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- Phillipine American War/Chinese Relief Expedition
- (Research): "At times Uncle Billy Rafert came home to visit a few days from San Diego. He had an injury, from war, in his leg and needed a cane. He was so handsome. He would take Edna and me to show downtown and treated us like queens. Such a gentleman! He is buried in San Diego military cemetery. I wrote to him and the landlady who owned the house where he stayed wrote me....he was so very fine and had lived there many years in retirement. He left some money to my aunt Em and a bit to Mom. But he always sent a check for $100 to her and she'd pay Uncle Charlie for coal, Charlie was Mom's brother." [Jottings by Alma Rafert Welp - 1995]
1880 Indianapolis City Directory shows Wm. E. Rafert, residence 139 E. Merrill, as a messenger for the First National Bank.
23 Nov 1902
William H. Rafert Petition the Probate Commissioner.
William H. Rafert was declared to be officially alive by Probate Commissioner Walker yesterday on his own application. His application to the probate office was Intended to legalize his claim on the estate of a relative who died recently. Of this estate Edward H. Rafert, a brother of the claimant, was appointed the administrator and he learning of his brother's intention to come home, apportioned part of the estate to him. Rafert has been awav from Indianapolis since 1881 and had not been heard from during his absence. Under an Indiana statute a man who disappears from his home and is absent seven years Is legally dead and his estate is divided among his heirs.
Per Death Certificate: Wm. Rafert was a 1st Sergeant in the US Army. He was in from 1883 to 1913. He came to CA (the last time) about 1904 and moved to San Diego in 1914. It also states that his body was cremated (Bonham Brother's Cematorium) on May 20, 1939. According to Doris H. Welp Russell his ashes were spread over the ocean.
He Retired as a 1st Sgt. (115th Company). In 1911 he held the rank of 1st Class Gunner. During the period 1898 to 1900 he is listed as a Sgt.
It was appropriate that Battery D, 3rd Artillery, was the first to occupy the new fort, for Battery D had been the last military unit to occupy the San Diego Mission, then a military post. That was back in 1858, when the battery was ordered into Washington Territory to fight Indians. Now, forty years later, a detachment of twenty soldiers from the same old battery arrived from San Diego Barracks, under 2nd Lt. George T. Patterson. That was on Feb. 2, 1898; on Feb. 15 Capt. Charles Humphreys and the rest of the battery arrived. In July 1900 the battery was ordered to China and saw action in the Boxer Uprising. SOURCE: http://www.militarymuseum.org/FtRosecrans.html
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1862 - 1939 (77 years)
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