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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Saul Abraham

Posted on January 12, 2021 by earltaylor

World War I Veteran Who Lived in Dorchester

Saul Abraham by Camille Arbogast.

Saul Abraham was born in September 1896, at 15 Sharon Street in Boston’s South End.  September 21 is the birthdate on his birth and military records, but on other documents he used September 23.

Saul’s father, David Abraham, was a cigar maker. David was born in London, England, to Dutch parents and immigrated to the United States when he was a year old. Saul’s mother, Hannah (Hamilburg), was born at 68 Broadway in South Boston to Dutch parents. Prior to her marriage, she worked as a saleslady. David and Hannah were married in Boston in 1888. They had three other children: Hyman, known as Harry, born in 1890; Jacob, known as John or Jack, in 1894; and Sadie, known as Sarah or Shirley, in 1901.

In 1902, the family moved from Saul’s birthplace to 36 Worcester Square in the South End. They relocated to Grove Hall in 1905, where they lived on Blue Hill Avenue. For the next eight years, the Boston directory listed David Abraham as residing at either 380 or 382 Blue Hill Avenue. Saul graduated from the Phillips Brooks School on Perth Street in 1911. Two years later, David died at Boston City Hospital of an intestinal ulcer hemorrhage. At the time of his death, his address was given as 15 Intervale Street.

By 1916, the Abraham sons were employed; Harry was a salesman, Jack a cigar maker, and Saul was a clerk. His lifelong career was in the wholesale shoe business. In June 1918, Morris reported on his First World War draft registration that he was employed by a shoe company at 170 Lincoln Street in Boston. By that time, his family had moved a few blocks to 17 Castlegate Road.

 Saul was inducted into the Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) on October 21, 1918. He served as a private in the 27th Company Portland CAC until the Armistice on November 11. At that time, he was transferred to Battery E of the 29th Artillery, CAC, where he remained until November 30, when he returned to the 27th Company Portland CAC. He was discharged on December 21, 1918.

In 1920, he was again living at 17 Castlegate Road with his mother, siblings, and two maternal aunts. According to a newspaper article, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1924, he lived at 549 Blue Hill Avenue and was the president of the Northeastern Shoe Company of 207 Essex Street in Boston.

On November 27, 1924, Saul married Minnie Benamor at the Hotel Somerset in Boston. Born in 1903, Minnie was also from Boston, living at 4 Nazing Street in Roxbury. Her parents were from Spain. Saul and Minnie were married by Rabbi Harry Levi of Temple Israel. After the wedding, Saul and Minnie embarked on a honeymoon to Miami and Cuba.

The couple initially lived at 266 Seaver Street in Roxbury, not far from Minnie’s family home. Their daughter, Dolores, was born in 1927. In 1930, Saul, Minnie, and Dolores moved to Brookline, where his brother Harry was already living. In their home at 325 Saint Paul Street, they employed a live-in domestic worker, Catherine Lally, a recent Irish immigrant. In 1932, they moved a short distance to 61 Babcock Street, near the corner of Devotion Street.

The Northeastern Shoe Company went into bankruptcy in 1924, and in 1926, Saul appeared in the Boston directory as the president of the Wasser-Abraham Company of 208 Essex Street. This company was dissolved in 1931. During the early 1930s, he was listed as the president of the Milton Shoe Company, also of 208 Essex Street. By the 1940s, he was the president of the Saul Abraham Shoe Company, which he ran for the rest of his career. The company offices moved from time to time, but were generally on Lincoln Street in Boston. In 1940, he earned $3,800.

In 1942, the Abrahams moved to Newton, residing at 6 Sumner Street in Newton Centre. By 1947, they were living at 288 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. In the 1950s, they returned to Brookline, first to 51 Harvard Street, and then 70 Park Terrace, where they remained for some years. In 1971, their daughter passed away. After Saul’s retirement, he and Minnie moved to Florida.

Saul died on February 8, 1994, in Hollywood, Broward County, Florida.

Sources

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

Family Trees; Ancestry.com

Boston, Brookline Directories, various years; Ancestry.com

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

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

“Minnie Benamor Becomes Bride of Saul Abraham,” Boston Globe, 28 November 1924: 2; Newspapers.com

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

“Hurley v. N.J. Reilly Co’,” United States District Court, D. Massachusetts, 6 May 1926; CaseText.com

Acts Approved by the People, November 4 1930 (Chapters 427 and 428, Actso of 1930) and Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts in the Year 1931. Boston, MA Secretary of the Commonwealth, 1931: 341; Archive.org

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

Deaths, Boston Globe, 14 January 1971: 37; Newspapers.com

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

Deaths, Boston Globe, 11 February 1994: 34; Newspapers.com

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Morris Abraham

Posted on January 12, 2021 by earltaylor

World War I Veteran Who Lived in Dorchester

Morris Abraham by Camille Arbogast.

