William B. Horton: Chatham County Multi-War Navy Officer (1901–1945)
By Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist, State Archives of North Carolina
William Banks Horton was born on November 1, 1879 [his birthdate is mistakenly listed as November 20 on his gravestone and other public records, but is handwritten by him in his U.S. Navy service records], in Corning, Kansas [some records, including his death certificate, list his birth in Tennessee], to Thomas Benton and Mary Ellen Wilkins Horton. By 1880, the Horton family had come to live in Nemaha County, Kansas, where Thomas Horton worked as a livestock raiser. By 1900, the Horton family had been living in Chatham County, NC, where they operated their own farm that William Horton worked on at the time. There, William Horton had attended high school in Chapel Hill, NC.
Horton enlisted in the U.S. Navy on July 17, 1901, with his first duty station at a Navy Receiving Station. His first Navy ship on which he was assigned was the USS Topeka (PG-35), a gunboat. Although his official records and gravestone list him as serving in the Spanish-American War, Horton did not enter service until 1901 — which technically is in the official U.S. government definition for the Spanish-American War period (1898–1901). Newspaper articles and some other sources list him as enlisting in the Navy in 1900, but this was still after the combat phase of the Spanish-American War.
William Horton would serve continuously in the U.S. Navy from 1901 through the end of World War I. By 1902, he was serving aboard the first modern battleship in the U.S. Navy, the USS Indiana (BB-1). He remained on the Indiana until May 1903, when he was reassigned to the USS Columbia (C-12), a protected cruiser and receiving ship. Horton returned to the Indiana on December 23, 1903; less than a month later on January 1, 1904, he moved to the USS Iowa (BB-4), a pre-dreadnought battleship. Between 1904 and 1910, he held various ranks of Master at Arms, culminating in becoming a Chief Master at Arms on December 7, 1910.
Horton’s chronology of ships on which he served until 1917 is as follows: USS Hancock, March 1904-January 1905; USS Iowa, January 31, 1905, to his discharge at Newport, Rhode Island, on July 16, 1905; re-enlisted and assigned to the Naval Yard in Washington, D.C., October 1905 to February 1906; Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island, August to December 1906; USS Washington, December 1906 to June 1907; USS Constellation, June 1907 to August 1907; USS Nevada, August 1907 to April 1908; USS Franklin, April to August 1908; USS Hartford, August to September 1908; back to the Franklin from September 1908 to October 1909; and various coastal and ship assignments from October 1909 to January 1910. Horton served from January 1910 to on the ships Franklin, Hartford, Franklin, North Dakota, Norfolk Receiving Ship, Neptune, and a variety of other assignments until his discharge on April 21, 1917.
William Horton re-enlisted for a four-year tour of duty during World War I, beginning on May 8, 1917. He would first be assigned with the rank of Boatswain aboard the USS Dixie III (SP-701), a Navy patrol vessel, on which he served along the Atlantic Coast of the United States until February 1918. On February 22, 1918, Horton was assigned to the Armed Guard Detail for Navy ships in New York City. He received a letter of commendation for his service as the commanding officer of the Navy Armed Guard on the Army Transport Ship George G. Henry, when the ship was fired upon. His actions are created with saving the ship. Horton remained stationed with the Armed Guard Detail until March 13, 1919.
Horton ended up after the end of WWI stationed on a Receiving Ship on Mare Island, California, where he remained until his resignation on June 29, 1921, with the rank of Chief Boatswain’s Mate. He re-enlisted the next day on June 30, 1921, for another four years at Mare Island, only to be transferred to the U.S. Naval Reserve on July 28, 1921, after twenty years of service in the U.S. Navy.
After finishing his military career to that point, William Horton returned to North Carolina, where he attended college at Wake Forest College in Wake Forest, NC, earning a law degree. He was admitted to the North Carolina State Bar in 1924. Horton married Mary Slade Anderson in Durham, NC, on January 3, 1927. He would end up serving as a North Carolina state senator in the North Carolina legislature during the 1927–1929 session for the 16th Senatorial District. Horton was placed on the U.S. Navy retired list on June 1, 1931, after thirty years of service in the active and reserve force of the Navy.
In July 1936, William Horton was appointed as a member of the North Carolina State Judiciary Committee, and would serve as the president of the Caswell County (NC) Bar Association also in 1936 — having come to reside in Yanceyville in Caswell County for his law practice there. With the United States’ entrance into World War II, Horton was ordered to active duty on December 9, 1941 — two days after the Pearl Harbor attack — and ordered to report for shore duty only at the 6th Naval District in Charleston, SC. On August 12, 1942, he accepted an appointment as Chief Boatswain, U.S. Navy, for temporary emergency service at the Seamen’s Barracks at the Charleston Naval Yard in Charleston, SC. Horton remained on active duty through at least the end of December 1944, and possibly into 1945 before he was finally discharged from all further military service with the rank of Chief Warrant Officer.
Little is known about Horton after the end of WWII. William B. Horton died on July 18, 1965, in Durham, NC, and was buried in Yanceyville United Methodist Church Cemetery in Yanceyville, NC.
You can learn more about Horton’s Navy career by exploring the William B. Horton Papers (MMP 27) in the Miscellaneous Military Papers of the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina.
Resources
- William B. Horton Papers, MMP 27, Miscellaneous Military Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. Finding aid available at https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov/findingaids/MMP_27_William_B__Horton_Papers.html
