1918: The brief WWI service of Uncles Tom and Dewey Charboneau

2 October 2020 Molly C. 10 Comments

Sepia Saturday 540. Eleventh in a series about Albert Barney Charboneau — my paternal grandfather’s brother who died in the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918.

Albert Barney Charboneau circa 1910. Scan by Molly Charboneau

While my dad’s Uncle Albert and his brother Ray (my grandfather) performed alternative service during WWI, the other two Charboneau brothers — Tom and Dewey — were called to active duty.

Yet they mustered in so late in the war that each only served briefly — and neither went abroad.

Orville Nile “Tom” Charboneau was inducted into the U.S. Army in Little Falls, Herkimer Co., N.Y. on 3 Sept. 1918. According to his service card, he was appointed as a Private 1st Class on 15 Oct. 1918. However, where he served is a bit of a mystery.

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016868180/ — **WWI: Basic training exercises** (ca. 1918). Photo: Library of Congress

Where did Uncle Tom serve?

Tom was in service when his brother Uncle Albert died from the 1918 influenza — and his places of service were given in Albert’s obituaries.

One obituary, in the 24 Oct. 1918 issue of the Utica Herald Dispatch, says Albert was survived by a brother “Orville, who is stationed with the American forces at Fort Schuyler on Long Island.”
Another of Albert’s obituaries, in the 29 Oct. 1918 issue of the Little Falls Journal and Courier, lists him as “Orville, of Camp Shutler, L.I.”

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014704955/ — **WWI: Camp at Ft. Totten, Queens, New York**. (ca. 1918) Photo: Library of Congress

Meanwhile, his service card — under Organizations served in, with dates of assignments and transfers — says he served in “C Def of Eastern NY Ft Totten NY Co 9 to disch.”

Did Tom have three assignments?

Is it possible that Uncle Tom served in all three places? Maybe so. There were temporary WWI training camps all over Long Island at the time, so he could have started out in a Camp Shutler.

And if Tom was in coastal defense, then Fort Schuyler (located on Long Island Sound in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx) seems consistent with the final assignment listed on his service card — Fort Totten (in northeast Queens on Long Island Sound).

With so many soldiers mobilized, there was undoubtedly a great deal of troop movement here and there to fill assignments — and Tom may have been caught up in that during his brief time in service.

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014704956/ — **WWI: The mess hall at Fort Totten, Queens, New York**. (ca. 1918). Photo : Library of Congress

Proud to be veterans

Tom was was honorably discharged on 9 Dec. 2018 at the end WWI — after serving for three months.

Uncle George Dewey Charboneau’s time in the Army was even shorter than Tom’s. He was drafted on 11 Nov. 1918 — but returned home before reaching camp when Armistice was declared, ending the war.

Yet despite their brief stints, both Tom and Dewey were proud to be veterans. In his book Herkimer County in the World War: 1916-1918, Franklin W. Christman compiled an Honor Roll of Herkimer County veterans of WWI.

Here are Tom and Dewey’s entries, which I later confirmed they authored themselves in response to a survey.

CHARBONEAU, ORVILLE N., Little Falls, N.Y.; born April 23, 1891; drafted September 3, 1918; U.S. Troops, Syracuse, Fort Schuyler; discharged December, 1918.

CHARBONNEAU, GEORGE D., Dolgeville, N.Y.; born June 12, 1898; drafted November 11, 1918; returned before reaching camp, Peace Day; honorably discharged.

A Memorial Day posting

Fast forward to the year 2000, when this Honor Roll appeared online as part of a Memorial Day celebration — then to 2006, when I first saw Tom and Dewey’s names on the list and emailed for details.

Back came this response from Marine veteran Paul T. McLaughlin, Village of Ilion editor for the Rootsweb site where I found the list. Sadly, Paul died in 2017 so I will let him have the last word.