Morris Abraham was born on September 24, 1896, in South Boston. His parents, Thomas Melvin and Ida Emeline (Hersey), were originally from Pembroke, Maine. Morris was the youngest of their six children. His three oldest siblings were born in Maine: Jennie in 1875, Seymour in 1878, and Byron in 1885. According to Thomas Abraham’s obituary “he left Maine as a young man;” Thomas, Ida and their children were living in Boston by 1880. The rest of their children were born in Massachusetts: Amos in 1891, and Thomas in 1893. Amos died of diphtheria in 1897.

At the time of Morris’s birth, Thomas was a fruit packer; later he was a buyer for a produce company. His obituary stated he was an iron moulder. In 1889, he was named as the co-owner of the seized schooner Good Templar, which, it was alleged, “had violated the law in that she has transported smuggled merchandise … transporting from Maine to Boston smoked herring, dried pollock and other fish which had been smuggled into Maine from some foreign country with a view of evading the import duties to which it is subject.” The vessel’s master and co-owner was Byron E. Lurchin of Pembroke, ME, the namesake of one of Morris’s brothers. 

The family lived in South Boston at 47 L Street for much of Morris’s childhood. Thomas and Ida were members of the City Point Methodist Episcopal Church. His two oldest siblings married and moved out of the family home during Morris’s childhood: Seymour in 1898 and Jennie in 1901. In 1910, Morris graduated from South Boston’s Frederick W. Lincoln School. According to the 1940 census, Morris also attended four years of high school.

By 1916, the family had moved to Dorchester, where they lived at 8 Elder Street. That year, Ida became a member of the Baker Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, which stood at the corner of Columbia Road and Cushing Avenue. She died in May 1918. By that time, Morris was working for C.A. Browning Co., importers and wholesalers of “millinery novelties” at 30 Franklin Street, Boston.

On June 5, 1918, the day before he registered as part of the First World War’s second draft registration, Morris enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force in Boston as a seaman second class. On June 27, he was sent to Camp Hingham in Hingham, Massachusetts, for training, remaining there until the Armistice on November 11, 1918. He was placed on inactive duty on December 31, 1918, and discharged on September 30, 1921.

On July 20, 1918, during the period he was stationed at Camp Hingham, Morris married Olive Burns, a stenographer who lived at 603 East Fourth Street in South Boston. They were married by Reverend William J. Rutledge, pastor of South Boston’s South Baptist Church. Morris and Olive had five children: Donald born in 1924, Lucille in 1925, Virginia in 1927, Paul in 1928, and David in 1930.

            Early in their marriage the couple lived in South Boston, at 23 Thomas Park, and then at 524 East Broadway. Living with them in 1920 was Olive’s widowed mother, Sophie Burns, and a lodger, Edith Needham. By 1927, Morris and his family had moved to western Massachusetts. In 1930, they lived in West Springfield, at 56 Garden Street. Four years later, they relocated to 54 Alvin Street in Springfield. By 1937, they had moved to Longmeadow where they resided for more than 20 years, much of that time on Lawnwood Avenue.

In 1940, Sophie Burns was living with them again. During World War II, sons Donald and Paul served in the Navy. In 1955, Morris and his son Paul made the news when they were both elected commanders of American Legion Posts: Morris of the Albert T. Wood Post in Longmeadow and Paul of the Bowles Memorial Post in Springfield.

For much of his career, Morris worked in the bakery industry. When they lived in western Massachusetts, he was a salesman for a baking company, probably Joseph Middleby, Jr. Inc., of Boston, which he reported as his employer in 1942. Joseph Middleby, Jr. Inc. produced a variety of bakers and confectioners’ supplies, including flavorings, syrups, pastry fillings, and the Midco liquid ice cream mix. In 1940, Morris earned $2,542 a year. In the late 1950s, he worked for the Longmeadow public schools as a custodian and a school traffic officer.

Both Morris and Olive had family connections to Canada. Two of their children, Lucille and David, were born in Canada. Morris died in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, on October 1, 1974. He was buried in Green Lawn Cemetery in Gravelton, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. When Olive died in 1983 she was buried beside him.

