Dorchester Illustration no. 2494 Capt. Peter Strickland

Posted on January 22, 2021 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2494   Capt. Peter Strickland

Image: 102 Neponset Avenue, home of Capt. Peter Strickland, now demolished.

This blog post came to our attention:

Capt. Peter Strickland, 1837-1921. Philatelic Covers of the 1st U.S. Consul to Senegal to Mark the Centennial.

“For a quarter of a century–from 1880 to 1905–shipmaster Peter Strickland lived on Goree Island in Senegal while toiling in the merchant marine.  He brought leaf tobacco from Kentucky and Tennessee to West Africa, and on return trips, filled the cargo bay of schooners with goat hides, peanuts and palm kernels.  … The family moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts, to be near the busy port of Boston.”

check out the announcement:

Capt. Peter Strickland 1837–1921 Philatelic Covers of the 1st U.S. Consul to Senegal To Mark the Centennial
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Joseph James Adduci

Posted on January 21, 2021 by earltaylor

Joseph James Adduci

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Joseph James Adduci was born at 15 Genesee Street in Boston’s South End on May 7, 1898, to John Battista and Christina Maria Concetta (Martuscelli) Adduci. John, a barber, and Christina were both originally from Calabria, Italy. John immigrated to the United States in the 1880s and Christina in the 1890s; they were married in Boston in 1893. They had four other children: Ann born in 1895, Fortuna in 1896, Theresa Lucy in 1900, and Frank in 1901.

In 1900, the Adducis were living at 26 Genesee Street (once part of the New York Streets neighborhood, today it is the location of the Ink Block development). Christina’s father Petro Martuscelli, a tailor, lived with them. By 1910, they had moved to Dorchester, to 84 Houghton Street. Joseph attended school through the seventh grade, according to the 1940 census.

Joseph enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force at the Boston Navy Yard on April 14, 1917. He gave as his address 28 North Monroe Terrace in Dorchester. He was called to duty on April 27, and was initially stationed at Commonwealth Pier in Boston. On July 5, he was assigned to the Enrolling Office in Boston. On September 30, he was transferred to Camp Burrage on Bumpkin Island in Boston Harbor where the Navy had a training camp. On January 1, 1918, he was stationed on the USS Aztec, where he remained until the Armistice on November 11, 1918. Joseph served as a seaman for 352 days, then as a quartermaster 3rd class for 224 days. On January 13, 1919, on the Aztec, Joseph was placed on inactive duty. He was honorably discharged on April 13, 1921.

On November 27, 1919, Joseph married Mary Annuziata Pontuso at Saint Peter’s Church on Bowdoin Street in Dorchester. Mary was a clerk, living at 42 Richfield Street. They had two sons: Joseph James, Jr., born in 1920, and George born in 1925. In 1920, they lived with Christina at 84 Houghton Street. Joseph worked in a shipyard; Mary was a file clerk at an automobile company. Also living in the house were Lucy, a department store cashier, and Frank, also working in a shipyard. In the mid-1920s, Joseph, Mary, and their sons lived at 385 Adams Street.

By 1922, Joseph was working as an electrotyper. He would work in the printing industry for almost 30 years. In 1942, he reported that his employer was the Riverside Press in Cambridge; in 1940, the census recorded he earned $1,929 a year.

 At some point in the late 1920s or 1930s, it appears Joseph and Mary’s relationship ended. In the 1930s, Mary began styling herself in the Boston directory as Mrs. Mary Adduci and often had her own listing. Some years Joseph and Mary were listed at separate addresses, while in others they appeared together. It is unclear if Joseph at times reconciled with Mary and returned to live with his family, or if he was simply presented as living with them to avoid social embarrassment. In 1927, the Boston directory listed Joseph as removed to Cambridge; Mary was still listed at 310 Adams Street. Joseph and Mary appeared in the 1930 Cambridge directory living at 13 Howard Street, Cambridge. The 1930 census recorded Joseph, Mary, and their sons, at 385 Adams Street. In 1932, Joseph was living at 368 Centre Street in Dorchester. In the mid-1930s, Mary and their sons lived in Hanson, Massachusetts, while Joseph was in Cambridge at 4 Alpine Street. The 1937 Cambridge directory listed Joseph and Mary at 4 Alpine. According to the 1940 census, Joseph lived there with Margaret T. (Callahan) Murray, known as Marge, who worked in the garment industry as a stitcher of ladies clothes. Mary, meanwhile, appeared on the census at 20 Ripley Road in Dorchester. In 1942, on his Second World War draft registration, Joseph gave his address as 302 Commonwealth Avenue, the home of his brother and sister-in-law, Frank and Sally Adduci. Joseph may have been the Joseph J. Adduci living at 96 Linden Street in Allston in the mid-1940s.

On January 3, 1950, Joseph and Marge married in Carson City, Nevada. They settled in Carson City, where they lived at 1702 North Moody Street. Joseph worked in the blueprint room of the Nevada Highway department. He was very active with the American Legion.

On May 22, 1955, while at the American Legion Conference in Gardnerville, Nevada, Joseph collapsed, dying of a heart attack. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, he had “just returned from the rostrum … to open the convention. Before a local physician could be summoned or the Carson ambulance arrived with first aid, Mr. Adduci had expired.” A requiem mass was celebrated for him at Saint Thomas Catholic Church in Carson City. He was buried in Saint Michael Cemetery on Canterbury Street in Boston.

Sources

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

Family Trees; FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com

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

“Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1920,” database citing Marriage, Boston, Suffolk, MA, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org

Boston and Cambridge, MA, and Reno, NV directories, various years; Ancestry.com

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

Carson City Marriage Records. Carson City Recorder’s Office, Carson City, NV; Ancestry.com

“Legion Leader Dies Suddenly,” Reno Gazette- Journal (Reno, NV), 23 May 1955: 11; Newspapers.com

Joseph James Adduci, FindAGrave.com

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John Charles Adams

Posted on January 21, 2021 by earltaylor

John Charles Adams

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

John Charles Adams, known as Jack, was born on September 27, 1890 or 1891, in Boston. His parents were John C. and Mary (Hays) Adams, according to his death certificate. Not much is known about Jack’s childhood. He attended two years of high school, according to the 1940 census.

On November 1, 1913, Jack enlisted in the Army at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At that time, he stated his residence was Dorchester. He initially served as a private in Company K, 3rd Battalion Engineers. On December 24, 1915, he was transferred to the 3rd Battalion’s Company L. He was transferred again on June 24, 1916, this time to Company H, 2nd Battalion Engineers. He joined Company C, 8th Engineers on April 4, 1918. When his term of service expired on June 9, 1919, he re-enlisted. In December 1919, he was among the candidates to be sent to a horticultural and agricultural school at Fort Clark, near Bracketville, Texas. He was discharged in June 1920 at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. At that time, he was a bugler.

Around the time of his discharge from the Army, Jack married Mable Alice Long, who had been born in Yoakum, Texas. According to the 1930 census, Jack married at age 22 and Mable at 16. They had six children: Wesley born in 1920, John in 1923, Dewey in 1925, Mary in 1927, Patrick in 1931, and James born after 1940.

