Dorchester Illustration 2336 Tenean Creek

Posted on January 21, 2018 by earltaylor

2336 Tenean Creek

Dorchester Illustration no. 2336        Tenean Creek

Tenean Creek was one of Dorchester’s distinctive early geographic features, now filled in and covered over.  The serpentine route of Tenean Creek can be best seen on the 1850 map of Dorchester.

The mouth of the creek was located at approximately where the Stop & Shop is now on Morrissey Boulevard.  The Murphy School sits on part of the filled-in creek.  The creek stretched from there northward past Park Street.

The Philip McMorrow Playground, between the Murphy School and Victory Road, is part of the creek land that was filled, as was the land where the Armory is located on the North side of Victory Road, formerly Mill Street.  In the illustration, there is a circle with a cross in it that indicates a mill at the Armory location.  That was the Breck mill built in the 17th century to make use of the rising tides to fill the mill pond.  By the time the map was drawn n 1850, the mill belonged to the Blake and Tileston families.

North of Mill Street, Tenean Creek meandered northward to Park Street and a little beyond.  Since the creek was navigable by small boats, it was useful for low-level shipping.  When the Old Colony Railroad was constructed to the east of the creek, it seemed logical to create a street next the railroad, whose property owners would have access to the creek.  Field and Drake had their business here on Exchange Street, a precursor to the Field’s Store in Field’s Corner.  The Mattapan Bank was located here.  Exchange Street is now gone along with the creek, replaced by Mapes Street lined with industrial and commercial properties.

The flat nature of the land where the creek was filled in is now the only reminder of the former presence of Tenean Creek.

 

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Dorchester Illustration 2335 Hawthorne Grove

Posted on January 14, 2018 by earltaylor
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Dorchester Illustration no. 2335        Hawthorne Grove, Sumner-Wilder House, Washington Street

The estate that became known as Hawthorne Grove was located at the intersection of Washington Street and Columbia Road.  The painting of the property was painted on the face of a brick that came from the house.

The farmhouse was originally built by Increase Sumner (1740-1774) about 1770 on land his father purchased in 1723.  William Sumner, father of Increase, bought 15 acres of “meadowland on Blue Hill Avenue” from the town of Dorchester on Nov. 8, 1723.  At that time lands that were not in individual ownership were held as Common Lands by the Selectmen of Dorchester Plantation.  These lands were rented out for firewood or more commonly pasture until sold.  Increase was a direct descendant of William Sumner, one of the founding fathers of Dorchester.

The farm was located right against the town line separating Roxbury from Dorchester that was established by the General Court in 1632.  The farmhouse served as a place of safety for the Sumner family during the Revolutionary War.  Their townhouse was on Roxbury Street just below Roxbury First Church and also just below the cannon redoubts on Fort Hill that guarded the only land route to the interior.  After Increase Sumner died in 1774, his widow and children–including his namesake son who would become Governor of Massachusetts in 1797–fled to their farm in Dorchester for the duration.  After the widow Sumner removed to Boston in 1806, her grandson General William Sumner sold the family estate in August, 1806.

Marshall Pinckney Wilder (1798-18868), a Boston merchant, acquired the old farm in 1832 and renamed it Hawthorne Grove, not to be outdone by Grove Hall nearby.  A New Hamphsire native, Wilder moved to Boston in 1825 where he opened a business in wholesale West India goods on Union Street.  This expanded into the wholesale drygoods trade, and he became a large scale broker of cotton and wool, at one point shipping from his own mills.  During the Civil War he made a fortune supplying the Union Army with the materials for uniforms.  At his death in 1886 Wilder was the oldest and one of the wealthiest commission merchants of cotton and wool in Boston.

He was more widely known during his lifetime and afterwards, however, for his active role in the development of a truly indigenous American agriculture and horticulture, especially with the propagation of fruits.  After his first wife died suddenly leaving him with four small children n 1831 he sought relief in the country and on July 31, 1832, he bought the Increase Sumner farm just outside Grove Hall for $5,500.  This contained 13 acres, a dwelling house, stable and barns on the “upper road to Milton and the Roxbury town line.”

