Ben Mallory's Family in 1918

The year 1918 was a year of tragedies.  It saw the only decline in world population (0.06 percent) on record since the plague (1350).
 
The Spanish Flu pandemic resulted in an estimated 25 to 50 million deaths world-wide, with a guess-timated 675,000 deaths in the U.S. (there are no definite numbers for this).  It was also the final year of World War I, which resulted in total deaths of an estimated 9 million soldiers and 5 million civilians over four years.  
 
Partly in response to the war, the Bolshevik party took over Russia in October 1917.  In 1918, the Bolsheviks ordered the execution of former Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family, and over 200,000 people were killed during the Red Terror, which began that same year.
 
Where were Benjamin Franklin Mallory and his family during this fateful year?
 
To begin with, Ben Mallory appears on the 1917 Polk's Wallowa Tax List with an assessment valuation of $2,330 (about $56,000 in 2023 dollars).  
 
According to June Mallory Ferguson's history of the family, Ben and Letitia Mallory and their children had lived at Bartlett, Oregon, for thirteen or fourteen years, "the longest time Ben Mallory ever stayed in one place."  Lila, Dot, and Lee recalled that their father "would suffer with rheumatism and wanted to get away from the cold."  He wanted to return to Texas, and "would not be satisfied until he sold the farm."  Ben's son, Clay, and his wife, Elizabeth, moved into the house after the rest of the family left for Texas.  
 
Dot stated that she was "12 in 1917 when the family left Bartlett to go to Texas, Dad and Mother, Lee, Leona, and I."  She remembered catching the train in Lewiston and having a lay-over in Denver, "because of troops moving--lying for hours on a pallet in the station waiting room in the middle of the night."  Dot also recalled that Owen was drafted just before they left Oregon, and that Buck had rheumatic fever that year, while working for a farmer in the Pomeroy area.
 
Lee was fifteen and remembered arriving in Fort Worth, Texas "where he became the driver for the Model-T Ford his father bought, and they toured Texas looking for a stopping place."
 
On May 22, 1918, Ben Mallory registered to vote "independent" in Maricopa County, Arizona, Rural Free Delivery route No. 1.  He was listed in the 1919 Phoenix, Arizona, City Directory, with his wife, Letitia, occupation Rancher, living on RFD 1.  By 1920, he was a Democrat and a Dairyman in Imperial, California.
 
Ben and Letitia's oldest son, Perry Oscar Mallory, had already passed away in a logging accident, 1904.
 
Joseph Clay Mallory was married to Mary Elizabeth Young, and living in Wallowa, Oregon, where he worked as a stock farmer.  He appears on the 1917 Polk's Wallowa Tax List with an assessment valuation of $1,040. His daughter, Doris, was three years old in 1918, and his second child, June, was born in June of that year, at the Mallory homestead. 
 
Lenina Norma was married to John Luther Geiger, and living in La Grande, Oregon.  "Lute" worked as a farmer.  Norma worked as a teacher until the birth of their first child, Grace Loree, in 1916.  Their second child, Irene Edra, was born in February 1918.  
 
34th ID soldiers Camp Cody NM 18 Aug 1918
 
Benjamin Owen Mallory enlisted (Dot says drafted) in the army on May 30, 1918.  He reported for duty at Camp Cody in Deming, New Mexico.

 
Arizona Republic 5 Oct 1918 p.1
 
After training, Owen was assigned to Company A of the 134 Infantry 34th "Sandstorm Division," where he served as a clerk.  
The 34th Division arrived in France in October of 1918, but the war was almost over, so they returned home again in January of 1919.  Owen was discharged July 14, 1919, a Private First Class with an "excellent" character.  
By 1920, he was a Republican and a Farmer in Imperial, California.
 
Leon Franklin Mallory registered for the draft in 1917, but was exempt from service because he was "deaf and dumb" and his left hand was "crippled."  These were the result of disease and an accident as a child.  The draft registration card stated that he was employed by Dr. T M Gilmore of Flora, Wallowa, Oregon, but it does not say in what capacity.  Afterward, he seems to disappear from the public record until 1930, when he was picking fruit with his brothers in Asotin, Washington.
 
According to June Ferguson, Edrie Minnie Mallory "obtained her teaching certificate as soon as she could, probably when she finished the 8th grade."  (Dot recalled that Edrie was teaching during the 1912/3 school year and the early part of 1916.)  "During the years Norma and Edrie continued to teach, continually taking more classes to try to keep up with the changing requirements." 
 
Dot stated that "Just after Emery [Lyon] and Edrie became engaged, the U.S. entered World War I.  As I recall Emery said he knew he would be called to the army so he wanted to beat them to it."  He enlisted and served as a Corporal in Company B, 345th Battalion, Tank Corp in France.  He returned to the U.S. in March and was discharged, 15 April 1919.  Edrie married Emery Lyon in Maricopa County, Arizona, on May 11, 1919.  Their daughter, Iris Arlene, was born in La Grande, Oregon, the next year.


Louie Orlando "Buck" Mallory was working as a farm laborer in Pomeroy, Garfield County, Washington, when he filled out his draft registration card, 5 June 1818.  He was twenty-two years old and, according to Dot, had rheumatic fever that year.  His nearest relative was given as B. F. Mallory of Glendale, [Maricopa County], Arizona.  Leona recalled that "Buck didn't like school or being in town."  June wrote, "All his life Buck loved the mountains, the hunting, fishing and trapping." In the 1920 Census, he was living with his brother, Joseph Clay Mallory and family, in Grouse, Wallowa, Oregon.  His occupation was farmer.
 
