The Flying Parson of the 511th: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Favorite Discovery”

The “Parachute Chaplain” of the Smith Family

Rev. Harvey Murdoch Smith: 1917-2003 (Maternal First Cousin 1x Removed)

While reading the obituary of Rev. Harvey Murdoch Smith, I came across an amazing line:

“He was a parachute chaplain with the US Army’s 11^th Airborne Division during World War II and the Korean War.”

A parachute chaplain? What in the world did that mean? All I could imagine was a guy in a clerical collar reading a Bible as his parachute floated to earth while under fire by soldiers on the ground beneath him. That couldn’t be right, could it? Obviously, I needed to do some research!

First, to provide some background on Harvey, he was born in Buckhorn, Kentucky on November 13, 1917 to parents Rev. Albert Elias Smith and Othilde “Tillie” Haurin. He was the third of their four children, and grew up in the hills of Kentucky where his parents served as missionaries, teachers and his father was a pastor.

Harvey attended college at Kentucky’s Centre College, where he received a B.A. His field of study was apparently aeronautical engineering, according to a news article published later in his life. He changed course following his father’s death, and pursued graduate studies at the Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where according to his engagement notice below, he received a STB and an STM—a bachelor degree and a masters degree in Systematic Theology. He then attended the University of Pittsburgh for a master’s degree in education.

While on the East Coast, Harvey apparently spent time at his uncle’s house in Everett, Massachusetts. His uncle, Rev. Willis E. Smith, was the pastor of the Congregational Church in Everett. In 1943, Harvey became briefly engaged to a young Everett resident, Jean Ashley, just as he prepared to ship out as a chaplain to the 511^th Parachute Regiment. The engagement did not survive the war.

Chaplains in World War II weren’t just sitting in safe, rearward positions. They were embedded with troops, moving with them. So when Harvey was assigned as chaplain to the 511^th Parachute Regiment, he was trained to jump out of planes with the other paratroopers. The only difference was that the chaplains did not have to carry weapons—some did but most did not.

Here is a description of the role of the chaplain from The Chaplain, Technical Manual TM 16-205, the 1944 edition, which was used to train WWII chaplains:

“When the ground forces go into action, their chaplain should be with them. This may mean he will move from one platoon to another or will minister to the wounded in exposed positions but never that he will place himself in unnecessary danger. He must be careful that his movements do not disclose hidden positions to the enemy nor draw his fire. If casualties are numerous, he will serve best at the forward aid station. He may be placed in charge of collecting the wounded and bringing them there or he may assist in bandaging and similar forms of relief in emergencies. His skills may save the lives of wounded men. While he will do everything in his power to relieve and increase the physical comfort of the men, he will bear in mind that this is not his primary function.

He will do his utmost to comfort the suffering and give the consolations of religion to the dying. ... The chaplain who shares the peril of battle, showing kindness that never fails and a sincere concern for their welfare, will gain a place in their confidence that will reinforce powerfully all his efforts to give moral and religious instruction and inspiration.” 

It is unclear whether Harvey chose to carry a gun or not, but his unit was a storied one sent into some of the most dangerous battlefields in the Pacific theater, and Harvey was with them. A book about the unit by Jeremy C. Holm (see citation below) describes another 511^th Parachute Regiment chaplain, Captain Lee Walker.

“A special Thanksgiving service led by…’Chappie’ Walker of Ohio, one of the Divisions’s ‘Flying Parsons’, was organized to life their spirits. A Presbyterian with only six years in the ministry, Walker would become one of America’s first chaplains to earn their Jump Wings and one of the few to qualify as Jump Master.”

Chaplain Jump Wings Pin--WWII era

Since Harvey was referred to as a “parachute chaplain”, it appears he was another chaplain who earned his Jump Wings. He seems to have combined his interest in aeronautical engineering with his ministerial training.

