Charles F. Hammond, Jr.

Posted on February 2, 2021 by earltaylor

Charles F. Hammond, Jr.

World War I Veteran

Charles was born in Roxbury on June 15, 1893, the oldest child of Charles F. and Elizabeth F. Hammond.  Charles, the father, was employed as a bank cashier.  By 1900 the family was living on Millet Street in Dorchester.  Charles, Jr., had a sister, Hazel M., and a brother, Clarence O. Hammond.

Charles, Jr., graduated from the Oliver Wendell Holmes School, which was within walking distance of his home. He played baseball with the Standish Club and Intercity League and was well known in the western part of Dorchester.

He went on to work for the Shoe and Leather Exchange for five years, then went to work for the Fore River Shipbuilding Company in Quincy. He enlisted on August 17, 1917, in the Massachusetts National Guard, which was in Federal Service by that time.  He was assigned to the Artillery and went to Europe with the American Expeditionary Force on September 9, 1917.  He died at Coetquidan of disease on October 9, 1917, and his family was notified within days afterward.  His mother hS received a letter from him on September 24th in which he said he was enjoying good health, and the telegram announcing his death was the first the family knew of the affliction.

The local American Legion post #78 was named for him, and in 1919 St. Leo’s Church presented a banner with a portrait of Charles F. Hammond, Jr., to the post.  The Boston Globe reported on September 24, 1919, that the banner ” which will be on exhibition in the window of the A. Shuman Co. store today and tomorrow was designed and painted by C. F. Shea.  It is of silk, heavily fringed, embodying the National red, white and blue, with a portrait of the hero for whom the post is named, surrounded by the Post’s name and number.”

In 1921 a City of Boston square was named for him at Bradshaw and Esmond Streets.

Sources:

1900 and 1910 Federal Census on Ancestry.com

Birth Record on Ancestry.com

Boston Globe October 16, 1917; September 24, 1919; July 22, 1919.

https://www.cityofboston.gov/veterans/herosquares/

Death Record on Ancestry.com with data from Soldiers of the Great War compiled by W. M. Haulsee. (Washington, 1920)

The Gold Star Record of Massachusetts. Edited by Eben Putnam.  (Boston, 1929)

Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard

World War I draft card on Ancestry.com

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Francis William Coffey

Posted on February 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Francis William Coffey

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Francis William Coffey, known as Frank, was born on August 24, 1888, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Jeremiah and Mary (Kelley) Coffey. Jeremiah was also born in Montreal. He first came to the United States in September 1868, entering through Burlington, Vermont, where Mary was born. They were married in Canada in 1872. Jeremiah and Mary had seven other children: Elizabeth born in 1873, Charles Patrick born in 1874, John in 1876, Jeremiah, Jr., in 1881, Agnes in 1884, Thomas in 1886, and Helen, known as Nellie, in 1891. According to an article in the Boston Globe, Jeremiah was “for many years prominent in Canadian athletic circles, being at one time captain of the Shamrock lacrosse champions of Canada.”

The Coffeys had moved to the United States by 1891, when Nellie was born in Massachusetts. They resided in Cambridge, where Jeremiah was a boiler maker with a shop on 6th Street. During Frank’s childhood, the family moved around the Cambridgeport neighborhood. Their homes included:18 Blanche Street, where they lived in 1893; 32 State Street in 1896; 55 Pleasant Street in 1900; 55 Pearl Street in 1901; 496 Green Street in 1906; and 50 Western Avenue in 1907.

Frank’s mother, Mary, died of Bright’s disease in 1894. In 1900, the census reported that his father, Jeremiah, had been out of work for five months. Many of Frank’s older siblings were working by that time: Elizabeth was a laundry marker, John a bartender, Jeremiah, Jr., a cracker packer, and Agnes a candy maker. Frank was still attending school in 1900; he graduated from Saint Mary’s Parochial School in Cambridge. Charles Patrick, an employee of the National Biscuit Company, died of tuberculosis in 1903. Frank may have been the Coffey boy from Cambridge who, with a 16-year-old friend from Pleasant Street, boarded “a westbound freight on the Boston Albany railroad” and made it as far as Indianapolis. Jeremiah, Sr., died of stomach cancer in 1908. Three years later, John died of tuberculosis.

In the years following his father’s death, Frank’s whereabouts are somewhat speculative. The Cambridge directory listed a Frank W. Coffey at 408 Putnam Street in 1909. In 1910, a 21-year-old Frank Coffey was living on Goddard Avenue in Brookline, Massachusetts, while employed by a private family as a groom. A Francis W. Coffey appeared in the Somerville, Massachusetts, directory from 1910 through 1912 at 72 Prentiss Street. By 1914, Frank was working as a teamster and boarding at 15 Hallet Street in Neponset. This was the address he gave when he enlisted and reported for duty in the Massachusetts National Guard on June 4, 1917.

Frank served in Company E of the 9th Infantry of the Massachusetts National Guard, which was stationed at Camp Framingham, an existing National Guard summer training ground and state armory. In August 1917, the regiment was reorganized as the 101st Infantry, part of the 51st Infantry Brigade of the 26th Division, or Yankee Division.

The 101st Infantry sailed for France on September 7, 1917, on the USS Pastores, leaving from Hoboken, New Jersey and arriving in Saint-Nazaire, France, on September 21, 1917. The 26th Division went to the front in the Chemin des Dames sector in early February 1918. They moved to the Toul-Boucq sector in early April. After a few days in the Champagne-Marne defensive sector in early July, they participated in the Aisne-Marne offensive from July 18 through 25.

On September 12 and 13, the 101st took part in the Saint Mihiel offensive, attempting to capture ground that had been held by the Germans since September 1914. Captain John W. Hyatt described the conditions of the battle in A History of the Yankee Division: There was “heavy fighting over the most terrible terrain. This was filled with concrete pill boxes and machine-gun nests, and the woods were full of barbed wire. There were scores of ravines running perpendicular to our attack, so that it was necessary for the men to fight over each one. The ground was covered with bushes about 5 or 6 feet tall, with few trees, and barbed wire interwoven.”

During the battle, Frank was mortally wounded. Most sources report he died of his wounds on September 13. A note in The Gold Star Record of Massachusetts gives an alternate date of September 24 and the additional information “of gunshot wound,” citing as the source “Casualties, 26th Division.”  Frank was buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Department de la Meuse, Lorraine, France. A high mass was celebrated in his honor at Blessed Sacrament Church in Cambridge on May 13, 1919.

