Seth Lathrop Weld (1879-1958)

    Seth Weld was born on February 19, 1879 in Washington County, Maryland, the sixth child of George and Emily Weld. The family moved to Altamont, North Carolina while he was young. He enlisted in 1899, lying about his age to get in the Army, and was assigned to 39th Company, Coast Artillery at Fort McHenry. Within three years, he had reached the rank of first sergeant. In late 1905, Weld transferred to the 8th Infantry, which was scheduled to move to the Philippine Islands to fight the Philippine-American War, also known as the Philippine Insurrection. He requested the transfer even though it meant moving back to the rank of private. Weld served in the Philippine Islands from April 1906 to April 1908, with the rank of corporal at the time of the 1906 incident that earned him the medal. On December 5, 1906, he saved the lives of a wounded officer and a fellow soldier who were surrounded by about forty Philippine insurgents. Although wounded himself, he used his disabled rifle as a club and beat the assailants back until the three were rescued. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this courageous action on October 20, 1908. The day after, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Philippine Scouts. He remained in the Army his entire life until physical disability forced his retirement as a lieutenant colonel in September 1933. A few months later, he was advanced to the honorary rank of colonel. He settled in San Antonio, where he died at the age of 79 on December 20, 1958. Source

CITATION

With his right arm cut open with a bolo, went to the assistance of a wounded constabulary officer and a fellow soldier who were surrounded by about 40 Pulajanes, and, using his disabled rifle as a club, beat back the assailants and rescued his party.

Section AH
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery
San Antonio

COORDINATES

29° 28.511, -098° 25.972

Joseph Franciscus Ehlinger (1792-1845)

    Joseph Ehlinger was a native of Alsace, France. He served under Napoleon in the European wars during the early part of the nineteenth century and acquired both a practical and theoretical knowledge of military tactics. He brought his family to America and arrived in Texas just before the war for independence, locating in the vicinity of Houston, which had not yet been laid as a town. In the War of 1836 he joined Houston’s army on the Colorado River at about the site of the present city of Columbus, and owing to his previous military experience as a French soldier was appointed drill master for the Texas cavalry. He proved a valuable man to the cause, went with Houston’s army in its retreat across Texas, participated in the battle of San Jacinto, and was present when the Texans captured the Mexican president, Santa Anna. With the success of the Texans in their struggle for independence, Ehlinger, after performing his own important share in that conflict, settled in the vicinity of Houston and became a farmer and stock man. His name is identified with the city of Houston because of the fact that he platted Ehlinger’s Addition, which is now in the heart of the city, but which, during his lifetime, was of little importance. His later years were spent quietly, and he died in Houston and is buried there. He was a member of the Catholic Church. His wife, Mary, is buried in the little cemetery on the Joseph Ehlinger League in Colorado County.

Note: This is a cenotaph. Founders Memorial Park, originally founded in 1836 as Houston's first city cemetery, was rapidly filled due to a yellow fever epidemic and closed to further burials around 1840. The cemetery became neglected over a period of time, often vandalized and was heavily damaged by the 1900 hurricane. In 1936, despite a massive clean up effort, a century of neglect had taken its toll. The vast majority of grave markers were either destroyed or missing and poor record keeping prevented locating individual graves. Several cenotaphs were placed in random areas throughout the park in honor of the more high-profile citizens buried there, but a great number of graves go unmarked to this day.


Founders Memorial Park
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 45.457, -095° 22.760

Joan Lowery Nixon (1927-2003)

    Joan Lowery Nixon, author, was born on February 3, 1927, in Los Angeles, California, to Margaret (Meyer) and Joseph Lowery, an accountant. At the age of two, she approached her mother and asked her to write down poems she composed. Her first piece, a poem called Springtime, was published in a children’s magazine by the time she was ten. Nixon had a happy childhood living with her parents and maternal grandparents, which meant always having someone to read to her and her sisters. Her mother, a former kindergarten teacher, had the family put on puppet shows across Los Angeles for hospitals, schools, and orphanages. At age seven, she had her first encounter with mysteries, which would later become her forte, through the I Love a Mystery radio program and was hooked. In her book The Making of a Writer (2002), Nixon credited these and other early formative experiences with her choice to become a writer.