Harvey probably experienced some intense battles. The 511^th was sent to the Pacific, where they fought in Leyte and Luzon campaigns in the Philippines, and the 511^th was the first unit to enter Japan at the end of the war. In a 1946 lecture to a Yonkers, New York missionary group, Harvey said that he was “a member of a party of eight which landed in a northern prefecture of Japan and said he was amazed ‘at the ease of adjustment shown by the Japanese toward their conquerers.’”

Harvey also served as a chaplain in the Korean War. I have been unable to locate any records from his years of military service, but he rose to the rank of Colonel in the Army, and Fold3 has Index Card records for his military burial and headstone. He remained in the Army Reserves, teaching at the U.S. Army Chaplain’s School at Fort Hamilton during the summers at least until 1967.

Photo of U.S. Army Chaplain School Class of 1963 when Harvey was teaching there.

Following his war service, Harvey married Mary Brenyo on May 28, 1946. He worked as a Presbyterian minister at churches in New York and Pennsylvania. He also served as the director of the United Presbyterian Church’s Board of National Missions, taking on the job in 1962. A 1967 article (citation below) in the White Plains Reporter Dispatch described the job as follows:

“Mr. Smith interprets the national missions program to synods, presbyteries and local churches. His work includes new church development, urban church work, town and country ministries, health education and welfare projects, and radio and television work.”

One of Rev. Smith's appearances as Director of National Missions

In addition to his ministerial and board of missions work, Harvey and wife Mary raised three children, Harvey Jr., Scott and Suzanne.

Harvey died September 28, 2003 at the age of eighty-five. He had lived in White Plains, New York for forty years. He was buried in the White Plains Rural Cemetery.

I really enjoyed learning about the role of the “flying parsons”. I love how genealogy teaches me so much about history that I never knew. Rev. Smith’s bravery as a chaplain to army paratroopers was one of my favorite discoveries this year.

Sources:

https://bethelatwar.org/spiritual-pillars-celebration-and-criticism-of-wwii-chaplains/

Obituary: Smith, Rev. Harvey Murdoch. Journal News. White Plains, NY. Oct. 3, 2003. Newspapers.com.

“511^th Infantry Regiment (United States).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/511th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

“Miss Ashley Engaged to Chaplain Smith”. The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. 12 September 1943, pg. 44. Newspapers.com.

THE MILITARY CHAPLAINCY OF THE U.S. ARMY: FOCUSING ON WORLD WAR II CHAPLAINS IN COMBAT.  Patrick G. Skelly. Capstone Paper at Norwich University, June 15, 2007. https://thechaplainkit.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/military_chaplaincy_army_ww2-skelly.pdf

 When Angels Fall: From Toccoa to Tokyo: The 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II MacArthur’s Secret Weapon & Heroes of Los Baños. Jeremy C. Holm. Independently published. Aug. 3, 2019. Pg. 71.

 “Guest Preachers.” White Plains Reporter Dispatch. White Plains, NY. July 22, 1967. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

 “Rev. Smith Addresses Missionary Group”. Yonkers Herald Statesman. Yonkers, New York. Nov. 16, 1946. Accessed on Newspapers.com

Siblings’ Triple Wedding: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Family Gathering”

 

Three Elliott Siblings Marry on Same Day
Two of the Spouses are Moseley Siblings

John William Moseley: 1859-1934 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)
Mary J. Elliott: 1867-1912  (Cousin by marriage only)
Emma Ara Moseley: 1866-1953 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)
James Franklin Elliott: 1859-1941 (Cousin by marriage only)
William B Elliott and Mary Rose Moore: Third Couple, Unrelated to this Tree

 

A cryptic news notice caught my eye as I was researching Emma Ara Moseley. The notice appeared in the November 11, 1884 issue of the Owensboro Messenger. It was just two columns over from the list of newly granted marriage licenses, which included the license issued to Emma and her future husband, James Franklin Elliott. The one-sentence-long news item read as follows:

“Two sons and a daughter of Mr. W. W. Elliott, of Vanover’s precinct, were married on one day last week, and it wasn’t a very good day for marriages in that family either.”