Sources

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

Family Trees, Ancestry.com

Boston, Springfield directories, various years; Ancestry.com

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

“Thomas M. Abraham,” Boston Globe, 17 October 1930: 26; Newspapers.com

“Good Templar Libeled,” Boston Globe, 18 May 1899: 7; Newspapers.com

New England, United Methodist Church Records, 1787–1922. New England Methodist Church Commission on Archives and History, Boston School of Theology Library, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com.

“7911 Diplomas in Boston Schools,” Boston Globe, 23 June 1910: 6; Newspapers.com

Advertisement for the C.A. Browning Co., The Illustrated Milliner, February 1917: 79; 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.

Military Service, NARA microfilm publication 76193916 (St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985), FamilySearch.org

Marriage, Boston, Suffolk, MA, United States, certificate number 4069, page 28, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org

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

“Father and Son Head Springfield Area Posts,” North Adams Transcript (North Adams, MA) 12 May 1955: 12; Newspapers.com

Advertisements of Joseph Middleby, Jr., Inc, various years; Newspapers.com

1958 Annual Report Town of Longmeadow, Massachusetts; Archive.org

“United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011;” FamilySearch.org

Morris Abraham, FindAGrave.com

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William Henry Aborn

Posted on January 11, 2021 by earltaylor

Biography of World War 1 Veteran.

William Henry Aborn

William Henry Aborn was born on November 29, 1887, in Richmond, Virginia. His father, William Hallet Aborn, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of a hatter who had a shop on Washington Street in Boston. William Hallet attended the Boston Latin School, graduating in 1863. In 1872, he married his first wife in Boston; she died in Boston five years later. In Richmond, he was a tobacco merchant. William, Jr.’s mother, Helen Fay (Patteson). Aborn was a native of Richmond. William Hallet and Helen married in Manchester, Virginia, just outside of Richmond, in October 1878. They had three other children: Samuel born in 1883, Katherine in 1886, and Ruth in 1891. 

By 1895, the family had relocated to Dorchester and William Hallet was in the sugar business. The Aborns initially lived at 406 Codman Street (now Gallivan Boulevard), William Jr.’s paternal grandparents’ home. His grandfather died in 1898 and his grandmother in 1905. William attended the Gilbert Stuart School in Lower Mills, graduating in 1902. He also attended one year of high school, according to the 1940 census. By 1905, the family had moved to 63 Van Winkle Street. Five years later, they resided at 63 Weyanoke Street. William was working by 1910, employed as a clerk by the First National Bank of Boston at 70 Federal Street. The First National Bank was the product of a 1903 merger between the Massachusetts Bank, founded in 1784, the only bank in Boston until 1792, and First National Bank, founded in 1859 as the Safety Fund Bank. William worked for the bank for his entire career.

By 1915, the Aborns had moved to 9 Shenandoah Street. Two years later, in 1917, they moved again a couple of blocks away, to 9 Fairfax Street. Though his father, now 72, was listed in the Boston directory as a salesman, William reported on his 1917 draft registration that he was the “chief support” of his father and mother.

William was inducted into the Army on September 20, 1917, and sent to Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts, for training. He was assigned to Battery C of the 302nd Field Artillery of the 76th Division. On July 16, 1918, he departed from the Boston and Albany Pier in Boston, sailing for Europe on the HTM Port Lincoln. After arriving in Liverpool, the regiment traveled overland across England to Southampton, where they crossed the channel to Le Havre, France, on the U.S. Charles. The regiment was initially billeted in Bordeaux, in the town of Pont de la Maye. On September 5, the regiment moved to Camp de Souge for additional training at the Field Artillery School. While there, the regiment suffered an influenza outbreak, had to go into quarantine, and lost some men to the illness. In late October, they received orders to move to Rupt-en-Woëvre, near Saint-Mihiel. At midnight on November 6, gun Number 1 of Battery C “fired the first shot of the Regiment at the Hun.” According to the regimental history it was “… the first shot, not only of the Regiment, but the first shot ever fired at the Germans by American-made Field Artillery.” While in Rupt-en-Woëvre, “the fire carried on by the Regiment was entirely of a harassing nature.” On November 9, the regiment took part in a raid into the Woëvre Plain. After the Armistice, the 302nd Field Artillery remained in Rupt-en-Woëvre for the rest of the year. In the new year, they returned to Camp Souge where they were visited by General Pershing in February. On April 13, Battery C sailed on the USS Santa Rosa, departing from Pauillac, France. When the ship arrived in Boston on April 26, it was met by “steamers carrying friends and relatives, who showered the returning troops with doughnuts and candy.” William was discharged at Camp Devens on April 30, 1919. By that time, he had attained a rank of corporal.