Sources

Gabriel Drouin, comp. Baptism Record, Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin; Ancestry.com

US Veterans Administration Master Index, Military Service, NARA microfilm publication, St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985; FamilySearch.org

Naturalization Records. National Archives at Boston, Waltham, Ma; Ancestry.com

“Cambridge,” Boston Globe, 9 Dec 1897:3; Newspapers.com

Family Trees, Ancestry.com

Cambridge & Boston Directories, various years; Ancestry.com

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910 US Federal census; Ancestry.com

“John J. Graham Missing,” Cambridge Chronicle. 24 October 1903: 1; Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge.dlconsulting.com

Putnam, Eben, ed. The Gold Star Record of Massachusetts, Volume II. Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1929; Archive.org

Lists of Outgoing Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, MD; Ancestry.com

Battle Participation of Organizations of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, Belgium and Italy 1917-1918. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1920; Archive.org

Benwell, Harry A. History of the Yankee Division. Boston: The Cornhill Company, 1919; Archive.org

“Casualty List Has 635 Names,” Boston Post, 25 October 1918: 14; Newspapers.com

“Eastern Massachusetts Men in Casualty List,” Boston Globe, 27 October 1918: 2; Newspapers.com

Died, Cambridge Chronicle, 17 May 1919: 3; Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge.dlconsulting.com

“Francis W. Coffey.” American Battle Monuments Commission. ABMC.gov

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Sophia Theresa Cody

Posted on February 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Sophia Theresa Cody

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Sophia Theresa Cody was born on March 10, 1895, at 220 Centre Street in Roxbury. Her parents, John and Mary (McCallogue or McCalogue) Cody were Irish immigrants who married in Boston in June 1881. Sophia was a twin; her sister Grace died at a little over a year old of meningitis after a four-week bout with pertussis. Sophia had six other siblings: Joseph (also known as J.J.) born in 1882, Thomas in 1884, Ellen in 1886, Mary in 1888, Ellen in 1890, and James in 1892. Three of her siblings died as small children: Thomas in 1885 of croup, Ellen in 1889 of diphtheria, and the second Ellen in 1891 of cholera infantum.

John Cody held a number of jobs: In 1895, he was a milk dealer, in 1900, a fruit dealer, and in 1910, a bakery wagon driver. In 1899, John bought two lots totaling about 9,000 square feet on Willow Street in Dorchester. According to the Boston Globe, John already owned adjoining land; the Codys had been living on Willow Court since at least 1897. In 1900, he sold “Three old frame stables and about 12,227 square feet of land on Willow ct” to Grace McCallogue, probably Mary Cody’s relation, who bought “for improvement on private terms.” In August 1918, Grace sold John the “frame building” at 76-78 Willow Court.  During this time, Sophia and her family lived at 6 Willow Court, then 76 Willow Court.

On July 25, 1918, Sophia enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force as a Yeoman (F), or a female Yeoman. Sometimes called “Yeomanettes” or “Yeowomen,” female Yeomen were officially enrolled in the Navy and received the same rate of pay as men. The Naval Act of 1916 included a line permitting the enlistment of “all persons who may be capable of performing special useful service for coastal defense.” The non-gendered language was interpreted to include women and they were recruited beginning in March 1917. By the end of the war there were over 11,000 female Yeomen. They most often served in clerical roles, though some held specialized positions.

Prior to enlisting, Sophia was a telephone operator at the South Boston exchange.  With her switchboard experience, she was assigned to District Communication Superintendent, 1st Naval District, on July 30. She was initially attached to the medical office in the Little Building, and then was later transferred to one of the Navy Yard offices, where she ran “the big telephone switchboard.”

Sophia probably lived at home during her service, as the Navy did not have female barracks and women had to make their own living arrangements. Generally, they were assigned work in their home communities. There was also no officially-issued female uniform, and the women were responsible for acquiring the single-breasted jacket, long skirt, and brimmed hat they were required to wear.

On August 28, there was an influenza outbreak on a Navy receiving ship in Boston. From the receiving ship, the disease quickly spread to other navy sites, sweeping through Commonwealth Pier and filling the Chelsea Naval Hospital. Almost 21,000 sailors in the Boston area had caught the illness by mid-September. Sophia, working at the Naval Yard in the midst of the outbreak and most likely traveling between home and work daily, caught the virus.

As it was for so many other young people, for Sophia, the 1918 influenza was fatal. On October 13, 1918, she died at home, at 78 Willow Court, of lobar pneumonia caused by the influenza. She was “the second of the yeowomen forces to die since the epidemic began.”

A mass of high requiem was held for Sophia at Saint Margaret’s Church on Columbia Road. Her naval funeral was “the first military funeral of a woman held in [Boston],” according to the Boston Globe. The service featured “bluejacket body bearers, and an official escort and firing party.” A bugler played Taps “and three volleys [were] fired at the grave.” Six of Sophia’s fellow yeowomen served as her pallbearers. She was buried in the Cody family plot in Mount Benedict Cemetery in West Roxbury.

Sources

Birth Record, Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook); Ancestry.com

Family Tree; FamilySearch.org

Death Record, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910 U.S. Federal Census; Ancestry.com

“Real Estate Matters,” Boston Globe, 15 December 1899: 12; Newpapers.com

“Real Estate Matters,” Boston Globe, 2 March 1900: 12; Newpapers.com

“Real Estate Matters,” Boston Globe, 2 August 1918: 6; Newspapers.com

“Death of Miss Sophia T. Cody, Yeowoman, U.S.N.,” Boston Globe, 14 October 1918: 2; Newspapers.com

Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.

“Boston, Massachusetts,” Influenza Encyclopedia. University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine. <https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-boston.html>

“Yeowoman died from Grippe,” Boston Globe, 14 October 1918: 5; Newspapers.com

“Miss Cody’s Funeral to be Held Tomorrow Morning,” Boston Globe, 16 October 1918: 10; Newspapers.com

“Yeowoman is Buried with Naval Honors,” Boston Globe, 17 October 1918: 14; Newspapers.com

Officers and Enlisted Men of the United States Navy Who Lost Their Lives During the World War, From April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1920; 184; Archive.org

Gold Star Record of Massachusetts; Archive.org

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Roger Fiske Chapin

Posted on February 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Roger Fiske Chapin

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Roger Fiske Chapin was born at 6 Arundel Park (now known as Rundel Park) in the Ashmont neighborhood of Dorchester on August 23, 1892, to Charles Taft and Annie Mary (Wood) Chapin. Charles was the owner of the Chapin Coal Company, “dealers in hard and soft coal and wood,” based at Liverpool Wharf on Atlantic Avenue in Boston. He had been born in Dorchester; Annie was originally from Newburgh, New York. They married in Newburgh in 1882. They had five other children: Aida born in 1883, Arthur in 1885, Gerard in 1888, Marjorie in 1890, and Constance (also known as Christine) in 1895. Roger’s great aunt, Harriet Fiske, also lived with the family. During Roger’s childhood, there were also live-in servants at 6 Arundel Park; in 1900 the Chapins employed two maids and in 1910, one.

In 1907, Roger graduated from the Henry L. Pierce School, located on Washington Street and Welles Avenue. At Dorchester High School, he was a lieutenant in the First Battalion, Company A, of the Boston School Cadets. He also played on the football team for two years. Roger graduated from Dorchester High in June 1911. From 1911 to 1914, he served in 1st Squadron Massachusetts Cavalry of the Massachusetts National Guard. He also worked in the wholesale lumber industry, employed by the Pope Lumber Company of Dorchester. In 1915, his father died of prostate cancer.

On May 14, 1917, Roger enlisted at the Officers’ Training Camp in Plattsburg, New York. He was transferred to the Air Service in June and attended ground school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then was sent to Mineola, New York, on Long Island, for preliminary flying. Roger entered the Enlisted Reserve Corps on August 14, and was assigned to the Air Service detachment at Mineola. On September 27, he was transferred to Cadet Detachment, Garden City, Long Island, New York.

