Military Monday - Edward Creeden in Army, Marines, Canadian Expeditionary Forces, Part IV

When I started researching my great-grandfather's brother Edward Creeden, I found possible records for him in the Army, Marines, and Canadian Expeditionary Forces, but doubted that they were all the same Edward. In my last post on Edward, I detailed the records I received from NARA which showed that it was my Edward in the Army and Marines records. The birth date, next of kin, and physical description in the Canadian records matched, so I decided to go ahead and order them.

The Edward in the Canadian records is definitely my Edward! In addition to his brother Charles, he listed next of kin as his sister Julia Creeden in Pueblo, CO and his brother Joshua in Celina, OH. When he enlisted he gave his birthplace as Erie, Ontario, but on one of the forms in his Canadian service records, he gave Celina, OH as his birthplace. The package I received had 77 pages and a good amount of new information:

• His dates of service were from August 31, 1917 - February  5, 1919.
• He was sent to Liverpool and then France during WWI.
• He was discharged as being medically unfit after being wounded by a shell fragment in Arras, France.
• His right leg was amputated below the knee and he spent two months in a hospital in England and several months in the Granville Canadian Special Hospital.
• He was fitted with an artificial leg.
• There were many pages on his medical records, discharge, and pay statements.
• His address after his discharge was listed as General Delivery, St. Louis, MO.
• The unit he served in was listed as the Manitoba Regt. 44th Bu 18th Res. but there was also a record of his transfer to #1 British American Ov on 9/22/1917. I haven't decoded all of the abbreviations yet!
• The most curious piece of information was handwritten in red across his Proceedings of Discharge paper. It said "Deceased - 14 - 2 - 1937". There was no paperwork showing that he received any kind of payments or benefits after his discharge in 1919, so how was the CEF informed of his death and why was it written on a form from 1919?

Proceedings of Discharge

Edward Creedon Death Certificate

I searched for a match on the date of death and found a death certificate in Newport, Campbell County, KY. The death certificate doesn't give much identifying information, but the age is correct and the date of death matches the CEF form. The death certificate lists the cemetery as Evergreen Cemetery in Newport and I found a listing for him in the cemetery here:

Creedon, Edward city of Newport, section 68, grave 496, Date of Death 2-14-1937, age 54, Undertaker: M C & Roll, Place of Death: Newport Hotel. Ironically, the cemetery has a section for veterans, but Edward is not buried in that section.

So, Edward's life ended on another mystery. What was he doing in Kentucky? I haven't been able to find him in the 1930 census so far. He certainly traveled around the world, so he could have been anywhere then! From Ohio, he went to Pueblo, CO with his sister Julia and then on to Salt Lake City, UT where he enlisted in the US Army. He was in the Philippines for four years and discharged in Porter, NY. Other locations listed were Monterey, CA, San Francisco, and Puget Sound, WA, St. Louis, MO, and Kansas. He went to Minnesota and Canada and then served overseas in England and France in WWI. There are still a few mysteries surrounding Edward, but I knew next to nothing about him before obtaining his military records from NARA and the Library and Archives Canada site. It's been very interesting to see how much information is available in the military records.