In 1920, William was again living at 9 Fairfax Street. The next year, the family moved to 65 Rogers Avenue in West Somerville, Massachusetts. William’s sisters were also still living in the family home. According to the 1920 census, Ruth was also a bank clerk, while Katherine was a secretary at a hardware business. During the 1920s, Katherine worked for the Harvard Alumni Association. In 1927, she married the superintendent of the reading room at Harvard’s Widener Library. By that time the family had moved to 29 Lowden Avenue in West Somerville. Their mother, Helen, died in January 1934; their father died that November. Ruth and William remained at 29 Lowden Avenue after their parents’ death.

On August 31, 1941, William married Ella Louise Dimock, a 29 year old bank clerk. Born in Roslindale, Ella lived in Westwood, Massachusetts. They were married by the Reverend Edwin P. Booth. After their marriage, Ella and William lived at 29 Lowden Avenue. By 1943, they had moved to 29 Carroll Avenue in the Islington section of Westwood. At the end of his life, William lived on Cape Cod, in West Dennis and then South Yarmouth.

William died in South Yarmouth on October 29, 1968. He was cremated at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown, Massachusetts. His funeral was held at the cemetery’s Bigelow Chapel.

Sources

Virginia, Births, 1721–2015. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, VA; Ancestry.com

Family tree; Ancestry.com

Clark’s Boston Blue Book, various years; Archive.org

1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 United States Federal Census; Ancestry.com

“Gilbert Stuart School,” Boston Globe, 26 June 1902: 3; Newspapers.com

Cabell, James Branch. The Majors and Their Marriages: With Collateral Accounts of the Allied Families of Aston, Ballard, Christian, Dancy, Hartwell, Hubbard, Macon, Marable, Mason, Patteson, Piersey, Seawell, Stephens, Waddill, and Others. Richmond, VA: The WC Hill Printing Co, 1915; Books.Google.com

Hower, Ralph M. ed. “A History of Boston’s Oldest Bank,” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society. Baker Library, Boston, MA. December 1937: 101-104; JSTOR.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.

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

302 Field Artillery Association. The 302nd Field Artillery United States Army. Cambridge, MA: The Cosmos Press, 1919; Archive.org

“C.A. Mahady to Marry Miss Katherine Aborn.” Boston Globe, 6 April 1927: 4; Newspapers.com

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

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

“Morning Death Notices,” Boston Globe, 31 October 1968: 21; Newspapers.com

William Henry Aborn; FindAGrave.com

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Abraham Albert Abelson

Posted on January 11, 2021 by earltaylor

Biography of World War 1 Veteran who lived in Dorchester.

Abraham Albert Abelson, known as Albert, was born on May 10, 1892, in Boston. His parents, Herman and Bessie (Sarafsky) Abelson were from Kovno, Lithuania. They immigrated to the United States around 1885. Herman and Bessie had five other children: Rebecca born in 1890; Harry in c1895; Nathan in 1898; Sarah, known as Sadie, in 1901, and Milton Isadore in 1908. There is also a birth record for a child born to Herman and Bessie Abelson on June 26, 1893; on the 1900 census a child with this birthdate is identified as Abel Abelson.

The Boston directories list a number of occupations for Herman. In the 1890s, he was listed as a clerk. At the turn of the century, he was a bookkeeper, then appeared as a peddler by the middle of the decade. The 1910 census reported he was a commercial traveler selling “fancy crackers.”  In 1911, he ran a variety store at 140 Chelsea Street in East Boston. Two years later, he began appearing in the directory as a commercial traveler. He was a bread salesman, according to the 1920 census.

The Abelsons moved regularly. At the time of Albert’s birth, his family lived in the North End at 29 Fleet Street; by 1894, they lived at 26 Fleet Street. They then relocated to East Boston, by 1899 residing at 202 Bremen Street. They remained in East Boston for 15 years. In 1900, they lived at 279 Chelsea Street. By 1903, they had moved to 155 Havre Street. The next year they moved again, to 6 Saxon Court, and then in 1905, to 200 Marion Street. They moved around on Marion Street over the next couple years, to number 221 in 1906, and to 253 in 1907. In 1909, the directory listed them at 312 Bremen Street, which the 1910 census reported that they owned. In 1912, they appeared in the Boston directory at 326 Chelsea Street. During this time, Albert’s sister, Rebecca, married and left home.