This was hardly the typical news report of a marriage in the 1880s. There were no congratulations to the happy couples and no praise for what fine young people they were, which comprised nearly universal marriage announcement verbiage. Instead, the little item seemed to imply the triple marriage was not a positive event!

I puzzled over the phrase “wasn’t a very good day for marriages in that family.” Were the three couples married on a family member’s wedding anniversary and that marriage had a tragic end? Did the date mark some other tragedy in the family’s history? Did it imply that the Elliotts didn’t approve of their children’s marriage partners? The possibilities are endless. If I had been one of those brides or grooms, I would have been very upset upon reading this news item. It has an insulting air to it.

So who were the three couples? The list of marriage licenses included the names of three Elliott family siblings: James Franklin Elliott, who married Emma Ara Moseley; W. B. (William Buck) Elliott, who married Mary Rose Moore; and Mary Josephine “Josie” Elliott, who married Emma Moseley’s brother John William Moseley. 

I have been unable to find actual marriage records for the three couples. I did find the marriage bond for W.B. Elliott and his bride, which was dated November 8. While the news item was published on Tuesday, November 11, it said the marriages took place on “one day last week”, so the actual wedding date seems to have been between November 8 and 10, 1884.

I expect the triple wedding prompted a large family gathering--not just of the extended Elliott family, but also of the Moseley family since two of their children were also involved in the nuptials. Emma and John William Moseley had six siblings and large numbers of aunts, uncles and cousins, many of whom lived in Vanover precinct where the weddings were held. The Elliott family appears to have been equally large. Given the novelty of a triple wedding of siblings, I’m sure quite a crowd came to the Elliott home to express their congratulations and to celebrate with the brides and grooms.

The three couples had long marriages that each produced several children. Despite the pessimistic tone of the news item, I would suggest that it was actually a very good day for marriages in the Elliott family!

 

Sources:

The Owensboro Messenger, Nov. 11, 1884. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

Railroad Telegrapher Extraordinaire: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Trains”

 

James L Elliot’s Role as a Railroad Telegrapher Led to a Union Position

James Leslie Elliott: 1889-1958 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)

While James Elliott was a fairly distant ancestor, his occupation was an interesting part of American history. He worked as a railroad telegrapher in the early 1900s. Railroad telegraphers were critical to the efficient running of the railways. As Wikipedia noted, “railroad telegraphers played a role in the operation of the railroads that was not unlike the role of air traffic controllers in the modern airline industry; they enabled the trains to run safely and on time.[2]” The telegraphers communicated actual arrival and departure times of the locomotives, and transmitted orders from railway headquarters to train engineers. James eventually left working for a railroad company to take positions with a union that represented railroad telegrapher workers.

Railroad telegrapher at work, circa 1916.

James Elliott was born November 24, 1889 in Owensboro, Kentucky. His parents were James Franklin Elliott and Emma Ara Moseley. He was the third of their eight children. At some point in his early childhood, the family moved to Kansas. James learned the telegraphy trade there.

At the time of James’ marriage to Maude VanRiper, a young divorcee, on December 10, 1915, he was serving as the local manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company in Dodge City, Kansas. Maude had two children by her first husband, and James and Maude added a daughter, Dorothy, to their family on October 14, 1922. 

By the time James completed his World War I draft card on June 5, 1917, he was a telegraph operator for the Acheson Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. He continued in that role for several years, and was based in Topeka, Kansas.

Rail telegraphy equipment

Many telegraphers moved from positions with the railways to telegraph companies like Western Union, which tended to pay more. James, however, moved from Western Union to the AT&SF Railroad.

James probably joined the Order of Railroad Telegraphers early in his career. The Order began in the late 1800s as a fraternal organization, but grew to become a powerful labor union that by 1946 had 75,000 members and was influential in railroad labor issues.

