Private Celestine Ward, formerly of the 15th Confederate Cavalry, was forced to hurriedly move to Escambia County sometime after 1871 to escape an alledged murder warrant for a man he killed in Walton County (family legend). By this time, his wife Catherine had died and he was raising his children by himself. When he decided to run from the law, he had no choice but to leave his six-year old son, Henry Harrison “Wardie” Ward, with his wife’s brother and family. Henry would later grow up in Walnut Hill in Escambia County where he would marry and raise a family of his own.
Henry's son, Earnest was born on November 22, 1888 and would graduate from high school in Atmore, Alabama and went on to obtain his college education in Kentucky. He eventually went to work for the Southern States Lumber Company operating in and around Atmore. He even assisted in erecting a modern one-room school building in Walnut Hill, Florida for the children of the company workers. In 1917, the county decided to consolidate all the schools in the area into just one building, which would decrease the community’s transportation problems. To this end, Earnest tirelessly dedicated his energies to accomplish this goal. But, before he could finish the task, the world was thrown into the chaos of World War I and Earnest answered his nations call to arms by enlisting in the U.S. Navy. Luckily, or so he thought at the time, he was stationed at NAS Pensacola during his tenure with the military. However, beginning in March 1918 the American military became stricken with a wide spreading disease called the "Spanish Influenza." Soldiers, sailors and civilians alike were dying en masse from the horrible virus. Over 700,000 Americans would perish before the disease finally burned itself out.
The men and women of NAS were no different, as one by one they too began to succumb as well. On October 6, 1918, one month before the armistice ending hostilities was signed, Earnest contracted the virus and passed away. Most death certificates listed the cause of death as "pneumonia," but everyone knew what has stolen their loved ones. The Ward family in Walnut Hill waited anxiously for their son’s body to be shipped home by train, but when it arrived they opened the casket and discovered the body of a red headed sailor with a full beard. They had no choice but to delay the funeral until the bodies were located and exchanged and their son was finally brought home. Shortly after his burial, his mother was given the “Carnegie Hero Medal” earned by her son in 1915 for an act of courage he was involved in at the time. He earned the medal while visiting Shelbyville, Tennessee and saving two young men from drowning while on a social outing. Ernest Ward High School was named in the young man’s honor and on June 4, 1970, his brother Horace Ward presented a portrait of Ernest to be hung in the front hall of the school.
Earnest Ward
Parents of Ernest Ward
Pensacola News Journal October 1918. Note how
many other deaths were taking place during this
same time period!
Buried Pine Barren Cemetery, Davisville, Florida
Ernest Ward High School, now Ernest Ward Middle School, Walnut Hill, Florida