Soon after he moved, he remarried and began to build an extensive series of greenhouses and gardens that extended over nearly 10 acres.  He encircled the estate with a stone wall, and a curved entrance drive led into the house which faced east.  Wilder grew and experimented with 900 varieties of pears alone, growing on 2500 trees, and with 300 varieties of the southern shrub the camellia.  So great was his collection of flowers, as Francis Drake implies in his book The Town of Roxbury (1878), that the Marshall greenhouses were emptied out to form the basis of the Boston Public Garden in 1839.

For eight years (1840-1847) he was president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, for twenty years president of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, six years president of the United States Agricultural Society, and, from its organization in 1848, president of the American Pomological Society.  He was largely influential in the embellishment of Mount Auburn, also in the founding of the Institute of Technology and the Natural History Rooms in Boston.  Of the New England Historical Genealogical Society, he was president from the date of his first election in 1868 to the close of his earthly life.

The subdivision of the wilder estate began in 1892 when Wilder’s son by his third marriage, his youngest, Edward Baker Wilder, built a 2 ½ story, wood frame, shingle style house where no. 90 Columbia Road is today.  It was designed by Hartwell-Richardson and was located not far from the Wilder estate stable.  In 1924 the house was bought and moved to the rear of the lot and an apartment house was built on its site.  On August 20, 1924, Julius Krinsky and Abraham Bobbitt bought the old farm house with 20,000 square feet of land from the Edward’s estate.  They razed the 150 year-old farm house and built 5 three-story apartment buildings on the property in 1925.

 

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Dorchester Illustration 2334 The Dorchester Giant

Posted on January 7, 2018 by earltaylor

2334 Dorchester Giant by Willy Pogany

Dorchester Illustration no. 2334        Dorchester Giant

The conglomerate rock that naturally occurred in Dorchester and Roxbury (and actually much of the world) has engendered many references. St. Peter’s Church was built partly of the stone quarried from its site. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote of Dorchester puddingstone both in The Professor at the Breakfast Table and in a poem entitled ‘The Dorchester Giant’, a poem explaining the creation of the rock.

The poem was included in My Poetry Book. Illustrated by Willy Pogany. Chicago: John C. Winston, 1934.  Today’s illustration comes from the 1950 reprint of that book.

    The Dorchester Giant

    Oliver Wendell Holmes

THERE was a giant in time of old,
A mighty one was he;
He had a wife, but she was a scold,
So he kept her shut in his mammoth fold;
And he had children three.

It happened to be an election day,
And the giants were choosing a king;
The people were not democrats then,
They did not talk of the rights of men,
And all that sort of thing.

Then the giant took his children three,
And fastened them in the pen;
The children roared; quoth the giant, “Be still!”

And Dorchester Heights and Milton Hill
Rolled back the sound again.

Then he brought them a pudding stuffed with plums,
As big as the State-House dome;
Quoth he, “There’s something for you to eat;
So stop your mouths with your ‘lection treat,
And wait till your dad comes home.”

So the giant pulled him a chestnut stout,
And whittled the boughs away;
The boys and their mother set up a shout.
Said he, “You’re in, and you can’t get out,
Bellow as loud as you may.”

Off he went, and he growled a tune
As he strode the fields along
‘Tis said a buffalo fainted away,
And fell as cold as a lump of clay,
When he heard the giant’s song.

But whether the story’s true or not,
It isn’t for me to show;
There’s many a thing that’s twice as queer

In somebody’s lectures that we hear,
And those are true, you know.

What are those lone ones doing now,
The wife and the children sad?
Oh, they are in a terrible rout,
Screaming, and throwing their pudding about,
Acting as they were mad.

They flung it over to Roxbury hills,
They flung it over the plain,
And all over Milton and Dorchester too
Great lumps of pudding the giants threw;
They tumbled as thick as rain.

Giant and mammoth have passed away,
For ages have floated by;
The suet is hard as a marrow-bone,
And every plum is turned to a stone,
But there the puddings lie.

And if, some pleasant afternoon,
You’ll ask me out to ride,
The whole of the story I will tell,
And you shall see where the puddings fell,
And pay for the punch beside.

 

Check out the Dorchester Historical Society’s online catalog at

http://dorchester.pastperfectonline.com/

The archive of these historical posts can be viewed on the blog at www.dorchesterhistoricalsocietyblog.org

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Dorchester Illustration 2333 Bridge from Commercial Point to Squantum

Posted on December 31, 2017 by earltaylor

2333 Bridge to Squantum 5-17-1919

Dorchester Illustration no. 2333        Bridge from Commercial Point to Squantum

During World War I, a bridge was built from Commercial Point, Dorchester, to Squantum, Quincy, to allow workers to travel from Boston to the plant manufacturing destroyers at the Naval Air Station in Squantum.

