Sepia Saturday 687. Eighth in a series about letters written by my dad’s brother Frederic Mason Charboneau while in the US Army during WWII.
After the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was enacted — on Sept. 16, 1940 — the US government set up nationwide registration for the first peacetime draft in US history.
Wed., Oct. 16, 1940, was set as Registration Day or R-Day in the ramp up to US entry into WWII, as described in the article below.
Some 16.5 million men were expected to register, at a projected rate of 1 million per day — and my paternal uncle Frederic Mason Charboneau, 22, was one of them.
Local Board 435 in Remsen, N.Y.
To set up draft boards all over the country, locations had to be found, draft cards had to be printed/distributed and staff had to be hired who could answer questions and help get the forms filled out.
As noted in the article above, one solution was to use local polling places — often located in school buildings. The public knew where they were and poll workers may have been tapped to staff the new draft boards.
Thus, Uncle Fred reported to Local Board 435 located in the Remsen School, shown above, near his Otter Lake, Oneida Co., N.Y., hometown. There, he completed a draft card that provided some interesting personal and family details.
Uncle Fred’s draft card details
Shown below is the card Uncle Fred filled out on that fateful day. From it we learn his full name and its correct spelling: Frederic Mason Charboneau.
He also stated he lived in Otter Lake, Oneida Co. N.Y., and that he was born in Dolgeville, N.Y. on March 13, 1918 — making him 22 and a US citizen.
For the “name of person who will always know your address” he wrote down his father (and my grandfather) William Ray Charboneau of Otter Lake, Oneida Co., N.Y.
The previous post revealed that Uncle Fred was unemployed but looking for work during the last week of March 1940 — per his enumeration in the 1940 U.S. census of Forestport, Oneida Co., N.Y.1Family search requires free login to view documents. From his draft card we learn that he was still unemployed in October 1940, because he put “none” for place of employment or business.
Finally, there is his signature in handwriting that looks remarkably like my dad’s (Norman James Charboneau), who was six years younger than Fred.
A surprise in the registrar’s report
Accompanying Uncle Fred’s draft card was a Registrar’s Report containing his physical description. The report says he was white, 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighed 180 pounds and had gray eyes, brown hair and a light complexion.
Nothing unusual about that. My dad, his father Ray and his other 3 brothers were all over six feet tall — and his Welsh-Irish mother Mary (Owen) Charboneau and her sisters were about six feet tall, too.
I was intrigued, though, by Uncle Fred’ gray eyes as I hadn’t previously considered that an eye color. And I was surprised that the registrar turned out to be another family member: Uncle Fred’s aunt, Lena D. Charboneau! Born Helena G. Dasey, she married my grandfather’s brother Orville on Oct. 25, 1920, in Little Falls, N.Y.
At the time of the WWII draft, Orville, Lena, and their son Albert Bernard, 17 — known as Bud — lived near the Otter Lake Hotel2ibid. where Uncle Fred, 22, my dad Norm, 15, and my grandparents lived in 1940. Thus we can be fairly confident about Lena’s description of Uncle Fred.
Lena’s signed report also says that she was the registrar for the 2nd and 3rd assembly district of Oneida County, N.Y. — supporting the use of electoral districts, polling places and possibly their staff for WWII draft registration.
Up next: Uncle Fred enlists in the US Army. Please stop back! Meanwhile, please visit the other intrepid bloggers over at Sepia Saturday.
© 2023 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
I wonder how I would feel if they checked off that my complexion was “sallow.” LOL . Great information on here, for sure.
Haha…Ruddy and freckled are other fun choices 🙂 There are is also no option for green eyes, but perhaps that’s what those blank spaces are for.
I use the 1940 and 1917 draft cards regularly to confirm details about the men in my research. Sometimes I try them first before looking up the census record. Considering that this registration was done in the old days of handwritten data, it’s incredible that the military was able to make quick use of it for both wars. Even newspapers published long lists of names with draft numbers which must have worried many people who would have preferred to keep such information private.
Last week I finished a superb book on the history of America during and after WW1. It’s a frightening perspective on how “patriotism” was used against Americans who held different ideas, politics, or who were recent immigrants. I highly recommend it. AMERICAN MIDNIGHT: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis by Adam Hochschild.
Draft cards do contain some great information — including the descriptions of the person filling them out. As they raised the WWII draft age to 64, my paternal grandfather and his brothers also filled out cards, so I have their details from both WWI and WWII. Thanks for the book reference. I have found the e-book at my local library and will check it out.
At 6’4″ and only 180 lbs, Uncle Fred must have been a lean machine – with gray eyes and brown hair. Rather neat to be able to find out what color eyes he had! 🙂
My dad and his brothers were all tall and lean — particularly in their 20s. You’re right, finding Uncle Fred’s eye and hair color was a great find as all my photos of him are black and white.
Isn’t it great that someone in government took photos of all those draft cards? Both WW I and WW II. I learned a lot about the physical characteristics of many of my ancestors that way.
Yes, and it’s especially great that they are now digitized and more easily accessible. Finding a physical description of an ancestor/relative is special, particularly when no photos exist.
It does make sense to use the polling places in schools for this operation. Fascinating post.
Thanks, Susan. I found the historical research as interesting as what I found out about Uncle Fred.
You have a tall family! All those six footers way back then. Mine were mostly in the 5’9″ area, although the men were taller in successive generations.
We sure do! Even my maternal grandmother was 5’11” so there was tallness on both sides of our family.