Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biography: Ralph Cunningham Barnstead

Posted on November 28, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biography: Ralph Cunningham Barnstead

At the Dorchester Historical Society, we are in the process of a year-long project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I. Using a collection of photographs we have of WWI Dorchester residents, we will be featuring servicemen in a number of short biographies throughout the year. At the culmination of the project, we hope to produce an online exhibit that highlights these men and their service to our country.

Our next biography features: Ralph Cunningham Barnstead.

Written by Julie Wolfe.

Ralph Cunningham Barnstead was born at 21 Berkeley Place in Boston on September 7, 1879, the fifth of nine children of Robert P. Barnstead and Ellen “Nellie” Cunningham. Robert was born in Nova Scotia, and Nellie came from Ireland; both emigrated to America around 1865. When Ralph was born, Robert was a plumber; at the turn of the century, he held multiple patents on water-distilling and -sterilizing equipment used in hospitals and laboratories and was the president of the Barnstead Pure Water Still Company (later the Barnstead Still & Sterilizer Company), ultimately located at 2 Lanesville Terrace in Jamaica Plain.

In his school years, Ralph distinguished himself in athletics, but was not the only Barnstead to do so. His younger brother Frederick, a star pitcher, would play semi-professional ball across North America and was, according to his 1956 obituary, among “the last living members of the famed semi-pro baseball club, the Dorchester Lower Mills” of the World War I era.

In 1900, Ralph resided with his parents and five of his siblings at 49 Burt Street in Dorchester, which the family owned since the late 1890s. His elder brother Charles and sister Ida were both married and living elsewhere by this time, and one of his younger brothers, Herbert, Frederick’s twin, had died in 1888 of “blood poison” at age 4. (Another younger brother, Walter, would die in 1904 at age 16.) For several years, Ralph worked as a clerk, first at 29 Bedford Street and later at 62 Sudbury Street; the industry is uncertain.

In 1907, Ralph ran for city council as a Democrat in Ward 24, but wasn’t elected. The following year, on August 12, 1908, he married Margaret J. Bennett, the daughter of Canadian émigrés. Their first home was at 86 Tuttle Street, in Dorchester’s Savin Hill section. By 1910, Ralph had settled into his lifelong occupation, as a plater, initially in the jewelry industry. He and Margaret later rented a home at 89 Auckland Street, still in Savin Hill, where three of Margaret’s relatives boarded with them. In 1912, when a broken sewer made area living conditions hazardous and intolerable, Ralph was one of two neighborhood men to petition the mayor to approve the sewer’s immediate repair. Margaret also participated in the campaign. The following year, the couple moved near Ralph’s parents, to 45 Burt Street, where they would remain until 1927.

A member of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Dorchester’s Ashmont neighborhood, Ralph was elected a delegate to Boston’s archdeaconry two years running. In 1916, he garnered several mentions in the Boston Globe for his performances as an interlocutor (master of ceremonies) in church “minstrel shows.” These shows were a staple of civic and fraternal organizations at the time, and although they were considered comic, the performances’ racially charged elements would be deemed distasteful today.

It seems Ralph put his penchant for performing to use during World War I. He was close to 40 years old when he registered for the draft, a foreman specializing in nickel plating at his father’s business, Barnstead Still & Steel. His service card—a punch card—is unlike any we’ve encountered during this project. It comes not from military archives but from the YMCA Archives. After enlisting in the YMCA’s motor service as an “auto driver,” Ralph applied for a passport on October 14, 1918, and set sail for Europe the following day with a “party of American YMCA secretaries.” In addition to facilitating the YMCA’s wartime entertainment and R&R programs, the 82d Division, to which Ralph belonged, also assisted the Red Cross in base and field hospitals. On June 28, 1919, he was one of 12 YMCA volunteers from New England rewarded for “their good work” with an invitation to accompany their units home. He arrived on July 5, 1919, sailing from Brest, France, to Hoboken, NJ, aboard the SS Leviathan.

Ralph and Margaret resumed life on Burt Street; he remained a plater and continued performing. While Ralph had been overseas, on April 1, 1919, his mother, Nellie, died; her funeral wasn’t held until November of that year. Her death appears to have been overwhelming for his father. On October 11, 1921, five months after selling their “large frame house” at 49 Burt Street, Robert reportedly “threw himself in front of an inbound train in the Ashmont station and was instantly killed.” Ralph and his brother Bob rejected the Globe’s speculation that their father had died by suicide, asserting that he “had been subject to fainting spells” and had “had an attack when the train approached.”

Until 1927, Ralph worked at Erikson Electric at 6 Portland Street. In 1928 he and Margaret moved to 4 Stockton Street. Ralph had switched employers, working at Boston Edison at 6 Power House, South Boston, until at least 1936. When the 1940 census was taken, the couple had moved again, this time to 170 Ashmont Street. Ralph was a foreman plater in light fixtures; the city directory shows that he had returned to Erikson Electric as of 1939.

On April 26, 1942, Ralph, age 62, now unemployed, registered for the World War II “Old Man’s Draft.” Standing 5’7” and weighing only 100 pounds, he may have been sick, although this isn’t indicated on his card. Ralph died at home less than a month later, on May 18. His longtime church, All Saints’ at Peabody Square, held his funeral. For the next several years, Margaret appeared in Boston city directories, a widow working as a bookkeeper, her job before marriage. In a strange coincidence, Margaret apparently died on May 18, 1951, exactly nine years to the day after her husband.

SOURCES:

Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004.

Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.

Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002.

Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2015.

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2005.

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

“Barnstead (Herbert J.).” Boston Globe, March 21, 1888: 6.

“Barnstead (Ralph).” Boston Globe. May 19, 1942: 28.

“Broken Sewer Causes Protest: Residents of Savin Hill Start Action Against Intolerable Conditions in the Neighborhood.” Boston Globe, September 30, 1912: 14.

“Busy Inventors Receive Patents.” Boston Post. November 5, 1916: 11.

“Change in One Service Hour at All Saints in Ashmont.” Boston Globe, January 24, 1918: 5.

Documents of the School Committee of the City of Boston. (Boston: School Committee, 1898), 247.

“Dorchester District.” Boston Globe, October 22, 1918: 5.