The Adams family appear to have moved between El Paso and the Los Angeles, California, area somewhat regularly. In 1923, they were living in Bell, California, and Jack was a plumber. In 1927, they were back in El Paso, and Jack was a truck driver. By the late 1920s, they had returned to California, living at 711 East 109 Place in Los Angeles, which they rented for $15 a month. The 1930 census recorded that they had a housekeeper, Mollie Rodgers, a 58-year-old woman from Arkansas. Jack worked as a clerk for a motor company. The next year, in April 1931, a letter written by a Jack Adams appeared in the aid column of the Los Angeles Evening Post; the writer’s contact address was 707 East 110th Street, just one block from the home on 109th Place. The letter read, “I have a wife and five children, and am compelled to ask someone’s aid in securing employment. Have local experience as stock clerk, truck driver, plumber’s helper and stockman. Will be grateful for anything.” Four months later, in August, Jack entered the Sawtelle Veterans home, the Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers located in Sawtelle, California (today the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center), to receive treatment for chronic bronchitis and an old spinal injury. By 1937, Jack was living in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles and working for the city’s Department of Playgrounds; three years later, on the 1940 census, it was reported that he earned $1,500 a year as a caretaker for L.A. Playground and Recreation. By 1940, Jack and his family had returned to their former neighborhood inLos Angeles, living at 139 East 112th Street, along with two lodgers: James Ward and Helen Stark. The family had moved to Glendale, California, by 1942, and Jack worked forthe United States Engineering Department at 4550 Brazil Street in Los Angeles. Jack and Mable moved back to El Paso at the end of the decade and Jack was a driver for the Railway Express Company.

Jack died of lung cancer on July 31, 1951, at Saint Joseph’s Sanatorium in El Paso. A service was held for him by Bishop Willard Whipple. He was buried with full military honors in the Fort Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso.

Sources

Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas Death Certificates, 1903–1982. Austin, TX; 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.

Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917 – 9/16/1940, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 – 2007. National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; FamilySearch.org

National Cemetery Administration. Nationwide Gravesite Locator; Ancestry.com

“Farm School for Men at Ft. Bliss is Now Planned,” El Paso Times, 2 December 1919: 10; Newspapers.com

El Paso, TX and Los Angeles, CA directories, various years; Ancestry.com

1930, 1940 US Federal Census; Ancestry.com

“Aid Column,” Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, 14 April 1931: 8; Newspapers.com

Historical Register of National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938 (National Archives Microfilm Publication); Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Ancestry.com

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

“Comings and Goings of El Paso People,” El Paso Times, 23 April 1946: 6; Newspapers.com

“Jack C. Adams,” El Paso Times, 2 August 1951: 19; Newspapers.com

John C. Adams; FindAGrave.com

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Frederick Wilbur Adams, Harold Bertram Adams and John Quincy Adams

Posted on January 21, 2021 by earltaylor

Frederick Wilbur Adams, Harold Bertram Adams and John Quincy Adams

World War I Veterans

By Camille Arbogast

The three Adams brothers were all born in Dorchester at 15 Vinson Street: Frederick Wilbur, known as Fred, on February 12, 1894, Harold Bertram on January 27, 1896, and John Quincy on March 26, 1900. Their parents, Wilbur Fiske and Hattie Albert (Phipps) Adams, were originally from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, where they had married in 1888. They also had two daughters: Maude Augusta born in 1890 and Marion Louise born in 1893. Maude died of whooping cough in 1897.

Wilbur attended a commercial college, graduating in 1884. At the time of his marriage, he was a machinist. In the 1890s, he had his own business, manufacturing “door checks and springs.” By 1900, he was a superintendent with the W. A. Murfeldt Company, a contracting firm. In addition, Wilbur was a local Republican politician, serving on the Boston Common Council in the late 1890s, as an alderman representing Ward 20 at the turn of the century, and as a representative in the state Congress in 1901. He was also an active member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.

In 1900, at 15 Vinson Street, the Adams family employed a live-in servant, Bertha Dorley, a 28-year-old recent Canadian immigrant. By 1902, they had moved to 31 Vinson Street. At these homes, Hattie’s mother, Emma Phipps, lived with the family, as did Hattie’s sister, Gertrude. Fred, Harold, and John all attended the Oliver Wendell Holmes school at 40 School Street in Dorchester; Fred graduated in 1909, Harold in 1911, and John in 1913. Fred was likely the Frederick W. Adams who graduated from Mechanic Arts High School in 1913 and was an athlete at the school.

In 1913, Wilbur was listed in the Boston directory as the president of the Dorchester Theatre Company, Incorporated, of 1524 Dorchester Avenue. The next year, he moved to Oakland, California, for his health. Wilbur was back in Dorchester by 1917, when he appeared in the Boston directory as an estimator living at 19 Paisley Park. Fred was employed as a clerk. Harold worked for the Passenger Traffic Railroad Company, based out of Oakland, California, where he lived at the Menlo Hotel. John was still in school, attending English High.

Fred enlisted in the First Engineers, Massachusetts National Guard, on May 7, 1917. Reporting for duty on July 15, he mustered as a private on August 4 and was assigned to Company 3. In August 1917, the unit was reorganized as Company E, 101st Engineers of the 26th Division, or the Yankee Division. Harold returned to Boston and enlisted Company D, First Engineers, Massachusetts National Guard, on August 1, 1917, reporting for duty that day, and mustering as private on August 4. Later that month, his unit was reorganized as Company D, 101st Engineers of the 26th Division, or Yankee Division. In August, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company presented Company D with a mascot: a goat, the ancestor of which Wilbur had smuggled into the country from Bermuda in 1911. Wilbur personally presented an inscribed collar to be worn by the goat. On September 15, 1917, Fred was transferred to Harold’s unit. In D company, Fred joined not only his brother but also their brother-in-law, Cable N. Salter, as well as relations Ray Adams and George A. Wood.

In late September, the company marched down Huntington Avenue on their way out of Boston en route to France. They sailed on September 26, 1917, on the RMS Andania, departing from New York City. Arriving in France on October 19, they went to Rolampont where, according to My Company, the memoir written by the company’s captain Carroll J. Swan, they built “barracks, stables, refectories (mess halls), YMCA huts, and shower baths.” Next they were sent to Bettaincourt for “barrack construction,” then to Fréville for additional training: “gas-mask drills, bayonet work, ‘over the top’ problems, and rifle practice.” In early February, they moved to the front in the Chemin des Dames sector, where they worked with French troops on building projects, including a sixty-centimeter gauge railroad. In early April, they were in the Toul sector, where their work included constructing “machine gun emplacements, barbed-wire entanglements, [and] camouflage.” Some men also accompanied infantry troops on raids; their job was to blow up barbed wire, enemy trenches, and, once they reached enemy-held territory, important infrastructure, such as bridges. They were near Chateau Thierry in July, based in Bois de Gros Jean. For living quarters “each man dug himself a little hole in the ground, three or four feet deep, and three or four feet wide. Then he covered it over with brush.” Their first job was to bury the dead from the Battle of Belleau Wood. They also were to “lay out and build a system of trenches and wire in front of them, and later machine-gun positions.”