James apparently rose through the union’s ranks, eventually leaving his telegraphy job to work for the union. On the 1940 census, he is listed as the “General Chairman” of the “Telegraphers Union”. He was living in Topeka, Kansas and earning $3600 a year. That doesn’t sound like a princely sum until you compare it with the earnings of a lawyer, an auditor and a civil engineer on the same census page, who each earned between $2100 and $2800 annually, nearly $1000 less than James. By this time, James and Maude had divorced, and James had remarried to Jeanette Elliott (I have yet to find her maiden name), who was fifteen years his junior.

By 1950, James had moved to Alexandria, Virginia, and was working at the headquarters of the union. The census shows his occupation as “Executive” and his employer as “Railway Brotherhood”. His income was listed on a printout below the main page as $9000. As Vice President of this union, Elliott was probably involved in negotiations with the railways on behalf of the union’s members as well as other managerial duties.

James died at age 68 on January 29, 1958, and was buried in Maryland, far from his Kentucky birthplace. His obituary noted that in addition to his union work, he served in the Defense Manpower Administration, which may have been a wartime agency. He also worked in the Philadelphia area before returning to serve as the Vice President of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers in Washington D.C. He was still working for the union at the time of his death. His second marriage had also failed, so he was only survived by his daughter, Dorothy.

Following James’ death, the Order of Railroad Telegraphers shrank as the need for telegraphers waned with the growth of the telephone industry. The union was eventually absorbed by the Brotherhood of Railway & Airline Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express & Station Employees (BRAC) in 1969.

 

 

Sources:

Order of Railroad Telegraphers. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Railroad_Telegraphers#:~:text=The%20Order%20of%20Railway%20Telegraphers%20was%20initially%20intended%20to%20be,strike%20except%20in%20extreme%20conditions.

Photo of Railroad telegraph equipment.   https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=railroad+telegraph+operator&title=Special:MediaSearch&go=Go&type=image

Photo of Railroad Telegrapher, circa 1916. Courtesy of San Diego History Center.

Sent to the Poorhouse in 1890s Scotland: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Free Space”

 

Robert Muir Lives His Final Years in the Poorhouse

Robert Muir: 1833-1902 (Paternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

When I was young, unexpected expenditures would lead adults to exclaim, “We’re going to end up in the poorhouse!” By that time, the 1960s, poorhouses no longer existed, but we children all knew what they meant by the phrase. A poorhouse was where people in poverty ended up before the era of social welfare programs like Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, and Aid to Families With Dependent Children. The poorhouse, or sometimes a poorfarm, was a building that housed the indigent and was subsidized through local taxes and charity. Poorhouses were, in general, horrific places that no one would ever choose to go to—they were shelters of the very last resort. Sadly, one of the Muir ancestors, first cousin 4x removed Robert Muir, spent the last years of his life in a poorhouse in Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Robert Muir was born September 15, 1833 in New Monkland, Lanarkshire to parents Hugh Muir and Helen Thomson. He was the eldest of their eight children. The family seems to have struggled financially. By 1841, they lived in a small town near Airdrie called Rawyards. It apparently was as miserable as the name sounds. Most of the housing was substandard, and rented to the men who worked in the nearby coalmine. In 1875, a reporter for the Glasgow Herald visited the town and described it as follows:

“…at the end of the village is Baird Square, a mining settlement owned by various proprietors. Here there are two rows, belonging to Dr Robertson, which are quite as miserable as those already described. They are single apartments, lighted from one side only, with earthen floors patched with pieces of wood, and are all terribly out of repair. The earthen floors are broken up into a series of watery holes, some of which the tenants have filled up with clay and mud from the street. Everything is untidy, inside and outside. The ashpits and closets are filthy in the extreme, and the road in front of the houses is a dirty puddle. A good deal of overcrowding exists in these rows. In two of the single apartments which I entered there are eight of a family.”

By the 1851 census, seventeen-year-old Robert was working as a general laborer, while his father was an “unemployed labourer”. It looks like young Robert was already supporting his parents and siblings.