Roger sailed for France on November 14, 1917, departing from New York on the RMS Aurania. He received further pilot training at the 3d Aviation Instruction Centre in Issoudun. On February 1, 1918 he was commissioned as first lieutenant and called into active service. In March 1918, he began two month’s study of day bombardment in Clermont-Ferrand. He then served with a French Bombing Squadron, Escadrille Breguet Number 127 (Groupe de Bombardment 5), based at Plessis Bellville, where he first teamed with his observer, Clair Laird, of Algona, Iowa. They participated in the Chateau-Thierry offensive in July and at the Fismes-Soissons-Mondidier Front in August, making several flights over enemy lines. A fellow pilot, Charles Peck wrote of these flights, “‘Chap’ had had a number of nasty combats in which he showed fine skill and a cool head to have escaped what seemed inevitable to be shot down.” For his service with Escadrille Breguet 127,Roger was awarded the Croix de Guerre; his citation noted that he was an “excellent pilot, always volunteering for dangerous missions,” and that his bombings “caused considerable losses to the enemy.” In mid-August, Roger was transferred to Headquarters, Air Service, in Milan, Italy.

On September 2, Roger and Clair were assigned to the American Day Bombing Squadron Number 11, which flew Liberty-engine de Havilland DH4 planes. With Squadron 11, they participated in the Saint-Mihiel offensive. On September 18, their targets were in La Chaussee. On the return from their mission, the squadron was spotted by German planes and attacked. Six men were killed, and four, including Roger and Clair, were taken prisoner.

Clair recounted their ordeal for a newspaper article which ran in February 1919. “Roger Chapin and I were in the lead. … We did our bombing and had started home when we were attacked by about fifteen Fokkers from the front.  … One machine got right under our plane and the rattling of their guns sounded like the explosion of a bunch of firecrackers. … Our tank was shot to pieces and it is a miracle that the explosive bullets did not set the gasoline on fire. Our motor, getting little gas, was practically useless and Chapin was forced to leave formation … We had lost a great deal of altitude. Anti air craft guns opened on us from the ground and continued shooting at us until we crashed. Our motor was giving us little aid and Chapin was forced to keep it in a continual glide. … Getting closer to the ground ‘Chape’ attempted to pull up over some telegraph wires but the motor failed again and crashed into the wires. … The plane was lying upside down with Chapin hanging from a leg hooked under the rudder bar. I thought he was dead but after unfastening his clothing and rubbing his face and hands he began moaning and finally came to. … He is a big man and it was some job to get him down.” As Clair was extracting Roger from the wreckage, they were surrounded by Germans. Clair estimated “There must have been two or three hundred about by this time and they were all laughing as though they considered it a great joke.”

Roger and Clair had come down about an hour’s walk behind enemy lines. They were marched to a village where they were questioned by a German officer who had lived for a time in the United States and spoke English. Locked in a cellar overnight, the next morning they were fed “black coffee, made out of chestnuts, no milk or sugar, some black, sour, soggy bread and a jam, which they told us was a coal tar product, although it did not taste bad then.” They were taken to Joeuf, near Metz, where they were held for five days of questioning. Then they were moved to Karlsruhe, then to Landshut, in Bavaria, and finally to Villingen, near the Swiss border. In another newspaper interview given in 1938, Clair spoke about their experience in the prison, remembering, “’I think we were well treated— all the aviators were well treated. Of course, if we’d have had to eat the German food, we’d probably have starved, but the Red Cross had headquarters at Berne, Switzerland, and they made arrangements to give us food, under German supervision … It was a three-section camp and our only recreation was volley ball or walking. … The barracks were of wood and pretty cold.”

Roger and Clair were released on November 28, 1918, and exchanged through Switzerland. Roger returned to the United States on the USS Kroonland, sailing from Saint Nazaire, France, on March 12, 1919, and arriving in Newport News, Virginia, on March 24. Roger was discharged on April 11, 1919, in Mineola. On his service record, he was reported five percent disabled.

In 1920, Roger was again living at 6 Arundel Park, with his mother, great aunt, and siblings Aida, Arthur, and Christine. His great aunt died in April 1920. Roger resumed working in the wholesale lumber industry, employed by Carlyle Patterson and Company, 170 Summer Street, Boston. He was active with the Aero Club of Massachusetts.

In 1927, Roger married Frances L. Glover in Boston. Frances had grown up around the corner from Roger, at 79 Beaumont Street. In April 1930, Roger, Frances, and their 8-month-old son, Roger, Jr., were renting part of 6 Arundel Park from his mother, who also lived in the house. The next year, they moved to 44 Beaumont Street. That August, Frances died suddenly. After Frances’s death, Roger moved back to 6 Arundel Park.

Roger remarried in 1938, wedding Eva Jeanette (Vanderburgh) Shaw on June 10. In 1940, Roger, Eva, and Roger, Jr., lived at 34 West Main Street in Niantic, Connecticut. Residing with them was a lodger, Joseph Schmidt, a German immigrant who had a landscaping business. Roger worked for Holbrook Lumber Company of Springfield. Every year, on September 18, he wrote to Clair Laird.

Roger died on June 19, 1968, in New London, Connecticut. A few months later, the surviving members of his squadron met in Philadelphia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their September 18 capture.

Sources

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com

Family Tree; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 U.S. Federal Census; Ancestry.com

Documents of the School Committee of the City of Boston for the Year 1907; HathiTrust.org

“Roster of Brigade,” Boston Globe, 10 November 1910: 13; Newspapers.com

“Class Day at Dorchester High School,” Boston Globe, 22 June 1911: 10; Newspapers.com

“Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924,” database, citing Boston, MA, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org

“Welcome to Veterans,” The Lumberman’s Review, Vol XXVIII.-No 329, January 1920: 15; Books.Google.com

World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.

New England Aviators 1914-1918: Their Portraits and Their Records, Vol I. Boston and NY: Houghton Mifflin Company [Cambridge: Riverside Press], 1919; Archive.org

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

Peck, Charles. Allen Peck’s WWI Letters Home 1917-1919: US Army WWI Pilot Assigned to France. NY: iUniverse, Inc., 2005: 217; Books.Google.com

Guttman, John. “Slaughter in the Sky,” Aviation History, 1 November 2004 [accessed via EbscoHost]

Kramer, Jean. “Clair Laird- Prisoner of War,” Kossuth County History Buff, 29 November 2017; KossuthHistoryBuff.blogspot.com

Owens, Hebert G. “A Young Flyer in A German Prison Camp,” Des Moines Tribune, 11 November 1938: 1; Newspapers.com

“Table Gossip,” Boston Globe, 28 December 1919: 56; Newspapers.com

Department of Public Health, Registry of Vital Records and Statistics. Massachusetts Vital Records Index to Marriages [1916–1970]. Volumes 76–166, 192– 207. Facsimile edition. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA: Ancestry.com

“Dorchester District,” Boston Globe, 15 August 1931: 8; Newspapers.com

“Deaths,” Boston Globe, 14 August 1931: 8; Newspapers.com

“Eva Vanderburgh Weds Roger Chapin,” Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield,MA), 20 June 1938: 9; Newspapers.com

Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Connecticut Department of Health. Connecticut Death Index, 1949-2001. Hartford, CT, USA: Connecticut Department of Health; Ancestry.com

Gammack, Gordon. “Gordon Gammack,” Des Moines Tribune, 14 Oct 1968; 1; Newspapers.com

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Charles Russell Cavanagh

Posted on February 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Charles Russell Cavanagh

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Charles Russell Cavanagh, known as Russell, was born on January 2, 1899, at 13 River Street in Lower Mills, to Charles R. and Elizabeth G. (Herman) Cavanagh. Both parents were born in Boston. Charles’s family came to Dorchester in 1883, when they moved from the South End to Lower Mills. Elizabeth and Charles were married in 1897 in Dorchester.  Russell had an older sister, Gertrude, born in 1897, and a younger brother, Lewis, born in 1900.

