Research Library Surprise: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “At the Library”

Google Search on Archie Shields Turns Up Surprise Collection of Papers in Library Archives at University of Michigan

Archibald Shields: 1899-1965

 

Great-Uncle Archie Shields (brother of Grandmother May Shields Aird)  turned out to be a man of many surprises. My initial research unearthed his World War I military records, detailing his service with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. This would have made perfect sense if Archie had been Canadian, but he was born and raised in the United States. How did he end up enlisting in Canada? While trying to solve this puzzle, I conducted a Google search on his name and military unit. To my surprise, the search pulled up his name as the subject of a collection of letters, papers and photographs held in a research library at the University of Michigan! I had to know more!

Passport photo of Archie as a young man

Apparently Archie's letters to family members from his time in the Canadian military were donated to the Manuscripts Division of the William L. Clements library sometime around 2019.  The materials are open for research, so can be requested for viewing and reading at the library. 

Vintage postcard of the William L Clements Library building

The library's information on the collection includes an excellent summary of Archie’s life, as follows:

“Archibald "Archie" Shields was born September 7, 1899, in Hamilton, Ohio, to Jane Mary Seller Pollok (1868-1954) and John Sutherland Shields (1865-1959). Both of his parents were originally from Scotland and resided in Dutch Suriname for a time before immigrating to the United States. Shields had four sisters: Mary "May" Seller Shields (1893-1988), Margaret Sutherland Shields (1896-1993), Bethia Jane Shields (1901-1978), and Ruth Dorothy Shields (1904-1995). In 1916, seeking independence, Shields ran away to Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and joined the 99th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Following the war, Shields studied fruit farming at Michigan State University and worked for several years in Barahona, Dominican Republic. After returning to Detroit, he worked as a salesperson for Hudson's, Kern's, and the Foley Company. Archie Shields married Ruth Harvey Patterson (1904-1994) on July 2, 1928. He died on April 2, 1965, and is buried in North Farmington Cemetery in Farmington Hills, Michigan.”

The library also provided a synopsis of the collection’s contents, which sound absolutely fascinating. Here is the library’s description:

‘This collection is made up of 71 items, including 28 letters written by Archibald "Archie" Shields of Detroit, Michigan, to his parents and sisters while serving in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I. Shields served in France on the Western Front and, while on leave, visited friends and family in Scotland. The remaining materials include documents, ephemera, photographs, printed items, and one VHS tape.

“The Correspondence Series is comprised of 28 letters written by Archie to his parents and sisters during his time in the Canadian Infantry during World War I. The correspondence begins when Shields's battalion mobilized in May 1916. He quartered in London, Ontario, Canada, for several weeks before traveling through Toronto, Montreal, and New Brunswick, to board the troop ship Olympic at Halifax, Nova Scotia. After arriving in England in early June, the battalion was stationed at Otterpool Camp in Kent, where Shields applied for a transfer to become a driver and the 99th Battalion dissolved into the 35th. Towards the end of September, Shields went to France as part of the 21st Battalion. Admitted to the hospital in March 1917 for "swollen glands and sore throat," he became a patient in the 16th General Hospital in France, 1st Southern General Hospital in Birmingham, and Hillingdon House Hospital in Uxbridge. Following his recovery, Shields spent time visiting relatives and family friends in Scotland but was punished upon his return for taking longer leave than approved. He took subsequent leaves to Paris and Scotland. The last of the letters is dated November 5, 1918.

RMS Olympic in WWI--troop ship that carried Archie to England

“Shields's letters include descriptions of camp life and military training (marksmanship, stretcher bearing, trench digging), requests for parcels, requests and comments on news from home (include fundraising efforts), notes on letters and packages received, comments on friends' and relatives' military experiences, and remarks on his own experiences (including censorship, shelling, and life in the trenches). Envelopes are included with most letters, many with an "Opened By Censor" label attached. Shields wrote some of his letters on YMCA "With His Majesty's Canadian Forces on Active Service" stationery.

Hat pin for Archie's battalion, the 21st Canadian

“The Documents and Ephemera Series contains a worn black wallet with two colorful military uniform bars, a small black flip notebook, three Canadian Expeditionary Force pay books, and items commemorating the installation of a memorial window at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in 2007. Contained in the black wallet are a photograph of Archie Shields in uniform, a 1922 10,000 reichsmark note, and a military pass. The black notebook contains names and addresses of acquaintances, military tactics notes, and brief journal entries respecting Shields's time at the front in France until his admission to the hospital in England; in its pocket is a torn scrap of paper with the header "Plantation Alliance, Suriname, Dutch Guyana." Laid into one of Shields's pay books are assorted papers, including a telegram from his Aunt Effie, railway tickets, calling cards (Clarisse Dalouze and Marie Dalouze of Trazegnies, Belgium, and Armand Loutz of Spy, Namur, Belgium), and a postcard from a watch repair shop.”