The La Grand Observer reported on 11 Jan 1917, "Names of Students Announced Who Have Excellent Marks" and "Having Surpassed Certain High Standards of Scholarship, They Are Now Rewarded by Being Excused From Final Examinations" (p8).  Rhoda Eliza "Lila" Mallory was among those students in Freshman English and Freshman Latin.  On 26 Jan 1917 (p2), she was mentioned as holding the position of Center on the girls underclassmen basketball team.  On 23 May 1917 (p1), Lila was again "excused from final examinations" for Algebra and English.  She was eighteen years old.  
 
Lila, age 20, was enrolled in the "Alhambra" school in June 1918, in Maricopa County, Arizona, along with her brother, Lee, and sisters, Amanda (Dot), and Lucy (Leona).  The next document that mentions her is marriage to James F. Brewer Jr., in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1925.  In 1918, James Brewer was studying at a university in Lafayette, Mississippi.  His draft registration card stated that his left leg was "slightly shorter than right." Both circumstances likely kept him from being drafted.  He became a physician and worked at a tuberculosis clinic.  There is nothing to say how Lila and James met.

Houston Lee Mallory was driving his dad's Model-T Ford, "looking for a stopping place" in 1917.  In 1918, at the age of 17, he was enrolled in the Alhambra school.  In 1920, he was listed in a Phoenix city directory as residing with B F Mallory on Pear Street, then appears in the voter registration as a Republican and a Dairyman in Imperial, California.

Beyond her own statement that she went to Texas with her parents at the age of twelve, we find Dorothy Amanda (Dot) Mallory enrolled in the Alhambra school in Maricopa County, Arizona, at the age of 14.   

Leona Lucinda Mallory was about nine years old when she traveled with her parents to Texas in 1917.  In 1918, she was enrolled in the Alhambra school in Maricopa County, Arizona, at the age of 11.  

Arizona Republic 23 Nov 1918 p5

The family of Ben Mallory had their trials during the years 1917 to 1919, but survived the war and the pandemic.  This is not to say the Mallory family escaped unscathed.  
 
John Archie Mallory, son of Ben's youngest brother, Thomas Jefferson Mallory, had been living in Spokane, Washington, for nine years when he contracted influenza.  He was taken to the Medical Lake Hospital, where he passed away from pneumonia, secondary to influenza on 20 Dec 1918.
 
Mary Ann Mallory Davis, daughter of William F. Mallory (Ben's older brother), passed away on February 6, 1917 in Grayson County, Texas.  Cause of death was given as pneumonia.
 
Arizona Republic 28 Nov 1918 p10

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Rookie Mistake and Some Longstanding Consequences

Image
Many, many years ago, when I first began genealogy work on the Mallory Family line, the only sources I had to start with were the things my grandmother, Leona Mallory Poor, told me and some letters from her brother, Houston Lee Mallory.  Neither of them knew much beyond the names of their grandparents and the stories their father, Benjamin Franklin Mallory, told (which were often embellished).  Later, I had the family history written by June Mallory Ferguson, which was an enormous help, and letters from other Mallory researchers in Missouri and elsewhere.  But, prior to that, all I had were a few names and locations.   This was before records had been scanned to computers, and everything was in book form or on reels of microfilm.  Records had to be searched by location first, then by name in the source itself.  It was time-consuming and often fruitless.  I started with the names I knew and checked the U.S. Census for the years before the Civil War....
Read more

Roger Eastman and the Salem Witch Trials

Image
Letitia Owen--Rhoda S. Eastman--Levi J. Eastman--Abel Eastman--John Eastman--Joseph Eastman--Samuel Eastman--Roger Eastman   The earliest Eastman ancestor that can be reliably traced with solid evidence at this time is Roger Eastman.  He is regarded as the progenitor of the line in the British colonies of America, and for most of those descendants with the Eastman surname in the U.S. today.  He was recorded as arriving in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts, in 1638 aboard the Confidence out of Southampton.   Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled by Puritans, who "established a theocratic government with the franchise limited to church members" and "zealously sought to prevent any independence of religious views, and many with differing religious beliefs...were banished" (Britannica.com).   Roger Eastman married Sarah [last name unknown] soon after his arrival, and his first child was born in 1640.  He received land in the first division of Salisbury and was ...
Read more

The Earliest Mallorys, an update

  Previously, the earliest known Mallory was identified as Anschetil, born around 1075.   This information came from Hikaru Kitabayashi in a post written in 2007 .   A blog written in 2011 and 2013 by the same author (a professor of linguistics and author of Post Norman Conquest Mallorys* ) now identifies the first Mallory in England as Geoffrey Mallore (pronounced Mallory, spelled in a variety of ways). Geoffrey, aka Goisfrid Malloret, “seems to have had his origin in Bessin in Normandy” but it is not known if he participated in the Norman conquest of 1066.   According to Kitabayashi’s 2011 post, Geoffrey was listed in the earlier Exeter Doomsday of 1086 “as the lord of Todber in co. Dorset, as tenant of William de Moyon” and possessed “the manor of Steepleton Iwerne (Werne), also of William de Moyon.”   He likely possessed other properties that cannot be identified with certainty because they were recorded only as belonging to “Geoffrey” with no last na...
Read more