US Navy Chief Carpenter's Mate Cecil Frederick Wilson was born in Gonzalez, Florida on December 2, 1888, the son of David William Wilson (1857-1903) and Kate Turner (1858-1918). His father's first wife was Josephine "Josie" Beasley (1857-1884) who he married in 1880 in Pike Co. AL. Three sons were born to this marriage before she passed away in 1884. Three years later he married Kate Turner in 1887 in Escambia County, Florida. She would give birth to Cecil and five other children.
In 1900, Cecil was living in Gonzalez with his parents while his father supported the family as a section foreman. Three years later, his father passed away leaving his mother a widow. Cecil went to work as a house carpenter to help support her and his younger siblings still at home. By 1917, Cecil was a woodworker for the Duval Lumber Company located at "G" and Magnolia Street while living with his mother at 820 East Jackson Street.
Then came the onslaught of World War I and America's need for military personnel. Cecil went out to the Pensacola naval base and boarded the receiving ship. There, he filled out his enlistment papers for the Navy and was sworn in on December 14, 1917. Because of his carpentry experience he was given the rank of "aviation carpenter's mate 3rd Class" with an advancement 18 days later to 1st Class. In those days a "receiving ship" was defined as an obsolete or unseaworthy ship moored at a navy yard and used for new recruits or men who were in transit between stations. While aboard the recruits were taught how to be sailors. But for Cecil, another promotion followed 181 days later to Chief Carpenter's Mate.
With his rapid advancement within only ten months, Cecil had everything going for him. Then on Saturday, October 5, 1918, he fell seriously ill. As the military doctors wrote of their patient's symptoms, "These men start with what appears to be an ordinary attack of the flu, and when brought to the hospital, they would rapidly develop the most vicious type of pneumonia that has ever been seen. Within a few hours, you begin to see the cyanosis extending from their ears and spreading all over the face turning darker by the minute. For some, it is only a matter of a few hours until death comes."
Cecil was moved to his brother's house at 1110 East Jackson Street to prevent the spread to other military personnel. His brother, Charles Goulen Wilson had watched their mother die just three weeks hence from natural causes. Now he was losing his brother as well. Cecil was buried in Grave #1676 at the Barrancas National Cemetery on Wednesday, October 9 with full military honors. Unfortunately, he was not the first to perish from the naval base and he certainly was not the last. Two other Pensacolians by the name of Ernest Ward of Walnut Hill and John Hayden Christie Jr. of Pensacola had recently died of the dreaded virus within just a few days of Cecil. More would follow!
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