By Tracy Gupton

As our nation remembers those brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives in battles over the ages on this Memorial Day Weekend, this son of a World War II veteran was grateful that my father and his three brothers all survived and returned to West Columbia to live out their respective lives. But that wasn’t the case for the many who perished trying to keep America free.

I am the current president of the Columbia Cemetery Association Board of Directors. There are five generations of my father’s family interred at Columbia Cemetery. My wife and I own burial plots there, but please forgive me if we don’t get in any hurry to occupy those spaces near my Mom and Dad. There are military markers placed at the graves of my Dad, Rex Gupton, and his brothers Thurman and S.D. Gupton. They all served their country with pride during what Archie Bunker referred to as, “the big war.” As did their brother, Aubrey Gupton, who is buried in Baytown, Texas. Those Gupton boys’ Uncle Phil, Phillip Leslie Gupton, was in the Marines during World War I. He is also buried at Columbia Cemetery, as is my Uncle Jack, Jack Paul Broadway, and his son, my cousin, Danny Louis Broadway. Jack was a Marine during World War II while Danny was in the Army during the Vietnam War. Luckily, none of them died in action during times of war.

But this story isn’t about my family. When those Gupton brothers returned to West Columbia at the end of World War II, local military veterans formed West Columbia’s American Legion Mattson-Ringgold Post 503. It was named in memory of two brave men who did not return home. Charles Frank “Chickie” Ringgold, a Marine Corps paratrooper, was killed in action on Guam March 24, 1944. His story has been reported previously in this column. My Dad and his brothers and sister grew up in West Columbia during “The Great Depression,” with the Ringgold family’s home being just across Uncle Phil Gupton’s pasture. My Daddy used to tell me that they had a foot trail across that pasture that they would travel practically daily to meet up with the Ringgold brothers and sisters because it seemed there was a Ringgold the same age as each of the Gupton kids. So, I’m sure when news of Chickie Ringgold’s death overseas hit West Columbia, it was just like losing a family member for all of the Guptons. Only, the Gupton boys were off fighting in the war themselves in 1944 and it probably took awhile for this tragic news to reach them.

The other name on the West Columbia American Legion Hall is who this Memorial Day story pertains to. Johnnie Ralph Mattson grew up in West Columbia and was listed as “Missing in Action” and “Lost at Sea” when the USS Asheville was sunk by Japanese ships on March 3, 1942. The U.S. Navy did not officially declare Carpenter’s Mate 2c Mattson deceased until November 25, 1945.

There is a headstone and military marker at Columbia Cemetery in West Columbia for Purple Heart recipient Charles Frank Ringgold. But no such markers exist for Johnnie Ralph Mattson. The American Battle Monuments Commission states on the internet that Petty Officer Second Class Mattson is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing American Cemetery in Manila, The Philippines.

Mattson’s family received his Purple Heart and Silver Star. A search online for details of what led to Johnnie Ralph Mattson’s demise produced the following: Fred L. Brown, an 18-year-old from Fort Wayne, Indiana, had been in the Asheville’s fire room when the Japanese surface force had overtaken the United States gunboat Mattson was on. By the time Brown made it topside to attempt to abandon the sinking ship, he found many of his fellow sailors dead. Before Brown perished March 18, 1945, in the Japanese Makassar prisoner-of-war camp in the Celebes Islands of the Netherlands East Indies, he had told fellow prisoners about the Asheville’s sinking.

“Hampered by engine troubles and sailing alone, the USS Asheville was discovered on March 3, 1942, by a Japanese scout plane south of Java and was overtaken by a Japanese surface force,” Wikipedia says about the Asheville sinking. “After an intense 30-minute gun battle, the smoldering hulk of Asheville, her forecastle and bridge almost completely shot away, finally sank.” And with it ended the life of West Columbian Johnnie Ralph Mattson. He had been a member of the Asheville crew since November 3, 1938, so, unlike the Gupton brothers and so very many more young Americans who enlisted in the various branches of the military after the Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, Mattson enlisted three years earlier.

The following information was found on Johnnie Ralph Mattson’s Findagrave page online:

For much of the interwar period, Asheville served with the Asiatic Fleet, primarily patrolling Chinese waters to protect American interests during an era of “gunboat diplomacy.” At the start of World War II, Asheville was stationed in the Philippines as part of the dwindling U.S. Asiatic Fleet. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Philippines in December 1941, the ship conducted patrols and defensive operations amid retreating Allied forces. In February 1942, as Japanese forces overran the Dutch East Indies, Asheville withdrew to Tjilatjap on Java’s southern coast. On March 1, 1942, it departed alone in a desperate attempt to reach Australia.On March 3, 1942, Japanese destroyers Arashi and Nowaki (part of a larger surface group) spotted and engaged the gunboat south of Java. Despite returning fire in a fierce 30-minute battle, the outgunned Asheville suffered heavy damage and sank. Since the ship was alone the fate of her crew was not known for many years. There was only one crew member that is known to have survived, Fred Brown, who died as a POW but told the story to another POW before he died.

Johnnie Ralph Mattson was the son of August Wafford Mattson and Emma Lydia Peterson Mattson. Both of his parents were from Minnesota. Emma died when Johnnie Ralph was only four years old on November 21, 1917, at the age of 37. She and her baby boy, Royal Clifford Mattson, are buried in a Huffman, Texas, cemetery in Harris County. The baby was only five months old when he died April 5, 1909.

Tragedy hung heavily over the heads of the Mattson family. Grieving the losses of family members proved almost too much to bear, even before Johnnie Ralph Mattson was officially declared dead in November of 1945. August and Emma’s daughter, Olga Virginia Mattson, died in 1931 at the tender age of 17. And their son, Robert Clifton Mattson, died in 1939 when he was only 28.

August, who was a carpenter and worked in the oil fields around West Columbia, is buried at Columbia Cemetery. He lived to be 90, passing away November 3, 1970. Buried next to him is his second wife, Lillie Mae McCaskill Williams Mattson, who died at 64 in 1955. Her first husband was Hudson C. Williams.

On August 1, 1943, while the Mattson family awaited official word of Johnnie Ralph’s death from the Navy, they were forced to grapple with yet another tragedy. Wilbur Ernest Mattson, the 15-year-old son of August and Lillie Mae, was killed in a car wreck while he was a student at West Columbia High School. Wilbur was riding with four other people–two soldiers, a civilian and a young girl–when the driver of the car lost control in a curve near Oyster Creek when a rear tire blew out. Wilbur and the others were rushed to a Freeport hospital for treatment of their injuries. A Facts newspaper clipping from 1943 found on Wilbur Ernest Mattson’s findagrave page reveals that Wilbur suffered a fractured skull, two broken legs and other injuries that proved to be fatal for the West Columbia teenager. His funeral was held at the First Baptist Church in West Columbia and Wilbur was buried at Columbia Cemetery.

Laren August Mattson, who died in 2005 at 80, also served in the U.S. Navy during World War II like his brother Johnnie Ralph, is buried in a Deer Park, Texas, cemetery. Their sister, Violet Madeline Mattson Baird, died at 81 in 1991 and is buried in Cooke County, Texas. Living the longest from the Mattson family was Anita Mae Mattson Smith, who passed away in 2015 and is buried at historic Columbia Cemetery where her parents were laid to rest. Anita was 86. She was born in West Columbia in 1928 and is buried next to her husband, Medford Bert Smith, who died in 1989.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend from the Columbia Historical Museum!