Charles, a doctor, probably delivered Russell, as he signed the birth record. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he performed residencies at Boston City Hospital and Carney Hospital before going into general practice in Dorchester. Charles’s father, George H. Cavanagh, as well as his grandfather William, had been in the pile driving business; his father’s company worked on the Boston Art Museum, the Boston Public Library, the Youths Companion building, and New Old South Church, among other projects. George Cavanagh also served in the Civil War, first with the Boston Light Artillery, then with the First Massachusetts Cavalry and finally with the 6th New York Horse Battery.

Elizabeth’s father, Conrad J. Herman, was born in France to Bavarian German parents and immigrated to the United States in 1848. In 1900, he was employed as a fireman at a mill. That year, Conrad, along with his wife, Frances, who was from Maine, and their son, Frederick, a commission clerk, lived at 13 River Street with Charles, Elizabeth, and their children. By 1910, Russell’s immediate family had moved to another house in Lower Mills at 19 Richmond Street, which they had purchased. Russell attended the Gilbert Stuart School and two years of high school.

In 1917, Russell enlisted in the National Guard at the Commonwealth Armory, joining the 1st Regiment Field Artillery. He reported for duty on July 25, and was sent to Boxford for training. In August, the 1st Regiment Field Artillery was drafted into federal service and became the 101st Field Artillery, 51st Field Artillery Brigade, which was part of the 26th Division, or Yankee Division. It appears Russell initially served in Battery C, but by the time the 101st left Boxford on September 7, he had transferred to the Supply Company and was a Private First Class. On September 9, 1917, he sailed from New York City on the SS Adriatic. The 101st arrived in England on September 23, and two days later were in France. After receiving further training, the 26th Division spent the spring of 1918 in Woevre, north of Toul. In July they were part of the Chateau Thierry offensive; in September the Saint-Mihiel offensive. They were then sent to the front north of Verdun. In October they were involved in action east of Meuse. When the Armistice was declared on November 11, they were near Damvillers. In April 1919, Russell, along with the 101st Field Artillery, returned to the United States, sailing from Brest on the transport ship USS Mongolia. By that time, he had been promoted to Sergeant.

Two thousand people met the USS Mongolia when it docked in Boston on April 10. The Boston Globe headline declared “Had to Drive Relatives of Heroes Off Pier with Bayonets.” Due to the size of the ship, it had to dock at high tide, which was early in the morning. “The army and navy officials in charge … would have been glad to … delay the docking of the ship until 9 a.m., in order to accommodate the thousands who desired to welcome the home-coming brigade, but neither the army nor the navy has yet been able to regulate the tide,” the paper reported. As the ship approached Commonwealth Pier, it “was literally covered with olive drab coated soldier boys, who clung like swarming bees to every strand of the big ship’s rigging and gear.” After the ship had docked, hot doughnuts, oranges, bananas, cigarettes, and newspapers were hurled at the ship for the men to catch. Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge went aboard to welcome the men back to New England. According to the Globe coverage, family members and friends swarmed the pier, broke through ropes, and mobbed the gangplank, delaying debarkation for two hours. Finally, after 10 a.m., the men were taken by train to Camp Devens in Ayer to be demobilized. Russell was discharged on April 29, 1919.

In 1920, Russell was living at 19 Richmond Street and working as a leather sorter. His father had recently passed away, dying suddenly on Christmas Day in 1919. His siblings were still living in the family home: Gertrude was a teacher and Lewis was a student. Russell’s mother, and his grandparents, Conrad and Frances, were also part of the household. Conrad continued to work as a fireman, now with the railroad.

On March 13, 1922, Russell married stenographer Florence M. Matz of 2038 Dorchester Avenue. They were married by Reverend Francis X. Dolan at Saint Gregory’s Church. In 1929, Russell’s sister, Gertrude, married Edward B. Matz, Florence’s older brother.

Russell and Florence had five children: Charles Russell, Edward, Robert, Ann, and Elizabeth. Edward died on Christmas Eve in 1930, at six years old. During World War II, Charles served in the Naval Reserve and Robert was in the Army.

Russell and Florence initially lived in Quincy at 48 Whiton Avenue. By 1925, they had moved to Weymouth, living first at 70 Evans Street, then, by 1940, at 158 Park Avenue. They were reported residents of Milton and Chilmark in 1958. At the end of Russell’s life, they lived at 30 Longwood Road, Milton.

Russell spent his career in the leather industry, working as a salesman after his marriage. In 1940, the census reported he earned $5,000 a year. In the 1950s, Russell was employed by F. C. Donovan, Inc., of Boston. He served as president of his professional organization, the Boot and Shoe Club.

Russell died in Milton on May 26, 1962. A Solemn High Mass of Requiem was held for him at Saint

Mary of the Hills Church in Milton. 

Sources

Birth Record, “Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915” database; FamilySearch.org

Family Tree; Ancestry.com

Gillespie, C. Bancroft, ed. Illustrated History of South Boston. South Boston, MA: Inquirer Publishing Company, 1900; Archive.org

US Federal Census, 1900- 1940; Ancestry.com

“Boston Public School Graduates Number 8769,” Boston Globe, 19 June 1913: 6; Newspapers.com

Lists of Outgoing Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com

“United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940” database, FamilySearch.org

A Short History and Photographic Record of the 101st U.S. Field Artillery 1917. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1918; Archive.org

“Names of New England Heroes Who Came on Transport Mongolia,” Boston Globe, 10 April 1919: 10; Newpapers.com

Hennessy, M.E. “Had to Drive Relatives of Heroes Off Pier with Bayonets,” Boston Globe, 10 April 1919: 1; Newspapers.com

“Debarkation Delayed Hours,” Boston Globe, 10 April 1919: 1; Newspapers.com

“Funeral in Dorchester of Dr. Charles R. Cavanagh,” Boston Globe, 28 Dec 1919: 17; Newspapers.com

Marriage Record, “Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915″ database; FamilySearch.org

Death Notices, Boston Globe, 25 Dec 1930: 30; Newspapers.com

Sherman, Marjorie W. “Society,” Boston Globe, 3 April 1958: 5; Newspapers.com

Deaths, Boston Globe, 28 May 1962; 18; Newspapers.com

“Boot and Shoe Club Memorial,” Boston Globe, 15 November 1962: 8; Newspapers.com

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Patrick Canavan and John Canavan

Posted on February 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Patrick Canavan and John Canavan

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Brothers Patrick and John Canavan were born in South Boston; Patrick Joseph on March 6, 1892, and John Michael on August 23, 1895. Their parents, Thomas R. and Hanora (Nee), known as Hannah, were both born in Ireland, each immigrating to the United States in the early 1880s. They married in Boston in 1886; according to their marriage record, it was Hannah’s second marriage. Thomas and Hannah had seven other children: Mary born in 1887, Richard in 1891, Margaret in 1893, Hanora in 1896, Joanna in 1899, Thomas, Jr., in 1901, and Anthony in 1903. Two of their children died in early childhood: Richard in 1891 of cholera infantum and Hanora in 1901 of pneumonia.