    At the end of her senior year, she was paid for her first article, a testimonial written for The Ford Times. After graduating from Hollywood High during World War II, she attended the University of Southern California. There she was a member of the Kappa Delta sorority and graduated in 1947 with a degree in journalism, much to the chagrin of her father who saw newspaper reporters as drinkers. Unable to find a job as a journalist, however, she took a job as an elementary teacher and went to night school to earn her teaching credentials. She met her husband Hershell Nixon, a naval officer and geologist, at college, and they married in 1949. The couple had three daughters, Kathleen, Maureen, Eileen, and a son, Joseph. The family moved to Texas, first to Midland and Corpus Christi, and finally settled in Houston. Nixon began her career as an author in 1964 when, after being turned down by twelve publishers, her first novel, The Mystery of Hurricane Castle, was accepted by the final thirteenth publisher.

    Throughout her life, Nixon wrote more than 140 books, some that were published in twenty different languages. Most were her renowned suspense-filled mysteries for children and young adults, but she also wrote historical fiction, nonfiction for adults, Biblical adaptations, and coauthored children’s science books with her husband. Defining herself as half-Californian and half-Texan, many of her novels are set in Texas, including A Deadly Game of Magic (1982), The Stalker (1985), A Candidate for Murder (1990), Shadowmaker (1994), Search for the Shadowman (1996), and Laugh Till You Cry (2004). Nixon was noted for empowering girls and young women. When commenting on her knack for crafting strong heroines, she said: “My girls are all self-sufficient. They may be scared to death, but they make their own decisions and do them. Some get good grades, some don’t. But they’re still smart.” She was also instrumental in getting the Girl Scouts to adopt a writing badge, and she wrote My Baby that was aimed at teenage mothers and is provided for free at hospitals, schools, and churches through the Mental Health Association. Nixon’s writing earned her much praise. She was the recipient of a record four Edgar Allan Poe awards and was nominated for an additional five from the Mystery Writers of America, an organization for which she also had served as president. The awards were for The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore (1979), The Séance (1980), The Other Side of Dark (1986) and The Name of the Game Was Murder (1993). Other honors included Two Golden Spur awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters award, and numerous state-by-state awards. The Golden Spurs were for her celebrated series, Orphan Train Adventures, for which she did original research on an overlooked historical event, the transport of more than 100,000 homeless children from New York City to new homes in the West starting in 1854, turning it into a work of fiction for young readers.

    But despite her numerous accomplishments, Nixon was most proud of letters she got from young readers saying something to the effect of: “I hated to read. But my teacher gave me one of your mysteries, and I loved it. I'm going to read everything you've ever written.” She also said she could not ask for a better award than a letter from a girl who wrote, “Thank you for the gift of reading.” Nixon, in return, encouraged young writers by publishing a how-to book and memoir on creative writing for elementary students and hosting a website where children could send in their writing that she personally reviewed and gave positive suggestions and feedback. The woman often referred to as “the grande dame of mystery fiction” died at the age of seventy-six on June 28, 2003, in Houston, due to complications of pancreatic cancer. In an interview shortly before her passing, Nixon said she did not see that times had changed drastically since she was a kid. Whether trying to cope with life during war, or having a crush on a boy, she found teens’ worries were still the same. Forever young at heart, she was able to relate to this core audience, publishing at least one book a year up until her death. Nixon is buried at Memorial Oaks Cemetery in Houston. She was survived by her two sisters, children, and numerous grandchildren. Her son Joseph (Joe) Nixon has been a representative in the Texas House. Source

Section 18
Memorial Oaks Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 46.992, -095° 36.802