On July 17, 1918, Fred was slightly wounded in action. This was possibly the incident described by Captain Carroll J. Swan in My Company. While a group was out working for the night, “a shell we had not heard landed squarely in us. We shall never forget that terrible red light, nearly blinding us, and the terrific roar ringing in our ears for days. … There on the ground were seven or eight of my boys.” One man was dead, the rest wounded. “Fred Adams,” a former football player (incorrectly remembered as being from Newton), “had shattered his leg. He said: — ‘Captain, don’t bother about me; mine’s only slight. Take Jimmy Mullen, he’s hit bad. I just feel as if some football feller had kicked me in the shin, and I’ll get that feller yet.’”

A few days later, during the Aisne-Marne offensive, some platoons of the company fought alongside infantry regiments. They were also tasked with clearing towns recently won from the Germans, filling shell holes in roads so the Artillery could pass through, as well as burying the dead. Company D, 101st Engineers participated in the Saint Mihiel offensive September 12 through 16, 1918; were in the Troyon sector September 17 through October 8, 1918, and were part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, October 18 through November 11, 1918. Fred and Harold returned to the United States on the USS Mount Vernon, leaving Brest, France, on March 27, 1919, and arriving in Boston on April 4. They were both discharged on April 28, 1919.

John graduated from English High School in June 1918. When he registered for the draft that September, Wilbur was the registrar. John entered Norwich Military College (today Norwich University) in Northfield, Vermont, with the class of 1922. He was inducted into the Army on October 18, 1918, serving in the Student Army Training Corps at Norwich. He was discharged on December 15, 1918, and left Norwich not long after. In 1926, he wrote to the Norwich alumni publication, “While I spent a comparatively short time at Norwich, I have the highest regard for everything connected with it and if I am still living in this section of the country by the time my eight-months-old son grows up, will send him to Norwich university and see that he stays there four years.”

By 1920, the three Adams brothers had returned to 19 Paisley Park; Fred was an assembler at the Hood Rubber Company of Watertown, Massachusetts, Harold was a rigger at a shipyard, and John was a clerk at a peanut product manufacturer. In 1921, the Boston directory listed Fred as a student. John was employed as an advertising manager at the American Mutual Liability Insurance Company by 1922, where he worked for the rest of his career. The 1922 Boston directory listed Harold as a salesman and Fred a clerk at the National Shawmut Bank.

John married Helen Morton Leahy on August 27, 1922. Born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, at the time of her marriage Helen lived at 11 Alpha Road in Dorchester and worked as a billing clerk. John and Helen were married at 4 Rosedale Street by David L. Martin, Minister of the Gospel. They had two children: John Quincy, Jr., and Joan. In 1930, the family was living at 27 Springfield Street in Watertown. In 1933, they moved to Belmont, Massachusetts, living at 112 Oakley Road in 1940. That year, John earned $3,500.

In 1957, they relocated to Peabody, Massachusetts. John retired in 1965 after 43 years with the American Mutual Liability Insurance Company.

Fred married Marion E. Hoyt in Boston on April 17, 1923. Born in Claremont, New Hampshire, Marion was a school teacher. Fred and Marion wed at her home in Dorchester, 95 Greenwood Street. The ceremony was conducted by Reverend Clarence E. Hellens of the Harvard Congregational Church. Harold served as best man and John as an usher. After the wedding, the couple departed on a honeymoon trip to New York, Atlantic City, and Washington, D.C. Fred and Marion would have three children: Barbara and twins Priscilla and Marilla. After their marriage, they lived at 292 Park Street in Dorchester. By 1926, they had moved to North Quincy, residing at 270 Billings Street. In 1929, they were living at 48 Prospect Street. Fred was a laundry salesman, according to the 1930 census. In 1936, he was appointed an inspector in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts motor vehicle division. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Fred’s address was sometimes given as 10 Newhall Street and at others as 74 Walker Street, homes which were next door to each other in North Quincy.

Harold remained living at 19 Paisley Park though the mid-1920s. On October 13, 1928, he married Esther Francis Kelm in Manhattan, New York. The marriage appears not to have lasted long; in 1930, Harold was living back in Dorchester at 35 Tonawanda Street with his widowed mother, Wilbur having died the previous November. Later, the 1940 census recorded that Harold was divorced. In the early 1930s, the Boston directory listed Harold as a salesman. Hattie died in 1936.

By 1938, Harold had moved to Quincy. The Quincy directory listed him as a salesman in 1938 and 1939 and a watchman at Quincy City Hospital in 1940. Like Fred, Harold’s address was sometimes given as 10 Newhall Street and at others as 74 Walker Street. The 1940 census recorded Harold living with Fred and his family at 74 Walker Street in Quincy, which they rented for $28 a month. Harold was earning $2,600 a year working as a clerk for a meat packing company; in 1942 he reported on his World War II draft registration that his employer was Proctor and Gamble on Washington Street in Quincy. In 1951, Harold was listed in the Quincy directory living at 203 Atlantic Street, while Fred and his family were still at 10 Newhall Street. Harold remained living at 203 Atlantic Street for about 15 years. In the 1960s, the Boston directory listed him as a watchman and an office worker at the First Church of Christ, Scientist. According to the Quincy directory, he retired by 1965.

Fred had moved to 48 Grandview Avenue in the Wollaston section of Quincy by 1955. He was still employed as an inspector in 1960, according to the Quincy directory. Fred died on August 22, 1962.

John, Helen, and Harold moved to Boynton Beach, in Palm Beach County, Florida, in the late 1960s, where they lived in the same condominium community, 770 Horizons East. John was a local historian, researching the history of Boynton Beach and serving on the city’s Bicentennial committee. Harold died on November 8, 1980, in Palm Beach. A service was held for him in Dorchester. John died on July 21, 1981, at the Boynton Beach Bethesda Hospital in Palm Beach, Florida, after a long illness. A service was held for him in Boynton Beach. Harold and John were buried alongside Fred in the family plot in Dorchester’s Cedar Grove Cemetery.

Sources

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

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

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

Stanford Genealogy Comprising the Descendants of Abner Stanford; Ancestry.com

Family Tree; Ancestry.com

“Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924,” database, citing Boston, Massachusetts, v 474 p 143, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org

Boston and Quincy, Massachusetts, directories; various years; Ancestry.com

“New Board of Aldermen,” Boston Globe, 14 Dec 1898: 5; Newspapers.com

“Wilbur F. Adams to Run,” Boston Globe, 17 October 1903: 2; Newspapers.com

1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 US Federal Censuses; Ancestry.com

“6028 Graduates in Boston Elementary Schools,” Boston Globe, 24 June 1909:4; Newspapers.com

“Increase in High, But Decrease in Grammar Graduates,” Boston Globe, 22 June 1911: 15; Newspapers.com

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

“Diplomas to 197 at Mechanic Arts,” Boston Globe, 20 June 1913: 16; Newspapers.com

“Seven Hundred Will Compete.” Boston Globe, 10 March 1913: 4; Newspapers.com

“Gossip of the Ancients,” Boston Globe, 1 March 1914: 38; Newspapers.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.