At the time of Patrick’s and John’s births, the family lived on Bowen Street in South Boston and Thomas was a street paver. By 1899, they had moved to Dorchester, where they lived on Dorchester Avenue, first at 528, then, by 1906, at 526. By that time, Thomas worked for the Goodyear Machine Company in the South End. On the morning of January 9, 1906, he played with his children, put on his coat, and left for work. He never returned. Hannah “made a most thorough search” for her husband, checking with everyone who knew him and calling at all the hospitals. On February 27, she asked for police assistance, telling the officers that if Thomas “failed to return very soon she didn’t know what would become of her.” On May 1, Thomas’s drowned body was found in Boston Harbor, near White Spirit Wharf on Commercial Street in the North End.

By 1910, the Canavans had moved to 337 Dorchester Street. Hannah was working outside the home as an office cleaner. The older children were also employed: Patrick, 18, as a salesman at a grocery and Margaret in an ink factory. The younger children, including John, still attended school. Six years later they lived at 867 Dorchester Avenue.

On June 24, 1916, John enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard, serving in Company I of the 9th Infantry. Shortly before John enlisted, President Wilson had called up the National Guard. The United States was in the midst of the Mexican Expedition, the attempt to capture the Mexican revolutionary Francisco Villa, known as Pancho Villa. In the summer and fall of 1916, John was stationed near El Paso, Texas, where the National Guard was protecting the southern border.

Guardsmen were called for service again on March 20, 1917. John reported for duty on March 26, and mustered as a private on March 30. On April 1, he was promoted to private first class. The next day, President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany; war was declared on April 6. The 9th Infantry of the Massachusetts National Guard was stationed at Camp Framingham, an existing National Guard summer training ground and state armory. In August 1917, the regiment was reorganized as the 101st Infantry, part of the 51st Infantry Brigade of the 26th Division, or Yankee Division. John was promoted again in August, this time to corporal.

The 101st Infantry sailed for France on September 7, 1917, on the USS Pastores, leaving from Hoboken, New Jersey, and arriving in Saint-Nazaire on September 21, 1917. On November 3, John was made a private. The 26th Division went to the front in early February 1918, in the Chemin des Dames sector. In early April, they moved to the Toul-Boucq sector, where, on April 20, John was wounded slightly. After a few days in the Champagne-Marne defensive sector in early July, they participated in the Aisne-Marne offensive July 18 through 25. In August 1918, John was again made a private first class. From September 12 through 16, the 101st fought in the Saint Mihiel offensive.

While John was serving overseas, Patrick was a shipper for C.B. Smith and Brother of 38-40 Stilling Street in South Boston, supporting his mother and two youngest siblings; Hannah died in August 1917. On May 31, 1918, Patrick enrolled in the United Naval Reserve Force at the recruiting station in Boston. He was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service in Boston on June 4, serving as a storekeeper, second class. As a storekeeper, he was responsible for maintaining “ship or company military supply stores,” including handling “purchasing, procurement, shipping and receiving, and issuing … anything else obtained through the Naval Supply System.” A notice in the Boston Globe stated that Patrick “had been doing some overseas duty,” though this is not reflected in his service record. Another notice stated he was stationed on Commonwealth Pier.

On August 28, 1918, there was an influenza outbreak on a Naval receiving ship in Boston. From the receiving ship, the disease quickly spread to other Navy sites, sweeping through Commonwealth Pier and filling the Chelsea Naval Hospital. Almost 21,000 Navy personnel in the Boston area had caught the illness by mid-September.

On September 28, 1918, Patrick died at home, of lobar pneumonia almost certainly caused by influenza. A funeral service was held for him at his home and a high requiem mass was celebrated at Saint Margaret’s Church on Columbia Road (today’s Blessed Mother Teresa Church). He had been a member of the Dorchester Lower Mills Council, Knights of Columbus; the Edward Everett Court of Foresters; and the Saint Margaret’s Ushers’ Club.

At the time of Patrick’s death, John was in the Troyon sector. From there, in mid-October, the 26th Division moved to an area near Verdun, as part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. On October 23, an attack was begun “on the Bois d’Haumont, the Bois des Chênes, and the Bois d’Ormont.” John was mortally wounded during the fighting on October 23-24. On November 7, he died of these wounds received in action. He was reported Wounded Severely on December 10, 1918; a month later his status was changed to Killed in Action. 

In September and November 1918, first anniversary masses were celebrated for the repose of the souls of Patrick and John. In October 1918, “a month’s mind mass for the repose of the soul” of Patrick was also held. The intersection of Dorchester Avenue, Mount Vernon Street and Roseclair Street in Dorchester was named for John and Patrick Canavan in 1920. In July 1921, their sister held a funeral for John at her home, 103 Westville Street, and a requiem service was held for John at Saint Margaret’s Church. John was also honored with a motor cortege and military funeral.

Sources

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com

Family Tree; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910 U.S. Federal Census; Ancestry.com

“Husband Left Home Jan 9.” Boston Globe, 27 Feb 1906: 9; Newspapers.com

 “Floating in Harbor,” Boston Globe, 1 May 1906: 2; Newspapers.com

Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.

“101st Infantry Regiment (United States),” Wikipedia.org. Last edited 28 April 2020.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101st_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)>

“Camp Framingham,” Wikipedia.org. Last edited 14 July 2020. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Framingham>

Lists of Outgoing Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, MD; Ancestry.com

World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Battle Participation of Organizations of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, Belgium and Italy 1917-1918. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1920; Archive.org

Benwell, Harry A. History of the Yankee Division. Boston: The Cornhill Company, 1919; Archive.org

Deaths, Boston Globe, 17 August 1917: 4; Newspapers.com

“Storekeeper,” Wikipedia.org, last edited 23 January 2020, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storekeeper>

“Boston, Massachusetts,” Influenza Encyclopedia. University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine. <https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-boston.html>

Officers and Enlisted Men of the United States Navy Who Lost Their Lives During the World War, From April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1920; Ancestry.com

Putnam, Eben, ed. Report of the Commission on Massachusetts’ Part in the World War: The Gold Star Record of Massachusetts, Vol II. Boston: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1929; Archive.org

“Dorchester District,” Boston Globe, 30 September 1918; 10

“Dorchester District,” Boston Globe, 1 Oct 1918: 9

“Canavan,” Boston Post, 28 October 1918: 12

“New England List of 249 Casualties,” Boston Globe, 10 December 1918

“Total Casualties In New England 42,” Boston Globe, 10 Jan 1919: 9

“In Memoriam,” Boston Globe, 29 September 1919; 2

“In Memoriam,” Boston Globe, 6 Nov 1919: 18

“Naming of Canavan Square,” Report of Proceedings of the City Council of Boston, 30 August 1920: 179; Books.Google.com

Deaths, Boston Globe, 18 July 1921: 10

“Dorchester District,” Boston Globe, 18 July 1921: 12

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Max Ralph Butter

Posted on February 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Max Ralph Butter

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Max Ralph Butter was born on August 2, 1898, at 33 Oneida Street in Boston’s South End (today the location of the Ink Block development). His parents, Harry and Annie (Iascovich or Covich) Butter were born in Russia. They each immigrated to the United States in the 1890s and married in Boston in 1897. Max had five younger siblings: Edith born in 1900, Charly in 1903, Melvin in 1905, Minnie in 1908, and Joseph in 1909. Charly died in 1904 of tuberculous peritonitis (or tuberculosis of the abdomen).

Harry was a metal dealer. In 1901, he formed his own company, Harry Butter and Co., Inc., smelters and refiners. By 1913, the company was located at its long-time location, 151 Mount Vernon Street in Dorchester (today part of the land belonging to JFK/UMASS station). The metal distribution arm was known as the Butter Sales Corp.