———. Boston Globe, April 30, 1920: 8.

———. Boston Globe, April 22, 1921: 9.

FamilySearch. Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915, database.

FamilySearch. Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910, database.

FamilySearch. Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915, database with images.

FamilySearch. United States, YMCA World War I Service Cards, 1917-1919, database with images.

“Fred J. Barnstead, Oldtime Pitcher, Dies.” Boston Globe, April 2, 1956: 13.

“In and About Greater Boston: Dorchester District.” Boston Globe, April 27, 1918: 3.

“In sad and loving memory….” Boston Post, April 2, 1920: 30.

“Leaps on Track to Death under Train: Robert P. Barnstead, 75, of Dorchester, Suicide.” Boston Globe, October 12, 1921: 5.

“List of Patents.” Boston Globe, July 29, 1891: 5.

“New Englanders Honored by Wild-Cat Division.” Boston Globe, June 28, 1919: 2.

“Real Estate Transactions: Dorchester Dwellings.” Boston Globe, May 16, 1921: 11.

“Results of City Primary.” Boston Globe, November 15, 1907: 7.

“Sibley Gives List of Bay State Workers for YMCA in France: They Won Golden Opinions in Service for Soliders.” Boston Globe, April 1, 1919: 18.

“Son Says Dorchester Man’s Death Accidental.” Boston Globe, October 12, 1921: 4.

“To Give ‘Somewhere on the Border’ in the Form of a Minstrel Show.” Boston Globe, November 14, 1916: 16.

WorldWarI.com. The History of the YMCA in World War I.

Young Men’s Christian Associations. National War Work Council. Summary of World War Work of the American Y.M.C.A.: With the Soldiers and Sailors of America at Home, on the Sea,

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Burt Street, Dorcheser, Ralph Cunningham Barnstead, Savin Hill, Uncategorized, World War 1, World War I | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biography: Joseph Ballard

Posted on November 27, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biography: Joseph Ballard

Our next biography features: Joseph Ballard.

Written by Donna Albino.

Joseph Ballard was born on September 18, 1894, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, to John Ballard and Delia (Curley) Ballard. Joseph was their fourth son. John Ballard was working as a brass moulder (making molds for casting brass) at the time of his son’s birth.

In 1900, the Ballard family was living in a rented house in Hyde Park, and at that time the family had grown to four sons and two daughters. Joseph’s father, John, was working as a carpenter. By 1910, the family owned their home at 4 Middleton Street in Dorchester and John was then working as an inspector for the railroad. Joseph’s three older brothers were all working adults, but they were still living with their parents. John, age 20, was working as a printer for a newspaper; Thomas, age 18, was a shipper of plumbers’ supplies; and William, age 17 was a salesman of wholesale wool.

Joseph registered for the draft in 1917, when he was 22 years old. At the time, he was working as an attendant at North Grafton State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Grafton, Massachusetts, about 45 miles away from his parents’ home, where he was still living. His WWI draft card describes him as medium height and build, with light hair and blue eyes. He was inducted into service in the Army on September 6, 1918.

James was assigned to the Supply Company Ordnance Training Corps. The Ordnance Corps is the branch of the US Army that deals with the supply and storage of weapons, ammunition, and related equipment. By the end of the war, almost 8,000 plants were working on Ordnance contracts for the war effort. To train new Ordnance soldiers, the Ordnance Department established schools at a wide array of locations, including universities, civilian factories, armories, arsenals, and field depots. Eventually, much of the training was consolidated at the Ordnance Training Camp at Camp Hancock, Georgia, where James was stationed until his discharge on February 14, 1919.

James returned to his parents’ home after the war, and a few months later, his mother passed away in June, 1919. The 1920 census shows Joseph living at 4 Middleton Street in Dorchester with his widowed father and some of his siblings. His father was then working as a gas fitter for the railroad; his brother John was still a printer for a newspaper; his brother Thomas was an elevator constructor; his brother William was a checker for an army base; his sister Hazel was a housekeeper; and his younger brother Walter was a clerk in a shoe store.

By 1930, Joseph’s sister Hazel had married an accountant named Lester Menkes. Lester and Hazel were living at 262 Codman Street (present day Gallivan Boulevard) in Dorchester, and Joseph and his sister, Florence (Ballard) Dowling, were living as lodgers in their home; Joseph was working as a clerk for the US government. In the 1940 census, the four were still living together at the same address in Dorchester; Joseph was working as an office clerk for the Federal Bureau of Veterans.

In 1942, Joseph registered for the WWII draft. He was living in Newton Centre, Massachusetts with his sister Hazel, and working at the Veterans Administration Post Office Building in Boston.

Joseph Ballard died on April 30, 1964 at the age of 69. His obituary mentioned he had been the supervisor of the records and mail section of the Veterans Affairs in Boston. He is buried at Newton Cemetery in Newton Centre, Massachusetts with his sisters Hazel and Florence in a family plot.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Year: 1900; Census Place: Hyde Park, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Page: 21; Enumeration District: 1042; FHL microfilm: 1240670

Year: 1910; Census Place: Boston Ward 24, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_625; Page: 29A; Enumeration District: 1638; FHL microfilm: 1374638

Year: 1920; Census Place: Boston Ward 21, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_739; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 510

Year: 1930; Census Place: Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Page: 23A; Enumeration District: 0463; FHL microfilm: 2340689

Year: 1940; Census Place: Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: m-t0627-01676; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 15-600

Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Registration State: Massachusetts; Registration County: Suffolk; Roll: 1685013; Draft Board: 21

The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) for the State of Massachusetts; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System, 1926-1975; Record Group Number: 147; Series Number: M2090

United States Army Ordnance Corps: The History of Ordnance in America by Karl Rubis, Ordnance Branch Historian

The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) 24 Jun 1919, Tue page 17

The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) 01 May 1964, Fri page 32

The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) 03 May 1964, Sun page 69

Ancestry.com, Eileen O’Donnell Family Tree

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dorchester, Gallivan Boulevard, Joseph Ballard, Uncategorized, World War 1 | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2432 Boston from Mount Bowdoin

Posted on November 24, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2432 Boston from Mount Bowdoin

Scan of wood engraving Boston, From Mount Bowdoin published in Picturesque America by William Cullen Bryant. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1872-74. Hand-colored.

