with the prospect that she is a permanent inmate. It is charged in the petition for divorce that the cruel treatment occurred before she became an inmate of the sanitarium.
When the case came before Judge Thomas last week, it being so unusual he passed it until this week. Judge Thomas designated Solicitor C E Hay to act as attorney for the defendant in the case and also named Rev. L L Barr, pastor of the Nashville Methodist church, and Rev. Jackson H Harris, pastor of the Nashville Baptist church, to act as representatives of Mrs. Zeigler, who could not appear for herself in the hearing. The designation of these representatives by the court is for the purpose of seeing that the defendant, unable to help herself, may have a fair and impartial consideration of the case from every standpoint.
Later: The demurrer prepared by Solicitor Hay in the divorce case of Zeigler vs. Zeigler was sustained, and the case will go to the Supreme Court, says the Nashville Herald.
Reverend Lewis L. Barr, who represented Mrs. the interests of Lula Tyson Zeigler, had served as the second pastor of the Ray City Methodist Church from 1911 to 1915. The case of Zeigler v. Zeigler et al was referred to the Georgia Supreme Court:
Zeigler v. Zeigler et al. (No. 1384.)
(Supreme Court of Georgia. Nov. 14, 1919.)
(Syllabus by the Court.)
Divorce 27(18), 37(5) – Pleading; Cruel Treatment; Desertion.
In the petition for divorce it is alleged: Petitioner and defendant were married in 1889. Defendant was adjudged to be insane, and was committed to the Georgia State Sanitarium for insane persons in 1898, where she has since been confined as an insane person. In September 1899, defendant struck petitioner, thereby inflicting a serious wound upon his person. “From October 1, 1897, until May 1, 1898 defendant continued in a constant state of quarreling and cruelly treating petitioner until such conduct became unbearable; and defendant, without cause on the part of the petitioner, left him and remained away until she became insane.” Petitioner was without fault during the time he and his wife lived together. “Petitioner did not directly or indirectly condone the treatment of his wife, nor did the relation of husband and wife ever exist after she became in the rage and left him without cause.” Held, that no cause for a divorce was set forth in the petition, either on the grounds of cruel treatment (Ring v. Ring, 18 Ga. 183, 44 S. E. 861, 62 L.R.A. 878; Stoner v. Stoner, 134 Ga. 368, 67 S. E. 1030; Black v. Black, 101 S. E. 182, this day decided), or on the ground of desertion (Civil Code 1910, 2945), as it appears from the petition that defendant was adjudged to be insane within less time after the desertion than three years, and has since remained insane, and therefore not responsible for her acts during that time. Accordingly, the court did not err in dismissing the petition on general demurrer.
Error from Superior Court, Berrien County; W. E. Thomas, Judge.
Suit for divorce by J. W. Zeigler against L. M. Zeigler. Petition dismissed on general demurrer, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.
J. D. Lovett and Story & Story, all of Nashville, of plaintiff in error.
Clifford E. Hay, Sol. Gen, of Thomasville, for defendant in error.
FISH, C.J. Judgement Affirmed, All the Justices concur, except ATKINSON, J., absent.
Jesse William Zeigler, father of William C. Zeigler, died June 6, 1924. He was buried at Long Bridge Cemetery, Berrien County, GA.
Grave of Jesse W. Zeigler, Long Bridge Cemetery, Berrien County, GA
Lula Tyson Zeigler, mother of William C. Zeigler, died August 22, 1958 at Central State Hospital (Formerly Georgia State Sanitarium) at Milledgeville, GA. During her time at Central State Hospital, the institution became known as the “world’s largest insane asylum,” housing some 13,000 patients with mental illness. According to an article in Atlanta Magazine, “Doctors wielded the psychiatric tools of the times—lobotomies, insulin shock, and early electroshock therapy—along with far less sophisticated techniques: Children were confined to metal cages; adults were forced to take steam baths and cold showers, confined in straitjackets, and treated with douches or ‘nauseants.‘ …The thousands of patients were served by only 48 doctors, none a psychiatrist. Indeed, some of the “doctors” had been hired off the mental wards. ”
Some 2,000 cast-iron markers at Cedar Lane Cemetery commemorate the 25,000 patients buried on the Central State Hospital grounds, patient Lula Tyson Zeigler among them. The markers, with numbers instead of names, once identified individual graves but were pulled up and tossed into the woods by unknowing prison inmates working as groundskeepers to make mowing easier.
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