Clarence L. Ostrander (March 18, 1894–December 4, 1992)

By Victoria Burrell and Holly Baker

Early Life

Clarence Lafayette Ostrander was born March 18, 1894, in the town of Alden, Illinois, to Lorenzo E. Ostrander and Pearl Lillian Rhodes. His father, Lorenzo, emigrated from Canada in 1890 and became a naturalized American citizen. His mother, Pearl, was from New York. Clarence and his two sisters grew up in Manchester Township, Boone, IL until 1903 when his family moved to Beloit, Wisconsin. Clarence never completed the seventh grade. At the age of sixteen, he joined the workforce. The 1910 Census, seen here, indicates that Clarence was employed as a machinist alongside his father.¹ Clarence Ostrander married Helen Morris around the year 1913. Helen worked as a musician in the theater industry. In 1913, their daughter Mary was born, followed by a second daughter, Lillian. In 1915, Clarence and Helen Ostrander divorced.²

Military Service

Clarence Ostrander registered for military service on June 5, 1917 at the age of twenty-three, only three months after Congress voted to declare war on Germany.³ On December 5, 1917, he married Agnes Shoemaker, a cook twelve years his senior, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.⁴ On February 26, 1918, he began his enlistment in the US Army. Clarence started as a private in Company H, 342nd Infantry. He eventually rose to the rank of Corporal in F Company, 139th Infantry. While enlisted, his battalion earned the title of the Best Battalion in the 35th Division.⁵ His division, nicknamed “The Santa Fe Division,” was engaged in conflict in France at St. Mihiel, Argonne, and Meuse on the Western Front.⁶ On June 14, 1918, his wife Agnes died at the age of thirty-six.⁷ Sometime before 1923, Clarence married Virginia D. Ostrander. Virginia was born in Wisconsin to German immigrant parents. The couple had four children: Virginia, Howard, Donald, and Bill.⁸

Life After Military Service

As early as 1923, Clarence and his family lived in Dade County, Florida, where the Great War had stimulated an agricultural and economic boom.⁹ The 1930 Census, shown here, lists Clarence Ostrander as a brick mason living in Miami.¹⁰ In 1940, Clarence, now forty-six, worked as an exterminator, making $1,300 dollars a year.¹¹ Sources suggest that Clarence and Virginia married, divorced, and remarried, with a new marriage certificate and a new divorce record both appearing in 1943. Virginia died in 1951.¹² On March 16, 1975, 82-year-old Clarence married 81-year-old Ossie Isles Brown in Okaloosa County, FL.¹³ They divorced less than a year later, on January 8, 1976.¹⁴

Clarence Ostrander moved to Central Florida in 1978. By that time, he was a retired block mason. He remained in Lady Lake until his death. Ostrander was an active member of the Leesburg Lodge 58, the Free and Accepted Masons, and the American Legion Post 52. He died on December 4, 1992, at the age of ninety-eight. Throughout his life, Ostrander was a devoted Seventh Day Adventist. He was survived by three of his children, Howard Ostrander, Bill Ostrander, and Mary Corey, fifteen grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and five great-great grandchildren. His service was held at the Page Theus Funeral Home in Leesburg. Ostrander is interred in the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida, FL. His grave is located in section 103, Site 1339-C.¹⁵

© 2017, University of Central Florida