DUGGER, Joseph Jason, Serial Number 4430796, served in the US Army from August 1918 to January 1919. He was as son of James and Martha WOODARD DUGGER. He was born 23 July 1896 on Factory Creek, Route 5, in Wayne County, Tennessee. He had three brothers, Blaine, Frank, and Ethridge; four sisters: Lessie, Rose, Belle, and Vada; and a half-brother, Andrew LARD.

At an early age he became a teacher in Wayne County, taking training at the Wayne County Teacher’s Institute. Then on 30 August 1918 he, at the age of 22, answered the call to serve his country. He was first a member of Co. C, section B, Students Army Training Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville until 27 Oct 1918. Then he was sent to Camp Forrest, Georgia and was in the 20th Engineers until 1 Jan 1919. He was honorably discharged 31 Jan 1919.

After his discharge, Jason returned to pursue his career in education. He earned college credits as he taught in Wayne and Lawrence counties. In 1929, he received his degree at State Teachers’ College, Murfreesboro, TN and later his masters degree at Peabody College, Nashville. He served as principal and teacher in Gordonsville, Cowan and Dickson County. About 1933, he returned to Wayne County to help care for his aged, ailing mother. He taught at Frank Hughes High School, Clifton, for a short time before becoming Superintendent of Schools of Wayne County in 1936 where he served until 1942. He then went to Illinois and taught for a few months until he received a government mission to the Baffin Islands.

While in the Baffin Islands, he remembered his sweetheart of more than twenty-five years with whom he had broken up. She was Miss Hattie Lee MURPHY of Columbia, Tennessee. He decided to send her a card. The correspondence picked up and when he came home in June, they were married, in 1943. They lived in Columbia for some time operating a Dairy Dip. Then a few years later they moved to Nashville running the Tennessee Motel on Dickerson Road until his death as a result of a massive heart attack on 3 March 1969. He was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery, Columbia, Tennessee. His wife was later buried beside him in 1987.