Kenneth L. Burr
Burr has an entry among index cards kept by Nathaniel R. Perkins, MD, who examined thousands of men who were going into the war, 1914-1918. Given by Mrs N. R. Perkins in accordance with instructions from her late husband, Dr. Nathaniel P. Perkins of 1122 Adams St, Dorchester.
Kenneth L. Burr 9 Walton Street
Kenneth Towle Burr was born in Roxbury on June 2, 1893 to Charles S. Burr and Annie L. Burr. Charles was a salesman, and the family was living at 257 Harold Street in Roxbury. By the 1910 census, they had moved to 9 Walton Street, Dorchester. Kenneth had two younger brothers: Robert, 2 years younger and Malcolm 8 years younger.
Kenneth registered for the draft on June 5, 1917. He stated that he was the general manager of the New England Bolt Co., in Everett, Massachusetts, and that he lived at 9 Walton Street. He was described as of medium height, slender build, with hazel eyes and brown hair.
He entered the Enlisted Reserve Corps on January 11, 1918 and was sent to the School for Military Aeronautics in Cambridge, then to the School for Military Aeronautics at Cornell University. He was discharged on December 4, 1918.
Everett directories show that he was the treasurer of the New England Bolt Co. starting in 1920. He moved that year to Portland, Maine, remaining treasurer into the 1930s. He married a woman named Edith, and they had a daughter named Barbara who was 3 years old in 1930. In the 1940s Kenneth became Treasurer and later Executive Vice-President and then President of the Bancroft and Martin Steel Rolling Mill. He was on the board of directors of the Bank of Commerce.
During the second World War Kenneth became the subject of an investigation. He, his wife and daughter along with some other employees of Bancroft and Martin owned a company called Materials Handling Company. Investigators found that Truck leasing Corp would rent a fuelled truck without a driver to Hunnewell Trucking for $6.50 per day. Hunnewell rented the truck and a driver to Material Handling for $2.75 per hour, and Materials Handling would rent the truck and driver to South Portland Ship for $3.50 per hour. Kenneth made a bundle, but the profits were not enough. The investigators found that Materials Handling also engaged in double billing. There is no indication of the result of the investigation.
Edith died in 1958. Kenneth remarried a woman named Dorothy. Kenneth died on December 26, 1976, and Dorothy died n 1988. Their headstone in Pine Grove Cemetery, Falmouth, Maine, gives her name as Dorothy W. Burr Joyce, so perhaps she married again but decided to be buried next to Kenneth.
Sources:
Birth Record on Ancestry.com
Boston directories on Ancestry.com
Everett directories on Ancestry.com
FindaGrave.com
Portland directories on Ancestry.com
Portland Press Herald Jan. 12, 1949 and Sept. 24, 1949, on Ancestry.com
US Census 1900, 1920, 1930, 1940 on Ancestry.com
Williams, Greg H. The Liberty Ships of World War II. (2014)
WW I draft registration on Ancestry.com
WW I Service Record. Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.