I find no record of Robert after 1851 until he appears on the 1871 census with a wife named Ann, and a seventeen-year-old son named Adam. Robert was working in the coal mines, and like his parents, he was living in Rawyards.

Just six years later, Robert’s life was even bleaker. He had his first interaction with the Poor Law Registry. The paperwork shows that he called at the Schotts Parochial Board office at 8 p.m. on June 21, 1877, and was entered on their “General Registry of the Poor”. The record noted that he had “no fixed place” to live and was a widower. He had been employed as a “pit worker” (coal mines), was forty years old, and was “partially” disabled due to “inflammation of throat & hands & a leg”. It is difficult to identify what medical condition Robert might have suffered from with such disparate symptoms.

There was no mention of his son, Adam. Did Adam die along with Robert’s wife? Did he move out when he turned eighteen? I have been unable to identify the correct Adam Muir in any further records.

Robert’s life continued to spiral downwards. By March 16, 1886, Robert appears on the records of the Parish of Cambusnethan in an Application for Parochial Relief. The form stated he had no home, was age 53, was single, and was the son of Hugh Muir and Helen Thomson who were both dead. He was Protestant and a former laborer who was wholly disabled due to “hemorrhoids and bleeding”. I suspect the disability diagnosis referred to a more significant medical issue than today’s hemorrhoids.

The relief Robert was applying for was entry into the parish poorhouse. According to the North Lanarkshire Council website, life in the poorhouse was not much of a “relief” for the poor.

“Those who entered the poorhouse were known an inmates. Conditions were very harsh; on entering you were stripped, bathed and issued with a uniform. Husbands, wives and children were separated and could be punished for talking to one another. Inmates followed a prescribed daily routine while the able bodied were set to work, although it was not compulsory. Women did domestic jobs such as cleaning, working in the kitchen or laundry. Men were allocated jobs in the workshops.”

Robert’s records show he was sent first to the Motherwell Combination Poorhouse, and then to the New Monkland Poorhouse. 

A poorhouse in Old Monkland around 1900, so probably similar to the New Monkland facility.

He at times was able to pay for lodgings elsewhere, probably during periods when he was healthy and strong enough to work in the coal mines. His lodgings were on Reading Room Row in Calderbank New Square. This area was probably worse than the poorhouse. It was described by the Motherwell Times newspaper as follows:

“ Two rooms together form tenements in which there is neither water nor sink or light laid on. Rooms? They are not deserving of the name. They are hovels. They would not bear comparison with the barns in which a decent farmer houses cattle. But in them whole families, numbering anything up to a dozen souls, contrive to live. Two or three huts in the open square provide at least one hundred men, women, and children with the only sanitary convenience there is. These huts do not connect with any sewer. There is an open cesspool. The filth is indescribable.”

At the time of the 1891 census, Robert was 58 years old and was living at the New Monkland Poorhouse. His former profession was listed as “pit engine keeper”, some sort of coal mining job. He was still at the New Monkland Poorhouse ten years later at the time of the 1901 census. At least he had a roof over his head and regular food during that decade.

Robert died a year later on July 31, 1902, at age 68. The death record states he died of “cardiac valvular disease”. His brother John Muir of Calderbank provided the information on the death record, including their parents’ names. Perhaps when Robert had lived in Calderbank New Square, he had been living with this brother.

Poorhouses may have been places of last resort for the homeless and impoverished of the Victorian era, but they at least provided some sort of security in a world where even the working poor lived in desperately overcrowded, unsanitary squalor. Robert was able to survive into his late sixties due to the Lanarkshire poorhouses. Without them, he would certainly have died in his fifties once he was too crippled to work in the coal mines and became homeless.

 

Sources:

Description of Rawyards from March 2 1875 Glasgow Herald article, an description of Calderbank New Square. http://scottishmining.co.uk/414.html

https://www.workhouses.org.uk/NewMonkland/

North Lanarkshire Council. “Life in the Poorhouse”. https://www.culturenlmuseums.co.uk/story/life-in-the-poorhouse/

North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre; Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland; North Lanarkshire Poor Law Applications and Registers; Reference: CO1/26/65. Accessed on Ancestry.com.

