DOB/DOD: September 27, 1919 (Mt. Union, PA) – February 27, 1945; 25 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married Christine Pagach Gearhart (1921-2002) on August 2, 1941, in Darien, Connecticut.
CHILDREN: Two children, Gary (1942-1954 [struck and killed by a car driven by his stepfather who was exonerated]) and Miriam Gearhart Gill (1944-2005).
LOCAL ADDRESS: Amston Lake, Connecticut
ENLISTMENT: June 19, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut.
SERVICE NUMBER: 987672
UNIT: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY: 0521, Basic Marine
STATUS: MISSING IN ACTION
FAMILY: Born to Charles E. (1884-1947) and Edna Gifford Gearhart (1881-1926). Mother Edna Gearhart died of tuberculosis of the lungs. Matilda Gifford, Edna’s mother, raised Joseph and his sister Jean Gearhart (1930 census). Joseph was the youngest of five children. Other siblings were Mary (1908-1937), Virginia Gearhart Cody (1910-2000), Sarah (1914-1980), and Jean (1918-1999). There was also a sister, Anna, who died as an infant from meningitis.
OTHER: The 1930 census shows Joseph and his sister Jean living with Matilda Gifford, a grandmother, in Shirley, Pennsylvania. Father Charles moved to Montana sometime after the death of Edna. He passed away at home in 1947. 1, 2, 4 Joseph worked for the Society for Savings in Hartford, Connecticut, when he registered for the draft in October 1940. 5
CIRCUMSTANCES: Boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. Part of the 4th Marine Division’s 30th Replacement Draft. 7 Died from compound fractures of the skull. Buried at sea from the USS Libra (AKA-12), Latitude 24 43.55 N., Longitude 140 22.25 E. 6 PFC Gearhart was in the same company as PFC Edward Sparkowski of New Britain. They died a week apart.
From Ancestry.com. “Joseph Lee Gearhart, Christine, and baby.”
Contributed by Dr. Ben B. Sunderland, Mt. Union School District 3
Gearhart is a well-known name near Mount Union, especially in nearby Wayne and Oliver Townships, Mifflin County. But Joseph seems to come from a different Gearhart family. Joseph’s father was Charles Edward Gearhart (1884-1947), who came to the Mount Union area from Chester Hill, Clearfield County. (It appears that Gearhart is a common name in Clearfield County as well.) In most records, Charles is called by his middle name, Edward. He is listed with his wife Edna and daughter Mary in Shirley Township, Huntingdon County, in the 1910 Census, and he is employed at Aetna Explosives, located across the Juniata River between Kistler and Newton Hamilton in neighboring Wayne Township, Mifflin County.
In the 1920 Census, Edna was designated “married.” She and her 5 children (including 3-month-old Joseph G.) are living with Edna’s mother, Matilda E. (Johnston) Gifford, but Edna’s husband is not listed. The couple may have been estranged.
Edna was born at Otelia, Huntingdon Co, Pennsylvania, on February 25, 1881, and died relatively young on June 14, 1926, in the Hamburg Sanitorium from tuberculosis of the lungs. Her lengthy obituary doesn’t mention a husband but lists the 5 children, all the daughters still named Gearhart. One could conclude that Edna and her husband were probably estranged.
Joseph is the youngest of 6 children, the older 5 all being sisters: Anna Elizabeth (died as an infant), Mary Julia, Virginia Kathrine, Sara Margaret, and Jean Louise. (There is a death record of a seventh child, an unnamed stillborn daughter born prematurely in 1912.)
In the 1930 Census, “Jean L.” and “Joe G.” are living with their grandmother Matilda Gifford. Joseph graduated from Mount Union High School in 1936.
It is not clear to me why family members were attracted to Connecticut. Joseph’s sister Mary is listed in city directories as a waitress living in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1931 until her death on April 23, 1937. According to Mary’s obituary, in 1937, Joseph was living in Middletown, Connecticut, and sisters Virginia Cody and Jean Gearhart were in Hartford, Connecticut. Sarah “Sally” Gearhart was still “back home” in Allenport, adjacent to Mount Union, and remained there until her death in 1980. Virginia, a registered nurse, apparently remained in Connecticut until her death in 2000. In the 1940 Census, Jean is back in Mount Union, but from 1951 until her death in 1999, she was located in Meriden, Connecticut.
Joseph Lee Gearhart married Christine Pagac (or Pagach) (1921-2002) of Amston, Connecticut, in Darien, Connecticut, and they had two children, Gary Lee Gearhart (1942-1954) and Miriam Gail Gearhart (1944-2005) before Joseph was killed at Iwo Jima on 27 February 1945. After Joseph’s death, Christine married Joseph Burba (1922-2015) on 7 June 1947.
Joseph’s father, Charles Edward Gearhart, married Violet Winslow (1895-1958) on April 14, 1934, in Wolf Point, Montana. After Charles’s death in 1947, Violet married Bernard Malcolm Cole (1891-1964), who had been once widowed and once divorced. In 1958, Violet died as a passenger in a car crash during a snowstorm in Richland County, Montana.
From The Huntingdon (PA) Daily New April 4, 1945
Just one week after the opening of the terrible Iwo Jima, Private Joseph L. Gearhart of the United States Marine Corps laid down his life for his country on that bleak but vital island in the South Pacific. Private Gearhart, a former resident of Mount Union, graduated from high school there in 1936. Later, he was employed in Hartford, Connecticut. His widow and two children are living in Amston, Connecticut.
Private Gearhart was buried at sea. He is memorialized at the Honolulu Memorial, Courts of the Missing, Court 2, 2177 Puowaina Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii. Photo from FindAGrave.com. 3,8
Memorial marker in Germany Valley Cemetery, Loves Valley Road and State Route 2021, Shirleysburg, Pennsylvania. Photo contributed by Leslie Armagost, Volunteer Librarian, Mount Union Community Library, Mount Union, Pennsylvania.
1 – 1930 census https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6224/
2 – 1940 census https://www.ancestry.com/cs/1940-census
3 – Contributed by Dr. Ben B. Sunderland, Mt. Union (PA) School District
4 – 1926-06-25 Mount Union Times, obituary Edna Gifford Gearheart; Pennsylvania U.S. Death Certificates 1906-1967; https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5164/
5 – https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2238/
6 – USMC Casualty Report received via FOIA request
7 – USMC Muster Rolls: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1089/
8 – https://abmc.gov