In 1914, the family moved to Jamaica Plain, initially living at 5 Lena Park. Albert was employed by this time. He had begun his working life as early as 1910, when the census reported he was an elevator operator in an office building. In 1914, he was listed as a clerk, his occupation for the next few years. In 1916, Albert appeared in the directory back in East Boston, boarding at 724 Saratoga Street, while his father lived at 37 Lena Park. The family had been forced to move in 1915 after a fire destroyed the apartment they were renting.  In 1917, all of the Abelsons moved to  Dorchester at 35 Lorne Street.

On June 5, 1917, Albert enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force. The same day, he registered for the draft, reporting on his registration that he was “waiting to be called to the Naval Reserves,” and giving the Charlestown Navy Yard as his place of employment. On June 26, 1917, he was assigned to a receiving ship in Boston. On August 17, he was transferred to the USS America, a former German liner which was being converted into an American troopship. In October 1917, the America began carrying soldiers to France. Albert served on the USS America until July 1, 1918. After a week on a receiving ship in New York, he was assigned to the recently chartered and commissioned USS Tivives. The refrigerator ship was part of the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and during the summer of 1918, transported beef and military equipment to France. Albert remained on the Tivives about two months, before again being placed on a receiving ship in New York. He was on the receiving ship on November 11, 1918, when the Armistice was declared. On December 24, he was placed on inactive duty at the Naval Overseas Transpiration Service, New York. At that time, he had attained a rank of seaman. He was honorably discharged on June 4, 1921. 

While Albert was in the Navy, his family moved to 48 Hansborough Street and in 1918, his brother Nathan died during the influenza pandemic. After being placed on inactive duty, Albert joined his family at 48 Hansborough Street, working as an egg salesman. His youngest siblings, Sadie and Milton, also lived at home. Sadie worked in a shoelace factory. Milton was still attending school; he eventually became a lawyer and, subsequently, an Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts. In 1923, the family moved a short distance to 43 Fabyan Street. After that, Albert is not listed in the Boston directory for the rest of the decade.

On July 7, 1928, Albert married Estelle Harris in New York City. Born in Joliette, Quebec, Estelle was a recent immigrant. The couple had two daughters: June and Barbara. They initially lived in New York; June was born there in 1929, Barbara five years later in 1936.

By 1931, Albert had returned to Massachusetts and was living at 5 Mount Hood Road in Brighton. That year, Estelle became an American citizen. Albert’s father, Harry, died in 1932; according to his obituary in the Jewish Advocate, he was well known in orthodox circles all around Boston. By 1933, Abert and Estelle had moved to 129 Chiswick Road in Brighton where Albert was an automobile salesman. In 1942, he reported on his World War II draft registration that he was unemployed. By 1957, Albert and Estelle lived in Brookline. They had moved to Miami Beach, Florida by 1968.

Albert died at age 81 on February 17, 1974, in Miami Beach, Florida. Memorial observances were held at his daughter, Barbara’s,home in Newton. Survivors included his wife, his two daughters, six grandchildren, and his brother, Harry.  He was buried in the Sharon Memorial Park in Sharon, Massachusetts. When Estelle died in 1986, she was buried beside him.

Sources

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

Family Trees, Ancestry.com

Boston Directories, various years; Ancestry.com

1900, 1910, 1930, 1940 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

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

“USS America (ID-3006),” Wikipedia.org; last edited 9 June 2020 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_America_(ID-3006)>

“SS Tivives (1911),” Wikipedia.org, last edited 14 March 2020  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Tivives_(1911)>

Nathan W. Abelson, FindAGrave.com

Index to New York City Marriages, 1866-1937. Indices prepared by the Italian Genealogical Group and the German Genealogy Group, and used with permission of the New York City Department of Records/Municipal Archives; Ancestry.com

Naturalization Records, National Archives at Boston, Waltham, Massachusetts. ARC Title: Petitions and Records of Naturalization; Ancestry.com

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

Deaths, Boston Globe, 27 Jan 1957: 45; Newspapers.com

Morning Death Notices, Boston Globe, 16 April 1968: 43; Newspapers.com

“Fire Drives Out Families,”, Boston Globe, 27 October 1915: 13; Newspapers.com

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

Deaths, Boston Globe, 19 February 1974: 34; Newspapers.com

Albert Abelson; FindAGrave.com

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