“Jake, A Goat with A History, A Gift to Co D, 1st Engineer Regiment,” Boston Globe, 18 August 1917: 10; Newspapers.com

Swan, Carroll J. My Company. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918; HathiTrust.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

“Boston High School Graduates,” Boston Globe, 28 June 1918: 3; Newspapers.com

The War Whoop 1920, Norwich University, 1919:106; Archives.Norwich.edu

“From the Mail Bag,” Norwich University Record, Volume XVII, Issue 20, 1926-3-27. Northfield, VT: Norwich University:246 Archives.Norwich.edu

“Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915,” database, citing Dorchester and Boston, Suffolk, MA, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org

“Marion Hoyt Bride of Frederick Adams,” Boston Globe, 18 April 1923: 24; Newspapers.com

“Goodwin Given 15 Examiners,” Boston Globe, 28 August 1936: 28; Newspapers.com

“New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940,” database, citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, NY, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FamilySearch.org

“Deaths,” Boston Globe, 18 Nov 1929: 21 Newspapers.com

“Deaths,” Boston Globe, 3 Feb 1936: 12 Newspapers.com

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

Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917 – 9/16/1940, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 – 2007. National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; FamilySearch.org

Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007; Ancestry.com

“Harold B. Adams,” Palm Beach Post, 9 Nov 1980:63; Newspapers.com

“John Quincy Adams,” Boston Globe, 24 July 1981; 26 Newspapers.com

“John Q. Adams, historian, descended from presidents,” Miami Herald, 24 July 1981: 28 Marion Elizabeth Hoyt Adams

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Charles Robert Acorn

Posted on January 21, 2021 by earltaylor

Charles Robert Acorn

World War I Veteran

By Camille Arbogast

Charles Robert Acorn was born on May 23, 1895, at 116 Webster Street in East Boston to Charles E. and Sarah (White) Acorn. Charles, Sr., was born in Boston. Sarah was born in England and immigrated to the United States in the late 1870s. Charles and Sarah were married in Chelsea in 1887. They had three other children: Claire born in 1888, Beatrice in 1889, and Ronald in 1906. Beatrice died at one month old of cholera infantum.

Charles, Sr., was a mariner. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, he was a steamboat pilot and a member of Harbor No.4, American Brotherhood of Steamboat Pilots. In 1896, he sold his small harbor towboat Cadet. By 1905, he was serving as the mate of the Relief, lightship No. 58 in the lighthouse service, earning $800 a year. That December, the ship sank 18 miles west of Nantucket. In his attempt to save the ship, Charles, Sr., “repeatedly performed an act of heroism …. When the suction of the pumps was impaired and the water put out the fires, he repeatedly dove under the water in the hold and cleared away the coal which choked the hand pumps. He was struck on the head by floating planks was almost drowned, while his fingers were fearfully torn, but he declined to turn the task over to others.” He survived, but, like all the men on the ship, when the vessel sank he was left unemployed until he could be assigned to another lightship. He was still in the lighthouse service in 1908, but appears to have changed jobs not long after, as the 1910 census reported he was the captain of a tramp steamer. By 1920, he was a mariner with the United States Service and a member of the North Sea Mine Force Association.

By 1898, the Acorns had moved around the corner from Charles’s birthplace to 33 Cottage Street. The next year they lived at 9 Bennington Street in East Boston. They had relocated to Dorchester by 1902, residing at 6 Shafter Street, where they remained for fifteen years. The 1910 census reported that Claire and her husband of three years, Saxon Dale Williams, were part of the household. Saxon was a professional bike racer. Thought by his fans to be “one of the fastest riders who ever straddled a wheel,” he held multiple world records. Saxon had been married before, having wed in Utah in 1904 and divorced by 1906.

Charles graduated from the Oliver Wendell Holmes School on School Street in Dorchester in 1909. He also attended four years of high school, according to the 1940 census. Employed by 1916, Charles spent his career working at newspapers, primarily as a linotype operator. A hot metal typesetting system, the linotype machine cast entire lines of metal type. Charles typed text on a keyboard and the text would be cast from molten metal. These lines of text would then be set into the press for printing.  Invented in the late 19th century, linotype was much faster than the previous method of laying out type letter by letter. In June 1917, Charles reported he was a proofreader for the Boston Financial News of 84 State Street.

Charles was inducted into the Army on July 15, 1918. He entered the service in Providence, Rhode Island, and served in the Training Detachment at Brown University. That summer, Brown University hosted a “vocational contingent of320 mechanics” who, during the summer of 1918, trained “at pattern and machine shops at Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design. The mechanics slept on government cots in the Lyman Gymnasium, ate at the union, and worked six hours a day in the machine shops… After two months of instruction, the men were ready for service as carpenters, machinists, wireless telegraphers, or automobile mechanics.” It is probable that Charles was part of this training program.

On September 12, 1918, he was transferred to the 2nd Ordnance Supply Company, Depot Brigade, at the Ordnance Operations, Maintenance & Repair Schools at the Raritan Arsenal in Metuchen, New Jersey. At the school, students could study general skills needed for military service such as blacksmithing, welding, woodworking, auto and tractor repair. There were also studies in specialized ordnance-focused topics like explosives, artillery repair, and “small arms and machine guns.” According to his service record, he remained with this organization until his discharge on December 17, 1918.

After the war, Charles returned to live with his family. The Acorns had moved a few blocks to 44 West Tremlett Street in 1917. After the war, Charles lived there, resuming his career as a linotyper. He  worked for the Boston Herald-Traveler, his employer for the rest of his life. Charles’s siblings were also living in the family home. Claire was working as a collector for the Boston Elevated Railroad. It appears that her relationship with Saxon had ended. In June 1920, Saxon remarried in Buffalo, New York. He eventually died “on the wheel,” when he collapsed on a bike track in Los Angeles in 1934.

On June 27, 1922, Charles married Florence Mildred Jones in Dorchester. Born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, in 1922, Florence lived at 56 Thetford Street and worked as a gold cutter. Charles and Florence were married by Reverend Arthur W. Shaw of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, 73 Columbia Road, Dorchester. Their son Robert Ivan was born in 1925.

The couple initially lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at 38 Royal Avenue in the Huron Village neighborhood. By 1927, they had moved to Waltham, Massachusetts, where they lived at 21 Marlborough Road.  They moved a short distance to 4 Pearl Street in the Waverly neighborhood of Belmont, Massachusetts, in 1929. By 1932, they had moved a few blocks to 15 Jonathan Street, Belmont.

In 1928, Charles was a founding board member and the first treasurer of the Boston Typographical Union’s credit union, which was headquartered at 53 Hanover Street. He was also active in the Typographical Union. In September 1931, he sang at the union’s annual convention held at the Hotel Bradford in Boston. The Boston Globe coverage of the convention reported, “One of the entertainment features to be furnished by Local 13 is the ‘Typo’ Glee Club, headed by Charles Acorn, which is working hard to be ready to greet visitors from each State in the Union and from Canada with favorite songs of their States.”

Florence died in July 1932. After her death, Charles and his son moved in with his sister at 31 Wollaston Avenue in Quincy. Claire had married two more times: first, in 1927, to Joseph Fawcett, a mariner 27 years her senior, then to William Morely Nelson. Nelson died in 1939. Also living at 31 Wollaston Avenue were Charles’s mother, Sarah, and Claire’s teenage son, Crosley Fawcett. By 1942, the household had moved to 32 Briggs Street in Quincy, where Charles lived for the rest of his life, with his sister, Claire. His son married in 1952 and his mother died in 1956. In the 1940s and 1950s, Charles was an active member of the Boylston Chess Club, serving as its president from 1940 until 1957.

