This week of #52Ancestors brings me back to the Mount family, but focuses on the branch of the family that migrated out to Ohio. How helpful it would have been to have known about this group when I actually lived in Ohio. I chose Burns Wilson Mount because his birthday falls in this week and because the prompt this week is “favorite name.”
It can be especially challenging for research when your subject has a really unusual name that is made up of very common words. Initial searches lead me to many people who died of burns near Mount Healthy.
Burns Wilson Mount was born on 7 February 1897 in Warren County, Ohio to Addison and Clara Moses Mount. Addison Mount migrated from Hightstown, New Jersey when he was 17 years old and his children are the first generation to be born in Ohio. Burns was the youngest of six sons raised on a farm in Butler County. When he was 17 two major life events happened for him: he married Kathleen Frazee and he enlisted in the Ohio National Guard, eventually serving as a private in the 166th Infantry in World War I.
Burns and Kathleen Mount had two children, Arthur B. and Ralph E., both of whom also served in the military during World War II. After serving in WWI, Burns returned to Ohio and got a job in a steel mill, where he worked for the next twenty years at least. Unfortunately, creative searching strategies have not lead me to any images of Burns although I did find entries for his two boys in the Young Patriots of World War II publication.
Burns Mount died 29 October 1959 and is buried with military honors at Woodhill Cemetery in Franklin, Ohio. His wife Kathleen (1897-1968) is buried next to him. As recently as 2012 someone had decorated the grave with an American flag, which is fitting for a 20 year old who went off to France so many years before. Happy Birthday, Burns Wilson Mount!
Telling My Story 