Alabama Photo of the Day: Hugh Bagley

I recently came across this photograph and decided to investigate a bit. The information I've  found on Bagley came from several sources: U.S. Census records, Alabama marriage records and his World War I registration card at Ancestry.com, and the Gold Star Database maintained by the Alabama Department of Archives and History. That database is derived from a project the Archives undertook in the 1920's to obtain information from relatives about each of Alabama's dead in World War I. Bagley's mother Willis filled out his form. The plan was to publish a book about these men, but that never happened. 

The subject of the photo was born in the small community of Jenifer in Talladega County on September 7 1897. At the time Bagley registered with the military, he was working as a laborer at a furnace in Ironaton in Talladega County. He arrived at Camp Dodge, Iowa, for training on October 28, 1917. You can see a number of postcards of buildings and activities at the camp here. More information on Camp Dodge is here. As a member of the quartermaster corps he departed Hoboken, N.J., for France on February 9, 1918. Like most African-American soldiers in World War I, he served in a supportive, non-combatant role. He died of unknown illness on November 11, 1918, which happened to be Armistice Day. Perhaps he died in the 1918 influenza pandemic. 

Bagley's parents were married on January 9, 1892, in Jenifer, Alabama. I found the Bagley family in the 1910 U.S. Census. The father is listed as Guss Bagley, age 36, the mother is Willis Bagley, 25. They lived in Ironaton on Virginia Street with their six sons ranging in age from 1 to 16. Apparently three other children had not survived. Hugh was the second oldest at 13; he could both read and write. 

Hugh's mother Willis filled out the Gold Star form on November 3, 1921. On the line for "Father" she wrote, "Know nothing of Gus Bagley". Had her husband and Hugh's father abandoned  her at an earlier point? She notes that her son went to school in Ironaton and that a "Prof. Barnhill" was one of his teachers. Willis declared that Hugh was a Republican, a Steward in the Methodist church and "Died without going into an engagement."

or 

Bagley is buried in the Jenifer Cemetery in Talladega County 

Source: Find-A-Grave