William Frederick Akerman
World War I Veteran
By Camille Arbogast
William Frederick Akerman, sometimes known as Fred, was born on May 26, 1888, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Isabella (Watkins) and Joseph W. Akerman. Joseph and Isabella had married in Portsmouth in 1868. They had four additional children: Joseph born in 1872, Grace in 1875, Clara in 1880, and Lucy in 1884. The Akermans owned a property along Spinney Road between Middle Road and Islington Street, on the outskirts of Portsmouth.
Joseph, a farmer, was 34 years older than Isabella and was 75 when William was born. Joseph died of heart failure in 1890. In 1892, Isabella remarried; her second husband, William Mitchell, was a Canadian, originally from Bridgeton, Nova Scotia. Isabella and William had a son, George, born in 1892. William attended school through the eighth grade, according to the 1940 census. In 1907, he was employed as a clerk. He was also a member of Portsmouth’s Franklin Pierce Veteran Firemen’s Association, a fire brigade and social organization.
On May 25, 1907, William married Vivian J. Grover in Portsmouth. Vivian was the daughter of a paperhanger. On their wedding day, they were celebrated by the fireman’s association. According to the Portsmouth Herald, 50 of the organization’s members, “headed by the Eagle drum corps and plenty of red fire” arrived at William’s home, where they engaged in “songs, recitations, and different varieties of amusement.” In 1908, William and Vivian lived at 22 Maplewood Avenue in Portsmouth; by 1910, they had moved to 140 Maplewood Avenue.
William and Vivian were divorced on December 20, 1911. Vivian sought the divorce on the grounds of “extreme cruelty.” Vivian married again in April 1912; her second marriage ended in divorce in 1928, again due to “extreme cruelty,” though she and her second husband appear to have later reconciled and were living together in 1940.
In 1912, William moved to Milton, Massachusetts, where he lived at 40 Maple Street and worked as a clerk at 1157 Washington Street in Dorchester. From July 6, 1912, until January 5, 1915, William served as a fireman 1st class in the U. S. Navy. By 1917, he had returned to 40 Maple Street in Milton. He was a packer at the Mason Regulator Company, which made balanced valves, steam traps, and speed and pressure regulators. William worked for the company for the rest of his career. On his First World War draft registration, in June 1917, he claimed he was “doing government work;” a Navy photograph from this era shows “testing apparatus and material for Navy Department” in the assembly room at the Mason Regulator Company. By early 1918, William had moved to 5 Taylor Terrace in Mattapan.
On February 15, 1918, William enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force at the Boston Navy Yard as an engineman 2nd class. Before he was called to service, on May 31, 1918, he wed for a second time, marrying Ruth Wilhelmina Gustafson at the Salem Lutheran Church in Quincy, Massachusetts. Ruth was born in Boston and was living in Milton at the time of her marriage. On June 4, William was sent to the Naval Training Camp in Hingham, Massachusetts. He was transferred to the Navy’s training Camp on Bumpkin Island in Boston Harbor on June 25, and then to the Rifle Range at Wakefield, Massachusetts, on July 8. While William was in the Navy, in September 1918, his mother died of influenza. That month, William was assigned to the “Machine Shop Boston Section Base Boston,” where he remained until the Armistice on November 11, 1918. William was placed on inactive duty on January 25, 1919, at the Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island. He was honorably discharged due to lack of funds on September 30, 1921.
After being placed on inactive duty, William returned to 5 Taylor Terrace, and the Mason Regulator Company, where he was employed as a machinist. William’s wife Ruth was living with her parents at 9 Linden Street. She died there on January 15, 1924.
On May 29, 1925, William married Marjorie (Hawes) Hutchinson. Marjorie had been married before and had a five-year-old daughter, Lydia. William and Marjorie were married at Marjorie’s home, 9 Taylor Terrace, by Warner P. Lander, a clergyman from Milton. William, Marjorie, and Lydia lived at 5 Taylor Terrace; their rent in 1930 was $30 a month. They moved to 52 Old Morton Street in 1931, then to 32 Sanford Street in 1933. By 1940, they were living at 178 Eliot Street in Milton. Lydia, 20, was working as a clerk in the chocolate factory, making $780 a year. William earned $1,500 annually at the Mason Regulator Company. In 1942, William and Marjorie lived at 27 Huntoon Street. By 1951, they had moved to North Easton, Massachusetts, where they lived at 210 Washington Street. Marjorie died on March 25, 1961. William moved to Brockton, Massachusetts where he lived until his death on May 20, 1979.
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<https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-115000/NH-115112.html>
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