I continue to be amazed by how many inquiries I have received since that list was posted in the 2000 4-County Memorial Day extravaganza. Here’s what your relatives wrote in response to the questionnaire. [Here he typed in the above listings verbatum.]
Strange that they spelled it [their surname] differently, but that may have been a typo from the transcriber. Orville [Tom] had only to serve a couple of months, and George [Dewey] was drafted on Armistice Day, so they didn’t have much to write about. That’s good!

Up next: The deadly 1918 influenza emerges. Meanwhile, please visit the blogs of this week’s other Sepia Saturday participants here.

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Charboneau

1918: Charboneau brothers Albert and Ray in WWI

25 September 2020 Molly C. 5 Comments

Sepia Saturday 539. Tenth in a series about Albert Barney Charboneau — my paternal grandfather’s brother who died in the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918.

A previous post reviewed the WW I draft registrations of my dad’s Uncle Albert Barney Charboneau and his three brothers — among them my paternal grandfather William Ray Charboneau. Yet for various reasons, none of them ended up serving abroad.

Albert’s alternative service

Albert was not called up for active duty, perhaps because he was married. But he may have performed a sort of alternative service through his job as Woodworking Foreman at the Julius Breckwoldt Sounding Board Company in Dolgeville, Herkimer Co., New York.

In its 12 July 1918 issue, the Otsego Farmer and Republican — published in Cooperstown, N.Y. — carried a front page column on Central New York that describes U.S. Naval officers visiting the Breckwoldt company where Uncle Albert worked to select spruce wood for military hydroplane construction.

www.fultonhistory.com — **The Otsego Farmer and Republican, Cooperstown, N.Y. (12 July 1918).** This item, from a front page column covering Central New York news, describes U.S. Naval officers visiting the Breckwoldt company where Uncle Albert worked to select spruce wood for military hydroplane construction. Source: fultonhistory.com

According to the article, the U.S. government planned to take “between five to ten percent of the spruce timber turned out at the Fulton Chain mill” of the Breckwoldt company.

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-144e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 — **An N-1 seaplane taxiing at high speed (c. 1918).** Spruce was considered the ideal wood for hydroplanes and some of the best came from the Fulton Chain in New York’s North Country. Was Uncle Albert on hand when Naval officers came to select lumber at the Breckwoldt company where he worked? Photo: Library of Congress

Even without documentation, it’s not a stretch to suppose that Uncle Albert — a Woodworking Foreman who had worked with Fulton Chain timber since the age of 15 — may have been on hand when the Naval officers made their lumber-selection visits.

My grandfather’s home defense work

Meanwhile, my paternal grandfather Ray — exempt because he was married with three children — did alternative service of his own.

In Franklin W. Christman’s book Herkimer County in the World War: 1916-19181W.R. Charboneau is listed among non commissioned officers and privates who served in the Dolgeville Home Defense Unit of the Herkimer County Defense Committee — a local affiliate of the Council of National Defense.

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/91483205/ — **U.S. Student Nurse Reserve recruitment poster** issued by the Council of National Defense Women’s Committee (1917). This prophetic poster was issued the year before the Great 1918 Influenza Pandemic took hold. Source: Library of Congress

One of the first tasks of the county group was to conduct a military census and inventory of resources and report back to the New York State group.

Christman’s book2ibid.details some of the group’s many other tasks, which make clear the profound daily economic and social impact of the world war — from cultivating fallow farmland and working with the Red Cross on healthcare issues to recruiting workers to fill jobs that were vacated by those who were called up.

Yet amid helpful tasks were other duties that likely turned neighbor against neighbor — such as reviewing and signing off on the credentials of immigrant job applicants in an area with a huge German-born or descended population.

