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John Thomas Pickett

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John Thomas Pickett Veteran

Birth
Lowville, Halton Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada
Death
8 Mar 1939 (aged 71)
Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines
Burial
Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines Add to Map
Memorial ID
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John Thomas Pickett was born near Lowville, Ontario, Canada, to Andrew T. Pickett (15 Jan 1834 - 1 Dec 1920) and Mary Ann McLaren (13 Apr 1832 - 3 Dec 1875). [His 1932 delayed birth certificate stated Feb. 23rd, although an earlier letter from his father Andrew to his daughter Octavia had said the 17th.] He moved with his family in late 1870 to Vermillion, Clay County, South Dakota. There he learned the harness making trade from his brother-in-law, David Aldona Hopkins (husband of Anna Mary Pickett, and father of Roosevelt's assistant Harry Lloyd Hopkins). That was a skill he carried with him. He married first in 1893 to Electa Cross Chadwick. From "The Nebraska State Journal" (Lincoln, Nebraska), 28 Jul 1893, Fri., p. 1" "United In Marriage...
Mr. John T. Pickett and Miss Electa Chadwick were married last evening at the home of the bride's parents on East Sixth street, by Rev. H. O.. Scott. The ceremony was performed in the presence of relatives and a few intimate friends. When Mr. and Mrs. Chadwick [sic] arrived at their home, 301 West Fifth street, which the groom had in readiness for his bride, they were surprised to find it in possession of a large number of friends, members of the Y. P. S. C. E. to which they both belong..." She died in or near Hastings, Nebraska, shortly after a daughter, Octavia Electa Pickett was born 17 June 1895. The National Archives index lists a John T. Pickett as a Corporal in Company D of the 1st South Dakota Infantry. At the start of the "Spanish War," he enlisted as a saddler and joined other American soldiers, who went to San Francisco and on to the Philippines. He subsequently served in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, and upon returning to the Philippines, began a company associated with harness making, leather goods, rope and mining. He prospered in the Manila area, and later owned a large home at 150 Valenzuela. He remarried in 1914 to Jesusa Herranz Cañezares (1896 - 1985). They had twelve children. Surviving children included: John Andrew, Felisa Maggie, Mary Rufina, Charles Aldona, Lucy, Carmen, Ernest McLaren, and Kathryn Milagros. He had a deathbed interview with a Manila newspaper reporter in 1939, in which he himself found it ironic he never was a US citizen. He predicted the Japanese would invade sometime, and he was right. They invaded the Philippines two and a half years after his death, on the day after they had bombed Pearl Harbor. His Philippine family suffered during the occupation. He is buried in El Cementario del Norte at Manila. (This information comes primarily from a genealogy entitled, "The Picketts of Lowville, And Points East, South and West...," assembled and privately issued by John T. Pickett's grandson, the late John Roland Scott, son of Octavia Electa Pickett, John T.'s first child.)
John Thomas Pickett was born near Lowville, Ontario, Canada, to Andrew T. Pickett (15 Jan 1834 - 1 Dec 1920) and Mary Ann McLaren (13 Apr 1832 - 3 Dec 1875). [His 1932 delayed birth certificate stated Feb. 23rd, although an earlier letter from his father Andrew to his daughter Octavia had said the 17th.] He moved with his family in late 1870 to Vermillion, Clay County, South Dakota. There he learned the harness making trade from his brother-in-law, David Aldona Hopkins (husband of Anna Mary Pickett, and father of Roosevelt's assistant Harry Lloyd Hopkins). That was a skill he carried with him. He married first in 1893 to Electa Cross Chadwick. From "The Nebraska State Journal" (Lincoln, Nebraska), 28 Jul 1893, Fri., p. 1" "United In Marriage...
Mr. John T. Pickett and Miss Electa Chadwick were married last evening at the home of the bride's parents on East Sixth street, by Rev. H. O.. Scott. The ceremony was performed in the presence of relatives and a few intimate friends. When Mr. and Mrs. Chadwick [sic] arrived at their home, 301 West Fifth street, which the groom had in readiness for his bride, they were surprised to find it in possession of a large number of friends, members of the Y. P. S. C. E. to which they both belong..." She died in or near Hastings, Nebraska, shortly after a daughter, Octavia Electa Pickett was born 17 June 1895. The National Archives index lists a John T. Pickett as a Corporal in Company D of the 1st South Dakota Infantry. At the start of the "Spanish War," he enlisted as a saddler and joined other American soldiers, who went to San Francisco and on to the Philippines. He subsequently served in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, and upon returning to the Philippines, began a company associated with harness making, leather goods, rope and mining. He prospered in the Manila area, and later owned a large home at 150 Valenzuela. He remarried in 1914 to Jesusa Herranz Cañezares (1896 - 1985). They had twelve children. Surviving children included: John Andrew, Felisa Maggie, Mary Rufina, Charles Aldona, Lucy, Carmen, Ernest McLaren, and Kathryn Milagros. He had a deathbed interview with a Manila newspaper reporter in 1939, in which he himself found it ironic he never was a US citizen. He predicted the Japanese would invade sometime, and he was right. They invaded the Philippines two and a half years after his death, on the day after they had bombed Pearl Harbor. His Philippine family suffered during the occupation. He is buried in El Cementario del Norte at Manila. (This information comes primarily from a genealogy entitled, "The Picketts of Lowville, And Points East, South and West...," assembled and privately issued by John T. Pickett's grandson, the late John Roland Scott, son of Octavia Electa Pickett, John T.'s first child.)


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