Charles died in Quincy at the age of 62 on January 16, 1958. His obituary ran in the Boston Herald where he was a compositor for 34 years. In it, it states, “ he was the oldest active member of the [Emmanuel Church] choir. He was also active as a volunteer worker at the Young Men’s Christian Union on Boylston St. He had been made an honorary life member in recognition of his efforts for that organization. He was president of the chess club at the union and was an active Mason with the Belmont Lodge.” In 1961, the Boylston Chess Club held the first of a “proposed annual series of tournaments” in his memory. He was survived by his two sons, Robert and Ronald and was buried in the Mount Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy.

Sources

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

Family Trees; Ancestry.com

“East Boston,” Boston Globe, 21 February 1888:2; Newspapers.com

“Along the Water Front.,” Boston Post, 19 May 1896:8; Newspapers.com

“Pay Stopped as Lightship Sank,” Boston Globe, 14 December 1905:1; Newspapers.com

“Told in Departments,” Washington Post, 14 October 1908: 5: Newspapers.com

“North Sea Mine Force Hold Its First Fall Meeting,” Boston Globe, 14 October 1922: 9; Newspapers.com

Boston, Cambridge, Belmont, Waltham directories; various years; Ancestry.com

1910, 1920, 1940 US Federal Census; Ancestry.com

“Thirteen Speed Events At ‘Drome Tomorrow,” Buffalo Courier, 25 September 1915: 8; Newspapers.com

“Championship Events at the Velodrome Tonight,” Buffalo Courier, 26 Sept 1915: 79; Newspapers.com

“’Sax’ Williams Weds.,” Salt Lake Telegram, 16 July 1904:9; Newspapers.com

“Bicycle Racer in Trouble,” Salt Lake Herald, 17 March 1906: 3; Newspapers.com

“6028 Graduates in Boston Elementary Schools.” Boston Globe, 24 June 1909: 4; Newspapers.com

“Linotype machine,” Wikipedia.org, last updated 17 June 2020. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype_machine>

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.

Education – training Ordnance operations, maintenance & repair schools, Ordnance Department, U.S. Army. United States, 1919. [Government Printing Office], Library of Congress; LOC.gov

“Brown in the Great War: A Changed Campus,” Brown University Library.

<https://library.brown.edu/create/browninthegreatwar/stories/a-changed-campus/#fn-47-17>

“Affairs of the Society World,” Buffalo Courier; 11 June 1920: 9; Newspapers.com

Leiser, William. “Dutch Rider Gains Lap, Ties Up Bike Race,” San Francisco Examiner, 15 March 1934: 21; Newspapers.com

“Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915,” citing Dorchester, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org

“Boston Printers Form Credit Union,” Boston Globe, 6 June 1928; 25; Newspapers.com

“Gavel for Head of Typographical Union,” Boston Globe, 6 July 1931: 20; Newspapers.com

“Charles Acorn Dies in Quincy.” Boston Herald, 17 January 1958: C-26; Genealogybank.com

Deaths, Boston Globe, 17 June 1939: 3; Newspapers.com

Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group Number 147. National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Burgess, Lyman. “Chess Notebook,” Boston Globe, 20 October 1957: 69; Newspapers.com

“Boylston Club Loses Valuable Member,” Chess Life, 20 February 1958:1; United States Chess Federation, new.uschess.org/chess-life-digital-archives

Charles R. Acorn, FindAGrave.com

Burgess, Lyman. “Chess Notebook,” Boston Globe, 14 May 1961: 43; Newspapers.com

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Dorchester Illustration no. 2493 Yes, there were two gas tanks

Posted on January 17, 2021 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2493   Yes, there were two gas tanks

News:

Did you know that the Dorchester Historical Society offers house history research?  You can buy two hours of research for a Dorchester house by going to the Society’s website.

The Dorchester Historical Society’s House History and House Marker Program is proving to be very popular. Check out our gallery of completed house histories!

To request a house history on any Dorchester or Mattapan house, click here.

Illustration of the week:

Today’s illustration  is a photograph by Jon Hill from the Boston Herald, published on September 7, 1989.  The photo has the caption: Major Gas Leak at Dorchester Boston Gas Tanks. Firefighers gear up before entering area.

From the middle of the 19th century, Commercial Point was the location of fuel for heating,both  wood and coal gas.  The coal gas tanks had a superstructure with a huge inflatable canvas bag inside to expand when the gas was pumped in and collapse as the gas was distributed.  The natural gas tanks were the successors to those earlier tanks. 

When Corita Kent provided the design for the colorful painting on one of the tanks, there were two.  Later the painting was created anew on the previously unpainted tank, and the first tank was taken down.

The largest copyrighted painting in the world, the Corita Kent artwork is seen by many thousands of travelers along the Expressway each year.  If you listen to car radio, the tank is a waymarker for traffic reports.

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Winslow Ephraim Acker

Posted on January 16, 2021 by earltaylor

Winslow Ephraim Acker

World War I Veteran Who Lived in Dorchester

Written by Camille Arbogast

Winslow Ephraim Acker was born on October 18, 1889, in Birchtown, Nova Scotia, Canada. His parents, Ephraim Acker, a farmer and mariner, and Alice May (Gibson), were married in Birchtown in 1887. They had two older children: Roy born in 1884 and Ina in 1887.

Winslow grew up in the Birchtown Bay area, his family residing in Birchtown in 1889, and in the nearby villages of Churchover in 1891 and Carleton Village in 1901. By 1901, Roy, like Ephraim, was a fisherman, while Ina and Winslow still attended school. Ina married lumberman Robert Collupy in 1908. In 1911, the Ackers were back in Birchtown. Winslow, then 21, was employed as a laborer. The Canadian census reported he worked 50 hours a week, and had been employed 40 weeks in 1910, earning $100. His brother Roy also lived at home while working for the railroad.

 In 1911, Winslow immigrated to the United States, taking the train from Montreal on May 9 and arriving in Boston on May 10. In July 1917, he lived at 103 Geneva Avenue in Dorchester with Edward and Ella (Robertson) Vial. Edward was a wholesale meat salesman for the Batchelder and Snyder Company, who arrived in the United States in 1882; Ella immigrated in 1905. The Vials were possibly Winslow’s relations. Winslow was a carpenter, employed by Herbert L. Ray of Walnut Street in Newton, Massachusetts. On his First World War draft registration, Winslow reported that he was a Canadian citizen, and that his mother and father depended on him for financial support.

On October 23, 1917, Winslow enlisted in the 26th Engineers and was assigned to Company E. “Made up of skilled tradesmen and engineers,” the 26th Engineers were a water supply regiment. They trained at Camp Dix, New Jersey. On July 2, 1918, Winslow was made a private first class. Winslow sailed with Company E, leaving from Brooklyn, New York, on the Italia on August 17, 1918. They arrived in Liverpool, England, on August 31, where they boarded a train to Southampton. There, a channel boat carried them to Le Havre, France.