Today we have a photo showing the bridge as it appeared in 1919, and we have a portion of a US Coast Survey chart of Boston Harbor from 1921 showing the location of the bridge across the opening of the Neponset River.  The view is from the Quincy side toward Commercial Point with its coal gas holders.  The bridge first shows up in the Bromley Dorchester Atlas in 1918 and on the 1919 US Coast Survey chart, but by the 1927 Coast Survey it no longer appears.  We have not seen coast surveys between 1923 and 1927, so we don’t know the exact year it was taken down.  A comment found on the internet without documentation states it was taken down in 1925.

 

The following comes from Scientific American, May 4, 1918, p. 407

Building a Bridge in Six Weeks to Save a Half Hour

Nothing is too costly or impossible in carrying out our war program.  That is the impression one gets when travelling through any section of this big country during these days of preparation and toil for the struggle across the sea.

A typical case is that of the Squantum Destroyer Plant near Boston, Mass., which is popularly known as the Victory Plant in that locality.  One of the chief difficulties in locating the plant on the Quincy side of the Neponset River was the inaccessibility to Boston and the lost time and inconvenience of laborers and mechanics in getting to work.

Something had to be done–and done in a hurry.

So it was decided to run a bridge directly from the Squantum plant to the nearest point, which is known as Commercial Point, Dorchester.  As time was the paramount element, the type of construction decided upon was the usual wood pile construction, and as the bridge crosses a navigable river, a draw had to be installed which was, of course, of steel.  Work was started late in October, under the direction of Thomas C. Atwood, Supervising Engineer for the Bureau of Yards and Docks.  The bridge was completed shortly after the middle of December, so that by Christmas all laborers to and from the plan were furnished a direct route 20 minutes from the elevated terminal in Boston, thus doing away with approximately two and a half miles of distance to be traveled and one-half hour’s time for each trip; furthermore, and this is an important consideration where workmen are concerned, the extra carfare called for by the second street railway company has been eliminated.  Fortunately, the greater part of the work was completed before the ice reached sufficient thickness to cause trouble.

The Victory Bridge, as it is called, was first used for passenger traffic only in the rush hours morning and evening; but at the present time a half-hourly schedule is in effect continually through the day was well as extra service morning and evening.  Besides caring for street traffic, the bridge is used for pedestrians and for the teaming of materials to the Squantum works.

Note: A comment without documentation on the internet says: It opened on the 11th of January 1918. I ran across this when I stumbled on a request that a trolley line from Dudley Square be routed to the plant over the bridge.  Another comment on the internet says: There may, in fact, be a very small piece of this bridge left near the so-called Victory Park near the northbound Southeast Expressway off-ramp on Victory Road. You can see it when the vegetation clears in that area in the spring and fall. Anyway, there was a Boston Elevated trolley line over the Victory Bridge, which was a trestle structure made of wood with a steel draw span over the river’s navigable channel. The trolleys ran from the Dudley Street station into the shipyard via the Victory Bridge and Victory Road. The trip took 30 minutes and the fare was five cents.

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Dorchester Illustration 2332 Seavey P. Swan

Posted on December 24, 2017 by earltaylor

2332 Seavey Pierce Swan

Dorchester Illustration no. 2332        Seavey P. Swan

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: SEAVEY PIERCE SWAN

Seavey Pierce Swan was born in Dorchester on 7 November 1874 to J. Edwin Swan and Annie Tower, both of Massachusetts.  The family, including an older brother William, lived on Adams Street.  The father was a clerk. In 1880, the family still lived on Adams Street with the father being a clerk in a store.

In 1893, Seavey graduated from Dorchester High School where he was a member of the cadets.  By 1900, Seavey was 26 and still living with his family on Adams Street.  The family consisted of his mother and father, and his brother William, who was married and had his own daughter.  There are also two people listed as servants living with them.  Their father, John, was a plumber, William was an Associated Press Reporter, and Seavey was a telephone worker.

