Dorchester Illustration 2408 Residence and Plant of Frank H. McDonald

Posted on June 9, 2019 by earltaylor

2408 2157 Dorchester Avenue

Dorchester Illustration 2408 Residence and Plant of F. H. McDonald, building contractor

Number 2157 Dorchester Avenue as it appears today is in the upper left of today’s illustration. It is located across from the entrance to Carney Hospital.  Its appearance about 1900 is shown in the larger picture to the right.  In 1884, the lot did not exist; the land was part of tract of about 8 acres owned by Joseph Churchill.  The 1889 atlas shows the new lot of 10,000 square foot with the building at the front.  The building at the back of the property, used by F. H. McDonald for his contracting business appears for the first time in the 1898 atlas.  The 1910 atlas shows the owner as Clara E. McDonald.

The 1920 census reported that Frank, a carpenter, and his wife Clara were living in the building at the rear with their sons George, 25, and Charles, 22, and daughter Marjorie, 19.  By 1926 the McDonald family does not appear in the Boston list of residents for 2157 or 2159 Rear Dorchester Avenue.

By 1933 the property was no longer owned by the McDonald family, and the lot was sub-divided with 6500 square feet for the three-family house facing Dorchester Avenue and 3500 square feet for the building at the rear with address 2159 Rear Dorchester Avenue, fronting on Ruggles Place, later Rugdale Road. The red house at the bottom of the picture at the lower left is at the site of the former contracting building and appears to be the same building.

Anthony Sammarco says “the plant provided numerous pieces of prefabricated mill work for houses being built in Dorchester and the surrounding areas in the late 1800s and early 1900s.”

The American Series of Popular Biographies. Massachusetts Edition. says

“FRANK H. MCDONALD, a well-known resident of Dorchester, is carrying on a substantial business as one of the leading carpenters and builders of that district.  He was born in Boston, June 4, 1855, son of John and Adeline H. (Pray) McDonald.  His father’s paternal grandparents emigrated from Scotland to Nova Scotia; and there his grandfather, Hugh McDonald, and his father, John, above named were both born and reared.

John McDonald learned in Nova Scotia the trade of a ship-joiner, which he followed in his early manhood.  In 1848 he removed to Boston, where he worked for many years as a house carpenter.  His wife, whose maiden name was Adeline H. Pray, was born in New Hampshire.

Frank H. McDonald obtained a practical education in the Boston public schools, and at the age of fourteen years decided to learn the carpenter’s trade for which his mechanical ingenuity specially fitted him.  He followed this occupation as a journeyman until 1895, when he established himself in business on his own account, and has since continued it with satisfactory pecuniary results.

Mr. McDonald has been twice married.  His first wife, Mary H. Chute, daughter of Solomon Chute, of Bridgetown, N.S., died in 1886, a year after their marriage.  In 1893 Mr. McDonald married for his second wife Miss Clara E. Willard, daughter of Frederick Willard, of Thomaston, Me.  Of this union two children have been born; namely, George H. and Charles B.  Fraternally, Mr. McDonald is a member of Macedonia Lodge, A.F. & A.M.,* and of the Golden Cross.  Politically, he affiliates with the Republican party.”

*A.F. & A.M.  Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

 

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Dorchester Illustration 2407 Catharine Clapp

Posted on June 2, 2019 by earltaylor

2407 CatharineClapp in chair Lemuel Clap House with wallpaper

Dorchester Illustration no. 2407   Catharine Clapp

This is one-half of a stereoview card showing Catharine Clapp in the parlor of the Lemuel Clap House.  In the late 18th to early 19th century, the family began using Clapp, but Catharine’s father Lemuel continued to spell his name with one “p”.  When Lemuel died in 1819, he left the house to his unmarried daughters Catharine and Rebecca.  Rebecca died in 1855.

The illustration shows Catharine in her later years sitting in the parlor.  The Society has pieces of the wallpaper seen in the illustration – the wallpaper was there during the Revolution when the house was used as a barracks for Colonial troops during the Siege of Boston.  There is a story that the men who occupied the house in the run up to the fortification of Dorchester Heights tried unsuccessfully to pry the roses from the walls to adorn their uniforms.

