Military History in Paulding County
By: Mark Holtsberry
Captain Charles Alvin Riley was born May 14, 1889, in Dennison, Texas, the son of Dr. Charles Wayne Riley, born July 22, 1851, in New York, and Eva May (Dix) Riley, born May 27, 1873, in Ohio. This couple was married July 28, 1890, in Hamilton, Ohio. A daughter, Sadie Lucille, was born January 14, 1895, in Cecil, Ohio. She passed away February 22, 1899, and is buried in Live Oak Cemetery, Paulding, Ohio.
By 1900, Dr. Riley, Eva, and Charles were living in Cecil, Crane Township, Paulding County, when tragedy struck. On October 30, 1900, while tending to patients in Cecil, Dr. Riley was thrown into the street by his bucking horse and carriage. This caused a brain concussion from which he never regained consciousness. He had started practicing medicine in Paulding in 1899, about the time of A.M. Missel’s Drug Store. He was buried in Live Oak Cemetery.
With Eva a widow and son Charles to care for, she worked odd jobs to survive. On November 25, 1908, Eva married Willis H. Deal in Paulding. He was a real estate agent. On January 14, 1908, Charles enlisted in the United States Army. He was sent to Columbus Barracks, Columbus, Ohio. At the time, he was working as a grocery store clerk. He was listed as 5’5” tall, with blue eyes and brown hair.
He was assigned to Battery A, 5th Field Artillery, in San Francisco, California, at the Presidio Military Reservation. He was discharged January 13, 1911, at the Presidio, upon expiration of his term of service. In 1916, after his service, Charles remained in California, working as a porter at Providence Hospital.
He reenlisted in 1917, being promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps on August 15, 1917, from civilian life. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on January 14, 1918, and to Captain on October 17, 1918. He served at Camp Harrison, Indiana, with the 2nd Truck Company, 308th Motor Supply Train until October 30, 1918, and then with the 2nd Department, Motor Transportation Department, until dismissal at Camp Sherman, Ohio. He was then sent to Camp Mills, New York, and was dismissed from service on June 28, 1919.
Apparently, Charles moved back to Paulding, where he ran a business or two for some time, before eventually returning to California.
After moving to LaGrange, Indiana, in 1925, Eva’s husband, Willis H. Deal, passed away in Michigan on June 30, 1926, from acute hepatitis. Eva remarried around 1929–1930 to William C. Timmis, a widower whose first wife had passed away in 1926. Eva and William continued to live in LaGrange, Indiana.
On August 15, 1932, in Oakland, California, Charles and three other men were in a car accident that went over an embankment. Charles was killed instantly; his neck was broken and he suffered other fractures. His body was cremated, and the remains were shipped back to LaGrange, Indiana, for funeral services. Charles was buried in Live Oak Cemetery, Lot 77, Block C, Grave 1.
As for Eva, her husband William C. Timmis passed away March 10, 1938, in LaGrange, Indiana. Eva passed away May 2, 1945. She is buried with her first husband, Dr. Charles Riley, and their children, Sadie and Charles.
…Until Next Time !