On October 20, 1906, Seavey married Laura Stevens of Gloucester.  He was listed as a manager and she a teacher.  They had 3 daughters.  Mary was born in 1907 with Seavey listed as an engineer and his residence given as Castlegate Road.  Elisabeth was born in 1909 with Seavey listed as a telephone employee in Boston and his residence given as Seaver Street.  Daughter Anne was born in 1915.

Seavey enlisted in the Cart Artillery in June 1917 when he was 44 years old.  He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on July 1917 and was at Fort Banks (a U.S. Coast Artillery Fort, Winthrop, MA) until October when he was moved to the Watertown Arsenal.  In April 1918 he was ordered to Fort Monroe Officers School for two months (April/May).  Following that, he was stationed at Fort Strong (a U.S. Coast Artillery Fort on Long Island, Boston) until July 31, 1918 when he sailed overseas with the American Expeditionary Force for Auge, France.

After the war, Seavey returned to Boston. In 1920, he was living in Dorchester, on Seaver Street, with his wife and three daughters.  By 1930, the Swans had bought their own home on Manthorne Road in West Roxbury and were living there with their two oldest daughters, Mary and Elizabeth.  Seavey was a telephone worker and Laura stayed at home.  The census listed him as a World War I veteran.  In 1940, the family was still living at the same house on Manthorne Road but now with Elizabeth and Ann.  Seavey was then listed as a salesman in the motor oil industry.

Seavey died suddenly of heart disease on December 20, 1962 at Carney Hospital.  He was 88 years old and was living on Kirk Street in West Roxbury.  He had been retired from the Subsignal Company. He was survived by his wife, is buried at the Dorchester South Burying Ground and  is memorialized on a plaque of the Third Religious Society (Unitarian) which is located at the Dorchester Historical Society.

Do you know more about Seavey Swan? We would love to hear from you! All material has been researched by volunteers  at the Dorchester Historical Society, so please let us know if we got something wrong or you think a piece of the story is missing!

REFERENCES:

Birth Records, FamilySearch.org

Census Records, Federal, 1880, 1900, 1910, FamilySearch.org

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

Death Record, Vital Statistics, Mt. Vernon St., Dorchester

Death notice, Boston Globe

Dr. Perkins’ notes

Find A Grave Index, FamilySearch.org

Graduation program, Boston City Archives

Marriage Record, FamilySearch.org

 

 

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Dorchester Illustration 2331 Harold Bispham Daly

Posted on December 17, 2017 by earltaylor

2331- Daly Harold B

Dorchester Illustration no. 2331        Harold Bispham Daly

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: HAROLD BISPHAM DALY

Harold B. Daly was born on 10 September 1894 to Martin Ordway Daly, a dentist who was born in Boston and Mary Eastman who was born in Brookline. In 1900 and 1910, the family was living with the father’s parents on Adams Street., Dorchester. They had a servant. Harold graduated from Dorchester High School in 1913 and secured a position at Old Colony Trust Company by September 1913.

By 1917, Harold’s fatherhad died and Haroldhad registered for the draft. He was listed as a bank clerk at the Old Colony Trust Co., Court Street, Boston, and as partial support for his widowed mother. He was of medium height and build, with brown eyes and hair.

Harold was selected for service May 31, 1918, trained at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, assigned to Field Artillery Replacement Depot through August 15, and transferred to D Truck Co.,  5th Corps Artillery Parkuntil discharge. He was appointed Sergeant on August 21, went overseas on September 23, landed at St. Nazaire on October 7 and was at St. Amand whenthe  armistice was signed. He sailed from Pauillac, France on the U.S.S. Santa Ana on March 16 and landed in Hoboken on March 29th. He was honorably discharged from the service at Camp Devens on April 17, 1919.

In 1920, the family still resided on Adams Street with a servant. The grandfather is no longer there. Harold is a bookkeeper at the bank.

Sometime before 1930, Harold married Alma W. Nadeau and they had one child, Elizabeth B., age 2 in 1930. They still resided on Adams Street with other members of the family. By 1940, Harold is listed as a clerk at police headquarters and still resided on Adams Street with his wife, child and a lodger.

When he registered for the draft in 1942, he was employed by the City of Boston, 154 Berkeley Street, Boston (Police Headquarters) and still resided on Adams Street.

