803. A local descendent of President William H. Harrison

Nestled in the hallowed grounds of the Pine Forest United Methodist Church Cemetery is a woman that is a descendent of President William Henry Harrison, the 9th president of the United States. Harrison would serve only four weeks in his exalted position before succumbing to pneumonia. She also had entertained one of the bridesmaids from the wedding of President Abraham Lincoln. She recalled the Civil War well having been 12-years old by the end of the war. Also, embedded in her family history was a grandfather who had been a colonel during the War of 1812.

As for her, she was Mary Mariah Withers (1853-1943) the daughter of Owen Barton Withers (1825-1899) and Martha G. Clinton (1829-1869) from Kentucky. She would marry Samuel Alexander McCall (1839-1926) in 1879 in Montgomery County, Tennessee and bear him at least five children. Her husband was a Confederate veteran who had enlisted in Lenore, Caldwell County, North Carolina on July 1, 1861 in Company “D” of the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment. He was wounded during the battle of Rapidan on November 27, 1863 after being shot through the left thigh and through the breast. Afterwards he was disabled to the point that after his recovery he was assigned to duty in the southern hospital in Raleigh, NC until the end of the war.

After the war, he and his family would migrate to Pensacola in 1890 and settled in the farming community of Klondyke (Beulah). The family remained in the community and raised their children to adulthood. One of his sons was Harley Granville McCall (1895-1969) who had married Marie Irene Dupre (1903-). He was a WWI veteran and would retire as an engineer with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Harley and Marie's son was Ensign Joseph Owen McCall who was born in New Orleans, LA on February 12, 1923 and left college to enlist in the US Navy flight program at Chapel Hill, NC. From there he went to Chicago and then on to Corpus Christie, TX. Finally, he arrived in Jacksonville for carrier certification and formation flying orientation before being sent to the USS Yorktown in the South Pacific.

On the morning of July 15, 1944, Ensign Joseph McCall and his gunner Frank J. Metzenbauer took off from the USS Yorktown in their Helldiver dive bomber. They headed for the nearby enemy island of Rota where he placed three of his bombs in the middle of a Japanese airfield. His purpose was to protect the July 21st landing on Guam from any threat from an enemy air strike. After the Rota they flew to Guam where Joseph flew through tremendous antiaircraft fire at low altitude to place a bomb in the middle of an enemy ammunition dump. As he flew off, he was hit by the AA fire and crashed into the sea off Adelup Point. Both men were killed instantly as they sank to the bottom in their aircraft. Both families were notified that their loved ones were missing in action with little hope as to their fate. Luckily for his grandmother, she had passed away the year before and was spared the heartache of losing her grandson!

Pine Forest United Methodist Church Cemetery, Pensacola, Escambia County, Florida

Pensacola News Journal 1-20-1926. His obituary has him a member of the 9th Alabama Cavalry but his tombstone has him a member of the 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment.