Second Lieutenant Harry J. Vesper of B company, came of fighting stock, his father, O. R. Vesper, of Springfield, being a one armed veteran of the civil war. Harry was born in Springfield and was 31 years of age when he died on the Mobile. He studied in the public schools, leaving the high school to enter the employ of the Springfield Homestead. There he rose by steady industry and ability, to be head of the mailing department and business manager of the electrotyping department. For several years he had been deeply interested in the militia and had enlisted in B company, rising through the grades of corporal and sergeant to the second lieutenantcy, to which he was elected and commissioned May 11, 1896. For two years he had served as adjutant of the first battalion of the regiment, and was popular with everyone in the command.
RICHARD H. BEARSE.
The news of the death of no member of the Second was received in Springfield with more regret than that of Sergeant "Dickie" Bearse of B company. A member of the company for several years, he was known and liked by all the officers and men of the Springfield companies, for to know "Dick" Bearse was to like him. With his pride in B company and the regiment, not to speak of his patriotism, it was only natural he should be anxious to go to the front with the Second, and he did so, although he had to twice overcome the examining surgeon's objections. In camp and on the march he was cheerful and helpful and at El Caney he was up with the best of them. But all the while the hardships and toils of the campaign were sapping his vitality, and when the deadly calentura came, he had no strength left to resist it, but simply laid down and died. In him B company and the Second lost one of their best. Sergeant Bearse was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Leon Bearse and was 24 years of age. His body was brought home and interred in the family lot in Oak Grove cemetery, after such a funeral as has seldom been witnessed in Springfield, an outpouring of grief from hundreds of friends.
WILLIAM C. PIPER.
Corporal William C. Piper of K, was born at Marysville, O., in 1874, and his father is a well known lawyer and probate judge of that state. Corporal Piper came to Springfield in 1895 as manager of the Stetson Shoe store and had charge of the establishment at the time he was mustered in to the United States service. He enlisted in K company in 1897.
FRANK P. JONES.
Musician Frank P. Jones of K, and one of the best fellows in the Second, died in the hospital at Camp Wikoff, August 27, after passing through all the hardships of the campaign in Cuba without being seriously ill. He was a native of Ludlow, Mass., and was 21 years of age. He had served in K for three years and though opposed by his parents, could not be kept from enlisting as a volunteer when the call came for troops. Of a cheerful, happy disposition, he did much in the dark days of sickness and death in the camp before Santiago, to help his comrades, and his example helped many a sick man.
PAUL J. KINGSTON.
Wagoner Paul J. Kingston, B company, was an efficient soldier and well liked member of the command. He was 24 years of age when he died on the Mobile and was the son of George Kingston, an expressman. He was serving the third year of his enlistment in B when the war came and at once volunteered to go to the front.
PAUL VESPER.