Surname Saturday~Brock-Lee

William Samuel Brock was born 31 August 1896, a son of Joel Washington and Mary Jane Brock Brock. ¹

On June 5, 1917, William Samuel Brock registered for the draft. World War I  had been in full force since July of 1914. In April 1916 the United States declared war on Germany. The 5 June draft registration was required by a Selective Service Act to increase the military forces of the United States. ²



William Samuel Brock was 20 years old and had a young teenage bride – Cora Mae Bell Lee. On 22 October 1918, this young couple had their first and only child, a boy they named Clarence William Brock.

This birth date suggests that William Samuel Brock was home with his bride during Christmas of 1917 probably leaving for the War Zone sometime late January or early February 1918.

Three weeks after the birth of Clarence William, his Father William Samuel died in France. William Samuel “saw service on the battlefields and served with distinction as a brave young soldier, but the very day that the armistice was signed he developed influenza, which was followed by pneumonia, and the noble young life soon passed to its heavenly reward.” ³

William Samuel Brock, before he died, realizing that he could not live, requested that his body be brought back to the old home church yard for burial. He was buried in the Brock Cemetery on 27 March 1921 in the Brock’s Mill section of Chesterfield County. ⁴

His young bride, Cora Mae, would marry a young man by the name of Lonnie Lee Parks. Her life was cut short in March 1943 when she passed away at the young age of 42.  









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[1] Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database and digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 2 June 2012); Memorial page for William Brock; (31 August 1896–10 November 1918); Find a Grave memorial # 32256092, Citing Brock Cemetery; Brocks Mill, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, USA.
[2] "World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," on-line digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 4 June 2012), William Brock, Draft card; citing Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls, Roll: 1852503.
[3] James C. Pigg, Obituaries from the Chesterfield Advertiser 1892-1926; Chesterfield County Genealogical Services, 2001, 55. Tombstone of Private William Samuel Brock; 31 August 1896–10 November 1918, Brock's Mill Cemetery, Chesterfield County, South Carolina.
[4] Ibid.