Friday's Photo: Charles William Giddens

By enlarging the photo and doing a little research, I can see that the symbol on his hat contains two rifles - the symbol for the Infantry. The number at the top is 15, and the letter at the bottom center of the rifles is E. Charles William Giddens served in Company E of the 15th Regiment in the United States Infantry from March 1911 to March 1914. He was somewhere between the age of 18 and 20 when this was taken. 

Charles William Giddens - Age 4
Click here to see more about
Charles. 

Charles William Giddens was my grandmother's older brother.  He led quite an interesting life. He was born on December 2, 1892, in Crew, Virginia, to Charles Allen Giddens, from North Carolina, and Mary Lucy Glynn, from Vermont. His parents met in New York City, where Charles was a milkman, and Lucy was a house servant. When Charles William was born, his father was a merchant in Crew.  The family left Crew and moved to Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where by 1898, his father had a dry goods store on South Main Street. 

I assume Charles attended school in Phillipsburg or Easton, Pennsylvania, until at least the eighth grade. On the 1910 census, his occupation was listed as a laborer. The next year, 18-year-old Charles William Giddens joined the United States Army, where he served in the Infantry. He completed his time and returned to Phillipsburg working as a machinist for at least three years. During that time, he joined the National Guard across the river in Easton. 

Charles Giddens - Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Machine Gunner School - about 1916

When war was declared on Germany, Company L of the 4th Pennsylvania National Guard became part of the 42nd Infantry Division (also known as the Rainbow Division). Uncle Charlie served in Company A of the 149th Machine Gun Battalion in France from July 1917 to March 1919. It was reported that he was wounded twice in July 1918 before being severely wounded on July 31, 1918. I remember my grandmother telling me that he was in a hospital in France for quite sometime. He did not leave France until March 15, 1919 and was discharged soon after returning. 

In 1920, Charles was still in Phillipsburg and was working as a timekeeper in a machine shop. He soon moved to Newark, where he worked as a machinist at a dental lab. In 1924, he married Louise Uhde and, a year or so later, purchased a house in South Orange, New Jersey. Charles worked for the Public Service Electric and Gas Company, and they remained in that home until the start of World War II. 

My grandmother, Edith Giddens Davis and her brother,
Charles, in Hollywood, Florida

Charles and Louise moved to Hollywood, Florida, when Uncle Charlie entered the United States Naval Reserve to be an instructor at the Naval Air Gunners School. After the war, they remained in Hollywood.  I know that, for a time, Uncle Charlie was a salesman at a local lumber company. My grandmother stayed in touch with her brother; however, when she visited him in Florida in 1970, it was the first time they were together since 1942. I was one of the lucky ones chosen to go with her on a visit in 1971. 

Uncle Charlie made many plaques to commemorate his own and other's military service. There are plaques he made to honor two men who died in his unit at the American Legion Rice-Ebner Post #588 in Easton, Pennsylvania. You can see them at In Search of Rainbow Memorials on page 42. 

The plaque below commemorates his service in both the Army and in the Navy. 

Front - DUTY  HONOR COUNTRY
CHARLES WILLIAM GIDDENS

Back - CHARLES WILLIAM GIDDENS  AMERICA OUR AMERICA
Giddens
12-2-70

Duty Honor County

Co. E. 15th  U.S. INF. 3-28-1911 To 3-25-1914

Co. L. 4th PA. NG INF. EASTON, PA. 6-23-1916 To 7-15-1917

Co. A. 149th  MG. BN. 42nd DIV. France 7-15-1917 To 4-7-1919

NAVAL AIR GUNNERS SCHOOL USNR  9-8-1942 To 6-16-1945

W W 1  MEDAL

BORN 12-2-1892

These were Uncle Charlie's medals. Found on a military history site, the person who 
submitted the photos them gave me permission to post here. The medals were sold to a collector in 2016. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page, where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2020

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn. 

Photographs of medals posted on Fold3 by John Bear. Used with Permission. 

"Pennsylvania, World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919, 1934." 1948 for Charles W Giddens https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60884/images/41744_182029006040_0891-00767?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.

Pommois, Lise M. In Search of Rainbows. Aegis Consulting Group. 2003. Print. http://www.rainbowvets.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/42nd-Memorials.pdf

Quinn, Diana Bryan. "Moments in Time, A Genealogy Blog: Friday's Photo: Charles Giddens Had a House on Irvington Avenue in South Orange, New Jersey." 2015. Web. https://momentsintimeagenealogyblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/fridays-photo-charles-giddens-had-house.html. Accessed 28 Aug. 2020.

Registers of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798-1914.   https://www.fold3.com/image/310967458?rec=300789316&xid=1945