By September 1898, the Butters had moved about two blocks from Max’s birthplace, to 8 Genesee Street. They remained in the neighborhood for the next couple years, living at 49 Oswego Street in 1900 and 13 Oswego in 1901. They relocated to Dorchester in 1902, residing at 10 Howell Street. Six years later they were living at 71 Fayston Street in Roxbury. They moved to 19 Wolcott Street in Dorchester in 1909. The following year, they purchased 57 McLellan Street in Dorchester, the family home for almost twenty years. The 1910 census recorded that they employed a maid, nineteen-year-old Lena Hazelton, a recent Russian immigrant.

Max graduated from the English High School of Boston. He attended Northeastern College his freshman year, studying Chemical Engineering. By June 1917, he was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On October 2, 1918, he entered the United States Naval Reserve Force, enrolling at the Navy Recruiting Station in Boston. He served in the Naval Unit at MIT until November 11, 1918. He was placed on inactive duty on December 18, 1918, then honorably discharged due to “lack of funds.” In recognition of his service, Max’s name was included on a memorial tablet at Congregation Beth-El on Fowler Avenue, Dorchester, which aimed to “perpetuate the names of her sons who were ready to pay the supreme sacrifice in the World War.” Max graduated from MIT with the class of 1921. After graduation, Max continued living at 57 McLellan Street. He worked in sales for wholesale shoe companies, his profession through the mid-1930s.

On June 9, 1927, Max married Helen O. Miller in Providence, Rhode Island. Helen was a native Rhode Islander, and they settled in the state. They had two children, Audrey and Charles. By 1935, they lived at 129 Adelaide Avenue in Providence. In 1940, the census recorded they rented their home for $45 a month and employed a live-in maid, Mable Mitton of New Hampshire. They moved to 126 Warrington Street, Providence in 1942. Three years later, the Butters relocated to the Boston area, to 221 Chestnut Hill Avenue in Brighton. By 1950, they were living in Newton, Massachusetts, at 58 Royce Road. In the late 1960s, they moved to 55 Audubon Drive in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Max had joined the family business around 1940. That year, he earned $2,000. Initially he was a salesman and metallurgist. By the mid-1960s, he was president of the company. He continued to be listed in Boston directories as the president of the company into the 1980s, though Newton directories listed him as retired by the mid-1970s.

Max died in Boston on September 11, 1992. He was buried in Linwood Memorial Park in Randolph, Massachusetts. Memorial observance was held at his late residence. When Helen died in 1997 she, too, was buried in Linwood Memorial Park.

Sources

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com

Marstall, Chris. “A Neighborhood Named for … New York?,” Boston Globe. 19 April 2012: K12; ProQuest.com

Naturalization Records. National Archives at Boston, Waltham, MA.; Ancestry.com

Family Tree; Ancestry.com

“Harry Butter, 89,” Boston Globe, 21 November 1963: 21; Newspapers.com

“Notice of A Remedial Action Plan,” Boston Globe, 6 December 2003: 92; Newspapers.com

Boston directories, various years; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910, 1920, 1940 U.S. Federal Census; Ancestry.com

The Cauldron, 1917: The Annual of the Co-operative School of Engineering of North Eastern College, Volume One. Boston, MA; Archive.org

World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.

“To Pay Tribute to Sons in the War,” Boston Globe, 28 November 1919: 14; Newspapers.com

“Deceased,” Technology Review, Volume 97, Number 3, April 1994. Cambridge, MA. Association of Alumni and Alumnae of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994; Archive.org

Richardson, Dennett L. Alphabetical Index of the Births, Marriages and Deaths Recorded in Providence, Vol XXII, Part II K-Z Marriages from 1921 to 1930 Inclusive. Providence, RI: The Oxford Press, 1932; Archive.org

Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

City of Newton, Assessed Polls. Various years; Archive.org

Newton directories, various years; Archive.org

State of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Death Index, 1970-2003. Boston, MA, USA: Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Health Services, 2005; Ancestry.com

“Deaths,” Boston Globe, 13 Sept 1992: 52; Newspapers.com

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Robert Towle Burr

Posted on February 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Robert Towle Burr

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Robert Towle Burr was born in Dorchester on April 12, 1896. His parents, Charles Sargent Burr and Annie L. (Towle) were Bostonians with ancestral connections to northern New England; Charles’s mother had been born in Maine, and Annie’s parents were from New Hampshire. Charles and Annie were married in Roxbury in July 1891. They had two other sons: Kenneth born in 1893, and Malcolm in 1901. Charles spent his career with Bowditch and Clapp, a wholesale millinery business, eventually becoming treasurer of the company. The family owned 9 Walton Street in Codman Square, where, in 1900, they employed a live-in servant. 

Robert entered Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1915. A member of the class of 1919, he pledged Theta Delta Chi and was the captain of the hockey team. In the spring of 1917, he enlisted in the American Field Service, a volunteer ambulance service begun in 1915, which worked directly with the French military, evacuating wounded from the front. Volunteers were generally financially secure, college-educated men. They were required to pay their own passage to Europe and purchase a uniform. An advertisement for the Field Service listed basic qualifications: “American Citizenship–Good Health–Clean Record–Ability to drive Automobiles (superficial knowledge of repair work an advantage).”

Robert was issued a passport on May 31, 1917, and sailed from New York on June 9. He served in “Section Sanitaire Unis 68,” primarily made up of New England college men. The largest group came from Amherst College, but there were also men from Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, even Milton Academy. Robert was one of four Bowdoin students. In July 1917, Section 68 began serving on the Western Front; Robert served with the unit for three months.

He then joined the United States Air Service. In October 1917, he returned to the United States for training, sailing from Bordeaux, France, on the SS Rochambeau. He enlisted on December 8, 1917, and trained at Call Field in Wichita Falls, Texas, attaining the rank of Second Lieutenant on August 29, 1918. In October, he was sent to Cadet Aviation, Camp Dick, in Dallas, Texas. He was discharged on December 19, 1918. 

The 1920 census reported Robert living at home and attending school. In 1925, he began a career with the New England Bolt Company of Everett, “manufacturers of wrought and cast iron of every description.” By 1928, he was a treasurer with the company, which was described as a “family business” in his obituary.

On April 26, 1923, Robert married Margery (sometimes spelled Marjorie) Southack, a copywriter, of 30 Moultrie Street, Dorchester. They were married in Dorchester by Reverend Adelbert L. Hudson of the First Parish Church on Meeting House Hill. They initially settled in Arlington, Massachusetts, at 19 Chandler Street. In 1925, they moved to Winchester, the town Robert lived in for the rest of his life, where they purchased 50 Glen Road. Twelve years later, they bought 71 Wildewood Street, about three-quarters of a mile from their previous home. The couple had three children: Malcom, Philip, and Virginia. During World War II, Malcom was a B-17 Flying Fortress bombardier with the 351st Bombardment Group.

By the early 1950s, it appears Robert and his wife were living apart. Articles in the Winchester Star report Robert living at 314 Highland Avenue and Margery living in Boston. They do not appear to have formally divorced; she was named as his wife in his obituary.

Robert moved to 1 Fenwick Road by the late 1950s. At the end of his life he lived at 200 Swanton Street. Robert died suddenly in Winchester on December 19, 1972.

