Military History in Paulding County
By: Mark Holtsberry
Samuel Otis Smalley was born on June 30, 1890, in Adams County, Ohio. He was the son of John William Smalley, born November 15, 1851, in Adams County, Ohio, and Eliza Jane (Frost) Smalley, born in 1861 in Paulding, Ohio. The couple married in 1876 and by 1880 were living in Meigs Township, Adams County, Ohio.
Their first children were Oscar Tilton Smalley, born October 14, 1875, and Nelson Tilton Smalley, born July 6, 1877. Nelson would later join Company M, 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry from Paulding County to serve in the Spanish-American War. At that time, John worked as a farmer. The family continued to grow in Meigs, Ohio, with the birth of their daughter Frona in August 1885, Ephram B. in March 1886, Elizabeth M. in May 1888, and Samuel Otis in 1890. John was still farming.
By 1900, the Smalley family had relocated to Jackson Township in Paulding County, Ohio, where John continued working as a farmer. The family expanded again with the birth of Eliza Anna on August 2, 1892, who would later marry Isaac Myers, a Spanish-American War veteran also from Paulding County. Another daughter, Bess Leona Smalley, was born on July 26, 1898. Most of the children were in school during this time.
By 1910, the family had moved to the village of Paulding and was residing at 215 Dix Street. Samuel was employed as a laborer doing odd jobs, and his father John had also taken up various odd jobs.
On October 21, 1913, Eliza Anna passed away in Toledo. Samuel’s mother, Eliza Jane, died on June 6, 1915, and was buried in Cooper-Haines Cemetery.
Samuel registered for the World War I draft on June 5, 1917, in the Paulding North precinct. He was described as single, tall, with a medium build, blue eyes, and brown hair, and was working as a laborer for Ed Russell. His brothers, Nelson and Oscar, registered for the draft on September 12, 1918, though neither was selected to serve. Oscar died from tuberculosis on December 6, 1918.
Samuel enlisted in the National Army from Paulding on May 25, 1918. He was sent to Camp Sheridan, Alabama, where he served in the 5th Company, 4th Battalion, 159th Depot Brigade until June 18, 1918. He then served in Company H, 153rd Infantry until September 1918, followed by service in Company G, 127th Infantry, and later Company K, 127th Infantry. He saw combat in the Meuse-Argonne sector as a Private. Samuel was honorably discharged on May 23, 1919.
In 1920, Samuel married Clara Katherine “Katie” Hays, who was born on February 11, 1898, in Latty, Ohio. They were living in Toledo, Ohio, where Samuel worked as a laborer for a sugar manufacturing company. By 1923, they were residing at 3581 Austin Street in Toledo.
On March 13, 1924, Samuel died of tuberculosis at the National Veterans Administration Hospital in Montgomery County, Dayton, Ohio. Although he was originally scheduled to be buried in a National Cemetery, his body was returned to Paulding and interred at Cooper-Haines Cemetery in row 5, old section, grave 8.
Samuel’s father, John William Smalley, died later that year on November 15, 1924, from uremia.
Clara remarried in 1927 and passed away in Toledo in 1968. She is buried alongside her second husband, Armin Adolfo Mann, at Toledo Memorial Park Cemetery.
… Until Next Time!
