World War II signature of Jack Dempsey from U.S.S. Wakefield

Daddy (Arthur Woodson Towne 1919-2003) had told me he had obtained Jack Dempsey's signature, but couldn't find it.  Jack Dempsey was a well known boxer in his day and Daddy was very proud of the fact that he had met Dempsey.  I had never seen the signature.  I was looking at the backs of some old photos today and found it.  Including the Dempsey signature, mother had written:  Mama & Papa Towne (guess she was writing this for her grandkids).  "Obtained in 1944 aboard the U.S.S. Wakefield going from Boston to Liverpool England"

So my guess is that Daddy carried this picture with him during World War II and it was handy when he had the opportunity to get Dempsey's signature on the ship.

This paragraph from the Wikipedia article on Dempsey actually mentions his serving on the USS Wakefield:   Wikipedia on Jack Dempsey

When the United States entered World War II, Dempsey had an opportunity to refute any remaining criticism of his war record of two decades earlier. Dempsey joined the New York State Guard and was given a commission as a first lieutenant. Dempsey resigned that commission to accept a commission as a lieutenant in the Coast Guard Reserve. Dempsey reported for active duty in June 1942 at Coast Guard Training Station, Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York, where he was assigned as "Director of Physical Education." Dempsey also made many personal appearances at fights, camps, hospitals and War Bond drives. Dempsey was promoted to lieutenant commander in December 1942 and commander in March 1944. In 1944, Dempsey was assigned to the transport USS Wakefield (AP-21). In 1945, Dempsey was on the attack transport USS Arthur Middleton (APA-25) for the invasion of Okinawa. Dempsey also spent time aboard theUSS General William Mitchell (AP-114), where he spent time showing the crew sparring techniques. Dempsey was released from active duty in September 1945 and was given an honorable discharge from the Coast Guard Reserve in 1952.^[2][30]

1955 Homemaker Training

Practicing to be the ideal little homemaker I am - NOT. February 1955

TFA - Towne Family Association

I did something new this weekend. I've been a member of the Towne Family Association since January 1990 [that's the first date shown on my quarterly newsletters].CLICK FOR LINK TO THE TOWNE FAMILY ASSOCIATION WEBSITE. This weekend was the 28th annual meeting of the organization. This meeting was held in Branson Missouri. The previous 27 meetings had been held in:

• MA 9 times
  
• VT 3 times
  
• NH 2 times
  
• ME 2 times
  
• NY 2 times
  
• VT 1 time
  
• CT 1 time
  
• CA 1 time
  
• OR 1 time
  
• SD 1 time
  
• NB Canada 1 time
  
• IN 1 time
  
• WA 1 time
  
• LA 1 time
  

The Indiana and Louisiana meetings were fairly close, geographically, to me, but this was the very first meeting I've attended.

I've been corresponding with some of the members for years, via USPS mail and then e-mail, but this was the first time to meet my "cousins". My husband went with me, and we drove to Branson via the backroads so he could have some photography opportunities. We arrived in Branson Friday afternoon and took a bus to a dinner theater variety show. Saturday morning was the business meeting for the organization and in the afternoon there was an excellent DNA Workshop with an explanation of our on going TOWNE DNA PROJECT, given by Margaret Press. Saturday evening was a banquet with acoustic guitar and singing entertainment.

This was also my first visit to the city of Branson, and it will probably be my last. I was really not impressed. It seems to be a town that has been scraped from the hard rocky Ozark mountains with entertainment/theaters plopped on every corner. It might be someone elses cup of tea, but I guess it isn't mine. The drive through the Ozarks to get there was quite pretty though.

My new cousins were all so nice and they all had the common hobby of researching our TOWNE line. I volunteered for a couple of committees; I'm going to submit an update to our family DNA from 37 to 67 markers.

The meetings they held in Massachusetts allowed them to visit sites associated with the Towne family - Rebecca Nurse's homestead, among them. In the meeting in Branson, I think it was missing that component. The association has made a couple of trips to England to visit sites associated with William Towne. I think I would have preferred that kind of meeting. I guess it's a trade-off in being able to afford to drive to Branson and not having to buy a plane ticket to Massachusetts.