A telegraphy school graduate

https://pixabay.com/photos/telegraph-key-communication-retro-4891039/ — **Vintage telegraph key.** I don’t know what tasks my grandfather Ray carried out as part of in the Dolgeville Home Defense Unit. However, his obituary says he was a graduate of the New York State Telegraphers School in Albany, N.Y. So that skill may have placed him in the sphere of communications. Photo: Pixabay

I don’t know what tasks my grandfather Ray carried out. However, his obituary says he was a graduate of the New York State Telegraphers School in Albany, N.Y. 3So I like to think that skill may have placed him in the more helpful sphere of communications.

And Ray and Albert may have worked together here and there as well — since Uncle Albert was head of the Dolgeville Masons lodge, which the Defense Committee collaborated with on various community-aid projects.

Up next: The brief WWI service of Uncles Tom and Dewey Charboneau. Please stop back! Meanwhile, please visit the blogs of this week’s other Sepia Saturday participants here.

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1917: Uncle Albert and the Charboneau Doughboys

18 September 2020 Molly C. 9 Comments

Sepia Saturday 538. Ninth in a series about Albert Barney Charboneau — my paternal grandfather’s brother who died in the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918.

At the outbreak of World War I, my father’s Uncle Albert Barney Charboneau and his brothers were required to register for the draft.

And this they did, carefully penning their information on cards that have survived into the digital age.

Albert, the oldest brother, was age 33 when he registered in 1918 — giving his date of birth as 15 Feb. 1885, his address as 42 State Street, Dolgeville, Herkimer Co., N.Y. and his wife’s name as Annie E. Charboneau.

He wrote that he was employed as Woodworking Foreman at Julius Breckwoldt lumber works. The registrar described Albert as tall and stout with black hair and blue eyes.

**WWI Doughboy statue in Woodside, N.Y. (2020).** Selected in 1928 as the best war memorial of its kind by the American Federation of Arts, this statue depicts a returning WWI soldier with bandaged head, holding his helmet with his gun to one side. Photo: Molly Charboneau

My grandfather Ray’s draft registration

Two of Albert’s brothers registered before him. My paternal grandfather William Ray Charboneau registered on 5 June 1917. Born 3 April 1888 in Forestport, N.Y., he was age 29 and described as tall and slender with blue eyes and black hair.

Ray lived on Dolge Ave. in Dolgeville, N.Y. and worked as a warehouse clerk at the Daniel Green Felt Shoe Co. — which had taken over the original Dolge factory complex. Ray also had an exemption from the draft: He was married with three children — my dad’s older brothers Owen, Franny and Hube

Uncle Tom signed up with Ray

Next in line on 5 June 1917 — registered the same day as Ray — was Orville “Tom” Charboneau. Born on 23 April 1892, Tom was 25 and described as tall with medium build, blue eyes, brown hair and slight baldness.

Tom lived at 10 Church St. in Little Falls, N.Y., where he worked as an automobile repairman for C.A. Ross on West Main St. He was single with no dependents.

Uncle Dewey registered in 1918

George Dewey Charboneau, the youngest brother, registered on 12 Sept. 1918 — the same year as Albert. Born 12 June 1898, he was age 20 and described as tall and slender with blue eyes and brown hair.

Uncle Dewey worked as a shoemaker at the Daniel Green Felt Shoe Company — where my grandfather Ray also worked — and lived with his parents Will and Eva (Bull) Charboneau on Cline Street in Dolgeville, N.Y. Unmarried, he listed his father Will as his next of kin.

Wartime service

Of the four, Tom and Dewey were called up — toward the end of the war — and their service was entered onto a roster compiled by the Herkimer County Home Defense Committee of soldiers who were drafted or volunteered their services in WWI. However, Uncle Albert and my grandfather Ray appear to have performed service of their own in Herkimer County.

More on this in the next post. Please stop back! Meanwhile, please visit the blogs of this week’s other Sepia Saturday participants here.

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MOLLY'S CANOPY

1918: The brief WWI service of Uncles Tom and Dewey Charboneau

1918: Charboneau brothers Albert and Ray in WWI

1917: Uncle Albert and the Charboneau Doughboys

Growing family trees one leaf at a time