The view is probably from the land owned by Nathaniel Phillips, shown in green in the detail from the 1874 Hopkins atlas. The highest points of land on the hill are along Bowdoin Avenue.

Mount Bowdoin is one of the hills of Dorchester. It was named for Governor James Bowdoin who once owned much of the hill. The Boston Landmarks Commission’s area form dated 1995 for Mount Bowdoin says: “Mount Bowdoin was named for James Bowdoin, the Revolutionary War patriot and governor of Massachusetts during the late 1780’s. As early as the mid 18th century. Governor Bowdoin summered on Dorchester’s Mt Bowdoin or Bowdoin Hill as it was originally known. He was undoubtedly attracted to the panoramic views of the harbor and Blue Hills visible from atop the hill that would be named in his honor. The Bowdoin House was located at the crest of a secondary hill projecting from the lower southern slopes of Mt. Bowdoin. In fact, Bowdoin Avenue started out as a two-pronged driveway leading up the hill from Four Corners (Bowdoin, Washington, Harvard Streets intersection) to the Bowdoin house. The western “arm” of this driveway continued northward past Bowdoin’s residence and over the Mount’s upland pasture. This road represents present day Bowdoin Avenue. The eastern “arm” of Bowdoin Avenue ran directly past the governor’s house and was renamed Rosseter Street during the late 19th century.”

Other hills are: Ashmont Hill, Codman Hill, Jones Hill, Meetinghouse Hill, Mount Ida, Popes Hill, Savin Hill. Other lower hills are mentioned at https://www.bostonbasinhills.org/pages/boston-dorchester-hills.html

The view shows Boston in the distance with the Massachusetts State House just left of center. The body of water in the center of the illustration is the former South Bay, at that time a body of water that rose and fell with the tides as the sea water flowed through what is now the Fort Point Channel. There is railroad trestle crossing the South Bay, and that line of tracks was the early version of the Fairmount line. At the far right, First Church stands on Meetinghouse Hill.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dorchester, Mount Bowdoin James Bowdoin, South Bay, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2431 Everett Frank Merrill

Posted on November 17, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2431 Everett Frank Merrill

At the Dorchester Historical Society, we are in the process of a year-long project to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of World War I. Using a collection of photographs we have of WWI Dorchester residents, we will be featuring servicemen in a number of short biographies throughout the year. At the culmination of the project, we hope to produce an online exhibit that highlights these men and their service to our country.

Our next biography features: Everett Frank Merrill.

Written by Camille Arbogast.

Everett Frank Merrill was born October 15, 1898, in Campton, New Hampshire. His mother, Gertrude (Little) was a teacher and his father Frank E. was a farmer; they married in December 1897. Everett was the oldest of nine siblings.

While he was in high school, Everett worked as a bellhop at the Plymouth Inn, in Plymouth, New Hampshire. He attended three years of high school, according to the 1940 census. Around 1915, he moved to Boston. He initially worked for a shoe manufacturer, before working as an office boy at the Arthur C. Harvey Company, a steel wholesale warehouse on Everett Street in Allston. At this time, Everett lived at 804 Washington Street in Dorchester. During World War I, Everett enlisted in the Navy. On his notecard for Everett F. Merrill, Dr. Perkins noted that Everett was an Assistant Inspector of hull material in the United States Naval Reserve Force.

On November 22, 1919, Everett married Dorothy Ruth Frizell at her home, 2 Butler Street in Dorchester. Her father, Frederick A. Frizell, was a professional photographer with a studio in Pierce Square in Lower Mills. Ruth was a graduate of Simmons College. They were married by Reverend A.A. Rideout, who performed a double-ring ceremony. Everett gave Ruth a diamond bar pin as a wedding gift. For their honeymoon, they took a trip to New York and Washington.

In 1920, Everett was living in Buffalo, while Ruth remained in Dorchester at her parents’ home. During this period, Everett “shoveled coal” at the Lackawanna Steel Company, according to his obituary; on the 1920 census his occupation was reported as inspector at a steel company. Later that year, Everett was “laid off along with 15,000 others.” He moved back to Boston, going to work as a salesman at a Boston-area steel business he had worked for previously, possibly the Arthur C. Harvey Company.

In 1922, at age 23, he started his own sheet metal business in Worcester: Everett F. Merrill, Inc. The initial incorporators were Everett, Dorothy, and Dorothy’s mother, Amelia. Eventually, the company became the Merrill & Usher Company of 5-7 Arctic Street, Worcester, a large steel warehouse serving all New England. Active in his field, Everett also published articles like “How to Melt the Iron Curtain,” and “Toughest Sales I Remember.”

In 1925, Everett and Dorothy had a daughter, Eleanor Louise. By 1930, they owned 18 Dorothy Avenue in Worcester, valued at $4,500. That year, Everett’s brother Leslie, a salesman, was living with them. Everett and his family were still living at 18 Dorothy Avenue in 1940, though Leslie was no longer in the household. Everett, the president of his own company, earned $5,000 a year.

In 1948, Everett was elected president of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, where he helped to develop the “Worcester Industrial Plan,” a strategy for handling the city’s job shortage after World War II. As he described it, “We decided it was up to the Chamber of Commerce to make available to the small industries of the community the management brains they could not afford [sic] to hire. We hired four management engineers, an expert in production, sales, foreign trade and transportation, and put their services at the disposal of the community. … Small businesses, with one or two men running them, have learned production systems and plant organization and grown to plants with 50 workers.” That year, Everett also testified before the Senate regarding a recent Supreme Court Case, The Federal Trade Commission vs. Cement Institute, et al, that impacted industrial transportation costs.

In the late 1940s, Worcester voted to adopt city-manager based government. The “politically divided City Council” unanimously selected Everett to be the first city manager in January 1950, on an acting basis, a position he held for over a year. In January 1953, he was appointed special consultant on economic issues to the newly elected Governor Christian A. Herter. When a tornado hit Worcester county that June, Everett headed the official “disaster appraisal committee.” The tornado, which touched down over a 25-mile area, killed at least 82 people and injured up to 700. Many were left homeless.