Here are a few pictures of my new cousins:
























As much as I enjoyed meeting new cousins, I have to say that the meeting left me a bit dissatisfied. I think I wanted more genealogical "meat". I wanted to talk about OUR research. I wanted to talk about the branches of the family as they have spread across the U.S.. It would have been nice to have a member of each group talk about the research challenges for each of the children of William Towne. I guess I just wasn't ready to drive 6 hours to attend a regular business meeting. I guess I was looking for more genealogy. Maybe all those things were discussed at the previous 27 annual meetings and I just missed it. I guess every group that collects money from its members and has expenditures has to account for that money and get consensus for new monetary distributions, but it just wasn't what I had expected. Oh well, I have a survey form to send in, and I know if you want something done, you can volunteer to do it, but making next year's meeting [it's in New Hampshire, I think] will be a little difficult, so my volunteering will be limited this time. Oh well. It was a new experience, and a good experience to meet some new relatives.

Lyon County Kentucky Lunatic Inquest Book 1887 - 1910

I received the Lunatic Inquest Book on microfilm last week, and finally got to a microfilm reader today. I found my ancestor James W Towns on a record pretty near the beginning of the tape. The information was interesting, if not really useful. The pages were in "negative" format, so the partiuclar reader I was on made it pretty hard to read. I plan to go back and use the better reader and either enlarge and change to positive, or print it out and bring it home, scan it and manipulate the image in a photo program. I had hoped to be able to extract most of the tape and post it, but that will have to wait until our genealogical society gets their portable reader that makes it easier to create a jpg of a page directly. Here's what I could read:

22 March 1890
James W Towns
[some legal verbage and an indication that he'd been found to be a "lunatic"]
[condition] originates from unknown cause
Born in KY
Resides in Lyon County Kentucky
48 years old
He has a small run of land, too poor to make a living, no other estate of any kind.
Father and mother are both dead and hehas no estate except the little piece of land and a _?_ cheap handcart ....
[some other legal verbage and an indication that they're committing him to the Asylum in Hopkinsville]
Date of first attack: about five years ago [and some other words I couldn't read]
How exhibited p_?_ some time in _?_ then for a time lucid
Has it changed in character at any former period? He imagines his family and friends are trying to poison or kill him. Want to get rid of him.
Subject of its? no
Natural temper: even tempered man when sane
Attempt at Suicide? threatens suicide
Viilence toward others? Has attempted to do injury to his wife and children. Has struck them.
Periodic frenzy? yes
Restraint imposed? Has had to be _?_ restraint to prevent _?_ to himself & others
Treatment used? unknown - refused to take medicine
Bleeding? none
Injury about head? None
[There was an additional statement on item #9 that I could not read.]

That's it. Rather sad I think, knowing that he was in the institution in Hopkinsville Kentucky until his death 20 December 1921.

Property Records Made the Connection

I was able to tell that the Garrett Gray who was in Virginia was the SAME Garrett Gray who had been in Fauquier County Virginia. I was able to tell that the Willard C Town who bought land in Caldwell County Kentucky was the SAME Willard C Town who had lived in Coshocton County Ohio. I didn't have census records to correlate ages, spouses or children because the Garrett Gray document I used was from 1798. Willard C Town appeared in Kentucky in 1840. Both of these events were before the 1850 census that is always so much help to us. I didn't have marriage records or wills, so what did I have that proved to me that these were the same people? I had property deeds. Study your property deeds. Here's what I found.

Garrett Gray: 22 Jan 1798 District of Ninety Six. John Cannon and Elinor, his wife to Garret Gray, late of the County of Fauquier, VA 100 L sterling.........

Willard C Town: After his father "went west" and never reappeared in Ohio, Willard sold his part of his father's land to Cephas Parker, who then sold it to another member of Willard's family. When Willard C Town then purchased land in Caldwell County Kentucky, guess who witnessed this purchase - Cephas Parker. He and his family had moved with Willard C Town to Caldwell County Kentucky.

Deeds are wonderful things!!