Those of you who know me even a little bit know that I have an obsession. It's basically an obsession of doing family history work. Over the past years my goal and my cousins goals have been to find and document our Grandfather James Edward Sullivan. If you have read the last post on this blog you know that we have figured out through DNA that my Grandfather James Edward Sullivan changed his name sometime between April 1912 to September 1916. His birth name was Fred Cole. He was born in July of 1885 in Marshall Town, Iowa instead of on July 4th, 1879 in New York City. Hopefully, some day I'll be able to post why he changed his name but for today I would like to show some of the things I've been able to find while researching and documenting.
Through the years Grandpa shared tidbits of information with his sons and daughters. The following is a list of some of those tidbits he shared. All the tidbits aren't documented but I'll share the information we have found.
Tidbits of information about their father from the children
of James Edward Sullivan. (Now remember these tidbits of information are coming from James Edward Sullivan and the information is about Fred Cole.)
- He served in the Spanish American War
- Volunteer – 19th infantry Company B
- Served three years, three months and three days in the army
- Served at least part of the time in the Philippines
- May have shipped out from St. Augustine, Florida
- Returned to the Letterman Hospital in San Francisco area with dysentery and was close to one year recuperating.
- Sergeant at the time of discharge.
- Military Leaders – Murphy and Bottom
- He was in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake
- Played baseball in San Francisco
Facts to prove the tidbits of information.
Born: Marshall Town, Iowa
Age: 22 years 5 months
Description: dark blue eyes
This second enlistments adds one year, three months and three days to the three years served on the first enlistment which will total four years, three months and three day. His tidbits of information to his children says he served three years, three months and three days with an additional year recovering from dysentery.
Fred Cole's military records
show he was a member of the 1st Cavalry 27 regiment
Fred Cole appears on the 1910 U.S. Census taken on 22 April 1910 in Presidio, San Francisco, California.
James Edward Sullivan claims to have been in San Francisco during the earthquake in 1906. How could this be since he didn’t join the army until 1908?
This website says: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). High-intensity shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died. Over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed. The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest earthquakes in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high on the lists of American disasters.
Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000; half of those who evacuated fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Newspapers described Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Panhandle and the beaches between Ingleside and North Beach as covered with makeshift tents. More than two years later, many of these refugee camps were still in operation.
Presidio is right next to San Francisco so the army personnel was used to help with the rebuilding process. Since he enlisted in January of 1908 the rescue operations were still in process and he would have been a part of them.
Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military by George Washington Cullum..
Captain, 19th Infantry, Feb. 5, 1900
At Fort Leavenworth, Kans., Instructor Army service Schools, July, 1909, to July, 1911;
Major, 15th Infantry, Sept 2, 1911
Transferred to 19th Infantry, Oct 6, 1911
At Camp Jossman and Camp McKinley, P.I., with regiment, Dec. 6, 1911, to May 5, 1912;
At Jolo, P.I., on detached service, commanding Battalion. 8th Infantry, June to October 1912
Biographical Register or the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military by George Washington Cullum
Sam Frank Bottoms
Captain, Artillery Corps, August 22, 1901
With company, November, 1907, to August, 1910;
At Fort Monroe, Va., student officer at Coast Artillery School. September, 1910 to July, 1911;
On leave of absence, August, 1911;
At Presidio of San Francisco, Cal., September, 1911
Major, Coast Artillery Corps, Dec. 5, 1911
January, 1812; at Fort Baker, Cal., commanding post, to August, 1912
Description: height 6' 1 1/2 inches
Eyes: blue
Hair: gray
Complexion: ruddy
An interesting side note to all this information is I have a sister. My sister and I have the same mother and different fathers. One day recently she asked me to figure out her DNA information because she couldn't find her father's Mack ancestors in her DNA matches. After studying her DNA matches it turns out her Grandfather had also changed his name from Koonce to Mack. He has newspaper articles about him disappearing and never returning to his pregnant wife and children. It's an interesting coincidence that our mother would be able to pick two men with fathers that had changed their names.
Excellent information Cousin. Thank You for all the updates. I'll make updates to my tree. God Bless You and the work you are doing.
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