At the end of 1953, it was reported that Everett sought medical care at Memorial Hospital on 68th Street in New York City. When Everett died on April 26, 1955, he was also at Memorial Hospital. After his death, his wife, daughter, and son-in-law ran the Everett F. Merrill Foundation, which distributed grants to local educational, community, religious, and health organizations.

Sources

“New Hampshire, Birth Records, through 1900.” New England Historical Genealogical Society, Citing New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire; Ancestry.com

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

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1962; Books.Google.com

“Dorchester District,” Boston Globe, 24 November 1919; 6; Newspapers.com

Frizell Family: “Dorchester Illustration #2292 Mattapan Bridge,” Dorchester Historical Society. 19 March 2017; <http://www.dorchesterhistoricalsocietyblog.org/blog/?p=2920>

Iron Trade Review, February 23, 1922; Cleveland: Penton Publishing Co, 561; Books.Google.com

“New Simmons Official,” Boston Globe, 17 April 1949; 33; Newspapers.com

“Merrill Elected Head of Worcester Chamber,” Boston Globe, 16 Jan 1948; 2; Newspapers.com

“Where There’s a Will-: Worcester, Mass. Chamber Head Tells Camden Unit How to Boost Sales,” Courier-Post (Camden, NJ), 8 May 1948; 11; Newspapers.com

Hearings, United States Congress, Senate, Committee on Commerce 1948; Books.Google.com

“Sees Task in Cutting 50 City Agencies,” Boston Globe, 3 Jan 1950; 26; Newspapers.com

“City Manager of Worcester to Speak Here,” The Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, MA) 5 April 1950; 7; Newspapers.com

“Worcester’s First City Manager to Advise Herter,” Boston Globe, 2 Jan 1953; 15; Newspapers.com

Masterson, Bert (UP), “New England Counts 82 Dead, Thousands Hurt in Tornado,” Evening Republican (Columbus Indiana) 10 June 1953; 1; Newspapers.com

Owens, C.R. “Politics and Politicians: Pay Gripes Rumble Among State’s 32,000 Employees,” Boston Globe; 4 Oct 1953; 46; Newspapers.com

“Everett Merrill Dies; Steel Head, Herter Adviser,” Boston Globe, 27 April 1955; 43; Newspapers.com

Roche, John J. Directory of Foundations in Massachusetts. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of the Attorney General, 1965; Archive.org

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dorchester, Everett Frank Merrill, Frederick Frizell, Lower Mills, Uncategorized, Worcester, World War 1, World War I | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2430 Louis Ferdinand Korb

Posted on November 10, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2430 Louis Ferdinand Korb

Our next biography features: Louis Ferdinand Korb.

Written by Julie Wolf.

Louis Ferdinand Korb was born at 118 Longwood Avenue in Boston on May 17, 1887, the sixth child of Joseph Korb, a hairdresser from Bavaria, Germany, and Alice Towle of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the daughter of Irish émigrés. Louis had one brother and nine sisters, the eldest of whom, Ellen, succumbed to diphtheria at age 2 in 1881. In the 1900 census, the Korbs’ Dorchester household at 1 Baker’s Court contained 14 members: Louis and his siblings, their parents, their mother’s sister, and two male boarders. Sisters Alice and Frances and their aunt were laborers at the Baker Chocolate Factory, as were many neighbors. The two boarders and Louis’s brother, William, were hairdressers like Louis’s father.

In June 1902, Louis graduated from the Gilbert Stuart School in Dorchester Lower Mills. Earlier that month, the Boston Globe had described a civic affair in Milton with “350 in attendance” at which Louis provided music. Snippets mentioning Louis’s presence as a pianist and song conductor at similar events were published throughout the decade. Later in life, through the 1920s and 1930s, such performances, particularly at events hosted by the Knights of Columbus (he was a member of Milton’s Bishop Chevrus Council), continued to garner press.

The century’s first decade brought terrible suffering to the Korbs. In January 1903, Louis and his sisters were “nearly asphyxiated” by a gas leak in their Baker’s Court home. Their father managed to rescue them, despite being nearly overcome himself. But there would be no stopping the calamities of 1908. In February, Louis’s sister Frances, 25, died “of accidental multiple first- and second-degree burns” sustained when an oil lamp in the family home at 1066 Washington Street exploded in her face. Six months later, in August, sister Mary, 23 (one of the Korbs’ two adopted daughters), was killed in a freak accident “when a driverless car ran amuck” in Franklin. Their mother, Alice, was also badly injured. The Korbs seemed to enjoy a degree of local standing, and interest in the story was high, the Globe running updates on Alice’s condition for some two weeks after the accident. In newspaper write-ups, Frances was described as “a belle of the Dorchester Lower Mills district”; Mary as “very popular among the [district’s] young set”; and their father as “one of [Dorchester’s] best known barbers.”

Louis remained in the family home through both of his parents’ deaths, his father’s in 1911 and his mother’s in 1915. (His sister Florence, 26, died two weeks after their mother, of lobar pneumonia.) 1066 Washington Street may or may not have been his address when he registered for the draft in 1917, his World War I registration card listing 2145 Dorchester Avenue, but his service card showing 1066. Thirty years old when drafted, described as single and afflicted with “heart trouble,” Louis worked as an organist at St. Mary’s Church in Quincy. Little is known about his service other than that he was a sergeant detective, general staff, in the Army’s relatively new Military Intelligence Division. He enlisted on August 29, 1918, and was discharged on April 24, 1919.

Following the war, in 1920, Louis moved to 48 Sanford Street in Lower Mills, the home of his sister Pauline and her husband, Watson Kilcup, a chocolate factory employee. Next door was their sister Alice and her husband, Louis Grefield, one of the barbers who had lodged in the Korbs’ childhood home. At this time, Louis resumed his long career as a piano teacher at 1177 Washington Street in Dorchester (possibly a music school) and became a piano salesman at Hallet & Davis at 179 Tremont Street in Boston, a job he held through at least 1937.

Louis’s stay with his sister was short-lived, and in 1921 he moved into 2195 Dorchester Avenue, the rented home of sisters Henrietta and Mary Erhard. This would be Louis’s home for two decades.

