Wilson T. Hougham/Houghan (1849-1938)

HOUGHAM, HOUGHAN, WERKING

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 1/2/2023 at 18:13:39

From Nevada Evening Journal August 30, 1938 (page 1)

Civil War Veteran Dead at Ames; Burial Wednesday

Special to the Journal:
Ames, Aug. 30--Burial rites for Wilson T. Houghan, 92, one of the three surviving Civil War veterans of Ames, who died at Mary Greeley hospital here Monday, will be held Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 from Duckworth Funeral home, interment being in the Ames cemetery

The death of Mr. Houghan leaves Captain Charles Hamilton and Fred Tilden, sole survivors of the Civil War, not only in Ames but in Story county, since the death of William H. Toms at Nevada last week.

Mr. Houghan was born in Hamilton county, Indiana, Aug 28, 1849 and went with his family to Missouri when he was six years old. In 1861 his family was given ten days to decide whether to take the side of the Confederacy of leave the county. Mr. Houghan, enlisted in June of 1862 in Company I of the 18th Iowa infantry and was discharged from the service Aug. 6, 1865.

After the war Mr. Houghan was engaged in farming in Indiana and in Iowa. He was married in 1877 in Indiana to Samantha Werking who died here in 1932.

The Houghans came to Ames from Iowa county about 29 years ago. For a time Mr. Houghan worked as a mail messenger between the main postoffice and station A in the fourth ward and later as night office man in the engineering building.

Houghan, despite his age, had been in good health until about three weeks ago and had been in the hospital but a week.

On Sunday the Daughters of Union Veterans presented Comrade Houghan with a birthday cake topped with 92 candles, a custom long popular with the aging veterans.