Sources

Birth Record, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com

Family Tree; Ancestry.com

US Federal Census, 1900, 1910, 1920; Ancestry.com

“Honor Bowditch, 50 Years Head of Firm,” Boston Globe, 5 Jan 1932: 21; Newspapers.com

Woodman, Ernest S., Ed. The Directory of Directors in the City of Boston and Vicinity, Boston: The Bankers Service Company, 1911; 444; Books.Google.com

Bowdoin Orient, Brunswick, ME, 5 October 1915; Archive.org

“Pick Dorchester Boy,” Boston Globe, 3 March 1917: 5; Newspapers.com

Selected Passports. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C., 28 May 1917-31 May 1917; Ancestry.com

World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

“Prologue: The First Steps,” “Roster OF VOLUNTEERS OF THE AMERICAN FIELD SERVICE IN FRANCE, 1915-16-17,” “History of The American Field Service in France, Appendices,” & “Roster, SSU 68,” The AFS Story; ourstory.info

“Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957,” Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Year: 1917; Ancestry.com

Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Ancestry.com

“United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940,” St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985, FamilySearch.org

Field Service Bulletin, 20 April 1918, number 41, 21 Rue Raynouard, Paris; Archive.org

Air Service Journal, 26 September 1918; Air Service Journal, 3 October 1918, Books.Google.com

General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, Sesquicentennial Edition. Brunswick, ME, 1950; Archive.org

“Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915,” Massachusetts State Archives; FamilySearch.org

“Real Estate Notes,” Winchester Star (Winchester MA) 4 December 1925: 1; Archive.org

“Deeds, Middlesex County,” Boston Globe, 3 Sept 1937: 39; Newspapers.com

Notice, Winchester Star (Winchester MA), 25 February 1938: 4; Archive.org

World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) for the State of Massachusetts; Records of the Selective Service System; Ancestry.com

“Wins Second Oak Leaf Cluster,” Winchester Star (Winchester MA) 12 January 1945; 2; Archive.org

“Obituaries: Robert T Burr,” Winchester Star, 21 December 1972; 2; Archive.org

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Frank Hastings Burns

Posted on February 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Frank Hastings Burns

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Frank Hastings Burns was born on February 22, 1889, in Damariscotta, Maine, to Helen (Hastings), known as Nellie, and Lewis R. Burns. Both parents were born in Bristol, Maine. They married in Boston on July 3, 1884. At the time of his marriage, Lewis was a mariner.

In 1900, Frank lived in Bristol, Maine, with his paternal grandmother, Betsy Burns, and his uncle Robert, a fish peddler. His parents were in Boston; Nellie lodged at 7 Albion Street, while Lewis worked as a railroad break-man and lived with his brother, a buggy-maker, at 37 Gray Street. Nellie died of variola, or smallpox, on April 22, 1902, in the midst of Boston’s last smallpox epidemic. After a twelve-day illness, she died at the Southampton Street Detention Hospital, the primary hospital in the city treating smallpox patients. Her residence was recorded as 7 Webster Avenue. In June 1902, Frank’s maternal grandfather, Frank G. Hastings, was appointed his guardian. That September, Lewis petitioned the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for guardianship “of Frank H. Burns of Boston … minor.” In 1904, as guardian of Frank’s estate, Lewis sold property in Maine of which Frank was a partial owner.

Frank attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, class of 1911, where he pledged Zeta Psi.

After graduation he worked for the New York Telephone Company in New York City. In June 1917, Frank was living with his father at 35 Colonial Avenue near Codman Square and working for the Boston Advertiser Company of 309 Washington Street, Boston.

Frank enlisted in the Regular Army on December 12, 1917. He served in the 21st Photo Section, Air Service, Military Aeronautics. A Boston Globe article listing recent recruits reported Frank enlisted as a “photographer for Aviation Section.” Air Service Photographic Sections, comprised of an officer and 24 men, developed and interpreted aerial reconnaissance photographs taken by pilots or observers in airplanes or observation balloons. These photographs were used for planning bombardments or attacks, and were often made into composite photographic maps. From his career in advertising, Frank may have known how to create composite photographic images and photo layouts, and perhaps had experience taking and developing photographs.

Frank sailed overseas on October 16, 1918, leaving from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the USS Agamemnon. He was promoted to Sergeant on November 1, 1918. In February 1919, he returned to the United States, departing on the first of the month from Saint-Nazaire, France, sailing on the SS Kroonland, and arriving on February 18. After demobilization at Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts, Frank was discharged on March 21, 1919.

Frank returned to 35 Colonial Avenue, and in 1920 he was an advertising agent for a newspaper. His father continued to work as a break-man for a steam railroad. Also living with them was Frank’s aunt, Nellie M. Fassett, who was a housekeeper for a private family.

On February 9, 1922, Frank married Kate Williams in Cambridge. Originally from Bangor, Maine, Kate was living in Cambridge and working as a saleswoman. They were married by Reverend Raymond Calkins of the Congregationalist First Church in Cambridge. The couple had two daughters, Betsy and Margaret.

Frank and Kate initially lived at 376 Riverway in Boston. In 1928, Frank was hired by the B.C. Forbes Publishing Company of 120 Fifth Avenue, New York City, publishers of Forbes magazine. Starting out as an advertising representative, Frank spent the rest of his career with the company, rising to Vice-President and Director of Advertising of Public Relations in 1951. In 1940, he made $5,000 a year.

After Frank took the job with B.C. Forbes, he and his family moved to Mount Vernon, in Westchester County, New York. By 1930, they lived on Beechtree Lane in the Bronxville section of Eastchester, New York, their home for twenty years. On August 31, 1950, Kate died at age 56.

In the 1950s, his daughters attended Colby College and Frank was active with the Colby College Parents Association. Frank was also a member of the State of Maine Society of New York, serving as the organization’s vice-president. By the early 1960s, Frank was splitting his time between Bronxville and Warren, Maine. He moved fulltime to Warren by the mid-1960s. At the end of his life he was a resident of Americana Healthcare Center in Lafayette, Indiana, near to his daughter Margaret, who lived in West Lafayette.

In the spring of 1984, Frank fractured his hip. During his recovery at Saint Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center in Lafayette, Indiana, Frank died of a heart attack on April 9, 1984, at age 95. He was cremated at the West Haven Memorial Park Crematory in Lafayette and buried in the Bristol Mills Cemetery in Bristol, Maine.

Sources

Lewis Burns and Nellie Hastings marriage record, Massachusetts, Marriage Records 1840-1915, New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915; Ancestry.com

U.S. Federal Census, 1900, 1920, 1930, 1940; Ancestry.com 

Nellie Hastings Burns death record; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com

Maine County, District and Probate Courts, Probate Place: Lincoln, Maine; Ancestry.com

General Catalogue of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College, 1912; Ancestry.com

Zeta Psi Fraternity Pocket Directory, 1912; Ancestry.com

World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.