Crossing on the Caledonia: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Boats”

Harry Aird Arrives at Ellis Island Aboard the SS Caledonia

Harry Aird: 1886-1966 (Paternal Grandfather)

 

Like so many of our ancestors, Harry Aird arrived in America by boat. In Harry’s case, the boat in question was the SS Caledonia, a steam ship owned by the Scottish company Anchor Line. Harry boarded the Caledonia in Glasgow, and landed at Ellis Island, where he officially applied to immigrate. He was twenty-four years old.

Harry Aird with wife May and son John

So what do we know about the SS Caledonia and life aboard a steamship? What was Harry’s journey like?

The Caledonia was still a fairly new vessel when Harry sailed in 1910. She was built by the D and W Henderson and Company in Glasgow for Anchor Line. When completed in 1905, the ship was 500 feet long, and had a depth of 33.4 feet. It was powered by twin screws or propellers, each driven by three-cylinder triple expansion engines. What that means in layman’s terms is that the steam is expanded in three stages, with each of the three engine cylinders having a different steam pressure. This enabled the ship to travel at a speed of 16 knots or 30 km/hr.

Postcard of the Caledonia

The Caledonia’s maiden voyage was March 26, 1905, traveling from Glasgow to New York, which became the ship’s regular route. According to Wikipedia, “she had berths for 1,350 passengers: 250 in first class, 350 in second class and 850 in third class.” I saw on another website that fares ranged in price from $67.50 to $125.00 by 1914. Earlier fares around 1902 ran about $30 for third class.

Given that Harry was immigrating and probably needed to save money, I expect he would have booked a third-class ticket.

First class accommodations were luxurious, as the photos below show. But what were third class berths like? What type of voyage would Harry have experienced?

First class dining room and first class cabin

Third class was a step above “steerage”, where immigrants were crammed together and forced to bring and cook their own food. The Caledonia did not include steerage as an option. I have been unable to find photos of Anchor Line’s third-class berths and dining areas, but below are photos from similar steamship companies.

Third class berths and dining room on similar ocean liners

I was able to find a website with 1902 brochures from Anchor Line, describing the second and third class accommodations. Although Harry’s voyage was eight years later, I expect little had changed.

“THIRD CLASS

This accommodation is exceedingly well lighted and ventilated, and fitted up in rooms, married couples, single women and single men being berthed separately, and every comfort and attention is furnished that is possible on an ocean steamer.

Third-class passengers are provided, free of charge, with a mattress, bedding, mess tins (plate, mug, knife, fork, spoon and water can). Tables are set for meals, and passengers are waited upon by stewards who take care of eating utensils.

A liberal supply of provisions, properly cooked, will be served on the steamers three times a day by the steamers’ stewards; breakfast at 9, dinner at 1, supper at 6 o’clock.”

BAGGAGE

Second Saloon 20 cubic feet, and Third Class 10 cubic feet, free; any excess will be charged for at rate of One Shilling sterling per cubic foot. All baggage before being sent to Anchor Line Pier should be labeled with name oi passenger and steamer on which passage has been engaged.

No luggage will be put on board the steamers until it has been claimed by passengers and marked “Wanted” or “Not Wanted,” on the voyage, as may be desired bv owners.

Passengers should be on board with their baggage one hour prior to the time of sailing, as hurry and confusion are thereby avoided, and baggage less liable to be lost. Special Anchor Line labels can be obtained on application at the principal offices and agencies of the line.”

We can surmise that Harry would have shared a room with other single men, with each man having their own bunk. He would have been served three meals per day. He would have been able to bring a decent amount of luggage—ten cubic feet isn’t that small. His trip would not have been luxurious, but he would probably have found the accommodations adequate.

Harry Aird on the Caledonia passenger list of Nov. 5, 1910.