The entry for Catharine in the family genealogy:

Catharine, b. April 17, 1782; d. unm. Feb. 21, 1872, in her 90th year. She retained her mental faculties to the last, reading her bible and other good books daily, without glasses, which through her long life she never used; was a worthy woman, of the old puritan stamp; lived and died in the house in Willow Court, occupied by her father during his life.  The house, after her death, as elsewhere mentioned, passed into the hands of her nephews, Frederick and Lemuel.

The following is from Supplement p. 321 in The Clapp Memorial. Record of the Clapp Family in America.  Compiled by Ebenezer Clapp.  Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1876.

After the death of Catharine, the east room or parlor not being used; and no fire being kept there, the wall paper became loose and a part of it came off.  This paper was known to have been on the walls one hundred and three years, and doubtless was imported from England.  It was of a showy pattern, with large columns or pillars, with bright red roses intertwined about them.  It has been said that when Capt. Lemuel’s military company was quartered in the house, in the early part of the Revolutionary War, the soldiers tried to get these roses off to put on their hats, but their efforts proved unavailing.  During the last few years, pieces of this paper have been much sought after for relics.  In the east chamber can be seen in the floor the charred marks  of the legs of the iron kettles used by the  soldiers, and in two other room the ceiling show marks made by their guns while exercising.  In striking contrast with the chimneys of the present time, the west chimney of the old house measures about eight feet square in the cellar.

The Clapp Memorial also mentions: William Blake Trask, a Dorchester cabinet-maker and later a prominent genealogist, married Richard Clapp’s daughter Rebecca (Richard was a brother of Catharine).  They built a house on Clapp Place in 1844 (now numbered 42 Mayhew Street), where they resided for 10 years.  Subsequently, for seventeen years, they lived in the Lemuel Clap House with Catharine and Rebecca, aunts to Mrs. Trask.  They continued there until Catharine’s death in 1872, then moved to the brick house erected by Mrs. T’s father, Richard, on Pond Street.

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June 15, 2019 Lemuel Clap House – Open House 11 am to 4 pm

Posted on May 30, 2019 by earltaylor

10 Lemuel Clap House 2018-11-18 smaller

The Lemuel Clap House will be open for public tours on Saturday, June 15, 2019.

The Lemuel Clap House was remodeled in the 1760s soon after Lemuel acquired the house.  There is an inner core of the house consisting of two rooms on top of one another that may be the house (or part of it) where Roger Clap lived. In the earl 1700s the house was remodeled to add the four rooms at the left (2 down and 2 up) with its 3-bay appearance.  In the 1760s the house was expanded to the right to give the 5-bay appearance in the Georgian style.

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Dorchester Illustration 2406 Frederic Nixon Weaver

Posted on May 26, 2019 by earltaylor

2406 Frederic Nixon Weaver

Dorchester Illustration no. 2406   Frederic Nixon Weaver

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 which highlights these men and their service to our country.

Our next biography features: Frederic Nixon Weaver

By Camille Arbogast

Frederic Nixon Weaver was born September 21, 1889, at 4 Dimock Street in Roxbury, the first child of Margaret I. (Nixon) and George Edwin Weaver. He was followed by three siblings: Warren born in 1891, Mabel in 1893, and Ralph in 1901.

Frederic’s paternal grandparents owned a home in Dorchester at the corner of Milton Avenue and Prospect Street (today’s Edson street). Frederic’s grandfather, a “stationary engineer,” died in 1891; by 1893, Boston directories list the Weaver family living at 50 Milton Avenue, probably the grandparents’ home. In 1895, there was a real estate transaction between Frederic’s father George and Jennie Cliff, Frederic’s aunt; it appears they divided the family property. The Cliffs lived at the corner of Milton and Edson, and the Weavers on the next lot in from the corner, 65 Edson. Growing up in Dorchester, Frederic attended the Henry L. Pierce school at Washington Street and Welles Avenue.

After working as a mason for over twenty years, Frederic’s father George became the Sexton of the Second Congregational Church, Codman Square, around 1910. At that time, Frederic was attending Tufts College. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Structural Engineering in 1913. In addition to his studies, Frederic pledged Sigma Tau Alpha, was Class Treasurer and served on the Class Day Committee.