There are so many wonderful items in this collection that I want to see, read and copy for family records. The library provided so many tantalizing pieces of information--such as Archie’s agriculture studies in fruit propagation that led to work in the Dominican Republic, and his visits to Shields family members in Scotland--that I had not discovered through traditional research. The collection also includes photos that we have never seen. I checked with other family members, and none were aware that Archie’s papers had been donated to the University of Michigan Libraries. I assume one of his children made the donation, but I have no evidence to support my supposition.

Archie Shields later in life...

I am eager to visit the William L. Clements Library at some point to see the collection in person, as the materials are not available online. I am so grateful that I decided to Google Archie’s name! What a wonderful surprise!

Sources:

Archie Shields papers (1916-1918, 2007, bulk 1916-1918). Collection processed and finding aid created by Sara Quashnie, February 2019. Manuscripts Division, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsead/umich-wcl-M-7108shi?id=navbarbrowselink;view=text

Shields, Archibald. Personnel Records of the First World War, Library and Archives Canada, http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?op=pdf&app=CEF&id=B8864-S023. Accessed February 22, 2019

Aird, John Shields. Memoirs of John S. Aird, http://www.steveaird.org/Steve_Airds_Homepage/John_Shields_Aird_files/Memoirs%20of%20John%20S.%20Aird.pdf. Accessed February 20, 2019.

 

Tuberculosis’ Tragic Toll on Goode Family: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Free Space”

TB's Devastation in the Early 1900s

Charles Holmes Goode: 1870-1921
William Seaton Goode: 1877-1900
Ivy Louise Goode Settle: 1881-1901
Gertrude Goode Davis: 1887-1916
Irene Blanche Goode: 1889-1909

 

The family of Sarah “Fannie” Moseley, second great-grandaunt and sister of Susan Moseley Leachman, was devastated by tuberculosis early in the 20^th century. Between the years of 1900 and 1921, Sarah and her husband, James Thornton Goode, lost five of their adult children to the disease. Four were stricken in their early twenties, just at the point in their lives when they should have been forming families and establishing careers.

The first two decades of the twentieth century saw the first steps toward the treatment of “consumption” or more accurately, tuberculosis. Until 1900, doctors hadn’t really understood that TB was a contagious disease, and even into the 1920s there weren’t effective treatments other than fresh air, which helped to fight contagion and supposedly helped sufferers breathe more easily. Sanitariums were being established nationwide during this period to deal with those with severe infection, and many patients were sent to the desert Southwest in the hopes that the drier climate would help their lungs improve. Before 1900, one out of every seven humans had died of tuberculosis, showing how devastating the disease could be.

Tuberculosis was probably rampant in rural McLean County, Kentucky in the first two decades of the 1900s. According to Wikipedia, there was a severe outbreak in Jefferson County around 1900 that was referred to as the White Plague. The area around Louisville also had high caseloads, which were attributed to the damp, river-bottom air. A sanitarium was established in Jefferson County to handle the large number of seriously ill patients. However, most people still chose to nurse family members at home, as the Goode family did.

Quite probably, the Goode family members infected one another with the disease. They may have all been exposed during childhood, with the disease only becoming apparent as they grew older and sicker. Some TB sufferers were able to recover and lead a fairly normal life after infection, and it appears the Goodes hoped to do so. All of them had attended school as teens, and Charles, Ivy, and Gertrude all chose to marry.

Ivy Goode's marriage and death

Ivy, born in 1881, married in 1898 at age 16, dying just three years later at nineteen. She had no children. Fortunately, her husband, Frederick Settle, did not contract TB, and was able to remarry and have a family.

Marriage and death of Gertrude Goode

Gertrude was six years younger than Ivy, and in 1907 married James Davis, a funeral director and livery owner. By 1910, the young couple had a little daughter, Opal. They went on to have another daughter before Gertrude’s death in 1916 at only 28. According to her death certificate, her pulmonary tuberculosis had been present for eleven months, but I suspect she carried the disease for far longer.

Charles was considerably older than Ivy and Gertrude. He was born in 1870, and was a local farmer. He married an older widow with two children when he was 26. He succumbed to tuberculosis at age 51, on May 30, 1921. It is hard to know how many years he had been sick, or if he contracted it later in life from his much younger siblings.

Willie Goode's death and headstone

The final two deaths were very sad. Willie Seaton Goode, born in 1877, was only 23 when he died at his parents’ home. The youngest child in the family, Irene Blanche Goode, died September 8, 1909; she was barely twenty years old. They probably spent most of their lives as adults aware they faced a death sentence.

Irene Goode death and headstone

Surprisingly, Fannie and James Thornton Goode never seem to have contracted the disease, despite caring for at least two of their ill children. JT died at age 78 in 1923, while Fannie lived until 1940, dying at age 90.

With the introduction of streptomycin in 1943, tuberculosis patients received effective treatment that cut the death rate dramatically. Sadly, the Goode family was unable to take advantage of this new medical breakthrough. Their family had already been devastated.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tuberculosis

https://www.wave3.com/story/29253927/tuberculosis-in-kentuckiana-history-and-treatment/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/plague-gallery/

Brothers-in-Arms Become Brothers-in-Law : 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Service”

Civil War Service Leads to Familial Bond

George Washington Moseley: 1843-1907. Second Great-Granduncle
James Thornton Goode: 1845-1923. Husband of Second Great-Grandaunt.

