Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biography: Thomas Matthew Battell
At the Dorchester Historical Society, we are in the process of a year-long project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I. Using a collection of photographs we have of WWI Dorchester residents, we will be featuring servicemen in a number of short biographies throughout the year. At the culmination of the project, we hope to produce an online exhibit that highlights these men and their service to our country.
Our next biography features: Thomas Matthew Battell.
Written by Camille Arbogast.
Thomas Matthew Battell was born on December 30, 1898, at 111 River Street in the Lower Mills neighborhood of Dorchester. His father, Michael, was Irish; his mother, Sarah, was born in England to Irish parents. Their first child, James, was born in 1887 and that same year, Michael immigrated to the United States. Sarah and James followed him two years later, arriving in Boston on the SS Catalonia. In 1893, a daughter, Margaret, was born in Massachusetts, followed by Catherine in 1895, Anne in 1892, Thomas in 1898, and William in 1907. They also had a daughter, Mary, who was born in 1900, but died in infancy at only four months old.
In 1900, Michael was a jobber at a paper factory, perhaps at the nearby Tileston and Hollingworth paper factory. By 1904, the family had moved to 53 Bearse Avenue in Lower Mills. Michael appears in Boston directories as a papermaker in 1904 and 1907. In 1909, Michael was working as a machinist, but only a few years later, he died of chronic tuberculosis of the lungs in 1911.
By 1918, the family was living at 2151 Dorchester Avenue. That spring, on May 17, Thomas enrolled as a Seaman, Second Class, at the Navy Recruiting Station in Boston. He was called for service on July 27. On August 26, he was sent to the Naval Training Camp on Bumpkin Island, in Boston Harbor, where he remained until the Armistice. On July 16, 1919, Thomas was assigned to the USS Patricia, a troop transport ship commissioned in March 1919. In his notecard for Thomas Battell, Dr. Perkins noted that Thomas served on two trips to France on the USS Patricia. Shortly after the USS Patricia was decommissioned, Thomas was honorably discharged on September 30, 1921. His service record cites “lack of funds” as the reason for his discharge.
Before his discharge, in 1920, Thomas spent some time in Plymouth, New Hampshire. He and his eldest brother, James, worked as steam railroad laborers, probably for the Boston and Maine Railroad. Thomas also appears in Boston directories in the early 1920s, listed in 1921 and 1923 as living with his mother at 2151 Dorchester Avenue. On November 3, 1923, he married Alice May (Fadden) Kelly in Plymouth, who was fourteen years his senior. A native of New Hampshire, born in 1874, Alice had been widowed in 1920 and when she married Thomas, she already had four children of her own. They were married by Reverend John R. Copplestone of Plymouth.
In 1930, they owned a home on Webster Street in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Thomas worked as a painter and Alice was the landlady of a lodging house. Living with them were two of Alice’s sons from her previous marriage, Robert, 11, and Cedric, 34. Cedric’s wife Beatrice lived with them, as well, and was employed in the lodging house as a domestic.
By 1940, they owned 56 Main Street in Plymouth; Alice was still running a lodging house. Living with them on Main Street were two unmarried men, one worked for the local sporting goods company and the other was an electric power lineman. Thomas was still a painter. In 1939, he was employed for only 20 weeks. In 1940, he was in “government work,” painting government buildings, perhaps a part of the Works Progress Administration. In 1942, he reported that he was unemployed. Three years later, in 1945, Alice died of breast cancer.
Thomas remarried in 1947; on August 1, in Massachusetts, he married Allatar Lydia Herrale, known as Alta. Born in Minnesota in 1910, Alta moved to Brookline in 1936 to attend Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery. She was a pastry chef at the Mount Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods and at Wellesley College before her thirty-year career at the Walnut Hill School in Natick. In 1949, Thomas and Alta had a daughter, Greta Ann Laura.. At that time, Thomas and Alta lived at 40 Bennett Street in Natick.
After suffering from Alzheimer’s, Thomas Matthew Battell died on October 21, 1983 in Natick. He was survived by his second wife, Alta, and by his daughter, Greta.
Sources
Birth records, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com
Family Trees, Ancestry.com
1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 Federal Census; Ancestry.com
Michael Battell death record, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com
World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, National Archive and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
Boston Directories, Various Years, Ancestry.com
Service Record; The Adjutant General Office, Archives-Museum Branch, Concord, MA
Marriage Record, New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire; Ancestry.com
Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
Alice Battell Death Record, New Hampshire, Death and Disinterment Records, 1754–1947. New England Historical Genealogical Society. Citing New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire; Ancestry.com
“Allatar Battell, Bedford, NH” Obituary, Legacy.com
“Greta Battell Engaged to Wed at New Ipswich,” Fitchburg Sentinel, 5 January 1971:11; Newspapers.com
Death Record, Massachusetts Death Index, 1970-2003, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Health Services; Ancestry.com