Frederic also developed his creative side while in college. He was on the editorial board of The Tuftonian, a monthly literary magazine. His play “One a Williams,” produced at the college, won the Pen, Paint, and Pretzel Club playwriting award. Representing the Tufts Dramatic Society, he worked with the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavors of the Second Congregational Church, Codman Square, to produce the plays “Lost—A Chaperone,” and “The Deacon’s Second Wife.”

Literary endeavors continued throughout his life. In 1921, his short story “When Walls Have Breath” ran in Detective Story magazine; “Angling for Eddie,” a three-act-play, was published in 1927.  In the late 1930s, his play “A Clear Conscience” was produced by Barnstormers of Pennsylvania; two years later it was presented at Tufts by the Graduate Dramatic Society. Combining his literary and engineering talents, he also wrote a book on applied mechanics.

After graduation, Frederic spent the summer of 1913 in Europe, travelling in Italy and France. When he returned, he went to work as a checker for the New England Structural Company in Everett, Massachusetts. In 1915, he moved to Passaic, New Jersey, and taught industrial education at Passaic High School for two years.

He registered for the draft in Passaic. He had already begun the process of determining how he might serve in the war; it was noted on his registration that he had “passed officer military examination.” Frederic enlisted in the National Guard in Boston on August 22, 1917.

He served in F Company, 101st Engineers of the 26th Division, or Yankee Division. They trained for a month at Wentworth Institute in Boston, before sailing for France on the USS Andania on September 26. They were initially stationed in Rolampont, in the Haute-Marne, where they built a camp to be occupied by later arriving troops. This involved building barracks, digging latrines, and working on roads. For six weeks in February and March 1918, the Company was in the Chemin des Dames Sector, where they spent their nights stringing barbed wire and digging trenches. In the spring, in the Toul-Boucq Sector, they improved frontline trenches, again working at night, and often under fire. Frederic was promoted to Corporal in April. In July, they were at Chateau-Thierry, during the Aisne-Marne offensive. Here, their assignments included burying the dead and constructing trenches, enduring shellfire and a gas attack. Sometimes they were called upon as infantry, participating in attacks, or “going over the top.” Once they were in enemy territory, they blew up or cut barbed wire, bombed dugouts and wrecked trenches. Frederic was slightly wounded in action on July 21, a day the Company was assigned to fill shell holes on the Lucy-le-Bocage road. In August, the tenor of the war changed, and instead of digging trenches, they now filled them, building roads over them for the advancing Allied Army. In September, F Company was at the engagement at Saint-Mihiel; in October they worked around Verdon in the Meuse-Argonne. Just before the Armistice, in early November, Frederic left his company to attended the final course offered at the Engineer Candidates School. When the school closed on January 31, 1919, he returned to F Company, now assigned to road work in northwestern France.

In late February, Frederic, along with two other members of his company, “took advantage of the government’s offer and spent four blissful months in French Universities,” as he remembered in the published history of F Company. As part of the American School Detachment, Frederic studied at the University of Caen, where he remained until the end of June. He thought this “the best part of the war.”

Frederic returned to the United States in mid-July, sailing from Brest with the Brest Casual Company 2249 on the USS Imperator. He was discharged on July 22. Back in Massachusetts, he lived for a year in Medford before returning to live with his family at 65 Edson Street.

On December 19, 1923, Frederic married Ruth Johnson of Dorchester, a co-thespian from his Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavors days. For their honeymoon, they travelled in Europe for four months in the summer of 1924, visiting France, Switzerland, Italy, and England. In 1925, their son, Arthur, was born. A daughter, Dorothy, followed in 1938. The couple’s first home together was located at 16 High Street in West Somerville. By 1930, they owned 29 Adams Street in Medford, and in 1948, they purchased 34 Jackson Road, West Medford, where they lived for the rest of Frederic’s life.

