Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biographies: Robert Joseph Blake and John Joseph Blake
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: Blake brothers
Written by Julie Wolf.
[In the illustration Robert Joseph Blake is on the left and John Joseph Blake on the right]
The brothers Robert Joseph Blake and John Joseph Blake were born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Irish immigrants James Blake (no relation to the owners of Dorchester’s famed Blake House, the oldest house in Boston) and Elizabeth “Bessie” Coakley. Robert was born on May 26, 1891. John came three and a half years later, on November 21, 1894. Their sister, Elizabeth, was born in between, on July 25, 1893. In 1897, Bessie died of heart failure at age 30, leaving James a widower with three young children. The following year he remarried. He and his second wife, the Irish-born Mary Scanlan, would have no children of their own.
According to the 1900 census, the Blakes lived in a rented home on Randolph Avenue in Milton, shared with Mary’s brother David Scannell (one of many spelling variations of her family’s name), a gardener, and another lodger named Malachy Crowley, who worked as a road maker. Ten years later, the census showed them still living on Randolph Avenue, at 304—possibly the same home as before—minus the boarders. Robert, now 19, had taken work as a carpenter’s apprentice, while John, 15, and their sister were still in school. Like so many area residents, their father, James, worked as a mill hand at the Baker Chocolate Factory in Dorchester.
Both Robert and John served overseas during World War I. John was 23 years old when he enlisted on May 30, 1917, one week before the first registration for the draft began on June 5. It was then that 26-year-old Robert registered, still single and already working in the profession that he would have for most of his life: police officer in the town of Milton. By the time the brothers sailed for Europe, the family had moved from Randolph Avenue to 69 River Street in the Lower Mills neighborhood Dorchester. (This would be the only time in his life that Robert had an address in Dorchester.)
U.S. Army Transport records allow us to track Robert and John throughout their service. In July 1918, Robert, a corporal 1st class, shipped out to France with Company A of the First General Headquarters Battalion of the Military Police Corps. He returned from Brest a year later aboard the USS Manitou. John’s service abroad and his return to the United States predated his older brother’s. As a private, he disembarked from Hoboken, New Jersey, for France aboard the USS Pantones on September 2, 1917, serving with Company E, 101st Regiment, U.S. Infantry. He was promoted to corporal the following year, on November 3, 1918. He arrived home to Boston aboard the USS America on April 5, 1919, having seen action as part of the Defensive Sector in France in some of the war’s most storied battles: Champagne-Marne; Aisne-Marne; St. Mihiel; and the horrific Meuse-Argonne, which claimed the lives of 26,000 of the 1 million-plus American Expeditionary Forces soldiers who fought in the brutal offensive that ended the war. John escaped the war uninjured and with no disabilities. On their transport documents, Robert listed their mother, Mary, as his contact, while John listed their father, James, as his.
After the war, the Blake brothers no longer lived together. The 1920 census found Robert living at 308 Randolph Avenue in Milton, a few doors down from the Blakes’ former family home, a boarder with the Scanlons—an aunt, uncle, and cousin from his mother Mary’s side. He had resumed work as a police officer with the Milton Police Department. John, employed as a fireman in the fire department shipyard, continued to live with his mother, now a widow, at 69 River Street in Dorchester, along with an Irish-born lodger named Patrick Rafferty, a chocolate factory employee. Their father, James Blake, appears to have died sometime during his sons’ military service or immediately thereafter.
Within two years, Robert and John would establish homes of their own, but going forward their professional lives would follow similar paths. On November 13, 1921, Robert, age 30, still with the Milton police, married a telephone operator from Quincy named Mary Trainor Sugrue. They made their first home at 11 Bunton Place in East Milton. Shortly afterward they moved to 66 Grafton Avenue, also in Milton, the home they owned for the rest of their lives and in which they brought up their four children, Mary, Robert, James, and Barbara. In 1922, 28-year-old John married Catherine Amelia Bertram, also of Quincy. For the first year of their marriage, they lived at 43 Avondale Place in Dorchester. During this year John adopted his brother’s vocation, becoming a Boston police officer at Quincy Hall Market. Over the next four decades, John and Catherine lived in a number of locations (likely all rented) around Dorchester: 1258 Morton Street, 110 Fuller Street, 32 Percival Street, and finally 83 Dakota Street. They would have three children: Elizabeth; John F., a decorated World War II veteran; and Daniel.
