Abraham Chenoweth Larken Percefull – Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army

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PREVENT MARRIAGE OF DYING PHYSICIAN

Relatives Of Major A. C. L. Percefull In Capital Deny He Is Engaged To Nurse
LATRER ASSERTS SHE IS
Miss C. E. Alvord, Who Attended Patient For  Some Time, Barred From Seeing Him, Father Says

WASHINGTON, July 12, 1929 – Across the hospital bed of Major Abraham C. L. Percefull, medical approving officer of the Veterans Bureau, who is critically ill of cancer in Mount Alto Hospital, a battle has been waging for weeks between his fiancee, Miss Carrie Ellen Alvord of Chevy Chase, Maryland, who wishes to marry him before death parts them, and his brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wathen of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, who  are here striving energetically, and thus far successfully, to prevent the marriage.

Announcement last week of the engagement of Major Percefull and Miss Alvord, made, according to the latter, at the Major’s desire and request, and, according to his sister, without his knowledge, precipitated the present crisis.

Mrs. Wathen issued a statement to the effect that the engagement, which was announced by Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Alvord, was void, having been made without the consent of her brother, who she asserts, is mentally incompetent.  Mrs. Wathel asserted that the marriage would not take place.

The Alvords, in whose home Major Percefull was living and where his condition became so serious asto necessitate removal to the hospital, insist that the engagement has exsisted since last August and was announced last week at the urgent request ofthe Major, Miss Alvord concenting in order to give him what happiness she could before his death.

Miss Alvord, her father said, has been spending ten and twelve hours a day with Major Percefull at the hospital, but now has been denied entrance, at the instance of Mrs. Wathen, by Dr. Joseph L. Aman, head of the medical staff at Mount Alto who, Mr. Alvord says, has told him he could not permit the marriage because Major Percefull had been declared mentally incompetent.

According to Mr. Alvord, Mrs. Wathen now refuses to permit his daughter to even wait outside the Major’s room in order to be in readiness should he ask to see her.

Dr. Aman today refused to duiscuss the case further than to say that the condition of the Major, who has been ill for several years, is “very serious.”  Mrs. Wathen amplified her previous statement only by saying that she felf “wholly justified” in her objections.

Miss Alvord, who is about 35 years old, and Major Percefull have been friends for about three years.  During the World War he served as a medical officer.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL PERCEFULL
DEAD AT WASHINGTON
Will Of Veterans Bureau Officer Filed – Fiancee Denied Access To Him

WASHINGTON, July 15, 1929 – Lieutenant Colonel Abraham C. L. Percefull, medical approving officer of the Veterans Bureau, died last night in Mount Alto Hospital of cancer.

Neither his sister, Mrs. Richard Wathen of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, who came here in May to present her brother’s marriage to Miss Ellen Alvord of Chevy Chase, Maryland, nor his fiancee, whose presence at the hospital had been forbidden by Colonel Percefull’s sister and attending physicians, was with him at the end.

His life has been despaired of for several weeks.  A marriage had been arrangesd to take place recently at his bedside, Miss Alvord consenting, according to her father, at the urgent request of Colonel Percefull.  Insisting that the officer was mentally incompetent to go through a marriage ceremony, in which condition was sustained by the hospital authorities, Mrs. Wathen cancelled the arrangements for the ceremony.  Thereafter Miss Alvord, who had nursed Colonel Percefull while he was at her parents’ home, where he had lived for years was denied access to him.

Colonel Percefull’s will, made last December and filed today by Miss Alvord’s father, leaves the bulk of his estate, consisting of a citrus grove near Lakeland, Florida, valued at between $10,000 and $15,000 to his mother, Mrs. Dorothy J. Percefull; $1,000 to his sister, and some land near Cecilia, Kentucky, to his brother-in-law, R. B. Wathen, all of whom live in Elizabethtown, where Colonel Percefull, before the World War, in which he served as a medical officer, was a member of the staff of the Children’s Hospital.

To his fiancee, Colonel Percefull’s will leaves his automobile and a diamond ring, now in her possession.  Gifts are left also to Mr. and Mrs. Alvord, her parents.

Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.

Colonel Percefull entered the Army in Louisville in September, 1917.  He was assigned to Camp Selby asassistant to the surgeon of the Thirty-eighth Division.  In April 1918, he was promoted to Major in the National Army and served overseas from October 1918 to September 1919.  He was Brigade Surgeon of the Sixty-sixth Field Artillery Brigade, at Field Hospital Number 332, Third Army Corps.  Upon his return to the Untied States, he was stationed at Fort Omaha as post surgeon until February 21, 1920, when he was honorably discharged inthe grade of Lieutenant Colonel of the Reserve Corps.

PERSEFULL, ABRAHAM C L

  • MAJ MED CORP USA
  • BORN: 12/00/1874
  • DATE OF DEATH: 07/14/1929
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 7  SITE LOT 8230
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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