Collin Chronicles, Volume 31, Number 3 & 4, 2010/2011 Page: 78
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PAGE 78 Vol 31 No 3:2010-2011 COLLIN CHRONICLES
McKinney Shocked
The receipt of the above telegram was a shock to the many relatives and friends of the
deceased in this city where he was born and reared. News of his illness had been previously received
and grave fears were entertained about his recovery after his ailment was known to be pneumonia.
John Emerson was a son of the late T. T. Emerson and grandson of the late F. Emerson founder of the
First National Bank of this city. Fred and Charlie Emerson of McKinney are his brothers as was also the
late Cliff Emerson. Early in the present year, John enlisted in the Aviation corps and was first stationed
at San Antonio, but later sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
To Be Buried Here
The remains will be brought to his old home here in McKinney for interment. It is not known yet
when they will arrive.
McKinney Daily Courier Gazette, 17 December 1917, page 1, cols. 1-2.
JOHN EMERSON THE FIRST McKINNEY BOY TO DIE
Although beyond the selective draft age, John Emerson, a McKinney born, reared and educated
young man, an expert mechanic, when the tocsin of war was sounded, responded to his country's call
and voluntarily gave up his young life in the defense of his country. He has fallen, the first McKinney
boy to die for the cause of the flag, for the defense of democracy and against a Kaiser-ridden
autocratic, blood-thirsty German militarism.
When the news was flashed over the wire that John Emerson was the first McKinney boy to die,
and an hour or so later published in the Courier-Gazette, a pall of gloom was cast over our city, his
native home.
The flower of our country, the defenders of the flag of our nation, is composed of just such young
men as John Emerson. His life was just as near and dear and sweet to him as the reader of these lines,
yet, he was willing to volunteer for the perpetuation of democracy and to give all the aid and power in
his soul to the freeing of down-trodden peoples of foreign lands.
He has gone from us. Many other young men of his patriotic kind who have likewise offered
themselves as sacrifices if fate so decrees may also go before the blood-thirsty German Kaiser can be
subdued.
Our hearts bleed in sympathy with relatives and friends and loved ones. Those who are near and
dear to him, can point with eternal pride, that John Emerson, young in years, standing for right against
wrong, was willing to and did sacrifice all he had and possessed in this world for country's love and
defense.
Life was a short one with John Emerson. He was thirty-three years of age, and had he not
volunteered himself as a sacrifice for his country he probably would have had a long tenure of life. But
he preferred to lend his all in behalf of the country which gave him birth, and in his passing away, the
people of McKinney and Collin county, should ever revere his memory, actions and deeds, for a
continuation and perpetuation of democracy for the world.McKinney Daily Courier Gazette, 18 December 1917, page 2, cols. 2-3.
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PAGE 78
Vol 31 No 3:2010-2011
COLLIN CHRONICLES
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Collin County Genealogical Society. Collin Chronicles, Volume 31, Number 3 & 4, 2010/2011, periodical, 2011; Plano, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth238553/m1/24/: accessed April 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Collin County Genealogical Society.