Dorchester Illustration no. 2490 Harold Grant Mitten
At the Dorchester Historical Society, we have been in the process of a two-year-long project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I. Starting with a collection of photographs we have of WWI Dorchester residents, we have featured service men and women in a number of short biographies throughout the months. The biographies are posted in the Society’s blog.
Harold Grant Mitten
Harold Grant Mitten was born at home, at 37 Folsom Street in Dorchester, on August 2, 1895, to George A. and Nellie Frances (Weeks) Mitten. George was born in Quebec, Canada, the son of William Andrew and Catharine (Grant) Mitten. He immigrated with his family to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in the mid-1860’s. George later moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, and lived with Mitten relatives before moving to Boston with his brother where they started their business, in 1883. Nellie was born in Lowell to Serlo Bartlett and Mary E. (McLaughlin) Weeks. George and Nellie were married in Lowell in 1891. They had seven other children, all born in Boston: William in 1891, Olive in 1893, twins Ethel and Irene in 1896, Dorothy in 1902, and twins Madeline and Evelyn in 1909. Olive died in 1894. William, like Harold, served in World War I.
George was a provisions dealer, co-owning with his brother, John, the Mitten Brothers store at 1351 Washington Street in the South End. They advertised “Provisions, Poultry, Game in season, Fruits, Vegetables and Canned Goods of all descriptions … The most fastidious buyer will find meats, or other articles suited to his needs at this establishment.”
By 1898, the Mittens were living at 30 Folsom Street, which they owned. According to the 1900 census, the family employed a live-in maid, Mary Mahoney, a twenty-five-year-old recent Irish immigrant. By 1910, the Mittens had moved a short distance to 12 Chamblett Street. That June, Harold graduated from the Phillips Brooks School on Perth Street.
On June 5, 1917, Harold registered for the draft. He was 21-years-old, medium build, “tall” height (5’9”) with brown eyes and brown hair. He reported that he was employed as a machinist, working for the William Hall Company of Wollaston, Massachusetts. The William Hall Company were makers of “cutters, dies, jigs, etc.” According to their advertisement in Machinery magazine in March 1917, they had “one of the busiest cutter departments in the East … Hall makes, and hardens correctly, high-grade cutters of every description, including cutters made to your own designs.”
Harold was drafted and inducted into the army in Boston on September 8, 1917. He was initially assigned to Company D, 301st Infantry, 76th Division. Ten days later he was attached to Headquarters Company, 102nd Field Artillery, 26th Division, or Yankee Division. Almost immediately he left for France, sailing from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the USCT Finland on September 22, and arriving in Saint Nazaire on October 5. He was made a private first class on November 2 and promoted to corporal on December 6. According to family sources, he was a radio operator. His engagements included the Aisne-Marne offensive, July 18 through August 4; the Saint Mihiel offensive September 12 through 16; and the Meuse-Argonne offensive October 18 through November 11. Harold returned home in the spring of 1919, sailing on March 31 from Brest, France, on the USS Mongolia, and arriving in Boston on April 10. He was discharged at Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts, on April 28, 1919.
After the war, Harold lived with his family on Chamblett Street. On October 12, 1922, he married Agnes Louise Wellbrock of 223 Boston Street, daughter of August Conrad and Elizabeth Theresa (Ahlert) Wellbrock. They were married at Holy Trinity Church in Boston by Reverend Henry J. Nelles. Harold and Agnes had four children, George A. (1925-1991), Mary Elizabeth (1925-2005), David Vincent (1930-2002), and Harold Wellbrock (1932-1944).
Various Wellbrock family members had lived at 221 and 223 Boston Street since about 1890. Harold and Agnes purchased 223 Boston Street from her family and lived there for the rest of their lives. In 1930, Agnes’s brothers Edward and Leo, and her uncle, Clemens, lived with the Mittens. Harold broadcast his 20-watt amateur radio station, W1AHH, from the home in the late 1920s.