Beginning with the 1919-20 school year, Frederic was an instructor of Mathematics at Tufts College. He spent his career at Tufts, rising to Professor of Civil Engineering in 1932, and finally head of the Civil Engineering department, a position he held until his retirement in 1957. During summers, he maintained a civil engineering practice. He was active in professorial and civil engineering professional societies, serving as president of the Tufts Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the New England section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Boston Society of Civil Engineers

Frederick died on August 22, 1976 at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford. He was survived by his wife, two children, and four grandchildren

Sources:

  • 1884 Bromley Atlas of the City of Boston, Dorchester, Plate N; 1910 Bromley Atlas of the City of Boston, Dorchester, Plate 25; Dorchester Historical Society, Dorchesterathenaeum.org
  • Birth Certificate, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com
  • Boston Directories, various years, Ancestry.com
  • Boston Globe, 30 Aug. 1895, 23 June, 1903, 13 June 1911, 3 October 1912, 19 January 1913, 29 May 1913, 18 June 1913, 14 May 1914, 8 March 1940, 3 September 1957, 23 August 1976; Newspapers.com
  • Census Records, Federal, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940; Ancestry.com
  • Deed, 34 Jackson Road Deed, Southern Middlesex Registry of Deeds, Masslandrecords.com
  • Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com
  • Passport Application, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C., 28 Jun 1913-09 Jul 1913 and 20 May 1924; Ancestry.com
  • Tufts College Bulletin, Annual Catalog, 1919-1920, Published by the Trustees of Tufts College; 56, Archive.org
  • Tufts Yearbooks, Various Years; Ancestry.com
  • Weaver, Frederic Nixon. “When Walls Have Breath,” Detective Story Magazine, October 15, 1921.
  • Weaver, Frederic Nixon, Angling for Eddie. Boston: Walter H. Baker Company, 1927.
  • Weaver, Frederic N. Applied Mechanics. NY: Ronald Press, 1930.
  • World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, National Archive and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
  • World War I Service Record; The Adjutant General Office, Archives-Museum Branch, Concord, MA
  • Weaver, Frederic N. and Philip N. Sanborn. The Story F Company 101st US Engineers, An Informal Narrative. Boston: T.O. Metcalf Co, 1924
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Dorchester Illustration 2405 Portrait of Isaac Withington by Robert Ball Hughes

Posted on May 19, 2019 by earltaylor

2405 Isaac Withington burnt poker drawing

Dorchester Illustration no. 2405   Burnt Poker Portrait of Isaac Withington

 The Dorchester Historical Society has recently acquired a burnt poker portrait of Dorchester Resident Isaac Withington by the artist Robert Ball Hughes.  The Society also owns a bust by Ball Hughes of Washington Irving.  Isaac Withington, the subject of the portrait, was born in Dorchester in 1802 and died here in 1877.  Perhaps you will agree that after having seen the portrait, you would recognize Mr. Withington if you were to meet him. Ball Hughes’ subjects were usually famous men and literary and artistic scenes.  It might seem odd for him to create a portrait of a person of no fame, but Withington lived on Harvard Street, only a few blocks away from Ball Hughes’s home at 3 School Street, so perhaps they were friends.

Pyrography is the art of burning sketches into wood using a hot poker. A late 19th-century publication, Wide Awake, a serial miscellany of topics from art and literature, described the technique in 1885: [Regarding]  “the drawing on wood with a hot iron (otherwise known as “poker-pictures”).  The lines are burnt upon the wood and produce the effect when varnished, of a painting in glazed oils, such as bitumen or mummy–the color of the burnt line being a rich brown upon the soft creamy tone of the wood.  the late Mr. Ball Hughes made many pictures in this manner, producing varied effects by the skilful use of his iron rod.”

William Dana Orcutt said in Good Old Dorchester (Cambridge,1893), 385-386:

“Mr. Hughes manifested his artistic nature in more ways than one. He excelled, among other things, in executing what are known as “poker sketches.” These are pictures made on whitewood, the only tools used being pieces of iron, which were heated to a white heat. Every touch of the hot iron leaves a mark which cannot be effaced, and the work is so trying to the nerves that only a short time each day can be devoted to it.

The effects of color can only be appreciated when seen. It seems incredible that such artistic results could have been produced in this way. Among the works of this kind, many of which are now in the possession of Mr. Hughes’ son-in-law, Mr. Benjamin F. Brown, may be mentioned “The Trumpeter,” “The Monk,” “Falstaff Examining his Recruits,” — embracing a dozen or more figures, —”Rembrandt,” “Don Quixote,” “Shakespeare,” “Rubens,” and “The Scotch Terrier.””

