Ludwig Carl Alberti by Camille Arbogast
Ludwig Carl Alberti (who often went by Carl) was born on October 13, 1896, at 3 Elmo Street in Dorchester. His father, Paul L. E. Alberti, had been born in Anklanm, then in the province of Pomerania, Prussia (today in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany). Paul immigrated to Boston in 1870, where he eventually established his own cigar box manufacturing company. Carl’s mother, Margarethe (Kessner) Alberti, known as Margaret, was from Bavaria and had arrived in the United States in the 1870s. Paul and Margaret married in Boston in 1882. They had five older children: Minnie born in 1883, Victor in 1885, Oscar in 1887, Gustaf in 1889, and Pauline in 1891. Paul had been married previously; his first wife died of tuberculosis in 1880. A daughter from this marriage, Louisa, died of tuberculosis in 1896 at age 17.
In 1899, the family was living at 1 Elmo Street. That January, Paul died after a short illness. The next year the Albertis moved to 15 Elmo Street. By 1910, they had purchased 66 Kingdale Street. Margaret had taken over the box company, and she employed Minnie and Victor, as a bookkeeper and a salesman, respectively. Oscar worked for the gas company and Gustav was a clerk in a dry goods store. Pauline and Carl were still at school.
Carl entered Connecticut Agricultural College in Storrs, Connecticut, (today the University of Connecticut), in the class of 1920. At the school, he pledged Eta Lambda Sigma and played center on the football team. In December 1917, the school’s newspaper, The Connecticut Campus, reported Carl had “left College. He is to attend a preparatory school for a few weeks prior to entering the Harvard Radio School.” In May 1918, Connecticut Agricultural College granted Carl a war certificate, an alternative to a diploma that some colleges awarded to students who had left school early to undertake war service.
Carl enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force on January 19, 1918. In April, he was sent to a training camp in Charleston, South Carolina. On December 10, he was transferred to Headquarters, 6th Naval District, in Charleston, where he remained until November 11, when the war ended. On December 12, he was placed on inactive duty at the 3rd Naval District in New York City. He was honorably discharged on September 30, 1921, due to lack of funds. Carl served as a Landsman Quartermaster Aviation for 240 days and then as an Apprentice Seaman for 56 days.
On September 7, 1919, Carl married Edith L. Cross in Dorchester. Edith, a clerk, had been born in Boston. They were married at 157 Glenway Street by Reverend Harold L. Stratton of Dorchester’s Harvard Congregational Church. At the time of their marriage, Carl and Edith were living in Fall River, Massachusetts, and Carl was working as a salesman. The couple had two sons: Joseph born in 1920 and Lewis in 1934.
By 1920, Carl and Edith were back in Dorchester, residing at 84 Thetford Avenue. Carl was a checker with the shipping board. In 1923, they lived at 86 Astoria Street in Mattapan, where they remained through at least 1925. They moved to Quincy in the late 1920s, where they lived at 42 Appleton Street in the Atlantic section of town. By 1930, they had moved to 96 Highland Avenue in the Wollaston section. Carl would live in the home for the rest of his life. In 1930, he was an automobile salesman. He was selling automobile accessories by 1940, earning $2,600 a year. In 1942, on his Second World War draft registration, he reported he was employed by the A.C. Spark Plug Company of Flint, Michigan. He was still listed in the Quincy directory as a manufacturers agent in 1961.
Carl died on March 15, 1963. A service was held for him at the Russell Funeral Home in Wollaston.
Researched and written by Camille Arbogast.
Sources:
Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com
Family Tree, Ancestry.com
“Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924,” database, citing Boston, Massachusetts, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org
“Death of Paul L.E. Alberti,” Boston Globe, 11 Jan 1899: 7; Newspapers.com
1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, U.S. Federal Census; Ancestry.com
Catalog of the Connecticut Agricultural College, Storrs, Connecticut, Announcements for 1918-1919. Hartford: Published by the State, 1918; Archive.org
1917-1918 Nutmeg, Junior and Senior Classes, Storrs, Ct: Connecticut Agricultural College [1918]; UConn Library, collections.ctdigitalarchive.org,
“Eta Lamba Sigma Notes,” The Connecticut Campus (University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT), 14 December, 1917 :3; UConn Library, opencommons.uconn.edu
Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.
“Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1920,” database citing Marriage, Boston, Suffolk, MA, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org
Boston and Quincy, Massachusetts, directories; Ancestry.com
Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917 -1940, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 – 2007. National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; FamilySearch.org
United States, Selective Service System. Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancstry.com
“Evening Death Notices,” Boston Globe, 16 March 1963: 2; Newspapers.com