Harold died 11 December 1958 at age 64, of respiratory failure and cerebral hemorrhage at Carney Hospital and is buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery, Dorchester. He lived on Adams Street, but a different house number than all the previous addresses. He was survived by his wife and daughter and is memorialized on a plaque of the Third Religious Society (Unitarian) which is located at the Dorchester Historical Society.

 

Do you know more about Harold Bispham Daly? We would love to hear from you! All material has been researched by volunteers  at the Dorchester Historical Society, so please let us know if we got something wrong or you think a piece of the story is missing!

REFERENCES:

Census Records, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, FamilySearch.org

Death record, Vital Statistics, Mt. Vernon St., Dorchester

Dr. Perkins’ Notes

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

WW1 and WW11 Draft registration, Ancestry.com & FamilySearch.org

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Dorchester Illustration 2330 Dr. James Baker’s house

Posted on December 10, 2017 by earltaylor
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Dorchester Illustration no. 2330       

 James Baker’s House

The painting is on the face of a brick that came from the house.

James Baker was the founder of the chocolate company that later became the Walter Baker Company.

Dr. James Baker was born September 5, 1739, of the fourth generation from Richard who was the pioneer of the Baker family in this country.  Richard landed in Boston from the Norsey (North Sea) bark “Bachelor,” of which he was second in command in November 1635.  He settled in Savin Hill.   Orcutt says of Dr. James, “… owing to the gentleness of his disposition, his parents were induced to fit him for the ministry.”  With this in view he went through Harvard College, graduating in 1760, and then began to study theology with the Rev. Jonathan Bowman, the minister of Dorchester, whose son-in-law he afterwards became.  While fitting for his profession, Mr. Baker taught school, and this delayed him in getting started in the ministry.  It soon became apparent that his extreme diffidence would prevent him from performing the duties of a minister; so he voluntarily gave up the idea, and began to study medicine, teaching school at intervals during this period.

Dr. James had his home on a large tract of land at the corner of Washington and Norfolk

Streets.  “The profession of medicine, however, proved distasteful to him; and he laid in a stock of merchandise, and opened a store.  In 1780, he saw that there were great possibilities in the chocolate business; so he closed his store, and began to manufacture chocolate.  The success of this undertaking was remarkable, and ‘Baker’s Chocolate’ has been manufactured ever since, now being known in all parts of the world.”

Check out the Dorchester Historical Society’s online catalog at

http://dorchester.pastperfectonline.com/

The archive of these historical posts can be viewed on the blog at www.dorchesterhistoricalsocietyblog.org

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Dorchester Illustration 2329 Grove Hall Universalist Church

Posted on December 3, 2017 by earltaylor

2329 Grove Hall Universalist Church

Grove Hall Universalist Church

The Holy Tabernacle Church is located at 70 Washington Street and has a legal address on the side street of 14 Bishop Joe L. Smith Way.  This section of Washington Street is between Columbia Road and Blue Hill Avenue.

The society that built the church was the Grove Hall Universalist Church, following the design of Francis R. Allen.

The following is from Parish Register of the Grove Hall Universalist Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts and Favorite Recipes.  1913.

“The Grove Hall Universalist Church came into existence March 3, 1878, being an off-shoot of the Roxbury Universalist Church, and in its inception received the cordial support of that parish.  On January 9, 1878, a meeting was held at the residence of Mr. Franklin S. Williams for the purpose of organizing a church.

Starting as a mission church, holding its first or preliminary meetings at the residents of various interested persons, it soon wanted a centrally located temporary home, and began holding its meetings in Wetherell Hall, at or near the junction of Washington Street and Blue Hill Avenue.  That served its needs for a time, but the desire for a home having more the churchly appearance prevailed, and the church on the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Schuyler Street was built.

This amply served the purposes of the society until about 1892, when the subject of a new larger church was agitated, resulting in the building of the present edified.  At about this same time it also ceased to be a mission church, and since then has been able to maintain services without calling upon the state Convention for aid.

The present edifice was completed in 1895, and cost, furnished, about $45,000: $25,000 of this was provided for by a mortgage; the balance was raised by canvassing our parishioners.  To our good member, kind and generous neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Ivers W. Adams, we are largely indebted, both for their liberality in subscribing for the building and in their continued liberality in contributing to the wiping out of the mortgage debt, which has lately been accomplished and made possible largely through their instrumentality.”

