Military History in Paulding County
By: Mark Holtsberry
Mathias B. Roush was born in Paulding County, Ohio, on August 14, 1893. He was the son of Charles Andrew Roush, born February 19, 1873, in Ohio, and Eva J. (Good) Roush, born in 1875 in Ohio. Eva’s father was George Washington Good, a Civil War veteran buried in Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Jackson Township. Charles and Eva were married on December 25, 1892, in Paulding.
By 1900, Eva and Charles were divorced. On December 6, 1899, in Paulding, Eva married a farmer, John F. Dickinson, a Spanish-American War veteran. Mathias lived with his mother and stepfather in Jackson Township. By 1910, Mathias was living in Marion, Ohio, with Eva and John on Bennett Street. He was working as a porter in a hotel.
Also in 1910, Mathias’s father, Charles Andrew Roush, married a woman named Emma Bananas, born November 16, 1887. She passed away on November 16, 1915, and is buried in Michigan.
In 1911, Mathias was working as a hotel pressman when he enlisted in the U.S. Army at Columbus Barracks in Columbus, Ohio. He was sent to McDowell, California, and served for three years. He was honorably discharged on June 20, 1914.
In 1916, Mathias joined Company D, 4th Ohio National Guard, out of Marion, Indiana. He was living at 804 David Street, Marion. On June 26, 1916, he held the rank of private. He was promoted to corporal on July 2, 1916. On July 11, 1916, Company D of the 4th Ohio National Guard was reorganized as Company D, 166th U.S. Army Infantry, at Camp Willis, Ohio.
On August 7, 1916, Mathias married Claudine Elizabeth Cook in Marion, Ohio. She was born May 6, 1901, in Pedro, Lawrence County, Indiana, the daughter of James and Martha Cook.
Mathias was again listed as a private on January 1, 1917. He was promoted to corporal on July 15, 1917, then to sergeant on September 11, 1917. He was later reduced back to corporal on March 6, 1918, and then to private on April 25, 1918.
On that same date, April 25, 1918, Mathias was sent to New York and deployed overseas aboard the U.S.S. Leviathan. He saw combat in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne defensive sectors. Tragically, on December 22, 1918, Mathias died of pneumonia.
His body was returned home to Marion, Ohio, in June 1921 and buried in Marion Cemetery, Marion County, in the Magnolia Section, Lot 12. His wife, Claudine, remarried in 1921 to Ira Almond Noggle, who passed away in 1944. Claudine died on Thursday, February 18, 1971, and is buried beside Mathias in Marion Cemetery.
Mathias’s father, Andrew (Charles Andrew Roush), remarried again on November 12, 1923, to Anna Russell, born April 21, 1852, in Michigan. She died on March 24, 1942, and is buried in Michigan. Andrew passed away on November 4, 1939, in Michigan.
Eva’s second husband, John Dickinson, died in 1921 in Paulding and is buried in Pleasant Grove Cemetery. Eva later married Lacy Rider on May 5, 1923, in Marion, Ohio. Lacy died on May 31, 1940, and is buried in Marion. Eva passed away on February 3, 1946, in Marion and is buried with Lacy Rider.
This truly was one big soap opera.
…Until Next Time!