 

While researching the Robert C Moseley Family Cemetery in McLean County, Kentucky, I ran across a photo of a monument honoring a Civil War infantry unit. I scanned the list of soldiers, and spotted two familiar names in the second line: the unit’s two lieutenants were Moseley family members, brothers-in-law George Washington Moseley and James Thornton Goode, the husband of George’s sister Sarah Frances “Fannie” Moseley Goode. As Kentuckians, these two men could have fought on either side of the Civil War—Kentucky never seceded but sent plenty of residents to fight for the Confederacy. However, these two men chose to fight for the Union. I needed to learn more about their service.

Monument honoring 35th KY Regiment

George Moseley was born March 23, 1843 to parents Robert Cartwright Moseley and Nancy Archibald Moseley. He was the third of their nine children, and the eldest of their two sons. Robert and Nancy were my husband’s third-great-grandparents. George was brother to Susan Elizabeth Moseley, Bruce’s second-great-grandmother.

At age 20, George enlisted in the 35^th Regiment Kentucky Infantry. According to Family Search’s wiki about the regiment,

“The 35th Kentucky Mounted Infantry was organized on the 26th day of September, 1863, at Owensboro, Kentucky, under Colonel E.A. Starling and mustered into the United States service on the 2nd day of October 1863. This Regiment was recruited under the most difficult circumstances; the State, at that time, being overrun with guerrillas, making it exceedingly hazardous for officers to recruit and retain their men in camp. It mustered out on December 29th, 1864 at Louisville, Kentucky.[1

The difficult task Starling faced in recruitment probably explains why two very young and inexperienced men, George at age 20, and his friend James Thornton Goode, only 18 years old, were given officer positions. George served as Col. Starling’s First Lieutenant, and Thornton was the Second Lieutenant. I wonder how the men serving under these two green officers felt about them. Did they resent having to follow their orders, or were they just relieved that someone other than themselves was tasked with a difficult job that put them in the crosshairs of the Confederate guerrillas?

Colonel E. A. Starling and two soldiers--could they be George and James Thornton?

I found this photo of Col. Starling online, with two “unidentified soldiers”. I wonder if those two obviously young men weren’t Starling’s two lieutenants? Having no photographs of George or Thornton in their younger years to compare to this photo, it is impossible to prove one way or the other.

The 35^th Regiment was a mounted unit, although not officially designated as mounted infantry. I was unsure of how mounted infantry differed from cavalry, but my research showed that cavalry units fought while on their horses, while mounted infantry used horses to move from one location to another rapidly, but they fought on foot. That was apparently how the 35^th Kentucky operated. Certainly moving by horse rather than on foot would have been necessary when fighting guerilla attacks—the unit would have needed to move very quickly.

Although George and Thornton served only a little over a year in the Union army, they saw a decent amount of action. According to the unit’s records on Wikipedia, the unit spent much of its time in central and eastern Kentucky repelling Confederate guerilla fighters from the area between the Cumberland and Green Rivers. In the fall of 1864, the unit was sent to Virginia as part of General Burbridge’s Expedition, and they fought in the battle of Saltville. They were sent back to Louisville in November 1864 and were mustered out in December. The unit lost eight men in battle, and an additional 49 men to disease.

Interestingly, both George and Thornton were still single men when they enlisted and served. After being discharged at the end of 1864, perhaps both men were suddenly aware of their mortality, and were ready to move forward and establish families. Perhaps they wanted to choose life and a future over the death and destruction they witnessed at war. Whatever their motivation, just months after returning home, both men chose to marry. George, being the elder at 22, picked a bride first. He married Mary Ellen Hancock on May 22, 1865. Mary was only sixteen, while George was 22. Interestingly, Mary Ellen’s brother John C. Hancock married George’s sister Ara Lavina just a few years later. Tragically, she died at only age 22.

Thornton took a few more months to court George’s younger sister Fannie. They married less than a year after his return on October 19, 1865. Fannie was only sixteen. Thornton was barely twenty.

George in old age

George and Thornton chose to remain in McLean County, Kentucky. They both farmed and raised families. George and Mary Ellen had at least eight children, while Thornton and Fannie had a dozen children! Both men received pensions as Civil War Veterans.

Civil War Pension card for James Thornton Goode

George died August 4, 1907 at age 64. He had been ill for several weeks, long enough for several of his surviving children to reach his bedside. 

Thornton died May 3, 1923 at age 78. According to his obituary, he had been legally blind for over fifty years! Someone found a poem in his family Bible that he supposedly wrote, which I include below (if he truly were blind, how did he write a poem?).

These two men began as brothers-in-arms and friends, accepting great responsibility at a very young age and serving their country with honor. They became brothers-in-law, their wartime bond becoming permanent.

Sources:

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/35th_Regiment,_Kentucky_Infantry_(Union)

http://sites.rootsweb.com/~kymercer/CivilWar/Union/35inf/35inf-3.html

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Mounted_infantry

http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unkyinf4.htm#35th