“Shipload of T-N-T, Potsdamn Via Belgium,” Boston Globe, 13 December 1917: 9; Newpapers.com

“United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940:” FamilySearch.org

Sweetser, Arthur. The American Air Service: A Record of Its Problems, Its Difficulties, Its Failures, and Its Final Achievements. NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1919; Archive.org

Lists of Outgoing & Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com

“Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915,” FamilySearch.org

The Bowdoin Alumnus, November 1928, Vol 2 No 1; DigitalCommons.Bowdoin.edu

“Announce Rentals,” Bronxville Review, 26 April 1930: 20; HRVH.org

Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

“Obituary,” New York Times, 2 Sept 1950: 12; ProQuest.com

“Donald Winship Weds Margaret Owen Burns,” New York Times, 27 May 1962: 87; ProQuest.com

“Miss Betsy Burns. Planning Marriage,” New York Times, 27 October 1964: 45; ProQuest.com

Masthead; Forbes Magazine, 1 April 1951; Books.Google.com

The Pine Cone; A Panorama of Maine. Spring 1952. Portland, ME: The State of Maine Publicity Bureau; digitalmaine.com

Indiana State Board of Health. Death Certificates, 1900–2011. Microfilm. Indiana Archives and Records Administration, Indianapolis, Indiana; Ancestry.com

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Joseph Douglas Bruce

Posted on February 1, 2021 by earltaylor

Joseph Douglas Bruce

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Joseph Douglas Bruce was born on December 30, 1899, at 215 Norfolk Street in Dorchester. He was the oldest son of Joseph L. and Mary H. (Blaisedell) Bruce. Joseph, Sr. was from Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia, and immigrated to the United States in the early 1880s. Mary was born in Concord, New Hampshire, and was a school teacher before her marriage. Mary and Joseph, Sr. were married in Brockton in 1897. They had four other children: Norma born c. 1898, William Homer in 1901, Allen Emerson in 1904, and Donald Dean in 1909.

Joseph, Sr. worked in the Boston meat processing industry. In the early 20th century, he was a foreman at a canning factory at 14 Clinton Street. By 1904, he was a manager at Sturtevant & Haley Beef and Supply of 34 Blackstone Street. The 1910 census recorded his occupation as a traffic manager at the National Packing Company, a meat processing conglomerate.

The Bruces lived at 210 Norfolk Street in 1900, according to the census. By 1901, the Boston directory listed them at 215 Norfolk Street. They were residing at 8 Thetford Street three years later. In 1909, they lived at 69 Milton Street. They moved to 19 Edwin Street in 1913. That year, Joseph graduated from the Henry L. Pierce School on Washington Street in Codman Square. 

On his notecard for Joseph Douglas Bruce, Dr. Perkins noted that in 1915 Joseph joined the 11th Company Coast Artillery; this was probably the 11th Company of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia Coast Artillery Corps (CAC), one of four CAC companies based at Fort Andrews on Peddock’s Island in Boston Harbor. It appears Joseph might have added a few years to his age when he enlisted, as his military records give his birth year as 1896. Dr. Perkins noted that Joseph “mobilized with National Guard,” most likely on July 25, 1917, the enlistment date on his military records. According to Dr. Perkins’s notes, at Fort Andrews Joseph “volunteered for overseas service in ammunition train.” Joseph served as a Wagoner in Company B, in the 101st Ammunition Train, part of the 26th Division, or Yankee Division. The 101st Ammunition Train was comprised of 713 officers and enlisted men from the 1st Vermont National Guard, as well as 240 from the Massachusetts Coast Artillery. In late August, the 101st Ammunition Train was sent to Camp Bartlett in Westfield, Massachusetts, for training.

On October 3, 1917, Joseph sailed overseas with the 101st Ammunition Train, departing from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the RMS Aurania, and arriving in Liverpool on October 17. After crossing the English Channel on the cattle boat Southwestern Miller, Joseph arrived in Le Havre, France, on October 22. The 101st Ammunition Train was sent to Camp Coëtquidan in Morbihan, Brittany, France. There, Company B was assigned a fleet of 20 motor cars to maintain while the vehicles were being used to transport supplies to the camp. It was a rainy, muddy, and raw winter and the men did not have enough cold weather gear. “Motor truck drivers were obliged to wear stockings on their hands while driving in lieu of gloves, which were not obtainable” remembered one history of the unit.

In February, they moved to the Chemin des Dames sector, where they worked alongside French troops. In late March, they were assigned to the Toul sector. They participated in the Second Battle of the Marne in July, Battle of Saint-Mihiel in mid-September, and the Meuse-Argonne offensive beginning in late September. The 101st Ammunition Train manned ammunition dumps and transported artillery and ammunition.

After the Armistice, the 101st Ammunition Train was sent to Rest Area #8, where they were visited by President Wilson on Christmas. In January 1919, they received orders to make their way to their port of debarkation, Brest, France. They sailed for the United States in April, returning on the SS Winifredian, which left Brest on April 6, 1919, and arrived in Boston on April 18. Joseph was demobilized at Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts and discharged on April 24 or 29, 1919.  

In the early 1920s, Joseph appeared in the Boston directory living at 18 Edwin Street and working as an advertising solicitor. He reentered the military in the mid-1920s, serving in the Coast Artillery Corps. On January 1, 1924, he sailed from San Francisco on the USAT Thomas, destined for Fort Mills in the Philippines. He returned to the continental United States in early 1926 on the USAT Cambrai. By that time, he had attained a rank of Sergeant. In the late 1920s, Joseph was again living with his parents at 18 Edwin Street. The Boston directory listed him as salesman; the 1930 census reported his occupation as managing the Radio Department of a newspaper.

In 1930, Joseph married Frances Anderson, a private secretary from West Roxbury. She was the daughter of a Boston police officer who had immigrated from Prince Edward Island. Joseph and Frances had two children: John Douglas born in 1932, and Brenda, in 1938.

The couple initially lived at 89 Redlands Road in West Roxbury. In 1932, they moved to Portland, Maine. By 1934, they had returned to West Roxbury, living first at 200 Manthorne Road, and then, by 1938, at 586 Weld Street. By 1943, they moved to Newton Lower Falls, where they lived at 28 Lafayette Road, their home for many years. In Newton, Joseph was active with the Hamilton School PTA, serving on the school building committee.

In the mid-1930s, Joseph appeared in the Boston directory connected with Racheotes & Bruce Co., later the Allston Liquor Company, a liquor store at 1219 Commonwealth Avenue in Allston. The business, started by Peter Racheotes in 1917, had recently resumed operations after the end of Prohibition in 1933. Joseph was listed in the Boston directory as the president of the company in the late 1940s through the early 1960s. Joseph was also a contractor and engineer with the Harvey-Douglas Company of Cambridge and Brockton, a weatherizing and roofing business.

At the end of his life, Joseph and Frances lived at 1885 Shore Drive South in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. Joseph died on February 18, 1980 in Pinellas County, Florida.

Sources

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com

Family Tree; Ancestry.com

Boston and Newton directories, various years; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910, 1930, 1940 US Federal Census; Ancestry.com

“Boston Public School Graduates Number 8769,” Boston Globe, 19 June 1913: 6; Newspapers.com

“United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940,” Military Service, NARA microfilm publication, St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985; FamilySearch.org

Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Ancestry.com

Lists of Outgoing Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985 The National Archives at College Park, MD.; Ancestry.com

Department of Public Health, Registry of Vital Records and Statistics. Massachusetts Vital Records Index to Marriages [1916–1970], Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA. Ancestry.com

“Hamilton School P.T.A. Hears Mrs. Mitchell,” Newton Graphic, 24 January 1916: 1; Archive.org

Hagan, Stephen. “Community Profile: From Rose Kennedy to Ellis Island, He’s Seen It All,” Allston Brighton TAB, 4-10 February 1997; Brighton Allston Historical Society, BAHistory.org

Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

State of Florida. Florida Death Index, 1877-1998. Florida: Florida Department of Health, Office of Vital Records, 1998. Ancestry.com

Funeral Notices, Tampa Bay Times (St Petersburg FL) 21 Feb 1980: 41; Newspapers.com

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