 

There are a few examples of Ball Hughes’ other burnt poker drawings at these links

http://www.geocities.ws/Paris/Rue/4029/antique.html

http://carverscompanion.com/Ezine/Vol8Issue5/KMenendez/KMenendez2.html

Robert Ball Hughes was an artist, born in London in 1804, who immigrated to America in 1829.  He  and his wife Eliza went first to Washington, D.C., where he sculpted a bust of President Jackson, then New York City, where he sculpted a bust of Alexander Hamilton and then a life-size statue of Hamilton, said to be the first marble statue cared in America. They later moved to Philadelphia, where he won a competition for an Equestrian Statue of George Washington sponsored by the Order of the Cincinnati, but the project was not completed due to the failure of the Bank of the United States.  In 1839 he was hired by the US Mint to modify the design for the Seated Liberty coins.

In 1842 they moved to Dorchester, where Ball Hughes was commissioned to produce a bronze statue of mathematician and astronomer Nathaniel Bowditch.  This statue was the first large bronze to be cast in the United States.

The Ball Hughes first lived on Adams opposite the site that would later become the Cedar Grove Cemetery.  Then in 1851 they moved to 3 School Street at the corner of Washington and School Streets.  The house is still there, though quite altered.  They entertained some of the world’s celebrities including Charles Dickens and Jane Stuart, the artist.

Ball Hughes produced many other works, and in later life he turned to poker drawings.   He was one of only a few noted artists in this medium.

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Historic houses open 11 am to 2 pm May 19th

Posted on May 12, 2019 by earltaylor

The Dorchester Historical Society’s annual meeting will take place at 2 pm at the Pipefitter’s new building on Enterprise Street on Sunday, May 19th.  Our historic houses will be open only until 2.

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Dorchester Illustration 2404 James Muldoon

Posted on May 12, 2019 by earltaylor

2404 Muldoon, James smaller

Dorchester Illustration no. 2404   James Muldoon

 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 which highlights these men and their service to our country.

Our next biography features: James Muldoon

written by nephew, George Delaney

James Muldoon, who proudly lived four decades of his adult life at the crest of Codman Hill Avenue, Dorchester, was born in Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland in 1890. Unmarried, and having become a U.S. citizen in 1913, he registered for Selective Service on June 5, 1917; then, at the age of 28, enlisted in the United States Army on April 26, 1918. He was dark in complexion, stood 5’ 8” tall and had brown hair and brown eyes. His civilian occupation was that of a freight clerk.

In service to his adopted country, he was in uniform for only 14 months, but in that short time, judging from the battles, engagements, skirmishes and expeditions he participated in, he accumulated a lifetime of both experiences and memories, likely both good and bad. As a soldier in the American Expeditionary Force, he was in the Meuse-Argonne offensive northwest of Verdun from September 26 to November 11, 1918, when the guns finally fell silent, but only after four years of carnage.  Notably, he was attached to the 4th Army Corps commencing on September 12, 1918. While his discharge papers do not confirm his military occupation, he disclosed years later to his nephew that he was a medic. Insignia on his dough boy helmet confirm his AEF status, assignment to the 4th Army Corps and the 303 Field Hospital; the helmet also displays a red cross. After the Armistice, he logged his progress across Germany on a map which has been passed down through his family, it notes for example, that he left Trier on December 16, 1918.  A panoramic photo taken by the Pyle Photo company of Waltham, Massachusetts documents the arrival of the U.S.S. Calamares at Boston on June 13, 1919, with hundreds of returning and relaxed soldiers splayed across the decks.

