West Brookfield Men In World War I Draft List

Draft Registration June 5, 1917
Draft Drawing in Washington, DC July 1917
Physical Examination and Appearance before Exemption Board began 9 Aug. 1917
Report for Training




From the Spencer Leader published 27 July 1917 thru September 1917
Names of West Brookfield men of Division 2 with their red ink numbers.


 676 John H. Nelson               married with 2 children        exempt
 692 Elmer R. Varnum           married with 4 children        exempt
 652 John H. Donovan           single                                     alternate
 675 David Murphy               married with 2 children         public utility worker
 645 Robert Converse           single                                   enlisted 
 677 Edward J. O'Day                                                          Dental Corps. Reserve
 638 Francis S. Beeman         married with 2 children         exempt
 685 William M. Richardson physically unfit                      exempt
 637 John H. Anderson
 679 Frederic A. Perry
 664 Kendall V. Huckins      physically unfit                       exempt
 642 F. Arthur Carter                                                            exempt
 656 Wallace L. Gladding     married with 1 child               exempt
 657 Allen T. Godfrey                                                          exempt
 681 Paul N. Plouff
 635 Ralph O. Allen               married with 1 child
 633 B. Paul Allen                 married                                   exempt
 691 Frank E. Underwood     married with 2 children
 636 George H. Anderson
 634 Harry D. Allen              married 1 child                       exempt
 672 Francis J. McRevey      dependent parents                   exempt
 650 Carl F. Davis                 physically unfit                       exempt
 666 Edward W. Joyce          physically unfit                       exempt
 647 George E. Dalton          physically unfit                       exempt
 640 Peter A. Brady                                                              exempt
 668 Earl W. Livermore       qualified                                   not claiming exemption
 694 John J. Whalen             physically unfit
 671 Daniel McRevey          physically unfit                        exempt
 662 Earl O. Hibbard
 641 William H. Brown
 674 Charles L. Mitchell
 639 Albert O. Bosworth
 646 Frank E. Daley
 695 Omer C. White
 667 Louis Larose
 666 Clarence E. Hocum
 658 J. Leo Gratton
 655 G. Walter Fenner
 659 Nathaniel G. Greene
 665 John Jaffray
 682 James H. Pratt
 669 H. Burton Mason
 649 William H. Dane
 648 J. Joseph Dalton                                                                      Army Medical
 643 John F. Clough
 696 W. Raymond Young
 680 Harold D. Phelps
 651 George A. Donovan
 690 L. Edmund Smith
 693 Arthur H. Warfield                                                                    enlisted
 687 Earl D. Sibley
 684 Albert E. Richardson
 661 Harry L. Hewett
 644 Joseph Coderre                    married             
 683 Charles P. Quinlan
 688 Elmer N. Smith
 653 C. Fred Duncanson
 670 John T. McElroy
 654 James Evans
 673 William MisKinnis
 660 Roland M. Hauck                                                                       U. S. Navy
 678 Arthur G. Parker
 687 H. Stanley Smith
 686 Maurice T. Risley                                                                       radio service
 Converse, Warfield, and Risley were among the credits to the district, as they had already enlisted . Thirty-two men were married, and 18 of those had one or more children.

Other men from West Brookfield who served:

      Chauncey Lockhart Olmstead joined the American Ambulance Corp in France in April 1917, at age 16.  He was living with his mother in France at the time. When the United States Army took over the ambulance corps, they had to discharge Lockhart, as he was under the minimum age according to Army regulations.      

      Paul Crosby Chamberlain - served in British Royal Field Artillery
      Edward J. Ducey - drafted in Palmer, Mass.
      Howard J. Foster - drafted in Toledo, Ohio

      Edward. S. Bugbee drafted in Detroit

      Paul H. Hazen - U. S. Navy

      Ellsworth W. Galvin - drafted in the city of Worcester, Mass.
      Marcus A. Cunningham - 48th US Infantry  cook
      Ralph S. Clark - 4th US Aero Squadron
      Henry Durling
      Van Zant Stone - served in Royal Flying Corps of the British Army
      Frank B. Woodward - cook, steamship Amerika
      John O'Connell
      Clifford J. Pratt - Yankee Div., Co. H. 104th Inf.
      Edward F. King - H'quts, Battery C, 17th Field Artillery
      Robert Patterson - Aviation Corps
      Francis Mathews - U. S. Navy
      Charles A. Wine
      Clarence Hocum  - PVT 5 CO - 152 Depot Brigade

West Brookfield Congregational Church Records Now Online

The Congregational Library & Archives in Boston with assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities has digitized old records from a number of towns and placed them online for free viewing. The West Brookfield records are in three volumes covering the periods from 1754 - 1826, 1756 -1818, and 1819-1867 and include information from church and town meetings, membership information, marriages, baptisms etc.

Here is where you can find these records.

The Short Married Life of Frederick Cowdin

Thirty-four year old Druggist, Frederick Cowdin, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, became engaged to marry twenty-one year old Gertrude Morey of West Brookfield sometime in 1883.  Frederick was in poor health, so the couple decided to put off their marriage until his health improved.  More than a year later, Frederick, knowing that consumption would soon end his life, felt a strong desire to marry Gertrude before he died.  Reverend Thomas Babb of the Congregational Church in West Brookfield, was called to his bedside early in the afternoon on July 24, 1884 and the couple was married, though the vows of the groom were barely heard. Sadly Frederick Cowdin died that same afternoon between three and four o'clock. His body was taken to Newton for burial.

