M. F. STROCK, 97, DIES

Survivor of the Civil war in which he was grazed by bullets seven times but never wounded, M. F. Strock surrendered to that most relentless warrior of all, age, Monday night.

The 97-year-old man, believed the oldest man in Adair county, died at the home of his daughter and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Amos Propst, 801 East Illinois St., Kirksville, at 10:30 p.m. Physicians said his body simply had worn out. He had been in failing health for several months.

Brief services were held at the Propst home Wednesday afternoon at 1 o'clock after which the body was brought here to the U. B. Church for the funeral. Mr. Strock helped build the church in 1873 and has been a member for many years. The rites were conducted by the Rev. C. S. Young, of Maitland, Mo., and burial was wade in the Brashear cemetery.

Mr. Strock was born January 18, 1835, in Mahoning county, Ohio. He was married to Airy E. Kelley in Holmes county, Ohio, on February 19, 1857, and she died April 23, 1875. There he left his wife and three small children when President Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 volunteers and joined the 16th Ohio Infantry, Company B. There were five Strock brothers in the Union Army. The oldest brother died at the age of 96 in 1929.

I had seven bullet holes in my uniform in one battle, Mr. Strock once related in an interview for The Daily Express, but not one of them drew blood. Once bullet just tickled my left ear enough to make it smart a little; another went through the front of my cap and plowed a furrow through my hair.

It was during the assault on Vicksburg that I received a close call. I was under Grant there, you know. We were advancing on some rifle pits. Our commander was hit, and called back: Don't advance; find shelter and return fire. We were near a ditch and a briar patch covered its banks. I had a saber bayonet on my gun and was cutting a path through the briars so we could get to them when the rebels slipped a regiment behind us and cut us off. I had just shot at them when the commander yelled and told us to get in behind trees. I stopped behind one and set my gun down between my feet to reload when a cannon ball struck the tree and cut a place on the right side big enough to lay a stovepipe in. I had just peeked around that side, so I guess I was pretty lucky.

Mr. Strock said his company was a traveling bunch of fighters, marching over 13,000 miles in different states. He engaged in 22 battles and was a prisoner of the rebels for 76 days.

He was mustered out at Camp Chase, Ohio, four miles west of Columbus, in 1864 after three and one-half years of service, and returned to his family.

The Strocks moved to Iowa immediately after the war and later came to Missouri, boating down the Mississippi river to Canton, and then driving overland in wagons to a farm near Brashear. Mr. Strock farmed there for a number of years and served as station agent at the Brashear depot.

After Mrs. Strock's death he married five years later, on Nov. 30, 1880, to Corda Ridge, who died Jan. 9, 1934. On June 2, 1900, he was married to Mrs. D. E. Brubaker, who died April 27, 1929. One son, John B., died July 4, 1866.

Surviving are five children: W. L. Strock, Brashear; Mrs. Mary Propst, Kirksville; Mrs. Emma J. Sees, Brashear; L. C. Strock, Newark, Mo., and Mrs. R. A. Crow, Colorado Springs, Colo. There are also 24 grandchildren, 41 great grandchildren, and two great great grandchildren.

Mr. Strock as collector of Adair county for one term. He was elected in 1884.