Undoubtedly, James was one of those soldiers. James joined the Boston Police Department (BPD) thereafter, and married Nora Cunningham on October 16, 1927, at St. Lawrence Church in Brookline. Nora’s naturalization certificate indicates they were living at 370 Bowdoin Street in Fields Corner 1928. By 1930, they lived at 32 Codman Hill Avenue, where they stayed until his death. His service to the BPD ended on March 1, 1948, at the age of 58. While on the job, he was mentioned in newspapers at least twice. James is pictured in an article entitled, “How the New Two-Way System Works – Prowl Cars Can Call Police Station as well as Receive Warning of Trouble,” (up to that time a one-way radio was in use by many police departments). James was shown outside Division 9 with eight other officers under the notation, “the day shift of Patrol Squad.”  James’s rural Irish roots undoubtedly helped him when a bull calf fell off a truck going through Dorchester and was found wandering on Blue Hill Avenue. The calf is shown “nuzzling Officer James Muldoon’s hand as gently as the fictional Ferdinand.” The nickname fellow officers penned him with, was “Hunky Dory Muldoon,” a likely insight into his disposition.

James and his wife, Nora, who had no children of their own, were ever gracious hosts in their two-family home, especially to rambunctious nieces and a nephew. He was a faithful husband and provider and a man of few words. He never owned a car, and with Nora, walked weekly to St. Gregory’s Church on Dorchester Avenue. He instilled a love of the Red Sox culture to his visitors and listened faithfully to the play by play from Fenway Park. In his later years, James, with his shock of thick white hair, could often be seen walking down Washington Street in Codman Square or picking up the bus in front of the Girls’ Latin school. He eschewed the portrayal of police officers played on television on shows such a M Squad, starring Lee Marvin.  James, six months shy of his 70th birthday, passed away of a heart attack in October, 1960, sadly missing by a month, the election of the first Irish Catholic President of the United States. Family lore informs us that James was gassed during the World War and this likely accounts for what seems an early retirement from the BPD. Indeed, upon his death in 1960, his wife was granted a disability pension.  Artifacts from his military service: helmets, gas mask, haversack, maps, postcards and photos will all be donated to the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) in Carlisle, PA, next to the U.S. Army War College, where they will be respectfully preserved and/or displayed for future generations of researchers and history lovers. Readers with like items are encouraged to do the same, as the USAHEC is not legally allowed to solicit such artifacts. (717-245-3972; www.USAHEC.org).

Submitted By:

George F. Delaney, Jr.

Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17055-3907

James was my uncle. I was born to Centre Street and lived on Lyndhurst thereafter. I graduated from St Marks, BC High and BC. My profession took me away from Dot in 1970, but I visit regularly and have two daughters who live near Boston.

Sources:

Documents in possession of George F. Delaney

Boston. City Council Record granting Nora Muldoon an annuity;

Death Certificate;

Discharge;

Enlistment Record;

Letter of condolence to Mrs. Muldoon from Congressman John McCormack;

Marriage Certificate;

Naturalization certificates for James Muldoon and for Nora Muldoon;

Photos of Muldoon in army uniform and in police uniform later in life;

Registration certificate card  1917;

Selective Service Card 1945

US Census 1930, 1940 on Ancestry.com

 

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Dorchester Illustration 2403 Herbert Hillman Ainsley

Posted on May 5, 2019 by earltaylor

2403 Herbert Ainsley

Dorchester Illustration no. 2403   Herbert Hilman Ainsley

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 which highlights these men and their service to our country.

Our next biography features: Herbert H. Ainsley – 1924.0001.058

Written by: Camille Arbogast

Herbert Hilman Ainsley was born on December 17, 1897, at 86 River Street in Lower Mills. His mother, Annie, immigrated from Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1885. His father, Charles, worked as a paper machine operator, perhaps at the nearby Tileston and Hollingworth paper factory. Herbert had four older siblings: a sister, Persis, and brothers Clarence, Malcolm, and Howard, as well as two younger sisters, Alida and Alvina, and a younger brother, Spencer. In 1903, Malcolm accidentally drowned in the Neponset River. By 1910, the family had moved up River Street to number 117 and Charles was working as a chocolate maker, presumably at the Walter Baker Chocolate Factory. In 1917, they lived at 65 Bearse Avenue.

On September 10, 1917, Herbert joined the Navy, enlisting at the Chelsea Naval Hospital and entering as a Hospital Apprentice Class 2. At the age of 19 and eight months, he was too young for the draft, which at the time was for men ages twenty-one to thirty; so, by enlisting, he was volunteering to serve. He was sent to the Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island for his first assignment. At the end of November, he was made an Apprentice Seaman; three months later he made Seaman Second Class.

