PVT Theron D. McCrady
1895 – 1921
USAR
WWI
Theron Delbert McCrady was born in Royal Center, Indiana, on March 1, 1895, to Joseph B. and Lucy (Roach) McCrady.
He served four years in World War I in the Coast Artillery Corps of the Regular Army. Each month a number of men of the Coast Artillery Corps then serving in the States were randomly selected for Automatic Replacement Drafts and sent overseas for duty.
In March, 1918, Pvt. McCrady’s 56th Artillery left New York, likely to participate in the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), who fought in France alongside French and British allied forces against Imperial German Forces in the last year of the war. The 39th Brigade was formed from troops from the AEF who were already in France in August, 1918, where records list McCrady as a Wagoner.
McCrady participated in the second army drive on the Moselle front, where he received shrapnel wounds and was also gassed.
After the war, he became a well-regarded employee of the Public Service Company before he married Marjorie Wade in Barrington on June 1, 1921.
Private Theron McCrady met an untimely death on September 24, 1921 when an explosion occurred at a Public Works substation caused by a lightning strike. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Barrington.
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Remember. Honor. Teach.
Courtesy of Signal Hill Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution