MILES, Harry Victor

The 7th registrant for the WWI draft was Harry Victor Miles born near Waveland 27 September 1895, the son of John and Mary Elizabeth (English) Miles, the 9th of eleven children. Harry had red hair, gray eyes and was medium built, being in the range of 5'8" and 150-160 #. Working for the Central Indiana Railway, he was a coal heaver, adding coal to the fire box in the boiler to make the engine go.

When Harry registered for the draft, he was 21, married (Margaret Marie Trout whom he was married to for 45 years before she passed in April of 1961) and had a child under 12.

Although Harry spent many years in his hometown, he spent the last couple at the VA Hospital in Marion, Grant County, Indiana where he was listed as a carpenter and died of cardiac failure and bronchitis on January 23, 1967. He and his wife, Marie are buried in the Old Union Cemetery, along with several other soldiers.

As a Corporal in Company I, the 28th Infantry Division, Harry had everyone in Waveland worried in August and September of 1918. Harry went missing on August 12th. Harry actually wrote home a couple of times before the War Department let Marie know that he had been gassed. Home he did come, thank goodness and he and Marie had five children: Willard; Kathryn; Elizabeth; John and Rosemary. Although some of Harry's family stayed in the Waveland area (Rosemary Miles Hester), most went to Illinois or over into Boone County, in Indiana.