Company E was immediately sent to Pompey in Lorraine to serve as “army water-supply troops” during the St. Mihiel offensive. On September 17, they were “quickly and secretly transferred by night to the Argonne-Meuse front,” where they carried out their work from September 26 to November 11. During the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives, “the regiment constructed and operated 125 temporary and 105 semi-permanent military ‘water points’ for men and animals. It also operated approximately 100 existing French water points, and constructed 48 locomotive filling stations. A total length of 120 000 feet of 2- and 4-in pipe was laid … Whole companies served continuously within the range of enemy shell fire for periods from fifty to ninety days, without relief or rest.” The history of the regiment offered a description of its members’ feelings about their service: “Each man was working at his own trade, and the pressure and confusion of battle could not drive from him the ability to do the things which in civil life he had performed automatically, nor the ability to think intuitively in his own line of work. Added to this was the impelling desire in the face of suffering and death to perform some vital part in the game even if not in the forefront of the firing line.”

After the Armistice, Company E was sent to Faubourg Pavé, in eastern Verdun, where they constructed and operated locomotive water filling stations, repaired water systems, and participated in salvage operations. On January 2, 1919, they moved to Bourg-sur-Gironde, near Bordeaux, to prepare for their return to the United States. Winslow was promoted to corporal on January 10. On March 13, he sailed on the USS Matsonia with the Camp Devens Detachment of the 26th Engineers, leaving from Bordeaux, and arriving in Hoboken, New Jersey on March 24. He was discharged on April 10, 1919, at Camp Devens in Ayer Massachusetts.

On June 21, 1919, Winslow married Isola McSpirlin Acker in Birchtown. Isola, a trained nurse, had been born on Birchtown Bay in Hartz Point. She, too, had been living in the Boston area, where she was a resident from 1915 until February 1919.

Directly after the marriage they returned to Boston. The couple initially lived with the Vials, who then resided at 23 Duke Street in Mattapan. In 1923, Winslow was naturalized as an American citizen. At that time, he and Isola lived at 28 Ripley Road in Dorchester. Their son, Donald Isaac, was born in 1924 in Hartz Point. By 1926, the Ackers had purchased 67 Eliot Street in the village of Newton Highlands, in Newton, Massachusetts. After the war, Winslow continued to work as a carpenter, though the 1930 census reported that he was currently unemployed.

In 1933, Winslow’s father died of pancreatic cancer. That year, Winslow, Isola, and Donald returned to Nova Scotia, where Winslow was a general retail merchant. During the 1940s, he began to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. His mother, Alice, died in 1941. Around 1944, his son Donald became an assistant post master. For about six years, Donald was ill with pulmonary tuberculosis. The tuberculosis spread to his brain and spine and he died of tuberculous meningitis in 1949. By the time of his death, Donald had married.

Winslow died of bronchopneumonia on April 23, 1957, at Roseway Hospital in Sandy Point, Nova Scotia, after a few weeks’ illness and a hospitalization of eight days. He was buried in Birchtown’s Mizpah cemetery. When Isola died in 1975, she was buried beside him.

Sources

Edmund West, comp. Family Data Collection – Births; Ancestry.com

Family Tree; Ancestry.com

“Nova Scotia Marriages, 1864-1918;” Birchtown, Guysborough, Nova Scotia, Canada, Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax; FamilySearch.org 

1891, 1901, 1911 Canadian Census, Library and Archives Canada; bac-lac.gc.ca

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

“They’ll Remember the Cassin and Antilles,” Boston Globe, 23 October 1917: 14; 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.

History of the Twenty-Sixth Engineers (Water Supply Regiment) in the World War, September 1917-March 1919. Published by the Regiment with the Cooperation of the New England Water Works Association; 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

Marriage Record, Birchtown, Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada, Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax, NS; FamilySearch.org

“Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954,” Soundex Index to Canadian Border Entries through the St. Albans, Vermont, District, 1895-1924, NARA microfilm publication, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; FamilySearch.org

1920, 1930 United States Federal Census; Ancestry.com

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

“City Collector’s Notice,” Newton Graphic, 9 July 1926: 11; Archive.org

“Nova Scotia Deaths, 1890-1955,” Sandy Point, Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada, certificate 001307, Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax; FamilySearch.org

“Nova Scotia Deaths, 1956-1957,” Sandy Point, Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada, certificate 2716, Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax, NS; FamilySearch.org

Winslow E. Acker, FindAGrave.com

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Charles Abramson

Posted on January 16, 2021 by earltaylor

Charles Abramson

World War I Veteran Who Lived in Dorchester

Written by Camille Arbogast

Charles Abramson was born on February 6 or 16, 1895, in Vilna, Lithuania. In 1907, he immigrated to the United States, sailing from London on the Cunard Line’s RMS Saxonia. He arrived in Boston on April 12, 1907.

In June 1917, Charles was living at 12 Massachusetts Avenue in Lexington, Massachusetts. He was a teamster working for F.N. Reed in Arlington, Massachusetts. This was possibly the F.N. Reed who was one half of Samuel M. Reed & Co., plasterers and stucco workers, who in the early years of the 20th century regularly advertised in the Cambridge Chronicle that they offered “kalsomining, whitening, and tinting without moving carpets or pictures.” On his First World War draft registration, Charles was described as short and stout, with brown eyes and black hair.

Charles was one of “the first quota of 17 registrants of the second draft call from State Division 31, which is made up of Lexington, Belmont, and Watertown,” though by the time he was drafted he had moved to 71 Coleman Street in Dorchester, the home of his mother, Ida. He was not the only draftee who had moved since registering. The Boston Globe reported that six of the 17 men called for service had relocated outside of Division 31.

On March 28, 1918, Charles was inducted into the Army and sent to Camp Devens, in Ayer, Massachusetts. There he trained in the 8th Company, 2 Battalion, 151st Depot Brigade. He was assigned to Battery D of the 306th Field Artillery on April 18, about a week before the regiment left for overseas service. On the afternoon of April 22, 1918, in Hoboken, New Jersey, Charles boarded the USS Leviathan, “amid a flurry of hot coffee and crullers from the Red Cross.” The ship sailed at 6 a.m. on April 24.

On May 2, the 306th Field Artillery arrived in Brest, France. They trained at Camp de Souge near Bordeaux. D Battery fired the regiment’s first shot on the artillery range on June 12. A month later the regiment left for Baccarat, in a defensive sector in Lorraine, taking their positions there on July 18. From this point, through the end of the war, the 306th Field Artillery was “kept in the lines or on the march continually from mid-July to the cessation of hostilities, with the exception of a few days in reserve during October.” They remained in Baccarat a fortnight, then moved on to Vesle in Champagne, where, “day after day our batteries returned the German fire two to one.”In early September, they participated in the Oise-Aisne Offensive, crossing the Vesle river and firing “without rest” on “enemy infantry,” attempting to drive back the retreating German army.They made their way to the Argonne in mid-September and were in position on September 24. All of the 306th Field Artillery guns were part of the “the barrage which opened the Argonne Drive” the next day at 2:55 a.m. The 306th Field Artillery was “a part of the only Artillery Brigade that saw the start and finish of the Meuse-Argonne operations.”

Four days after the Armistice, Charles was transferred to Battery D, 17th Field Artillery. On July 25, 1919, he sailed from Brest on the USS Rijndam, arriving in Brooklyn, New York, on August 4. Charles, who was discharged on August 20, 1919, at Camp Devens, was a private for the entirety of his service.

The day before his discharge, Charles was naturalized as an American citizen. He had filed a declaration of his intent to become a citizen on March 18, 1918, shortly before entering the Army. On his citizenship petition filed in August 1919, his occupation was given as soldier/cattle dealer. He stated that he was unmarried. The petition was witnessed by two officers from Camp Devens.