By the time Louis registered for World War II’s “Old Man’s Draft” in 1942, he was again living with Pauline and Watson, now at 28 Sanford Street. Still a salesman and teacher, he had a new employer: M. Steinert & Sons, Boston’s preeminent piano showroom at 162 Boylston Street. The store is still there today.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Louis’s address fluctuated in records between 28 Sanford Street and 18A River Street a few blocks away. Whichever was correct, both were his sister’s. Following the war’s end, Louis, still employed, cruised extensively to Latin America: to Colombia aboard the SS Santa Paula in 1947; to Havana and Guatemala aboard the SS Talamanca in 1950; and possibly to Cuba (again), aboard the SS Veragua, in 1951. In 1955, he sailed to Europe aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth and returned three weeks later, flying from Rome to Boston via Trans World Airlines.

In 1957, Louis ventured closer to home: to Manhattan. It was there he died on August 31, 1957—”suddenly,” according to his obituary. He was 70 years old. Following a Solemn High Mass at St. Gregory’s Church in Dorchester, he was buried at Roslindale’s Mount Cavalry Cemetery, as his parents and three sisters had been decades before him.

SOURCES:

-Ancestry.com. 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 and 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004.

-Ancestry.com. Massachusetts City Directories [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005.

-Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

-Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.

-Ancestry.com. New York, New York, Death Index, 1949-1965 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.

-Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

-Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

-Ancestry.com. U.S., Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1914-1966 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

– “By Prof James Mahoney, Lecture to Be Given Sunday at Catholic Literary Union, Charlestown.” Boston Globe, February 21, 1913: 13.

– “Cardinal Dedicates West Quincy Church: Thousands Present at Impressive Ceremony in the Beautiful New Edifice of St Mary’s Parish, Built Entirely of Native Granite,” Boston Globe, October 1, 1917: 9.

-“Dorchester District.” Boston Globe. June 6, 1902: 5.

-“Dorchester Lower Mills Council, K. of C. Elects.” Boston Globe, September 15, 1927: 11.

-“Dorchester Lower Mills K. of C. at Communion.” Boston Globe, May 9, 1927: 8.

-“Driverless Auto at Pythian Camp: One Woman Killed and Five Persons Injured at Franklin Field.” New Castle (Pennsylvania) Herald, August 5, 1908: 10.

-“Eight Lives in Jeopardy: Nearly Asphyxiated by Gas in Dorchester: Korb Family Saved by the Father’s Awakening,” Boston Globe, January 26, 1903: 1.

-“Explodes in Girl’s Face.” Boston Globe, February 3, 1908: 7.

-FamilySearch.org. Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915, database, 14 June 2016.

-FamilySearch.org. Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, database with images.

-FamilySearch.org. Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001, database with images.

-FamilySearch.org. United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940, database, 5 December 2018.

-FamilySearch.org. United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, database with images.

-FamilySearch.org. United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, database with images.

-FindaGrave.com. Louis Ferdinand Korb.

-Finnegan, John Patrick, and Romana Danysh. Army Lineage Series: Military Intelligence (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1998), 21-39.

-“Gilbert Stuart School: Members of Graduating Class at Dorchester Lower Mills Present Bust of Longfellow.” Boston Globe, June 26, 1902: 3.

-“Girl Killed by Explosion of Oil Lamp: Pretty Frances Korb Dies at City Hospital in Terrible Agony; Father Was Also Burned.” Salina (Kansas) Evening Journal, February 15, 1908: 8.

-“The Globe Latest: Highland District.” Boston Globe, January 8, 1907: 2.

-“Greater Boston News Briefs and Personal Paragraphs: Dorchester District.” Boston Globe, November 20, 1933: 8.

– “Korb.” Boston Globe, September 3, 1957: 46.

-“Lower Mills Ass’n to Have Banquet.” Boston Globe, October 18, 1930: 18.

-“Miss M. Korb’s Mother Worse: Name on City Hospital Dangerous List: Daughter’s Death in Auto Mishap Unknown to Her.” Boston Globe, August 7, 1908: 3.

Steinert & Sons: Our History.

-Public Documents of Massachusetts: Being the Annual Reports of Various Public Officers and Institutions for the Year 1903,” Published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, vol. XI (Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co. State Printers, 1904), 98–99.

-“Was Engaged to be Married: Mary Korb Victim of Runaway Auto. Her Sister Frances Also Met Death by Violence,” Boston Globe, August 5, 1908: 1.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dorchester, Gilbert Stuart School, Louis Ferdinand Korb, Lower Mills, Uncategorized, World War 1, World War I, world war one | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration of the Day 2429 James Patrick Stuart

Posted on November 3, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2429 James Patrick Stuart

Our next biography features: James Patrick Stuart.

Written by Julie Wolf.

James Patrick Stuart was born in Dorchester on May 14, 1896, to Peter M. Stuart, a stonemason at the time, and Margaret McKenna. Peter had emigrated from Scotland in 1889; Margaret, the daughter of Irish immigrants, had emigrated from Canada in 1889. The family, along with his two younger sisters, Margaret and Rachel, would live at the address of James’s birth, 19 Monson Street, for close to two decades. The family’s last name was frequently misspelled “Stewart” in various documents that appeared in the paper trail.

When James was 21 years old, he registered for the draft, employed as an iceman by the Milton Ice Company. The city directory for 1917 also shows that he worked as a chocolate maker at the Baker Chocolate Company during this year. (James’s father had been employed at the chocolate mill in 1900, when James was a baby. Baker, the nation’s first successful chocolate producer, provided work for a vast number of Dorchester residents during the early twentieth century.) Within the year, on April 26, 1918, James enlisted in the Regular Army National Guard, Enlisted Reserve Corps, at Camp Devens, a private in Company A, 302nd Infantry. On July 3 of that year, he went overseas, serving at a camp near Bordeaux for three months before transferring to Company H, 318th Infantry.

By the time James was discharged on June 9, 1919, his parents and sisters had moved to 23 (or 25) Freeland Street in Mattapan, a home his father owned, according to the 1920 census. James held a job as a grocery store clerk in 1920 before becoming a patrolman for Division 6 of the Boston Police Department from 1920 to 1922. His career as an officer ended ignominiously. Although details of the inciting incident are scant, on August 10, 1922, the Boston Globe reported that James was “finally dismissed” after being “found guilty of untruthfulness” regarding charges that stemmed from his alleged participation in a “Houghs Neck party” in Quincy.