In March 1918, Herbert entered the U.S. Naval Radio School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a training program for Morse Code operators on the Harvard University campus. When Herbert arrived, enrollment was near peak and barracks had been constructed on the Cambridge Common to house the 3,400 students. The course covered the basics of electrical work and radio operation, including lessons on current, batteries, generators, circuits, and transmitters. When students could transmit twenty-five words a minute, they graduated to active duty. Some students were kept on as teachers in the program. Herbert was still at the Naval Radio School when the Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918. He was released from duty in April 1919.

That September he wed Gladys E. Kent of Mattapan. They were married by Reverend Wilbur George Chaffee, the pastor of the Stanton Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. The couple moved to Flint, Michigan. There, Herbert worked as an electrician forBuick, in what was at the time the largest automobile factory in the world. He remained at Buick for 43 years. Beginning in the 1930s, Flint city directories list him as a maintenance man, sometimes specifying foreman or supervisor. When they first arrived in Flint, the Ainsleys boarded with an insurance agent and his wife, who was an inspector in an auto factory, perhaps the same factory as Herbert. Later, they owned their own homes, first at 2222 Adams Avenue and later at 1907 Prospect. They had four daughters, Pearl born in 1920, Florence in 1924, Elaine in 1926, and Patricia in 1935, and a son, Alan, born in 1941.

They retired to a home on Lake Huron in Port Austin, Michigan where they became active members of the Port Austin Senior Citizen Club, hosting potlucks and picnics. Winters were sometimes spent in Florida. Gladys died in 1991. Seven years later, Herbert died at the age of 100. He is buried in Flint Memorial Park, Mount Morris, Michigan.

Sources:

Birth Certificate via FamilySearch.org

Charles Ainsley Household, 1900, 1910 Census via Ancestry.com

Malcom C. Ainsley, Death Record via Ancestry.com

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

Gates, Alfred L. “The U.S. Naval Radio School.” The Recruit: A Pictorial Naval Magazine July 1919: 15-19, 44; via googlebooks

Herbert H. Ainsley and Gladys E. Kent, Marriage certificate via FamilySearch.org

Herbert Ainsley in the household of Carlton Stoner, 1920 Censusvia FamilySearch.org

Herbert H Ainsley, 1930, 1910 Census via Family Search

70th wedding anniversary clipping, attached to Gladys E. Kent, Roberts Family Tree, Ancestry.com

Flint City Directories, multiple years 1921-1958, via Ancestry.com

“33 Persons Enjoy Senior Citizens Annual Picnic,” Times Herald Port Austin, MI 20 August 1968: 13, via newspaper.com

Social Security death record via FamilySearch.org

Herbert H Ainsley, Michigan, United States, 05 Aug 1998; from “Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 – Today),” database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Flint Journal, The, born-digital text.

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May 19, 2019 2 pm Program and Annual Meeting

Posted on April 29, 2019 by earltaylor

Dorchester Reporter first issue edited

The Dorchester Historical Society will hold its Annual Meeting on Sunday, May 19, 2019, at 2 p.m.

Note: the program will held at the new building of the Pipefitters Local Union 537 at 40 Enterprise Street (the side street next to the Dorchester Historical Society’s headquarters).  Park in their lot.

After brief reports and the election of officers and directors, we will proceed to the program, where Bill and Ed Forry will speak about their experience publishing the Dorchester Reporter and the Mattapan Reporter newspapers. They will discuss the newspaper’s origins, and relate some of the stories they have reported on that contribute to the history of the Dorchester community in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

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Dorchester Illustration 2402 Frank Trachtenberg

Posted on April 28, 2019 by earltaylor

2402 Frank Trachtenberg

Dorchester Illustration no. 2402   Frank Trachtenberg

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: Frank Trachtenberg.