At this time, very little is known about Charles after his discharge from the Army. The short biography of Charles included in the history of the 306th Field Artillery states that his civilian occupation was farmer. While home addresses were included in the biographies of many of the men, none is given for Charles. According to his Veterans Administration Master Index entry, in the 1920s or 1930s he lived at 4 Shepard Street in Dorchester. The date of his death is currently unknown.

Sources

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

Advertisement, Cambridge Tribune, 19 March 1904: 11; Cambridge Public Library’s Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection, cambridge.dlconsulting.com

“Seventeen Men go to Ayer from Division 31,” Boston Globe, 29 March 1918: 14; 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.

Duell, Holland Sackett, ed. The History of the 306th Field Artillery. NY: The Knickerbocker Press, 1920; HathiTrust.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, United States Naturalization Records, 1871-1991, Boston: National Archives and Records Administration; FamilySearch.org.

Naturalization Declaration, National Archives at Boston; Waltham, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com

“United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940,” Military Service, NARA microfilm publication 76193916 (St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985); FamilySearch.org

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Max Abrams

Posted on January 16, 2021 by earltaylor

Max Abrams

World War I Veteran Who Lived in Dorchester

Written by Camille Arbogast

Max Abrams was born in Boston on April 9, 1890. His parents, Philip and Mary (Perlman), were born in Russia. Philip immigrated in 1883; Mary in the late 1880s. Philip was a street peddler. They were married in Boston in 1889. Max had three younger siblings: Aleck born in 1892, Anna 1894, and Dora in 1896. Dora died of meningitis in 1901.

During Max’s youth, the family lived in Boston’s West End. His birth record noted that he was born at 71 Brighton, most likely the Brighton Street in the West End. In the early 1890s, the Abrams moved to 22 Minot Street, again, most likely on the Minot Street in the West End. Philip worked nearby, first on Chambers Street, then on Leverett Street. For a time, he was part of a concern, “Abrams & Bean,” who were retail dealers of boots and shoes at 30 Leverett Street. In 1896, the Abrams resided at 78 Leverett Street; in 1900 they moved to 80 Leverett. That year, two boarders lived with the family: Max, a 24-year-old shoemaker and Bessie, a 22-year-old dressmaker who were both were recent immigrants from Russia. In 1901, the family relocated to Poplar Street, where they lived first at number 26, then at number 24. They remained at 24 Poplar for at least 8 years. (All of these streets were located between Massachusetts General Hospital and North Station. They were replaced with a completely different streetscape during the West End urban renewal project.) In 1912, the Abrams family moved to 48 Hampden Street in Roxbury. The next year they moved again, this time to Dorchester, to 237 Quincy Street.

Max attended school through the eighth grade, according to the 1940 census. He was employed as early as 1910, when he appeared on the census as a burnisher in a factory. Beginning in 1912, he was listed in the Boston directory as a “razor maker.” On his World War I draft registration in June 1917, he reported that he worked as a lathe hand for the Gillette Safety Razor Company in South Boston. Founded as the American Safety Razor Company by King Gillette in 1901, the company pioneered the disposable blade safety razor.

On his registration, Max listed his mother as a dependent, offering this as a reason for exemption from the draft. He later claimed an additional exemption on “physical grounds.” He submitted no affidavits to support this claim, and his exemption was denied in late August 1917.

 On September 7, 1917, Max was drafted and inducted into the Army. The next day he was sent to Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts. His sendoff, along with that of one of his Dorchester neighbors, was covered in the Boston Globe: “Stanley F. O’Kane of 40 Blakeville st and Max Abrams of 237 Quincy st, Division 18’s second quota to go to Ayer, were given a reception and send-off by residents and friends in the Meeting House Hill section yesterday afternoon. Both young men are well known and their departure from the corner of Hamilton and Bowdoin sts was made among cheers. They were taken to the North Station in an automobile by Representative Charles A. Winchester and J. Frank Doherty, chairman of the local board.” On September 11, Max was assigned to “Boston’s Own Regiment,” the 301st Infantry. He served in the 301st Machine Gun Company for about a month. On October 12, 1917, he was transferred to Company A of the 302nd Machine Gun Battalion. He was transferred again on February 5, 1918, this time to Company I, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division.

On April 16, 1918, he sailed from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the USS Maui. It was the Maui’s first crossing as a transport ship, and it was not without incident: the loss of the port engine on April 20 caused the ship to fall behind its convoy. The Maui arrived in St. Nazaire, France, at the end of April. The 5th Division trained first in Bar-sur-Aube and then in Epinal. From June 14 until July 15, the division was in Alsace, in the Anould defensive sector. From there, they were sent to Lorraine, to the St. Die defensive sector, where they remained until August 23. On September 3, Max was transferred to the Headquarters Detachment, Quartermaster Corps, 5th Division, where he remained until his discharge. On September 10 and 11, the 5th Division was in the Villers-en-Haye sector. The division participated in the Saint-Mihiel offensive September 12 through 16. October 5 through the Armistice, they participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. On March 5, 1919, Max was made a Sergeant. He returned to the United States in July, sailing from Brest, France, on the USS Agamemnon, arriving in Hoboken on the 21st. He was discharged on July 31, 1919, at Camp Devens. 

After the war, Max lived with his family. In 1920, their home was at 17 Monroe Street in Roxbury. Max was a wholesale fur salesman working at 175 Tremont Street in Boston. During the mid-1920s, Max did not appear in the Boston directory. In 1927, he was listed residing at 100 Seaver Street, his family’s current home, and working as an insurance agent.

Max married Isabel (sometimes spelled Isabelle) Somberg in Boston in 1927. They had one child, a daughter, Marilyn. In the late 1920s, the Boston directory listed Max as a salesman in a bank at 80 Federal Street. In 1929, Max and Isabel lived at 70 Glenville Avenue in Allston. The next year they moved to Brighton, to 15 Lothian Road. Max did not appear in the Boston directory in 1935. In 1936, he was listed as an investigator living at 1871 Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton, his residence for the rest of his life. After this entry, no profession is given for Max in the directory, though he continued to appear living at 1871 Commonwealth Avenue. The 1940 census recorded he was a laborer making $800 a year, and that in 1939 he had worked only 26 weeks. In 1942, on his Second World War draft registration, he reported he was employed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at 353 Washington Street in Brighton.

Max died in Boston on May 27, 1954. A memorial week was observed at his late residence. An interment service was held at Sharon Memorial Park, where he was buried in the Mount Moriah section. When Isabelle died in 1960, she was buried beside him.

Sources

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

Family trees; Ancestry.com

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

Boston Directories, various years; Ancestry.com

1900, 10 20 30 US Federal Census; Ancestry.com

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

“Number of Claims for Exemptions Denied,” Boston Globe, 29 August 1917: 2; Newspapers.com

“More Dorchester Men Leave for Ayer Camp,” Boston Globe, 8 September 1917: 10; Newspapers.com

“Recruits Assigned to 301st Infantry,” Boston Globe, 11 September 1917: 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.