In 1924, in Brookline, James married Boston-born Marion Teresa Conroy, like his own mother, the daughter of Irish immigrants. Following his dismissal from the police force, James had again taken work as a clerk at the chocolate mill. The next years saw several address changes within Dorchester for the couple and their sons, James, born around 1927, and Robert, born around 1931. They rented homes at 73 Ridgewood Street, possibly 107 Mt. Ida Road, 27 Selden Street, and finally 102 Bloomfield Street, where they would remain until the late 1950s.

Tragedy struck the family on June 17, 1950, when their elder son James, returning home after a dance, was killed in a head-on car crash in Pembroke that took the life of one other young man and injured approximately seven others. James was 24. Almost four years after the accident, in February 1954, Suffolk Superior Court awarded James $11,020 for his son’s death.

For most of the rest of his life, James worked as a janitor or custodian, first at Curtis Hall, currently the site of Boston Centers for Youth & Families, and then at what the Boston city directories describe as “City Buildings Division.” In 1957 or 1958, James and Marion moved from their longtime home at 102 Bloomfield to 17 Becket Street, where they lived from 1959 to at least 1963. The 1966 city directory finds James retired and living with Marion in an apartment at 10 Rockwell Street. He died in Milton on August 11, 1968, survived by his wife, their son, and his two sisters. His funeral was held in Dorchester, his home until almost the end of his life. His obituary noted that he was a member of the Knights of Columbus, Council 180 of the Lower Mills area, and a World War I veteran.

SOURCES:

“$52,256 Verdicts Awarded in 1950 Pembroke Crash.” Boston Globe, February 25, 1954: 3.

“Accidents (cont’d from Fogg Museum Official Struck Riding Bicycle, Critically Injured.” Boston Globe. June 18, 1950: 13.

Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004.

Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006.

Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002.

Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Marriage Index, 1901-1955 and 1966-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

“Dorchester Man Killed in Crash.” Boston Globe, June 17, 1950: 1.

FamilySearch.org. United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, database with images. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

FamilySearch.org. United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, database with images. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

“James P. Stuart.” Dr. Perkins WWI Photo Collection.

“Stuart Dismissed from Police Force: Final Action Follows Second Hearing: Division 6 Patrolman One of Party at Houghs Neck.” Boston Globe, August 10, 1922: 3.

“Stuart (James P.).” Boston Globe, August 13, 1968: 35.

“Stuart (Marion).” Boston Globe, July 27, 1977: 50.

“Stuart (James P.).” Boston Globe, June 18, 1950: 63.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dorchester, James Patrick Stuart, Mattapan, Uncategorized, World War 1, World War I | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2428 Arthur Wellington Gross

Posted on October 27, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2428 Arthur Wellington Gross

Our next biography features: Arthur Welling Gross.

Written by Donna Albino. Arthur is in the center of the photograph.

Arthur Wellington Gross was born on December 26, 1891 in Milton, Massachusetts, to Sylvester Gross and Ellen (Pelrine) Gross; Arthur was their first child. The family moved several times between Milton and Dorchester’s Lower Mills for a few years. By 1900, the family had settled in a rented house at 22 Baker Court in Lower Mills, and Sylvester was working as a coachman. Three more children had been born to the family: two sons named Henry and William, and a daughter named Mary. In 1908, Arthur graduated from the Gilbert Stuart School in Lower Mills.

In 1910, the family was renting a home at 12 Millers Lane in the Lower Mills neighborhood of Dorchester. Sylvester was working as a teamster for a chocolate factory, most likely the Walter Baker Chocolate Factory, and Arthur, now 19 years old, was working as a teamster for an express company.

On June 5, 1917, Arthur registered for the draft. He was 26 years old and self-employed in the express business. He was living with his parents at 1234 Morton Street in Lower Mills. A few months later, on September 23, 1917, Arthur was inducted into the war effort. He served with Company F, 301st Infantry, known as “Boston’s Own,” until November 12, 1917.

Arthur was then transferred to Company F, 326th Infantry until April 10, 1918. The 326th Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the United States Army. It was initially composed of large numbers of conscripts, or “draftees,” who had been called up for service, most of whom had no previous military experience whatsoever. In April 1918, the regiment received orders to move to Camp Upton in New York in preparation for embarkation to France.

At Camp Upton, Arthur was assigned to the 157th Depot Brigade, which received and organized recruits, provided them with uniforms, equipment, and initial military training before sending them to France to fight on the front lines. On August 31, 1918, Arthur headed to France on the SS Leviathan, an ocean liner painted in British-type “dazzle” camouflage to mislead the enemy about the ship’s course and make it more likely to evade attack. On September 18, 1918, Arthur was assigned to the HQ Company of the 161st Infantry until September 28, 1918. The 161st was not committed to combat; the personnel of the 161st were used as replacements for other units. For its service, the regiment was awarded the WWI campaign streamer without inscription.

Arthur left Brest, France with the St. Aignan Casual Company #1491 on the USS Pueblo on March 16, 1919. The American army was centered on the town of Saint-Aignan toward the close of the war, and a lot of organizational changes occurred here. A casual company was an army group composed for specific duties, drawing personnel from other types of units, for tasks like driving ambulances or ammunition trucks. Arthur’s experiences as a teamster before the war probably made him a good candidate for this type of work, and it kept him out of the trenches. Arthur arrived at Hoboken, NJ on March 27, 1919. Arthur was discharged on April 5, 1919 from Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts.

After the war, Arthur returned to his parents’ home. In the 1920 census, he was living at 1234 Morton Street in Lower Mills, working as a house painter. In 1922, Arthur lived at 343 Codman Street in the Ashmont section of Dorchester for several years, still working as a painter. He returned to his parents’ home for several years in 1926, and then moved to 21 Magdala Street, also in the Ashmont section in Dorchester in 1928. He was still at this address in 1930 when the next census was taken.

In the 1940 census, Arthur was living with his sister Mary and her husband at 36 Old Morton Street, back in Lower Mills. The census did not list employment for Arthur, but in 1942 when Arthur registered for the WWII draft, he was working in Milton, and still living with his sister Mary and her husband at 36 Old Morton Street.

