In search of Frank Delisle: Genealogists have found the grave of World War I veteran David Delisle

Nancy Mattox, my husband Jim and I, as part of the work of the Monroe County Genealogical Society, survey the county cemeteries to record the information listed on all headstones.

In 1980, several GSMC members undertook a similar project and recorded a marker for Frank Delisle, who died in 1929. Based on the names around Frank's monument, we determined that his monument should be in plot 3 at the north end of the cemetery. There is a large obelisk there with the last name Delisle, but we did not see any marker for Frank.

We examined the obelisk hoping to find an inscription about Frank's burial and were surprised to find an inscription, but it was not an inscription about Frank. It was the stone of David M. Delisle, who served in World War I. David's monument was not listed in the 1980 cemetery transcription, so he had probably been buried for many decades.

We carefully moved the sod and dirt away from the marker to photograph it and record the information. After replacing the sod, we visited the cemetery office to find out how to put the marker upright. Beth Patty, who works in the office, graciously filled out an application to put the Delisle marker upright, and a few weeks later we visited the cemetery again and found the marker standing upright and the inscription on it could be read.

As a genealogist, I was interested in learning about David Delisle and his connection to Frank Delisle, who apparently owned the property. After doing a little research, I found the following information.

David Moses Delisle was born in Monroe September 2, 1886, son of Frank and Mary (Anto) Delisle, and was a great-grandson of Francois Delois, one of the early settlers of Monroe County, who had a blacksmith shop on the banks of the Raisin River.

David enlisted on October 5, 1908 and served until October 4, 1911. He then re-enlisted in the Great War on October 9, 1914. He served as a sergeant in the 82nd Field Artillery Regiment and received an honorable discharge on disability on December 27, 1917.

He married Mary Emma McClellan in January 1913 in San Francisco, California. Both of their children, Muriel and Clifford, were born in a military hospital in Monterey, California. After the war, David and his family moved to Toledo where he worked for the Toledo Paper Stock Company. After 1940, David and Emma returned to California. David died in San Francisco on October 24, 1941, and his remains were shipped to Monroe to be buried in St. Joseph Cemetery in his father's plot.

Until about 1950, their daughter Muriel and her husband Neil Wallace moved to California and lived with her widowed mother. David's widow, Mary Emma, died in Alameda County in April 1968 and was buried in Lone Pine Cemetery in Hayward, California.

The search for Frank continues.....

Thanks to Beth Patty and the maintenance crew at St. Joseph's Cemetery for installing Delisle's monument. Loretta Dunham was born in Monroe and graduated from Monroe High School. She is an active member of the Monroe County Genealogical Society and is a past president. Dunham has traveled to many Monroe County cemeteries to photograph headstones and document the people buried there.