Frank Trachtenberg

By Julie Wolf

Frank Trachtenberg was born Fischel Trachtenberg in Zaslav, Russia, to Yitzchak (Isaac) Trachtenberg and Dina Dubar/Doboroon either March 15, 1899 (according to his naturalization papers and death certificate), or October 15, 1899 (according to his World War I draft and service cards). His family was part of a massive wave of Eastern European Jewish immigration to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. A manifest from the Laurentian shows that Dina Trachtenberg, nationality “Hebrew” and last residence Russia, arrived in Boston around June 17, 1906, with three children: Gitel, Moische, and 7-year-old Fischel. In America these children would become Gertrude, Morris, and Frank. They were met by a Penhus Trachtenberg, identified on the manifest as “son” and “brother.” Sixteen years Frank’s senior, Penhus (later Philip) had arrived in 1904, followed in 1905 by Abraham and Jacob. These eldest three brothers had already settled in Boston, and for the rest of their lives, the family would all call various neighborhoods in and around Boston home.

The first address we have for Frank’s family, traced through his mother (as Frank was still a child), is 73 Revere, where Dina, a widow (there’s no evidence that her husband came to America) and the six children lived together as early as 1910 and at least through 1911. By 1914, the family (minus Philip) lived at 12 Lena Park in Dorchester, which remained their home for at least another year.

On September 12, 1918, shortly before what may or may not have been his 19th birthday, Frank filed his World War I Draft Registration Card, recording his age as 18 and his birthday as October 15, 1899 (recall the discrepancy in his reported birthdates). Frank lived at 12 Lorne Street in Dorchester with his “nearest relative Diana Trachtenberg.” Lorne Street is off of Blue Hill Avenue, which was becoming a heavily Jewish area of Dorchester at the time. Described as tall and of medium build, with blue eyes and brown hair, Frank provided his occupation as “Student and Farming,” stating that he was an employee of the Public Safety Committee at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. About a month later, on October 21, 1918, he enlisted at Local Board 21 in Dorchester. A private, he served at the Student Army Training Corps at Northeastern University in Boston and was honorably discharged on December 9, 1918. Frank never served overseas.

Almost exactly a year after his discharge, Frank, unmarried and still at 12 Lorne Street, filed papers declaring his intention to become a naturalized citizen. It would take five years, but on February 29, 1924, Frank Trachtenberg, with his brothers Jacob and Abraham as witnesses, signed the document that made him an American citizen.

By 1921, Frank was at the address where he would remain for the next several years with his mother and brother Jacob, and later Jacob’s wife, Sarah: 22 Deering Street. Mother and son continued to live together for the better part of a decade. In 1932, Dina and Frank lived on Hazelton Street in Mattapan, and between at least 1935 and 1937, they shared the address 682 Walk Hill in Mattapan. During this period, at least since 1921, Frank worked at Edison Electric Illumination Company (EEI, later Boston Edison). Early on he was called a “stockman,” and later he would rise to a supervisor’s role. Life for Frank was not all work and no play; in 1922, he was a chorus boy in a production of The Love Cure staged by EEI’s Employees’ Club.

In 1938, Frank married Gertrude Abrams.  They appear in the 1940 census as husband and wife, living at 715 Washington Street in Brighton, parents of daughter Miriam Trachtenberg, a 21-year-old file clerk. Miriam’s last name was recorded incorrectly, however, as Frank was her stepfather; her birth name was Miriam Savage, Gertrude’s daughter from her first marriage. Frank and Gertrude, both around 40 when they married, do not appear to have had children together.

Until 1953 or later, Frank’s work for Boston Edison was stable, but he and Gertrude relocated frequently. They moved from Brighton to Gibbs Street in Newton in 1942. 1945 found them in Jamaica Plain, where they lived at 30 Moraine Street until at least 1948. Once again, some years are unaccounted for, but from at least 1953 until 1964, Frank and Gertrude lived at 59 Craig Street in Milton.

Frank died on October 13, 1966, and was buried in Sharon Memorial Park in Sharon. Gertrude outlived Frank by nearly 23 years.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. 1910, 1920, 1940 United States Federal Census

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Marriage IndexAncestry.com. Massachusetts, Marriage Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1798-1950 Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995

Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current

Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014

Boston (Mass.) Election Dept., City of Boston List of Residents 20 Years of Age and Older. April 1922.

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

Geni.com. Frank Trachtenberg’s Tree. 2019.

“Landsman.”Boston Globe, Aug. 20, 2006: 26.

NewspaperArchive.com. Boston Sunday Post, February 19, 1922: 70.

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