After 1942, Arthur’s path was difficult to trace. Up until 1942, when he waslisted in the Boston city directory, he was listed as Arthur W. Gross. There is an Arthur Gross (without a middle initial) living at several addresses in Dorchester throughout the 1950s, but he might not have been Arthur Wellington Gross.

Arthur Wellington Gross passed away on March 2, 1962, and was interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan. An upright marble, military veteran headstone engraved with a Latin cross was requested from the U.S. War Department by the cemetery several weeks after his death, and was shipped to the cemetery in May of 1962.

Sources:

-Fold3, Boston City Directories, 1891-1897

-The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) 23 Jun 1908, Tue Page 7

-Year: 1900; Census Place: Boston Ward 24, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Page: 2; -Enumeration District: 1531; FHL microfilm: 1240688

-Year: 1910; Census Place: Boston Ward 24, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_625; Page: 15A; Enumeration District: 1633; FHL microfilm: 1374638

-Year: 1920; Census Place: Boston Ward 21, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_739; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 524

-Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

-Year: 1940; Census Place: Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: m-t0627-01676; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 15-610

-Registration State: Massachusetts; Registration County: Suffolk; Roll: 1685013; Draft Board: 21

-US Army WWI Transport Service, Passenger Lists, Ship: Pueblo, Entry Number: NM-81 2060

-US Army WWI Transport Service, Passenger Lists, Ship: Leviathan, Entry Number: NM-81 2061

-worldwar1letters.wordpress.com: Camp Devens; Home of New England’s Own

Wikipedia, 326th Infantry Regiment (United States)

-army.togetherweserved.com, 157th Depot Brigade

Wikipedia, 161st Infantry Regiment (United States)

-Rootdig, Michael John Neill’s Genealogy Website

-Wikipedia, USS Leviathan

-The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) for the State of Massachusetts; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System, 1926-1975; Record Group Number: 147; Series Number: M2090

-The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) 05 Mar 1962, Mon Page 29

-Ancestry.com. U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

-Ancestry.com, Thayer/Baird Family Tree by JamesCallahan

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Arthur Wellington Gross, Dorcheser, Lower Mills, Uncategorized, World War 1, World War I | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2427 William Valentine Dacey

Posted on October 20, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2427 William Valentine Dacey

Our next biography features: William Valentine Dacey. Written by Camille Arbogast

In the photograph, William is on the left, and his brother Leonard is on the right.

William Valentine Dacey was born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1896, in Chelsea to William T. and Mary E. (Cummings) Dacey. His father, William T., was born in Boston to Irish parents and his mother, Mary, was born in Charlestown(her father was from northern New England and her mother from Ireland). William had one older brother, Leonard born in 1894, and five younger siblings: Francis, known as Frank, born in 1897, Dorothy in 1899, Marion in 1901, Gertrude in 1904, and Lawrence in 1911. Three of the siblings died as children: Marion at age 10, Gertrude at 16, and Lawrence at 17.

William T. was in the window shade and screen business. At the time of his marriage in 1894, he was a shade cutter. By 1900, he was a window shade salesman. Eventually, he became the president of the Crown Shade and Screen Company. Founded in 1905, with a showroom in Boston and a factory on Lochdale Road in Roslindale not far from Forest Hills Station, the company advertised shade cloth, “roller fly screens,” and made-to-order screens for windows, doors and porches.

When William V. was born, the family lived at 11 Auburn Street in Chelsea. By 1910, they had moved a couple of blocks over to 39 Cherry Street. The family moved within the neighborhood again in 1912 to 131 Williams Street. In his note card for William V. Dacey, Dr. Perkins noted that William graduated from Chelsea High School in 1916. During the 1916-1917 school year, William was a special student in the Boston University Business Administration program. In April 1917, his parents purchased a home at 7 Aberdeen Road in Milton.

That June, on his draft registration, William gave his address as 9 Arlington Street in Chelsea, and his occupation as a “Field Clerk of Army, Northeastern Department.” Although we are unsure of William’s connection to Dorchester or Dr. Perkins, Dr. Perkins did keep an index card entry and photograph for him. And, on that card, Dr. Perkins recorded that William enlisted in the Army on July 1, 1917. On October 18, 1917, William sailed for France with the “Field Clerks, Statistical Division,” leaving from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the USAT Tenadores. Dr. Perkins noted that while overseas William served in “Gnrl Pershings [sic] Headquarters.” William returned to the United States on the USS Cap Finisterre, sailing from Brest, France on July 3, 1919, and arriving in Hoboken on July 13. At the time of his return, his “Rank and Arm or Staff Corps” was listed as Army Field Clerk, Adjutant General’s Department, and his Organization as General Headquarters.

After the war he lived with his family at 7 Aberdeen Road and continued as a clerk for the United States Army. On October 12, 1920, William married Bostonian Mary A. Donovan in Milton. They eventually had two children: William F., and Clare. The Boston directory for 1924 lists William living at 8 Fowle Road in Roslindale and working as a clerk, First Corps Area, South Boston. On the 1930 census, William’s occupation is recorded as army base clerk; the directory listed him as a warrant officer, USA Army base. In 1930, William and his family lived at 149 Willow Street in West Roxbury. By 1934 they had moved a short distance to 231 Manthorne Road.

On September 21, 1936, William died at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. His funeral was celebrated at the Church of the Holy Name in West Roxbury and he was buried in Calvary Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and children, his mother, and three of his siblings.