Harold worked for the Boston Police Department for over 40 years. He was appointed to the force on December 6, 1919, shortly after the Boston Police Strike of September 1919. Early in his career he was assigned to night duty at the Fields Corner Station; in 1926 he was transferred to day duty. Two years later, he was promoted from patrolman to sergeant, and transferred from Dorchester to Charlestown. In Charlestown, Harold was the commander of a newly formed “liquor squad.” He was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to Division 4 in the South End in 1932. Harold’s police experiences sometimes made for good newspaper copy; in 1941, a story about Harold being asked to mediate a dispute over an arranged marriage was covered by the Associated Press and ran in newspapers all over the country. In April 1948, Harold was transferred to the Harbor Division. That November, he rescued a boy on Thompson Island suffering from appendicitis, rushing him to the mainland for treatment, Harold’s police boat, the William H. McShane, making “the 3 mile run in record time.” In 1953, Harold, again in command of the police boat, assisted during a three-alarm fire at 88 Commercial Wharf. Two years later, he was transferred once again, this time to the city prison. He was appointed Keeper of the Lockup on April 1, 1960. Harold retired from the Boston Police Department on November 15, 1961.
According to his family, Harold loved fixing up old bikes for the children in the Boston Street neighborhood. He owned an old black Raleigh bike that he rode around everywhere in Dorchester. And, his grandchildren would always know he was visiting when they came home from school if his bike was tied up to one of the trees in their backyard. He also had a lifelong passion for playing the violin.
Agnes died in 1972. Harold died in Boston on February 20, 1989, age 93, after a short illness. Mass was said for him at Saint Margaret’s Church, Dorchester, and he was buried at Calvary Cemetery on American Legion Highway. He had been a member of the Boston Police Relief Association.
Sources:
Family Sources; Jennifer Mitten
Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA: Ancestry.com
Family Tree; Ancestry.com
Leading Business Men of Back Bay, South End, Boston Highlands, Jamaica Plain and Dorchester. Boston, MA Mercantile Publishing Company, 1888: 61; Books.Google.com
Census Records, Federal, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, Ancestry.com
“7911 Diplomas in Boston Schools,” Boston Globe, 23 June 1910: 5; Newspapers.com
Advertisement, Machinery. March 1917, New York: Industrial Press: 165; Books.Google.Com
World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940. Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; FamilySearch.org
Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Ancestry.com
Lists of Outgoing & Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, MD; Ancestry.com
LaBranche, Ernest E. An American Battery in France. Worcester, MA: Belisle Printing & Publishing Company, 1923: Archive.org
Battle Participation of the Organizations of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, Belgium, and Italy 1917-1918. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1920; Archive.org
“Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915,” database citing Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org
Amateur Radio Stations of the United States. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1928: 3; Archive.org
Record of the Police Commissioner January 1, 1921, to December 31, 1921, City of Boston, Volume 58: 1480; Archive.org
“Dorchester District,” Boston Globe, 28 July 1926: 9; Newspapers.com
“Shakeup Orders Give Police Jolt,” Boston Globe, 4 July 1928: 4; Newspapers.com
“Bunker Hill District,” Boston Globe, 3 September 1929: 10; Newspapers.com
“Bunker Hill District,” Boston Globe, 23 November 1932: 7; Newspapers.com
“New Police Division 4 Officially Opened,” Boston Globe, 27 February 1933: 5; Newspapers.com
Associated Press, “Officer Tells Gypsies Settle Fight at Home,” Fitchburg Sentinel, 26 March 1941: 2; Newspapers.com
“60 Boston Police Officers Are Transferred,” Boston Globe, 15 April 1948: 1; Newspapers.com
“Appendicitis Victim Taken From Island,” Boston Globe, 18 November 1948: 3 Newspapers.com
“Fires Menace Beach, Wharf; $150,000 Loss,” Boston Globe, 4 August 1953: 1 Newspapers.com
“Sullivan Promotes 4 Boston Officers,” Boston Globe, 15 September 1955: 3; Newspapers.com
Report of Proceedings of the City Council of Boston for the Year Commencing January 4, 1960, and Ending December 27, 1960. Boston: Administrative Services Department Printing Section, 1961: 69; Archive.org
City Record, Volume 53, Number 46, November 18, 1961, Boston, MA; 883; Archive.org
“Deaths,” Boston Globe, 10 September 1972: 73; Newspapers.com
Deaths, Boston Globe, 21 February 1989: 18; Newspapers.com