Dorchester Illustration 2339 Patrick Joseph McLoughlin

Posted on February 11, 2018 by earltaylor

2339 Patrick McLoughlin 1918

 

Dorchester Illustration no. 2339     Patrick Joseph McLoughlin

 

Mary McLoughlin Boucher has been following our World War I servicemen blog posts and contacted us about her grandfather, who was a lifelong Dorchester resident and veteran of World War I. We are honored to have another serviceman to feature in our exhibit.

PATRICK JOSEPH MCLOUGHLIN

Patrick Joseph McLoughlin was born in Ardnisbrack, Ballygawley, Sligo, Ireland on September 14, 1892. He was one of nine children of James and Catherine McLoughlin. Patrick immigrated to the United States in 1915. Three years later, Patrick joined the United States Army.

Patrick enlisted in the United States Army in Dorchester on June 25, 1918. He served as a private Company B of the 70th Engineers. He never left the United States during his service; he was stationed in Salt Lake City, Utah where one of his assignments was to guard German prisoners of war who were being held there at Fort Douglas. Patrick was honorably discharged at Camp Devens on December 30, 1918. During his time in the Army, Patrick became a United States citizen; he was naturalized on July 12, 1918.

After his discharge, Patrick stayed in Boston and, in 1920, is living with his sister, Catherine, and her family on Greenwich Street in Dorchester. In 1922, Patrick applied for a United States passport in order to return to Ireland with his sister’s son, his nephew John. However, Patrick returned to the United States and his sister’s home. While on the voyage back to the United States, Patrick met his future wife, another Irish immigrant who had been in the United States since 1915, a young woman named Bridget Gunning. Patrick and Bridget married in Boston in 1926.

The young couple settled in Dorchester where they would remain together until Patrick’s death in 1972. In 1930, Patrick and Bridget are living in Dorchester, renting an apartment at 69 Adams Street with their two year old son, James. Patrick is listed as a railroad inspector and a veteran of World War I. By the 1940 census, the family has grown to a family of 5, with the addition of two sons: John and Thomas. The family is now living at 34 Olney Street and Patrick is listed as the homeowner. Patrick is still working as a railroad inspector and we see from the city directory that he is employed by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company.

Patrick remained in Dorchester until his death on December 9, 1972. At the time of his death, he was a grandfather to nine grandchildren (later to become twelve!). He was a member of the Brotherhood Railroad Carmen of America Local No. 232 and St. Peter’s Holy Name Society.

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Dorchester Illustration 2338 Marion E. Voye

Posted on February 4, 2018 by earltaylor

2338 Marion E Voye

 

Dorchester Illustration no. 2338     Marion E. Voye

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 a woman: Marion E. Voye

Marion was born in Boston on December 20, 1894, to parents Albert and Alice (Douglas) Voye. Her parents were both Canadian immigrants, her father from Nova Scotia and her mother from New Brunswick. At the time of her birth, Marion’s father was listed as a grocer but by the 1900 census, he is listed as a life insurance agent. Her mother, Alice, stayed at home and raised Marion and her three sisters – Helen, Alice, and her younger sister, Edith (Marion was the third child). The family lived at 56 Sanford Street, in the Lower Mills neighborhood of Dorchester.

In 1910, the family is still living in Lower Mills but on nearby Temple Street and they are now a family of eight. Marion gained two more younger siblings: Doris and Albert, Jr. It also appears that Marion’s father changed jobs and is working at the nearby Walter Baker Chocolate Factory as a chocolate maker, as most of the men in the neighborhood did. Marion’s maternal grandmother was also living with the family. Tragically, in 1917 when Marion was 22, her younger brother, Albert, drowned in the Neponset River when he was only 12 years old. The Boston Globe reported that the boy drowned when he fell off the bridge near the Walter Baker Chocolate Factory when he was “dared” by his friends to walk across the trestles of the bridge.

A little over a year later, on August 25, 1918, when Marion was 23 years old, she left New York City for France as a member of the United States Army Nurse Corps (ANC). Once in France, she worked at the ANC Base Hospital No. 51 which was based in Toul. She left France from Brest on February 26, 1919 aboard the Leviathan and arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey on March 6, 1919.