Sources

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

Family Trees, Ancestry.com

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

Death listing for Gertrude J. Dacey, 85th Annual Town Report of Milton, Mass. for the Year Ending December 31, 1921, page 50; Archive.org

Death listing for Lawrence Dacey, Town of Milton 92nd Annual Report 1928, page 101; Archive.org

“Crown Shade and Screen Co in Its New Quarters,” Boston Globe, 25 Jan 1930, 6; Newspapers.com

Chelsea, Boston directories, various years; Ancestry.com

Boston University Year Book 1916-1917, Vol 5, No 5, Part 2, Boston MA: Boston University, September 1916, page 221; books.google.com

Deed, 7 Aberdeen Road, Milton, Norfolk County Registry of Deeds; Norfolkresearch.org

World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, National Archive and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Lists of Outgoing Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, Record Group 92. The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com

Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, Record Group 92. The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com

Marriage listing, 84th Annual Town Report of Milton Mass. for the Year Ending December 31, 1920, page 64; Archive.org

“Deaths Reported,” Evening Star (Washington DC), 23 September 1936, B-13; Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

“West Roxbury District,” Boston Globe, 23 Sept 1936, 16; Newspapers.com

“Deaths,” Boston Globe, 23 Sept 1936; 21; Newspapers.com

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dorchester, Uncategorized, William Valentine Dacey, World War 1, World War I | Comments Off

Dorchester Illustration 2426 Percy Edward Blair

Posted on October 13, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Illustration no. 2426 Percy Edward Blair

Percy Edward Blair was born on April 17, 1898, at 778 East Fifth Street, South Boston, to Milledge and Sophia Blair. Milledge was from Hampton, New Brunswick, and immigrated to the United States in the 1880s; Sophia was born in Massachusetts. On July 1, 1897, they were married in Chelsea, where Sophia was living at the time. Percy was the oldest of their four children. His younger sibling Milledge L. was born in 1900, followed by Clarence in 1902, Florence in 1907, and Arthur in 1916.

During Percy’s childhood the family moved around South Boston. In 1903, a city directory lists them at 106 N Street, the next year they were at 110 N Street. In 1910, the family lived at 738 Fifth Street, the following year they were at 139 N Street. The family moved to Dorchester by 1913, when they resided at 6 Bearse Avenue in Lower Mills.

Milledge was a machinist; a “brass finisher,” according to directories. The 1910 census reported he was a safety valve tester at a brass factory. Eventually, he would become a foreman at the Mason Regulator Company, 1107 Adams Street in Lower Mills. The Mason Regulator Company made balanced valves, steam traps, and speed and pressure regulators.

Percy attended school through the eighth grade. He then worked as a clerk in Boston. On November 5, 1916, Percy enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard. He reported for duty on July 15, 1917, and mustered as a Private on August 3. He initially served in the 11th Company Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) of the National Guard. The CAC manned coastal and harbor fixed artillery instillations and minefields. During the war, the CAC also was responsible for all manned heavy artillery. On December 18, 1917, Percy began serving in 23rd Company CAC at Fort Andrews on Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor. As of April 6, 1918, he served with 26th Company CAC (the re-designation of the 11th Company he served in originally), also at Fort Andrews. Three days later, he was promoted to Private First Class; in May he made Corporal. On August 7, he was transferred to Camp Eustis, Virginia, to serve with the 57th Ammunition Train CAC. On October 21, 1918, he departed for France, on the USS Aoelus, along with the 45th Artillery CAC, under the command of Captain K.S. Stevenson. In his notecard for Percy Blair, Dr. Perkins noted that Percy was in Battery E. He served overseas until January 23, 1919, when he sailed from Bordeaux on the USS Siboney. He was discharged on February 12, 1919.

After his discharge from the service, he returned to live with his family. In 1920, they lived at 87 Richmond Street, Dorchester, and Percy worked as a machinist in a car shop. His brother Clarence was an optician in an optical shop, as was their boarder, Mrs. Devidia M. Patterson. A maternal uncle, James Charles Hooton, was also part of the household. In 1925, his parents purchased 96 Wrentham Street, Dorchester, and Percy lived with them there. By 1925, Percy was working as a cable splicer for the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company; he stayed with the telephone company for forty years.

In 1929, Percy married Beatrice Moran. Initially they lived with Percy’s parents at 96 Wrentham Street in Dorchester. But, in 1931, they moved to the Wollaston area of Quincy. The next year they purchased a home in the Montclair neighborhood of Quincy, at 39 Bowdoin Street. Their son, Robert, was born in 1936. In 1943, they moved to 125 Elliot Avenue, North Quincy. Percy retired in the mid-1960s: in the 1963 directory no occupation is given; in 1965 he is listed as retired. Around this time, his son, Robert, working as a mason, returned to live with his parents. In November 1970, Robert, now an accountant, married Judith Ann Reid of Quincy.

Percy died on January 1, 1973, at Quincy City Hospital. A Mason since 1927 and a member of the Macedonia Lodge, a Masonic service was held for him. He is buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester.

Sources

Birth Certificate, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic

Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com

Family Tree, Ancestry.com

Census Records, Federal, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940; Ancestry.com

Boston directories, various years, Ancestry.com

Milledge Blair draft registration, World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, National Archive and Records Administration; Ancestry.com

Service Record; The Adjutant General Office, Archives-Museum Branch, Concord, MA

Lists of Outgoing Passengers 1917-1938 & Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Ancestry.com

“Deaths,” Boston Globe, 2 Jan 1973: 32; newspapers.com

“Deaths,” Quincy Sun, 11 Jan 1973: 8; Archive.org

Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Masons Membership Cards 1733–1990. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dorchester, Lower Mills, Percy Edward Blair, Uncategorized, World War 1, World War I | Comments Off

Oct. 20, 2019 Old House Dos and Don’ts: Preserving, Restoring and Updating Your Older Home

Posted on October 13, 2019 by earltaylor

Regardless of the age of your old house, thoughtful informed repairs and alterations can preserve its historical and architectural character, while suiting it for present-day living. Learn what to think about when considering changes; your questions will be welcome.

Speaker: Sally Zimmerman, Senior Preservation, Services Manager, Historic New England.

Posted in Featured Events | Tagged Alterations, architecture, Dorchester, Dorchester Historical Society, Featured_Events, history, Preservation, Program, Repairs, Restoration | Comments Off

Dorchester Historical Society

Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biography: Ralph Cunningham Barnstead

Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biography: Joseph Ballard

Dorchester Illustration 2432 Boston from Mount Bowdoin

Dorchester Illustration 2431 Everett Frank Merrill

Dorchester Illustration 2430 Louis Ferdinand Korb

Dorchester Illustration of the Day 2429 James Patrick Stuart

Dorchester Illustration 2428 Arthur Wellington Gross

Dorchester Illustration 2427 William Valentine Dacey

Dorchester Illustration 2426 Percy Edward Blair

Oct. 20, 2019 Old House Dos and Don’ts: Preserving, Restoring and Updating Your Older Home

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