The Anchor Line was known for their fast trans-Atlantic trips—they set a record for a crossing of just over six days on one ship. Harry’s trip was also short. The passenger list leaving Glasgow was dated November 5, 1910, and the arrival paperwork was dated November 13, so Harry was only at sea a week and one day.

Caledonia Captain's veriification to New York authorities upon Nov. 13, 1910 arrival 

Sadly, the SS Caledonia was pressed into service in World War I as a troop transport ship. It was torpedoed by a U-Boat in the Mediterranean near Malta on December 4, 1916.. The ship sank, but not before it rammed and damaged the U-Boat. Nearly everyone on board survived.

I wonder if Harry Aird ever spoke to his son John of his voyage aboard the Caledonia or of his time at Ellis Island. It would have been wonderful to hear about his immigration experience first-hand.

Sources:

Ship records from SS Caledonia, including Harry Aird. November 13, 1900. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/4004194884:7488?tid=81812584&pid=78014052183&_phsrc=Acy6455&_phstart=successSource

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Caledonia_(1904)

https://www.ggarchives.com/OceanTravel/Brochures/AnchorLine-1902-SecondAndThirdClassAccommodations.html

Information about fares and First Class accommodations. https://navalwarfare.blogspot.com/2013/06/ss-caledonia.html

A Club You Never Want to Join—the Victim’s Club: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Member of the Club”

 

Another Victim of Financial Fraud: Miles Jandejsek Was on Swindler’s List

Miles Jandejsek: 1884-1978 (Maternal Granduncle)

 

Miles Jandejsek was a member of a club that no one willingly joins: a brotherhood of victims of financial fraud. Fraudsters and crooks are sadly all too common in the financial field, from the infamous Ponzi of the Ponzi scheme to Bernie Madoff, to the crypto-fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried to the more common small-scale crooks and cheats. All these schemes leave a trail of humiliated victims crippled by financial losses, people whose lives are never the same. Miles Jandejsek placed his trust in a neighborhood friend who betrayed him and wiped out a large chunk of Miles’ retirement funds.

Miles Jandejsek was the third of Emanuel and Emily Tomsche Jandejsek’s eight children. He was born August 31, 1884 in Ceska Trebova, Czechoslovakia. The Jandejsek family emigrated to the United States in 1888 when Miles was four years old. They settled in Chicago where Emanuel found work as a carpenter.

Finances were difficult for immigrant families, so Miles left school after eighth grade to start earning wages. He appears on the 1900 census at age 15, working as a day laborer. He remained a blue-collar worker, employed by Western Electric Co. as a machinist until retirement.

Miles married another Czech immigrant, Louise Slaby, on April 5, 1913. Louise was 18 years old, while Miles was 28. They moved first to Cicero, Illinois, and then to nearby Brookfield.  They never had children. They acquired a summer home on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin, which they sold following Miles’ retirement.

Sale ad for Miles Jandesek's vacation home, 1948.

Miles and Louise eventually moved to Bradenton, Florida where my husband remembers visiting them. Miles, he recalled, would solicitously enquire of his great-nephews and niece, “Would you like a milk and some cookie?” This was a little reminder that English had not been Miles first language.

While living in Brookfield, Miles became acquainted with a Chicago man named Miles Fort who owned and operated a mortgage and insurance business. Fort was trying to build his own retirement nest egg by investing in the stock market. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a very good investor and lost most of his own money. He decided to use other people’s money to try to recoup his losses. He persuaded friends to invest money with him, claiming he was lending it out as mortgages, for which his investors would earn the mortgage interest. He falsified the mortgage documents, usually altering real mortgages he had written previously on various properties.

At first, he paid his victims their “interest” out of his own funds while he used their cash to play the stock market. Apparently Miles heard about these mortgage “investments” from others, and wrote to Fort from Florida, asking to invest money with him. Miles ended up giving Fort $27,500.

