William Henry Aborn by Camille Arbogast
William Henry Aborn was born on November 29, 1887, in Richmond, Virginia. His father, William Hallet Aborn, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of a hatter who had a shop on Washington Street in Boston. William Hallet attended the Boston Latin School, graduating in 1863. In 1872, he married his first wife in Boston; she died in Boston five years later. In Richmond, he was a tobacco merchant. William, Jr.’s mother, Helen Fay (Patteson). Aborn was a native of Richmond. William Hallet and Helen married in Manchester, Virginia, just outside of Richmond, in October 1878. They had three other children: Samuel born in 1883, Katherine in 1886, and Ruth in 1891.
By 1895, the family had relocated to Dorchester and William Hallet was in the sugar business. The Aborns initially lived at 406 Codman Street (now Gallivan Boulevard), William Jr.’s paternal grandparents’ home. His grandfather died in 1898 and his grandmother in 1905. William attended the Gilbert Stuart School in Lower Mills, graduating in 1902. He also attended one year of high school, according to the 1940 census. By 1905, the family had moved to 63 Van Winkle Street. Five years later, they resided at 63 Weyanoke Street. William was working by 1910, employed as a clerk by the First National Bank of Boston at 70 Federal Street. The First National Bank was the product of a 1903 merger between the Massachusetts Bank, founded in 1784, the only bank in Boston until 1792, and First National Bank, founded in 1859 as the Safety Fund Bank. William worked for the bank for his entire career.
By 1915, the Aborns had moved to 9 Shenandoah Street. Two years later, in 1917, they moved again a couple of blocks away, to 9 Fairfax Street. Though his father, now 72, was listed in the Boston directory as a salesman, William reported on his 1917 draft registration that he was the “chief support” of his father and mother.
William was inducted into the Army on September 20, 1917, and sent to Camp Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts, for training. He was assigned to Battery C of the 302nd Field Artillery of the 76th Division. On July 16, 1918, he departed from the Boston and Albany Pier in Boston, sailing for Europe on the HTM Port Lincoln. After arriving in Liverpool, the regiment traveled overland across England to Southampton, where they crossed the channel to Le Havre, France, on the U.S. Charles. The regiment was initially billeted in Bordeaux, in the town of Pont de la Maye. On September 5, the regiment moved to Camp de Souge for additional training at the Field Artillery School. While there, the regiment suffered an influenza outbreak, had to go into quarantine, and lost some men to the illness. In late October, they received orders to move to Rupt-en-Woëvre, near Saint-Mihiel. At midnight on November 6, gun Number 1 of Battery C “fired the first shot of the Regiment at the Hun.” According to the regimental history it was “… the first shot, not only of the Regiment, but the first shot ever fired at the Germans by American-made Field Artillery.” While in Rupt-en-Woëvre, “the fire carried on by the Regiment was entirely of a harassing nature.” On November 9, the regiment took part in a raid into the Woëvre Plain. After the Armistice, the 302nd Field Artillery remained in Rupt-en-Woëvre for the rest of the year. In the new year, they returned to Camp Souge where they were visited by General Pershing in February. On April 13, Battery C sailed on the USS Santa Rosa, departing from Pauillac, France. When the ship arrived in Boston on April 26, it was met by “steamers carrying friends and relatives, who showered the returning troops with doughnuts and candy.” William was discharged at Camp Devens on April 30, 1919. By that time, he had attained a rank of corporal.
In 1920, William was again living at 9 Fairfax Street. The next year, the family moved to 65 Rogers Avenue in West Somerville, Massachusetts. William’s sisters were also still living in the family home. According to the 1920 census, Ruth was also a bank clerk, while Katherine was a secretary at a hardware business. During the 1920s, Katherine worked for the Harvard Alumni Association. In 1927, she married the superintendent of the reading room at Harvard’s Widener Library. By that time the family had moved to 29 Lowden Avenue in West Somerville. Their mother, Helen, died in January 1934; their father died that November. Ruth and William remained at 29 Lowden Avenue after their parents’ death.
On August 31, 1941, William married Ella Louise Dimock, a 29 year old bank clerk. Born in Roslindale, Ella lived in Westwood, Massachusetts. They were married by the Reverend Edwin P. Booth. After their marriage, Ella and William lived at 29 Lowden Avenue. By 1943, they had moved to 29 Carroll Avenue in the Islington section of Westwood. At the end of his life, William lived on Cape Cod, in West Dennis and then South Yarmouth.
William died in South Yarmouth on October 29, 1968. He was cremated at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown, Massachusetts. His funeral was held at the cemetery’s Bigelow Chapel.
Sources:
Virginia, Births, 1721–2015. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, VA; Ancestry.com
Family tree; Ancestry.com
Clark’s Boston Blue Book, various years; Archive.org
1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 United States Federal Census; Ancestry.com
“Gilbert Stuart School,” Boston Globe, 26 June 1902: 3; Newspapers.com
Cabell, James Branch. The Majors and Their Marriages: With Collateral Accounts of the Allied Families of Aston, Ballard, Christian, Dancy, Hartwell, Hubbard, Macon, Marable, Mason, Patteson, Piersey, Seawell, Stephens, Waddill, and Others. Richmond, VA: The WC Hill Printing Co, 1915; Books.Google.com
Hower, Ralph M. ed. “A History of Boston’s Oldest Bank,” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society. Baker Library, Boston, MA. December 1937: 101-104; JSTOR.org
World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
Military, Compiled Service Records. World War I. Carded Records. Records of the Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, Massachusetts National Guard.
Lists of Outgoing & Incoming Passengers, 1917-1938. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985, The National Archives at College Park, Maryland; Ancestry.com
302 Field Artillery Association. The 302nd Field Artillery United States Army. Cambridge, MA: The Cosmos Press, 1919; Archive.org
“C.A. Mahady to Marry Miss Katherine Aborn.” Boston Globe, 6 April 1927: 4; Newspapers.com
Marriage Record, Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook); Ancestry.com
Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
“Morning Death Notices,” Boston Globe, 31 October 1968: 21; Newspapers.com
William Henry Aborn; FindAGrave.com