Ivers Adams, mentioned above, is described in George V. Tuohey (1897). A History of the Boston Baseball Club – A concise and accurate history of Base Ball from its inception. Boston, MA: M.F. Quinn & Co., 1897,  p. 64.  His house faced Columbia Road at the corner of Washington Street.

Ivers Whitney Adams (born in Ashburnham, Massachusetts in 1838) was an American baseball executive and businessperson, and founder of the first professional baseball team in Boston, the Boston Red Stockings.

Adams was the Founder, Organizer and First President of the Boston Base Ball Association, the legal corporation that operated the baseball club initially known as the Boston Red Stockings. The club was Boston’s first professional baseball team, continues to operate today as the Atlanta Braves, and is the longest continuously operating team in Major League Baseball. On January 20, 1871, the Boston Base Ball Association was legally organized by Adams with $15,000 raised from investors and the commitment of Harry Wright, manager of America’s first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, to manage the new Boston club. ”

 

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Dorchester Illustration 2328 Arthur, Gregory and William Desmond

Posted on November 26, 2017 by earltaylor

2328 Arthur, Gregory and William Desmond

left to right: Arthur, Gregory and William Desmond

Desmond Brothers

At the Dorchester Historical Society, we are in the process of a year-long project to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of World War I. Using a collection of photographs we have of World War I Dorchester residents, we will be featuring soldiers 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 three brothers: William, Arthur, and Gregory Desmond

William, Arthur, and Gregory were three of 10 children born to John and Annie (Quinn) Desmond. John was born in Dorchester but Annie was a Canadian immigrant, from New Brunswick. William John was born on October 6, 1893, Arthur Francis was born on November 27, 1894, and Gregory Timothy was born on January 8, 1900. William was born in East Boston, but by the time Arthur was born, the Desmond family was living on Sturbridge Street in the Lower Mills neighborhood of Dorchester, now known as Mattapan. John was working as a butcher and Annie stayed at home with the children.

William registered for the draft on June 5, 1917 when he was 24 years old. His draft card lists him as a ship carpenter at George Lawley & Sons in Neponset and is described as a tall, stout man with dark hair and blue eyes. He had already served as a private in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. According to his service record, William enlisted in the National Guard on April 10, 1917 and deployed to Europe on September 26, 1917. While in Europe, he participated in a number of engagements: Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Chemin des Dames, Toul-Boucq, Pas Fini, Rupt, and Troyon. He was honorably discharged in April of 1919.

Arthur also registered for the draft on June 5, 1917. He was 22 years old and his occupation is listed as “plumber;” working on Washington Street in Boston for a V.A. Bolger. He is described as a tall, slender, young man with brown eyes and black hair. According to his service record, he enlisted at the Boston Navy Yard on June 29, 1917. He served on the U.S.S. Charleston as a plumber for almost a year, he was then transferred to a receiving ship at Norfolk, Virginia where he stayed until November 11, 1918. He was honorably discharged at the end of his enrollment period on June 28, 1921.

Gregory enlisted in the United State Navy at the Navy Recruiting Station in Charlestown on January 25, 1918. He was 18 years and one month old and entered as an Apprentice Seaman. His service record indicates that he was home awaiting orders for one month until he was sent to the Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island during February of 1918. From there, he was sent to serve on the U.S.S. Arkansas from March 1918 until the end of the war in November of 1918. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the U.S.S. Arkansas was assigned to Battleship Division 7 stationed in Virginia; it’s primary responsibility was to patrol the East Coast and train gun crews. However, in July 1918, the Arkansas was sent to England and joined the Grand Fleet – the main fleet of the British Royal Navy. He was discharged as a Second Class Seaman from the Boston Receiving Ship on May 21, 1919.

After the war, William returned to Boston and is found living with his parents until his marriage to Esther Gray in 1920. William and Esther moved only two houses down to number 20 Sturbridge Street and had two children – William, born in 1923, and Virginia, born in 1926. According to United States Census records and Boston City Directories, William worked as a carpenter. William died on January 20, 1976 at the age of 82. His obituary indicates he was a veteran of World War I and had five grandchildren and three great grandchildren at the time of his passing.