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

Hennerich, W.E., et al, compliers. Being the ‘Log’ of the U.S.S. Maui in the World War. Brooklyn Eagle Press; Archive.org

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

American Battle Monuments Commission. 5th Division Summary of Operations in the World War. United States Government Printing Office, 1944; HathiTrust.org

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

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

Evening Death Notices, Boston Globe, 27 May 1954: 35; Newspapers.com

Advertisement Sharon Memorial Park, Boston Globe, 28 May 1954: 25; Newspapers.com

Max Abrams, Isabelle Abrams; FindAGrave.com

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Hyman Abrams

Posted on January 16, 2021 by earltaylor

Hyman Abrams

World War I Veteran Who Lived in Dorchester

Written by Camille Arbogast

Hyman Abrams was born on December 25, 1890, at 81 Prince Street in Boston’s North End. His parents, Simon, a tailor, and Rosa (Kaplan), were from Russia. They each immigrated in the late 1880s. Hyman had six younger siblings: Henry born in 1892, Bessie in 1893, Fannie (known as Frances or Fay) in 1895, Reuben (known as Robert) in 1897, Nathan (known as Nathaniel) in 1899, and Louis in 1902.

Hyman grew up in the North End. During the early to mid-1890s, his family lived on Prince Street. By 1897, they had relocated to 15 Margaret Street, where they remained through the turn of the century. By 1902, they had moved a few blocks to 157 Salem Street. They were back on Prince Street, at number 94, in 1910. By that time Hyman was employed, working as a salesman at a hardware store. According to the 1940 census, Hyman attended school through the seventh grade. The next year, they returned to Salem Street, to number 111. They were still living there in July 1913, when Bessie married. The Abrams moved to Dorchester in 1914, living at 32 Stanwood Street.

On March 3, 1916, Hyman was married in Boston. On the marriage record, his wife gave her name as Katherine E. Salter. She was born Katherine E. Doughty in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, and spent her early childhood in South Manchester, Connecticut. Katherine was her parents’ only surviving child and it appears her father died not long after she was born. Eventually, Katherine and her mother, Elizabeth, moved to Boston, where Elizabeth was a waitress. In 1897, Elizabeth remarried, wedding Harry N. Salter, a cook originally from Barre, Vermont, who had also been married previously. In 1901, Salter was charged with larceny and sentenced to eight months in the House of Corrections. Elizabeth Salter later appeared in the Boston directory as a widow. In 1906, Katherine married Frank L. Fernald, a shipper, born in Liverpool, England. They had two daughters, Ruth and Marion. The 1910 census recorded Katherine and her daughters living with Elizabeth on Harrison Avenue; Frank was not part of the household. By that time, Katherine was working as a waitress. In 1916, when marrying Hyman, Katherine did not use her married nor her birth name, instead giving her stepfather’s last name. The marriage record also stated that the marriage was her first.

            When Hyman registered for the draft in June 1917, he gave his address as 32 Stanwood Street, his parents’ home. He was a clerk at the 222 Clarendon Street location of the Wadsworth Howland Company, which was known for its Bay State paint line. The Wadsworth Howland shops were also general hardware stores, selling “a complete line of builders’ hardware, mechanics’ tools, cutlery, artists’ materials, and automobile supplies,” and provided advice on “color schemes for exterior painting, as well as attractive interior decorative combinations.” On his draft registration, Hyman claimed his mother and father as dependents, reporting he was their sole support. In October 1917, his father died.

            Hyman was drafted and inducted into the Army on May 29, 1918. He initially served in the Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, Field Artillery Replacement Depot at Camp Jackson, near Columbia, South Carolina. On July 8, he was transferred to the 1st Battery, Camp Jackson July Automatic Replacement Draft. Two weeks later he sailed for France, departing from New York City on July 22, on the USS Harrisburg. On August 9, he was assigned to the 4th Battery, Field Artillery Replacement Regiment, 41st Division. On August 27, he was sent to Battery F of the 121st Field Artillery, 32nd Division, joining them on the eve of the division’s participation in the Oise-Aisne offensive. Hyman also took part in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, which began in late September and ran through the Armistice. On February 18, 1919, Hyman was transferred once again, this time to Battery E of the 147th Field Artillery. On May 1, he sailed for the United States, departing from Brest, France, on the USS Kansas, and arriving in Philadelphia on May 13. He was sent to Camp Dix, New Jersey, where he was part of Discharge Unit 2. He was discharged on May 24, 1919.

It appears that Hyman’s marriage to Katherine did not last long. When he went overseas, it was his mother, not his wife, who was listed as his next of kin. On the 1920 census Hyman appeared living with his mother and siblings at 32 Stanwood Street, his marital status: single. The 1940 census reported he was divorced. Katherine seems to have eventually reconciled with her first husband. The 1930 census recorded them living together with their two daughters at 5 Emrose Terrace, Dorchester.

After the war, Hyman was a salesman at the South End Hardware Company, located at 1095 Washington Street. In 1925, he moved, along with his family, about a half-mile to 4 Holbern Park. For a few years in the mid to late 1920s, no occupation was listed for Hyman in the Boston directory. At the end of the decade, he began working for the U.S. Postal Service, his occupation for the rest of his career. He was a laborer at the South Postal Annex on Atlantic Avenue, and, later, a mail handler.

By 1929, he and his family had moved to 141 Homestead Street. In 1930, the census reported Hyman living there with his mother, siblings Frances and Louis, as well as two lodgers: Frieda Rosenberg, 20, a clerk at a dry goods store, and Selma Rosenberg, 19, a typist employed at a department store. His mother died in August 1930.

In 1933, Hyman appeared in the Boston directory living at 206 West Brookline Street. Three years later, he moved to 37 Brookledge Street, the home of his sister Bessie. The next year he moved again, to 151 Warren Street. By 1940, he was a lodger at 152 Ruthven Street, where he remained until the mid-1950s, when he returned to 37 Brookledge Street. According to the directory, he was back at 152 Ruthven in 1957, then at 32 Brookledge Street in 1958. Hyman did not appear in the Boston directory from 1959 until 1965. His sister Fay’s obituary in 1967 reported Hyman lived in Brighton. He may have been the Hyman Abrams who in 1966 was living at 1501 Commonwealth Avenue, which was the Commonwealth Nursing Home. He was still living in Brighton in 1973 when Bessie died.

Hyman died at the Boston Veterans Hospital in Jamaica Plain on July 27, 1980. He was buried in the Custom Tailors Cemetery on Baker Street in West Roxbury.

Sources

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

Boston and Manchester, CT Directories, various years; Ancestry.com

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

Marriage, Boston, Suffolk, MA, certificate number 1174, page 91, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org

“How Mr Salter Did It.” Boston Globe, 26 October 1901: 11; Newspapers.com

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

“New Store,” Newton Graphic, 22 June 1917:4; Archive.org

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

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

Joint War History Commissions of Michigan and Wisconsin. The 32nd Division in the World War 1917-1919. Madison, WI: Wisconsin War History Commission, 1920: Archive.org

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

Deaths, Boston Globe, 31 July 1967: 22; Newspapers.com

National Center for Health Statistics. Volume of the Directory of Nursing Home Facilities: Northeast, 1975; Books.Google.com

Deaths, Boston Globe, 3 August 1973: 30; Newspapers.com

Deaths, Boston Globe, 29 July 1980: 18; Newspapers.com

Simon Abrams, Rose Abrams, Hyman Abrams; FindAGrave.com

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