During Robert’s 36-year tenure with the Milton Police, he played an active role in many professional organizations, including the Milton Police Social Club, of which he was president; the Massachusetts Police Relief Association; and the Massachusetts Retired Police and Firefighters Association. He was also a member of the American Legion Milton Post 114 and St. Agatha’s Holy Name Society. On the force, he seemed to take particular interest in tending to the morale of his fellow officers, and in 1929 he was instrumental in establishing the Policeman’s Memorial Sunday.
As a patrolman for Station 1 of the Boston Police Department at the tail end of Prohibition, John’s work took on a grittier feel than Robert’s. In January 1933, John was among one of the special officers directing a raid at 5 Langdon Place, “believed by Federal agents to have been the center of the North End’s wholesale wine supply.” The Boston Globe described the “seizure [as] one of the largest in the North End recently,” with “the cellar piled high with barrels” and hundreds of quarts of wine valued at more than $2,000 confiscated. Later that year, he was also involved in breaking up an illegal “numbers,” or lottery, game on Portland Street, a case in which the perpetrator admitted his wrongdoing but requested leniency from the judge on the basis of “[providing] an outlet during these depressing times for a lot of people who had hopes that a two or three cent ‘play’ would bring in some money.” John was a member of the Boston Police Post No. 1018 VFW and the Boston Police Relief Association. He stayed on the force through at least 1946.
Both brothers spent their retirement working as messengers. Following his separation from the force in 1952, Robert became a messenger with the Boston law firm of Bingham, Dana and Gould, a position he would hold for twelve years. John was employed by the Estabrook Company from at least 1956 through 1964, the year his wife died.
Robert Joseph Blake died on February 4, 1965, age 73, at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was survived by his wife, still of 66 Grafton Road; their four children; and his brother. John Joseph Blake died six years later, either in Canton or Norwood, on March 28, 1971, age 76, predeceased by his wife and son John and survived by his other son and daughter. Both brothers were buried in Milton Cemetery, which has been used as a burying ground since its founding in 1672, shortly after the town’s incorporation, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004.
SOURCES:
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004.
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“Annual Memorial Service by Policemen of Milton.” Boston Globe, June 7, 1937: 7.
“Blake (John J.).” Boston Globe, March 30, 1971: 30.
“Blake (Mary A.).” Boston Globe, December 3, 1935 : 26.
“Blake (Robert J.).” Boston Globe, February 6, 1965 : 2.
FamilySearch.org. Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915, database with images.
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“Federal Dry Agents Stop North End’s Wine Supply by Making Seizure Valued at $2235.” Boston Globe, January 31, 1933: 15.
Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.
“Milton.” Boston Globe, February 21, 1918: 5.
“Milton Police Memorial to Be Unveiled Tomorrow: Son and Daughter of Patrolmen to Assist…” Boston Globe. June 6, 1931: 16.
National Archives, Military Records, World War I Draft Registration Cards.
“‘Number’ Writers Given Heavy Fines: Three Appeal—Two Others Face Same Charge.” Boston Globe, October 14, 1933: 2.
“Quincy Telephone Girl Weds Milton Ex-Soldier.” Boston Globe. November 15, 1921: 4.
“Registrar Wars on ‘Mr. Fixits’: Officers Elected.” Boston Globe. October 21, 1929: 4.
“Robert J. Blake: Policeman, 36 Years; 73.” Boston Globe. February 5, 1965: 14.
“With the Colors.” Boston Globe, May 31, 1944: 14; June 9, 1945: 5.