Arthur had already been married a year by the time he was discharged from the Navy. He married Catherine Burke on November 11, 1917 and she appears to lived with her parents while Arthur was in the service. When Arthur returned from the war, he moved in with his in-laws on River Street in Mattapan. Arthur and Catherine welcomed their first child, a daughter named Josephine, in 1921, and Arthur Jr. was born in 1926. According to the 1930 census records, Arthur and Catherine have moved to nearby Duxbury Street and are living there with their two children. Arthur is working as a plumber for the City of Boston’s Public Works Department.  Arthur died suddenly on August 28, 1959 at the age of 64. His obituary lists him as being a loving husband, father, and sibling. He was the late past president of the Saint Gregory’s Holy Name Society and a Past Grand Knight of the Dorchester Lower Mills Knights of Columbus Council #180.

Gregory went on to marry and start his own family as well. He married Louise Noonan in 1924 and went on to have seven children together. Like many other men in the Lower Mills neighborhood, Gregory was employed by the Walter Baker Company where he worked as a millwright. Gregory and his family remained in Dorchester and were parishioners of Saint Gregory’s Church until their deaths. Louise died in 1962 and Gregory passed away on October 29, 1969 at the age of 69. His obituary indicates he was a late member of the Lower Mills V.F.W. #8699.

Do you know more about the Desmond brothers? We would love to hear from you! All material has been researched by volunteers at the Dorchester Historical Society, so please let us know if we got something wrong or you think a piece of the story is missing!

Sources

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 Birth Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2013.

 

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Index, 1901-1980 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2013.

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

“Desmond” obituary, Boston Globe, 30 Aug 1959.

“Desmond” obituary, Boston Globe, 31 Oct 1969.

“Desmond” obituary, Boston Globe, 22 Jan 1976.

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

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Dorchester Illustration 2327 Salvatore Maradei

Posted on November 19, 2017 by earltaylor

2327 Salvatore Maradei

Dorchester Illustration no. 2327        Salvatore Maradei

Jane Pisciottoli-Papa is a faithful follower of our Dorchester Historical Society social media pages. When she heard about our World War I project, she contacted us to see if we might feature her great uncle in our exhibit. She sent us a wealth of information including documents and photographs from her own extensive genealogy of her family. We are happy to include Jane’s great uncle in our exhibit!

Salvatore Maradei was born in Boston on June 19, 1888 to Louis and Filomena (Marzano) who were both Italian immigrants. Louis was a barber who worked at South Station. Although the vital records record Salvatore’s name as “Mario Salvatore,” his parents intended for his first name to be Salvatore – named for his father’s father. He was baptized as such at St. Leonard of Port Maurice Church in the North End of Boston. However, to his family, he was simply, “Jack.”

In the 1910 United States Census, Salvatore was 21 years old and living at home with his father and his three siblings: Elvira (19), William (16), and Frank (14). Salvatore’s occupation is listed as “book binder.” The family lived on Coleman Street in the Meetinghouse Hill/Fields Corner neighborhood of Dorchester.

Salvatore registered for the draft at the age of 29 in June of 1917 and was described as being a young man of short stature, stout build, with brown eyes and black hair. He left for Europe from New York City aboard the RMS Mauretania, a British luxury liner that had been commissioned by Great Britain during World War I to carry American troops to the battlefields of Europe. Salvatore served as a private in the Headquarters Company of the 55th Coast Artillery of the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC). The CAC were designated to provide all US-manned heavy artillery, railway artillery, and anti-aircraft artillery and mostly worked alongside the French forces. Salvatore served in France in a number of engagements including: Aisne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, Meuse-Argonne, and Vesle. He returned stateside from Brest, France in New York City on January 22, 1919, aboard the S.S. Cretic and was honorably discharged in February of 1919.

In the 1920 United States Census, Salvatore has returned from military service and is living with his sister, Elvira, and her family on Norton Street in Dorchester. He is, again, listed as a “book binder.” In 1934, Salvatore is still living in Dorchester but has moved to Delmont Street in the Neponset neighborhood. By 1936, Salvatore is living in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston, on Westland Avenue, and working as a “forwarder” at the Boston Public Library.

Salvatore died unexpectedly on April 14, 1944 at the young age of 55. He is buried in Mt. Benedict Cemetery in West Roxbury, MA with his parents.

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]. Provo, 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 Birth Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2013.

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Index, 1901-1980 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2013.

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

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

Check out the Dorchester Historical Society’s online catalog at

http://dorchester.pastperfectonline.com/

The archive of these historical posts can be viewed on the blog at www.dorchesterhistoricalsocietyblog.org

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