Fort eventually abandoned the stock market to try his hand at grain markets, and once again lost money. He then claimed to have gotten “’inside information’ and then invested heavily in egg futures. Instead of going up, as he expected, the price of eggs went down. ‘They truly cleaned me out,’ he related sadly.” (From news article cited below)

Fort’s scheme eventually fell apart when he no longer had enough money to pay his victims their monthly “interest” payments. He turned himself in to the state’s attorney in Chicago.

According to a Chicago Tribune article, Fort had defrauded thirteen individuals out of nearly $300,000. The article stated that Fort “obtained amounts ranging from $4,000 to $51,355 from his 13 victims, all of whom were friends or business clients of long standing. In each case…the losses represented the life savings of the persons.”

Excerpt of Chicago Tribune article on swindle

Fort was charged with forgery and held under $4000 bond in September of 1958.

My husband doesn’t remember anyone in the family discussing Miles’ financial loss. He suspects no one knew. Miles was probably embarrassed to have been so trusting and naïve and would have been reluctant to confess he had been swindled out of a large sum.

Miles and Louise continued to live in Bradenton, probably making do with Social Security and whatever additional funds they had saved over the years. Miles died November 26, 1978 at age 94, and was buried in Bradenton. Louise lived another twelve years, dying at age 95 on August 2, 1990. She had apparently moved back to Illinois before her death, because her death record was filed in Cook County, Illinois.

Retirees and the elderly are often the targets of financial fraudsters. Miles Jandejsek was just another name on a “swindler’s list”. He became a member of the victims’ club of regretful investors in yet another fraudulent scheme.

Sources:

"Realty Man Swindles 13 in $300,000 Fraud", Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois. Sept 5, 1958. Accessed on Newspapers.com. 

Miles Jandejsek Obituary. Bradenton Herald. Bradenton Florida. Nov. 27, 1978. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

Photo of Headstone from Findagrave. Photo by Donna McPherson. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122807635/miles-jandesek?

Passing Down a Name: 52 Ancestors Prompt “Handed Down”

Edward Clarence Jandy’s Nephew Shares His Name in Reverse

Edward Clarence Jandy: 1899-1980 (Maternal Grandfather)
Clarence Edward Hedstrom: 1906-1992 (Maternal First Cousin 1x Removed)
 

Edward Jandy’s eldest sister, Theresa “Tessie” Jandejsek, honored him by naming her second son after Ed. Perhaps to avoid confusion among the family, she reversed the order of the first and middle names, so Edward Clarence’s nephew was named Clarence Edward Hedstrom.

Clarence Edward Hedstrom was born August 20, 1906 in Chicago Illinois to parents Axel Hedstrom and Theresa Jandejsek Hedstrom. Clarence had one older brother, Benjamin, and three younger sisters, Florence, Mable and Leona. While Axel Hedstrom and Tessie’s siblings were all blue collar workers, Clarence and some of his siblings turned to white collar work. Clarence, Benjamin and Florence all worked in insurance offices in Chicago after they left school.

Clarence married Rose Drnec of Chicago in the late 1920s. I have been unable to find their marriage record to determine the exact date. By the 1930 census, they were married and living with Rose’s parents and two brothers. Their first child, a son named Donald Clarence Hedstrom, was born November 28, 1930. Their second child, a daughter named Nancy Lee Hedstrom, was born August 14, 1932.

Clarence's WWII Draft card showing he is working for the Hartford Ins. Co.

Clarence spent forty years working for the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, moving from their Chicago office to their Omaha location. He moved up from clerical positions to the position of Special Agent, which meant he specialized in the company’s line of fire insurance. 

Clarence's Omaha House

Following retirement, he moved to California to be near his daughter’s family. He died in Murrieta, California on May 15, 1992 at the age of eighty-five. His wife Rose had died a decade earlier.

                                  

Clarence’s name was handed down to him by his mother, who was honoring her baby brother, Edward Clarence Jandejsek. Like Ed, Clarence left behind the blue-collar world of his father and cousins, and moved into white collar work where he built a successful career.