Theresa Mary Barry by Camille Arbogast.
Theresa Mary Barry was born on October 22, 1893, in Gort, County Galway, Ireland, to Mary and Francis Barry. Francis was a baker. Theresa’s siblings included: Mary, Josephine, Peter, Bridget (known as Delia), Elizabeth, Francis, Patrick, Michael, Agnes, Gerald, and Philomena. In 1901, the Barrys lived at 49 Georges Street in Gort. By April 1911, Theresa was living with her sister Elizabeth in Gort’s Market Square. Theresa studied at the Convent of Mercy in Gort, according to family sources.
Theresa sailed from Queenstown on the Cunard Line’s RMS Laconia, arriving in Boston on October 11, 1913. She lived in Mattapan with her sister Delia at 12 Rosewood Street. In 1917, she began the American citizenship process; on a citizenship document she listed her occupation as graduate nurse. She became a registered nurse in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1918.
Theresa served in the Army Nursing Corps during the First World War. Her service record notes that she was a reserve nurse called to active service from civilian life on June 11, 1918. She may have initially joined the Red Cross Nursing Service, which in 1912 had been designated the Army Nursing Corps’ reserve force.
Theresa was first assigned to General Hospital #1 in New York City, where she remained for three days before being transferred to the city’s mobilization station. A month later, she left for France, sailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the SS Northland, as a member of Base Hospital Number 44, which had been organized in March 1917 at Boston’s Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital. A history of the unit explained that base hospitals were organized by established non-military hospitals, and then associated with the Red Cross. “Such hospitals have no connection with the army until accepted by the United States Government, when they automatically pass from the control of the Red Cross to that of the War Department. … In this way complete base hospitals with entire personnels and full equipment are organized under the authorization and control of the American Red Cross ready for transfer to the Government in case of emergency.”
A letter written by another Base Hospital 44 nurse, Margaret Holland of Fall River, published in the Fall River Globe, described their voyage and early days in France. The nurses started from New York, “without the least idea of where we were going.” At sea, they “had good weather and we stayed out on deck all the time, even sleeping on deck at night … At times we had some excitement, saw a couple of icebergs, a whale, and some other things which we are not allowed to mention.” Their journey ended in Pougues-les-Eaux, Nievre, not far from the Loire River. Their quarters were “in an old chalet in the centre of a lovely park,” full of “the loveliest old fashioned furniture and mirrors.”
The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War, a history published by the Surgeon General’s office, recorded that in Pougues-les Eaux, Base Hospital 44 “took over a number of hotels and various other buildings in that city and converted them into a hospital … The first patients were received on August 10.” The hospital was set up to treat 1,000 medical and surgical cases at a time; at one point in October 1918 they were treating 1,712 patients. In mid-December 1918, “the hospital plant at Pougues was abandoned and the unit transferred to Mesves.”
In January 1919, Base Hospital 44 was relieved. Theresa was transferred to Base Hospital Number 82, a unit which had been organized in April 1918 at Fort Riley, Kansas. When Theresa joined the unit, Base Hospital 82 had just relieved another unit at the Caserne La Marche, a 2,300-bed hospital near Toul, Meurthe-et-Moselle, which had received sick and wounded from the Battle of Saint Mihiel. On March 31, Base Hospital 82 was relieved. Theresa remained at Caserne La Marche, joining Base Hospital 87, which took over the facility. Base Hospital 87, which had also been formed at Fort Riley, “ceased to function” on April 27.
On June 1, 1919, Theresa sailed from Brest, France. on the USS Cap Finisterre as part of Casual Nurse Detachment Number 26. The ship arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey, on June 4. On June 11, she was transferred to the demobilization Station in New York City, where she remained until she was relieved from active duty on July 2, 1919.
After her return to the United States, Theresa moved to Berkeley, California, to study at the University of California. In Berkeley, Theresa met widower Frank Marion Anderson. Frank was a geologist; the author of works such as The Geology of Point Reyes Peninsula (1899), a curator of Paleontology at the California Academy of Sciences, and a petroleum industry consultant. His first wife had died in 1916. According to a family story, Theresa had been introduced to Frank by a fellow nurse she had served with overseas. The introduction was possibly made by Frank’s niece, Ella Anderson, who had also returned to the United States with Casual Nurse Detachment 26 on the Cap Finisterre.
Theresa and Frank were married on December 25, 1919. They wed at Frank’s sister’s home in Ashland, Oregon. According to the Ashland Weekly Tidings, “The ceremony was read … in the presence of a few friends and relatives, after which a dainty supper was served.” Ella served as Theresa’s bridal attendant. Following the wedding, “The bride and groom left on the midnight train … for California. After a few months in the southern part of the state they will return to Berkeley, where they will make their home.”
They initially lived at 2604 Etna Street, the home Frank owned in Berkeley. In 1920, Ella lived with them. It appears Theresa may have continued her studies after her marriage, as the University of California listed her as a student in February 1920. By 1930, Theresa and Frank had three children: Theresa Elinor, Frances, and Frank Barry. They had moved to 58 Hillcrest Road in Berkeley, where they remained for the rest of Frank’s life. Frank died in September 1945, after an illness of several months.
We do not currently know much about Theresa’s life after Frank’s death. She continued to live in Berkeley into the late 1970s where she was involved with fundraising for the local chapter of the Red Cross A granddaughter remembered that Theresa, “was always beautifully dressed, and wore lovely jewelry every day.” Theresa died on December 26, 1980, in Saint Helena, Napa County, California.
Researched and written by Camille Arbogast.
Sources:
Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.
1901, 1911 Census of Ireland, The National Archives of Ireland; census.nationalarchives.ie
Family Tree & family photos; Ancestry.com
Naturalization Records. National Archives at Boston, Waltham, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com
Twenty-Fifth Annual Report of the Board of Registration in Medicine for the Year Ending December 31, 1918. Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co, State Printers, 1919; Archive.org
Alfin, Denis L. “Ambiguous Duty: Red Cross Nurses and the First World War,” US Army Medical Department Journal, January-June 2018; Gale Academic Onefile
Lists of Outgoing & Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, MD; Ancestry.com
Lee, Wesley T. “The Battle of Pouges-les-Eaux: A History of the U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 44,” American Homeopathy in the World War; Homeopathe International, S Sylvain Cazalet, 2000, homeoint.org
“Miss Hollands Vivid Account of Life Overseas,” Fall River Globe, 11 September 1918: 2; Newspapers.com
Ford. Joseph H. “Base Hospitals,” The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War, Volume 2. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921-1929; Archive.org
“Christmas Wedding,” Ashland Weekly Tidings (Ashland, OR), 31 December 1919: 2; Newspapers.com
1920, 1930, 1940 United States Federal Census; Ancestry.com
Register- Part XVI, Catalogue of Officers and Students, 1919-1920. February 1920, University of California, Berkeley; Archive.org
Frank M. Anderson, FindAGrave.com
Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Social Security Administration; Ancestry.com
State of California. California Death Index, 1940-1997. Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics; Ancestry.com