Gertrude married twice more before she died in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on 24 December 1899. Sadly, she died of convulsions due to acute nephritis during pregnancy.

Information about the Morey family may be found at West Brookfield, MA Genealogy  No Log In is needed to search the site.

Sources:
Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, Deaths Registered in the town of West Brookfield for the year Eighteen hundred and eighty-four, Pg. 472, Record No. 12; New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911; Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 July 2018.)

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910, Vol. 493: p. 28, Deaths Registered in the town of Greenfield for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, Record No. 22. American Ancestors (http://www.americanancestors.org.) Death register entry for Gertrude (Morey) Evans

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910, Marriages Registered in the Town of West Brookfield for the Year eighteen hundred and eighty-four, Vol: 354,  Page: 368, Record No. 12;  (From original records held by the Massachusetts Archives.  AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic, Genealogical Society, 2004 : accessed 30 July 2018.) Frederick A Cowden and Gertrude Morey.

Worcester County : West Brookfield, Springfield Daily Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 26 July 1884, page 6; Online digital  image, Genealogy Bank (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 29 July 2018.). Announcement of the marriage of Frederick Cowdin to Grace Morey, and of Frederick's death that afternoon. 

Now on YouTube! - Beauregard Brothers in their Nineties, Relate Stories of Growing up on Ragged Hill

   Rachel Faugno interviews Paul and Bob Beauregard as they share their experiences as part of a large family growing up on a farm in West Brookfield. Paul died on January 2, 2017, just weeks after this interview. Their parents, Joseph and Ida (Provencal) Beauregard moved to West Brookfield from Gilbertville in 1906.  The Beauregards first leased the 235 acre farm on Ragged Hill belonging to Henry Jordan. They purchased it in 1911.  Ida Beauregard sold the farm in 1945, three years after the death of her husband.
      Learn about their chores on the farm, and their schooling in the one room school house they attended in the days before they had electricity and running water.  Listen to their description of social life in Wickaboag Valley including barn dances in their barn, and programs held by the Wickaboag Valley Association. They describe entertainment including swimming in the pond in summer, and sliding down the hill in winter.
   Paul sadly recalls the accidental drowning of his sister Elsie who, at age six,  had been sliding across an ice covered pond on her shoes. She was accompanied that day by Paul, and a sister Edna.
   Tools used by their father for leather work were shown, as they talked about the necessity in those days for being resourceful.
   See the video filmed in October 2016, by Dan Hamilton and Warren Tirrell, at: Ragged Hill Memories of Paul and Robert Beauregard
   For more about the Beauregard family see http://www.westbrookfieldgenealogy.org/genealogy/

Thomas Carey - From West Brookfield to Chicago

The broad ax. (Salt Lake City, Utah), 04 Jan. 1919. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. a( http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024055/1919-01-04/ed-1/seq-1/ : accessed 12 January 2017.)
Thomas Carey was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts to poor Irish immigrants. He moved with his family to Worcester, MA between 1860 and 1870, and attended school there according to the 1870 US Census. Thomas left Worcester and travelled by rail to Chicago, Illinois, where despite his humble beginnings, he became a successful businessman and politician. Known for his hard work and dogged determination, he became a skilled politician, advocate for African Americans and immigrants, and a champion for the causes of poor and downtrodden. Michael Harrington, who descends from Thomas Carey's half-brother, has very kindly offered to share this tale of an Irishman from West Brookfield who became successful and added color to the political landscape in Chicago.

A copy of  his work at Tom Carey - Chief of the Wampanoag may be obtained on request. Use the Information Request  Form tab at the top of the page.

　

Finding Baptism and Marriage Records for West Brookfield Catholics from 1830-1950

  Years ago Ed O'Day wrote to me about the challenges of finding church records for West Brookfield Catholics. This information has been helpful in my research and may be helpful to others.

St. John's Catholic Church, Worcester, MA
By Pvmoutside - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15658258

  West Brookfield did not have a Roman Catholic Parish of its own until 1950.  The Catholics in town were served by priests from other areas, some of whom visited West Brookfield and recorded baptisms and marriages.  One priest in particular, Father Fitton, who founded Holy Cross College in Worcester,  kept records of his visits in town.  He was succeeded by Father Gibson, who first visited West Brookfield in 1845, and continued his missions to the town even after railroad construction ceased.  Father Gibson recorded baptisms is a special book he kept for rural areas in the county.

   Early Brookfield area baptisms and marriages from about the mid 1830's to the mid 1850's, may be found in the parish records of St. John's in Worcester. Records for a few of the ensuing years may be found in Webster or Chicopee, as the priests from those communities ministered to Catholics in the rural areas of Worcester County. 1860 brought another change, as priests from St. Mary's in Ware administered the sacraments.  St. Joseph's in North Brookfield took over that responsibility from 1867 to 1892.  Finally, in 1892 St. Mary's Church in Brookfield became responsible for ministering to Catholics in West Brookfield.  Priest's from St. Mary's continued to serve West Brookfield parishioners until 1950.

  

John Adams, William Adams, George Adams, and Justus Wellington: West Brookfield Civil War Soldiers

"John Banks' Civil War Blog," has a new interesting post about three brothers from West Brookfield who served in the Civil War.  William and George Adams, both died as a result of wounds suffered in battle.  John Adams was captured, sent to the Rebel prison at Andersonville, and survived five months of imprisonment before being paroled and later discharged.
Read his post here.
Also read his post about Justus Wellington, another soldier from West Brookfield. Justus Wellington died at Antietam.