Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1714
Today’s illustration shows Almond S. Gushee. The day before yesterday we saw a milk bottle from the C W Gushee dairy on Fuller Street. Responses for the request for more information have come in:
From Dan Jenkins:
It appears the dairy was owned by Almond Shaw Gushee and when he died his son Chester Ward Gushee took over per WWI draft reg. Almond was married to Ida Smith, and she is mother of his children. He 2nd married a Therese Peters in 1900, who was of German origins. Almond was born in Appleton, Maine, to an old N. E. family that arrived from France in the 1600s. Name properly was Gatchet. So the bottle was from Chester’s era. WWII draft reveals Chester at 104 Fuller St., owner of a milk business, so maybe cows and barns still there.
1942 . Chester was married to Ruth Hotchkiss/Stone, and they had 3 children: Ruth 1921 who has descendants , Robert 1925, and Almond Chester Gushee b 1923. Almond Chester enlisted in the Army 11-4-1942 and died in Maryland in 2004 and is buried at Mullen Hill Cem. in Lakeville, MA. There are living members of this family and I will forward today’s illus. to one of them that has done research. Maybe she can add info.
I forgot to mention that Chester’s brother William had a grocery store, likely nearby. So probably sold Gushee milk.
From Bob Rugo:
Almond Shaw Gushee was born in Appleton, Maine in 1857. He was living on Fuller Street in 1886 when his son William Shaw Gushee was born and in1888 when his son Chester W. Gushee was born. He was described as a milkman and as a milk dealer on his sons’ birth records.
In 1897 Almond’s wife died at 92 Fuller Street and in 1900 he remarried, living at the same address.
Almond was active in establishing, in 1899, the Dorchester Gentlemen’s Driving Club which held races at the Franklin Field Speedway. His daughter Edith made news when she was the first woman to race there in 1911 when she was 20 years old.
The C. W. Gushee name on the milk bottle is presumably the son, Chester W. Gushee (1888-1963). When Chester’s wife died in 1949, they were living at 104 Fuller Street and when Chester died in 1963, he was living at 37 Bailey Street.
In 1940 the Chester W. Gushee Co. was a low bidder on a contract to provide subsidized milk to the poor. Other successful bidders included H.P. Hood and the Whiting Milk Company. At that time the Gushee Company was shown as based in Watertown. One possibility is that Chester’s younger brother, by 15 years, Charles had taken over the company by then. Charles had bought property in Belmont in 1937.
Also from Bob Rugo — From someone’s family tree online:
“Chester Ward Gushee 30 Sept 1888 Boston, MA married Ruth Hotchkiss/Stone
1930 Federal census Boston, Suffolk, MA 8 April
Gushee, Chester head age 41 born MA propietor dairy business”
Report of the Harvard Class of 1909 (listed right after George Gund)
WILLIAM SHAW GUSHEE
Address 113 Fuller St., Dorchester Center, Mass.
Residence Ditto.
Occupation Milk Dealer, 113 Fuller St., Dorchester Center, Mass.
Married Beatrice Emily Hall, Dorchester, Mass., Oct. 16, 1913.
Children Beatrice Eleanor, Sept. 22, 1918.
______
The Dorchester Illustration of the Day (DIOTD) is sent weekdays. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please reply to be taken off the e-mail list. If you know others who would like to receive the daily e-mail, please encourage them to join the group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/dorchester-historical-society. You may contact Earl Taylor at ERMMWWT@aol.com
If you value receiving the DIOTD, please express your appreciation by making a donation to the Dorchester Historical Society, either by regular mail at 195 Boston Street, Dorchester, MA 02125, or through the website at www.DorchesterHistoricalSociety.org