Dorchester Illustration no. 2471 August Stein Atwood
World War 1 biography
By Camille Arbogast
August Stein Atwood was born on April 2, 1892, at 61 Alban Street in Dorchester. His father, Harrison Henry Atwood, was born in Londonderry, Vermont, and grew up in Boston. His mother, Clara (Stein), was a Bostonian whose parents had immigrated from Germany. Harrison and Clara were married on September 11, 1889. They also had an older son, Harrison, Jr., born in 1890.
Harrison, Sr., was an architect. In 1889, he was appointed Architect for the City of Boston, a position he held until 1891. Among his works are the Congress Street Fire Station, the Bowditch School in Jamaica Plain, the Harvard Avenue Fire Station, the Roxbury Memorial School, and the Boston Clerical High School. Harrison, Sr., designed the Atwood family home at 61 Alban Street. Built in 1888, it is a large Shingle-style house, 4,826 square feet, with 16 rooms, lavish finish work, and entertaining spaces—including a third floor ballroom. Harrison, Sr., was also a politician, serving as a United States congressman from 1895-1897. Before and after his federal service, he served a number of terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
August graduated from the Henry L. Pierce School in 1906. In the autumn of 1911, he entered Dartmouth College, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in November 1915. After he graduated, he was employed at the Massachusetts State House as an assistant examiner.
On November 10, 1914, August enlisted in the National Guard in Boston, serving in Company C, 1st Corps Cadets, Boston. In March 1917, he was attached to the Quartermaster Detachment of the Massachusetts National Guard, based in Allston. August was made a sergeant on May 16 and promoted to sergeant first class on September 28, 1917. By the time of his second promotion, his unit had been reorganized as Headquarters Troop, 26th Division. The reorganization occurred in August; on August 6, he reported for duty, mustering the next day.
August departed for overseas service on October 9, 1917, sailing from New York City, on the RMS Baltic. In late April 1918, the Boston Post published a letter August wrote to his father from France: “I have been travelling quite extensively since I wrote you last…and have seen a good bit of La Belle France, which is very rightly named, for it is a very beautiful country. It seems a sacrilege that this beautiful land should have suffered so much at the hands of the Hun horde. They have certainly made wreckage of a good part of the country, and the homes, and in fact everything that once stood. It has been very interesting here, and I can assure you that I wouldn’t have missed it for anything in the world. The boys back home don’t even guess what they are missing. Every day something new turns up to keep the spice in one, and helps one forget about home and family. Our troops are surpassing all hopes in their work at the front, both the infantry and artillery. In fact every branch of the service in France is acquitting itself nobly, and is being recognized by the French government in citations and medals of honor. It is a wonderful feeling to know that your own bunch is going like old veterans, and making them all sit up and take notice.” August was appointed a 2nd lieutenant on October 20, 1918; promoted to first lieutenant on February 22, 1919, he was assigned to Disbursing. He sailed for the United States on March 27, leaving from Brest, France on the USS Mount Vernon, arriving in Boston on April 4. He was discharged at Camp Devens, in Ayer, Massachusetts, on April 29, 1919. August continued to serve in the Massachusetts National Guard, and in 1921, was major in the Commonwealth’s Quartermaster Corps.
On September 11, 1920, August married teacher Elizabeth N. Bradbury in Quincy, Massachusetts. The ceremony took place in Elizabeth’s sister’s home, 8 Miller Stile Road. Elizabeth had been born in Somerville, Massachusetts, though at the time of her marriage, she was living with her parents in Freedom, New Hampshire. The couple were married by Reverend Charles L. Noyes of Somerville. The next evening, they embarked on a “wedding trip by auto.” Their son, John, was born in 1923.
After their marriage, August and Elizabeth lived at 91 Alban Street, which Harrison, Sr., had designed. August’s brother and his wife lived in the other half of the house, which was near to their parents who still lived at number 61. By 1940, August and Elizabeth had moved to 32 Laurel Avenue in the Wellesley neighborhood of Wellesley Hills. Harrison, Sr., lived with them.
August had a number of jobs. In 1920, he was the office manager of a confectionery business. In 1924, during prohibition, “representing Vineyard Products,” he applied for a license “of the Fourth Class to sell intoxicating liquors as a dealer.” By 1930, he was a salesman at a lumber wholesale company. Ten years later, August was the floor manager of a Morris Plan Bank, a bank that specialized in making “small loans to moderate income families.” In 1942, August was working for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 100 Nashua Street in Boston, serving as the Second Assistant Commissioner of Mental Health.
Throughout his life he was very active with the Massachusetts Republican party.
In February 1944, August began suffering from ill health. He died at Faulkner Hospital, in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, on July 29, 1944. His funeral was held at Waterman Chapel in Boston. August was a member of the Wellesley Club and Dartmouth Alumni Association of Wellesley.
Sources
Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA; Ancestry.com
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“August S. Atwood,” Boston Globe, 30 July 1944: 27; Newspapers.com