US. Army Nurse, Mathilda Hieronymus Oglesby

Born: 12 July 1888, Mount Vernon, Indiana
Died: 19 March 1956,Albuquerque, New Mexico

Mathilda Hieronymus Oglesby served as an Army nurse from 29 August 1918 through 23 October 1919. She had been born in Mount Vernon, Indiana in 1988.[i] Mrs. Oglesby had been commander of New Mexico’s only American Legion post for women, a post she held since April 1955. She had been a member of the Legion for 35 years and had been State Department historian for seven years. She was honored in recognition of her long Legion service in New Mexico by having a nurse’s scholarship named after her.[ii] Numerous articles in local newspapers reveal her dedication to the American Legion through her hosting of numerous events, serving as membership chairman and president of the Hugh A. Carlisle Unit No. 13, American Legion Auxiliary[iii]

Following the war, she married Charles Byron Oglesby in 1919. They moved to New Mexico where he worked for the railroad. They lived first in Valencia County before moving to Roswell where she lived until 1940 when she moved to Albuquerque. After her husband died in 1923 she returned to nursing to support her three sons, one of whom died in World War II. She moved to Albuquerque in 1940 and worked as a private nurse and a nurse at the Indian Sanitarium until her retirement in 1954.[iv]

Images & Documents

​Notes:

[i] U S National Cemetery Internment Control Forms, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17576717/mathilda-oglesby

[ii] Albuquerque Tribune March 20, 1956, page 2

[iii] Albuquerque Journal March 13, 1952, page 7 and Albuquerque Journal March 23, 1952, page 12

[iv] Albuquerque Tribune March 20, 1956, page 2

Featured Image:

“Legion Auxiliary Installs,” Albuquerque Journal, June 12. 1952, Page 9

Prepared by Sue Taylor PhD, Central New Mexico Community College

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DVA, Veterans Legacy Memorial