Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration no. 2458       A’Hearn Brothers

Memorial Day seems an appropriate time to present another biography of World War I veterans.

A’Hearn Brothers , written by Camille Arbogast.

Illustration from Boston Globe, February 13, 1918.

Brothers Clarence, Joseph and Harold Blake A’Hearn, were born at 3 New Atlantic Street in South Boston. Clarence, who sometimes went by C. Joseph, was born on July 12, 1893. Harold was born on September 10, 1896.

Their father, John J. A’Hearn, a native Bostonian, was a roofing foreman active with the fraternal society, the New England Order of Protection. Gertrude (Crowfoot) A’Hearn, their mother, was born in England, and immigrated to the United States around 1870. John and Gertrude married in 1886, at Saint Vincent de Paul’s Church in South Boston. They had eight other children: Gertrude born in 1888; Ellen, known as Nellie, in 1890; Leonard in 1892; John in 1895; Frank in 1899; William in 1904; Marie in 1905; and Arline in 1907. By the time Clarence and Harold were born, their parents had lost a child: John died of pertussis, or whooping cough at four-months-old.

The A’Hearns owned a home on Atlantic Street in the section south of Thomas Park. This stretch was sometimes referred to as New Atlantic Street, as on Clarence and Harold’s birth record. By 1900, this part of the street had been renamed Covington Street, and the A’Hearn’s house number was 34. Growing up in the Dorchester Heights section of South Boston, Clarence and Harold attended the Thomas N. Hart school on H Street. In 1905, their five-year-old brother, Frank, died of cerebro-spinal meningitis.

By 1910, the A’Hearns had moved to Dorchester, purchasing 13 Bruce Street in the Ashmont section. The older children were employed: Gertrude as a Boston city school teacher, her life-long career; Ellen as a telephone operator; and Leonard a bookkeeper at a brokerage. In 1914, Clarence graduated from Mechanic Arts High School in the Back Bay. He went to work as a clerk for the Boston and Maine Railroad, based out of North Station. His 1917 draft card gave his parents’ address, 13 Bruce Street, as his residence; the 1917 Directory listed him residing in Hudson, Massachusetts. According to a newspaper article, he was “known in sporting and social circles as ‘Midge.’” Harold graduated from the High School of Commerce (later English High School) on the Avenue Louis Pasteur in the Fenway. After graduation, he was employed by Western Union as a statistical clerk.

Their older brother, Leonard, was the first to enter the service, joining the Coast Artillery Corps in 1914. Leonard served in Mexico as a National Guardsman, and fought in France as part of the 101st Infantry. While overseas, he was wounded five times.

In the summer of 1917, Clarence entered the Naval Aviation school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The eight-week program was the Navy’s first pilot training ground school. On November 30, 1917, Clarence was inducted into the Army as a Private First Class in the Air Service Signal Corps. On January 8, 1918, he was sent to the Air Service Aviation School at Princeton University for preflight training. Seven weeks later, he was transferred to an Aero Cadet Squadron at Camp John Dick Aviation Concentration Center at the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas to begin primary flight training. In April, he was transferred to the Flying Cadets Detachment at Kelly Field, in San Antonio, Texas. From there he was sent to Taliferro Field, near Fort Worth, Texas. He completed his training at Langley Field in Hampton, Virginia, which offered advanced observer instruction. On August 27, 1918, Clarence was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Aviation Corps. He was discharged on December 3, 1918.

By the time Harold registered for the second draft in June 1918, he was already working for the United States Quartermaster at Camp Upton, New York. He was inducted into the Army two months later on August 24, 1918, and assigned to 2nd Company, 1st Provisional Battalion, 156 Depot Brigade for training. A month later he was sent to Camp Jackson, in Columbia, South Carolina, where he served in the Headquarters Detachment. He was made a sergeant on November 13, 1918, and promoted to regiment sergeant major on December 9, 1918. On October 25, 1918, he was transferred to the Headquarters Company of the 61st Field Artillery where he remained until he was discharged on January 3, 1919.