A little over three months after returning home from Europe, Marion married a railroad engineer from Pennsylvania named Howard Mitchell on July 16, 1919 in Boston. By the 1920 census, Marion and Howard are living with Howard’s family in Factoryville, Pennsylvania. Howard was also a veteran of World War I, having served on the battlefields of Verdun, France. Their only child, Howard Chester, was born on July 12, 1921 in Scranton. However, by 1930, Marion and her young family of three have moved back to her hometown and she is again living on Sanford Street; this time at number 14. Howard is listed as a machinist at a factory and Marion staying at home. Interestingly, on the census, only Howard is listed as a veteran of World War I.

At some point before 1940, Howard and Marion divorced. In the 1940 census, Marion and their son, Howard, are living in a home that she owns at 179 Thacher Street in Milton. She also appears to be renting a room to a public school teacher. Marion has also resumed working as a nurse and listed as working in “private duty.” According to the City Directory for Milton, Marion is still living in Milton until at least 1945 and Howard, her son, is now in the United States Air Force.

Unfortunately, not much is known about Marion and her life after 1945. She appears to have moved to California at some point and remarried someone with the last name of “Breen” as this was the last name listed on her death certificate; she died on December 7, 1981 in San Bernardino County. She is buried at the Riverside National Cemetery where she is listed as a lieutenant, nurse in the United States Army.

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

Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.

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

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

Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011.

“Dorchester Man is Victim of Drowning,” Boston Globe, 20 Apr 1917.

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 2337 Sewell Rich

Posted on January 28, 2018 by earltaylor

2337 Sewell Rich

 

Dorchester Illustration no. 2337     Sewell Wilcutt Rich

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: SEWELL WILCUTT RICH

Sewell was born 26 December 1894 in Cohasset, Massachusetts to Thomas A. Rich, a hair salesman born in Mass. and Mary A. Wellman, born in Waldoboro, Maine.

In 1900, Sewell was the youngest of 3 children. His brother Thomas W. was 15 years old and his sister Anna L. was 9 years old. By 1910, the family was living on Frost Avenue, Dorchester and the elder brother was no longer at home. Sewell graduated from the Osgood Primary School, Cohasset in 1900, Mary Hemingway School, Dorchester in 1907 and Mechanics Art High, Boston in 1908/09.

In 1917, Sewell registered for the draft. His occupation was listed as an automobile mechanic at Franklin Motor Car Co., Commonwealth Avenue, Boston and his residence as Radford Lane. He was tall with medium build, gray eyes and dark brown hair.

He enlisted in the Massachusetts Calvary Headquarters Department May 1916 and was on the Mexican border by June 1916. At age 22, he enlisted in the National Guard at Allston, Mass. on June 7, 1916 with D Troop, Separate Squadron, Cavalry, Massachusetts National Guard through August 5, 1917. He had been stationed at Fort Bliss (headquartered in El Paso, Texas) for five months.  On return from the border, he was called for service again in June 1917, transferred to Co. B, 102nd Machine Gun Battalion through April 20, 1918. He had been promoted from Private to Corporal, July 23, 1917, mustered August 1, 1917 and sent to France on September 1917. He was in front line trenches by February 1918 and promoted to Sergeant. He was engaged in the Defensive sectors of Chemin-des-Dames and Toul-Boucq. Unfortunately, he was severely wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Seicheprey, one of the earliest battles, on April 20, 1918. He was held in prison camps in Limburg, Damstard/ Darmstadt, Luchail and Rastartt/Rastatt from April 20 to December 8, 1918. In January 1919, his father had received a telegram that he was in Vichy France in an American Hospital. He was honorably discharged on April 4, 1919 after serving overseas from September 25, 1917 to March 6, 1919. (Photo 80A was taken behind the lines in France.)

In 1920, Sewell was living with his parents on Radford Lane. He was listed as a wholesale candy dealer. By 1930, he was married to Ruth Bennett, lived with her family (mother and sister) on Lombard Street and worked as a furniture salesman. In May, 1933, they had one son, Robert, who was raised in Hanson, Massachusetts and who served in the Army during the Korean War.

Sewell died on December 23, 1937 at age 42, of Tuberculosis at the V.A. facility in Rutland Heights, Massachusetts. He was survived by his wife and son. He is buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery, Dorchester and is memorialized on a plaque of the Third Religious Society (Unitarian) that is located at the Dorchester Historical Society.

Do you know more about Sewell Wilcutt Rich? 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, FamilySearch.org

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

Dr. Perkins’ Notes

Obituary, Patriot Ledger, Robert Bennett Rich, August 7, 2013

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

WW1 Draft Registration, FamilySearch.org

 

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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
KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

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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