The A’Hearns received some notice in local newspapers for having three sons in the military. A Boston Globe article, “Mr and Mrs John A’Hearn, Dorchester, Have Three Sons In War Service,” noted that John and Gertrude A’Hearn also did what they could to support the war effort. A member of the War Savings Fund Committee, Mr. A’Hearn spent “much of his time doing his ‘bit.’ … Mrs. A’Hearn is a hard worker in the Red Cross Society.” Another article stressed that the fourth A’Hearn brother was “only 11 years old.” There was also coverage of the day Clarence and Harold “unexpectedly” returned home from their service only half an hour apart.

After the war, Clarence and Harold lived at 13 Bruce Street. Also living there with their parents in the early 1920s were Gertrude, still a teacher; Leonard, a Boston University college student; as well as teenagers William, Marie, and Arline. Their sister Nellie left the household in 1916 when she married. Harold was hired by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, today’s IRS, in 1919. He worked for the Bureau for the rest of his career. Clarence returned to clerical work for the Boston and Maine Railroad.

Clarence also served in the New England Reserve Corps as an aviator, performing a two-week tour of duty each year. In September 1925, flying a biplane out of Boston on a very foggy and cloudy day, he got lost. In order to ascertain his location, he landed, and discovered he was in Cranston, Rhode Island. After fueling the plane, the engine malfunctioned, and he had trouble taking off. The wing of the plane hit a fence and the plane rolled over. No one was injured. Clarence had another close call in 1930, when, then a captain, he took off from Boston airport. Unbeknownst to him, the wings of his plane were coated with snow and sleet, causing the plane to struggle to gain altitude, and to eventually go down in the water not far from the end of the runway. Again, no one was injured, though Clarence and his observer did have to be rescued from the chilly water.

On June 28, 1924, Clarence married Alice Louise Collins at Saint James Church in Medford, Massachusetts. His brothers served in his wedding party: Harold as his best man and Leonard as an usher. Clarence and Alice eventually had four children: John, William, Francis, and Marie. William died in 1931 at under a year old.

Clarence graduated from Northeastern University in 1926 with a Bachelor of Commercial Science. In 1930, Alice and Clarence lived on Lake Boon Road on a property they owned in Stow, Massachusetts. By 1935, they had purchased 64 Martin Street in West Roxbury, where they lived for the next 20 years. Clarence was a payroll supervisor for the Boston Public Schools. In 1940, he earned $2,340 a year. Both he and his wife also had other income sources. In 1955, the Boston directory reported they lived at 13 Bruce Street. By 1958, they had returned to Stow.

In the 1920s, Harold was promoted, becoming a supervisor for the Bureau of Revenue. In the 1930s and 1940s, he worked out of offices in New York, Columbus, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. Though he was often stationed elsewhere in the United States, Harold maintained the Bruce Street home as his permanent residence. 1943, he was promoted to Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Accounts and Collections Division. His work sometimes took him on visits to far-flung regional offices, as in 1944 when he was sent to Hilo, Hawaii, “for a few days’ work in the Hilo office in connection with the customary check-up of the office of the U.S. Internal Revenue for the district of Hawaii.” In 1952, Harold was named District Director for Upper Manhattan, with a starting salary of $12,000. Harold was “responsible for combined collection and audit activities” of his district. At times his work required a brush with celebrity, as when he filed tax liens against underworld mobster Frank Costello and superstar Frank Sinatra. He retired at the end of 1956, after more than 37 years with the IRS.

At the end of his life Harold lived at 302 Chapman Street in Canton, Massachusetts. Harold died November 2, 1964. A Solemn High Mass of Requiem was celebrated for him at Saint John’s Church in Canton. Harold was buried in Boston’s New Calvary Cemetery, according to family sources. Clarence died in Stow on January 15, 1971. A Requiem Mass was held for him at Saint Isidore’s Church in Stow. According to family sources, he was buried in Stow.

List of sources available upon request.