John Michael Gleason’s Birthdate: Untangling Nine Conflicting Sources

Posted on August 20, 2026 by Don Taylor

By Don Taylor
Raidt Project
Raidt-Gleason Line

John Michael Gleason
John Michael Gleason

Every genealogist runs into it eventually: a person whose birthdate shifts depending on which record you’re holding. My son’s 2nd great-grandfather, John Michael Gleason, is one of mine — and working through his conflicting sources turned into a good case study in why some records deserve more weight than others.

For years, my working birthdate for John was 25 December 1852, in Watertown, Dodge County, Wisconsin — taken from his Find-a-Grave memorial. Then I pulled up his FamilySearch profile (LRNN-6Z8) and found something different: a life span of 25 December 1853 – 5 December 1948, and a birth location of New Diggings, Lafayette County, Wisconsin — a different year and a different county. That discrepancy sent me back through everything I had.

Starting with the Raw Data

Here’s every source I’ve attributed to John’s birth so far:

SourceSource DateAge / DetailConfirming InfoSuggested BirthLocation
1870 Census1 Jun18(Apparent) son of Timothy & Bridget2 Jun 1851 – 1 Jun 1852Wis.
1875 MN Census1 May21—2 May 1853 – 1 May 1854—
1880 Census1 Jun28Son of Timothy & Bridget2 Jun 1851 – 1 Jun 1852Wis.
1885 MN Census1 May33Wife is Della; children John & Mary2 May 1851 – 1 May 1852Wis.
1895 MN Census1 Jun44(Della died 1893) Children: John, Mary, Caroline, Clara, Helen2 Jun 1850 – 1 Jun 1851—
1900 Census1 Jun47Born July 1852 (stated directly)July 1852—
Find a GraveN/A95 at deathSpouses & children consistent25 Dec 1852 (no source given)Watertown, Dodge Co., Wis.
FamilySearch (LRNN-6Z8)N/A—Life span given directly25 Dec 1853New Diggings, Lafayette Co., Wis.
Obituary6 Dec 1948Age 96; noted he died “the Sunday before”Death date 5 Dec 1948 (a Sunday — matches)——

A quick note on method, since it comes up constantly in work like this: when a census only gives an age, not a birthdate, that age converts to a range, not a single year — because you don’t know whether the person’s birthday had already passed by census day. Someone who is “18” on 1 June 1870 could have been born any time between 2 June 1851 and 1 June 1852. Reporting these as ranges, rather than collapsing them to one year too early, is what lets you stack multiple records against each other later.

Anchoring on the 1900 Census

I like to start with whichever record makes the strongest, most specific claim and then test everything else against it. That’s the 1900 Census here: it’s the only record in this set that states a full birth month and year directly, rather than just an age — July 1852. It’s also internally consistent: age 47 on 1 June 1900 lines up exactly with that birth month and year. That kind of self-consistency is exactly why the 1900 census is often treated as one of the more reliable U.S. census years for birth information.

That gives me a working anchor to test the rest of the evidence against — rather than, say, building an argument for 1895’s “44 vs. 43” off a birth year I haven’t actually established yet.

Stacking the Earlier Census Windows

Here’s where it gets complicated. Overlapping the 1870, 1880, and 1885 census windows above — with the 1885 record’s 1 May date acting as the tightest constraint — gives a combined window of:

2 June 1851 – 1 May 1852

There’s also a note on John’s FamilySearch profile stating that at age 13, he was selling newspapers on a Boston street corner “at the time of President Lincoln’s assassination” (14 April 1865). I want to flag upfront that this is a story, not a document — it has no cited source, and “newspaper boy on the day of a famous assassination” is exactly the kind of detail that tends to get attached to family lore after the fact, whether or not it’s literally true. I’m not discarding it, but I’m not leaning on it either; it gets one job here, as a test against the records I trust more. Taken at face value, it puts his birth between 15 April 1851 and 14 April 1852. Overlapped with the census window above, it narrows things to:

2 June 1851 – 14 April 1852

And there’s the problem: that window excludes July 1852 outright — the exact date the 1900 census reports. So I have a direct conflict between three independent census ages (agreeing with each other, and with an unsourced anecdote that just happens to land on the same side) and one record with a specific, internally-consistent stated month and year. I’ll come back to how the death record helps break this tie.

The Outliers

Two records don’t fit either pattern:

  • The 1875 Minnesota Census puts him at 21 on 1 May 1875 — implying a birth as late as 1854, two to three years off from every other source. My best guess is that whoever supplied the information simply meant he was “over 21” (i.e., of voting age) rather than reporting a precise age.
  • The 1895 Minnesota Census reports him at 44 on 1 June 1895 — one to two years older than either the 1851 census cluster or the 1852 anchor would predict. Off-by-one or off-by-two age errors like this are common enough in enumerator-reported records that I don’t weight this one heavily against otherwise-consistent data; I’m treating it as a probable reporting error rather than genuine evidence for an earlier birth.

What the Exact Death Date Reveals

This is the piece I didn’t have when I started digging: FamilySearch gives an exact death date of 5 December 1948, and his obituary — published the next day, 6 December 1948 — gives his age at death as 96. That’s precise enough to actually test each birth candidate against, rather than just eyeballing it:

Birth CandidateAge on 5 Dec 1948Matches Obituary’s “96”?
July 1852 (1900 Census)96✅
25 Dec 1852 (Find-a-Grave)95❌
25 Dec 1853 (FamilySearch)94❌
1851, if birthday fell before 5 Dec97❌
1851, if birthday fell after 5 Dec96✅ (but no source states such a date)

Only two scenarios land on 96: a birth in July 1852, or a birth very late in 1851 (after 5 December). The second is mathematically possible but purely hypothetical — nothing in any record actually states a date that late in 1851. The 1900 Census, by contrast, directly states July 1852, and that date independently satisfies this age test. That’s the deciding vote for me.

Preferred date: July 1852. I’m keeping 1851 (year only) on the record as a likely-but-unconfirmed alternative — it’s the year three independent census records converge on — but no single source actually states a specific date within 1851, and it fails the age-at-death test across most of its range.

One More Detail Worth Noting

The FamilySearch date’s location doesn’t match Find-a-Grave. FamilySearch has him born in New Diggings, Lafayette County; Find-a-Grave has Watertown, Dodge County. Both are Wisconsin, but they’re not the same place, and I haven’t yet traced which one has an actual document behind it — or whether either does. This one’s still open.

Where This Leaves Me

  • Preferred: July 1852 — the only birth date directly stated by a source I have found so far, internally consistent within that source, and the only one that reproduces the obituary’s stated age of 96 against the confirmed 5 December 1948 death date.
  • Likely but unconfirmed: 1851 (year) — supported by three independent census records and an unsourced family anecdote, but with no source giving a specific date, and most of its range fails the age-at-death check.
  • Set aside for now: 25 December 1852 (Find-a-Grave, no cited source, fails the age-at-death check) and 25 December 1853 (FamilySearch, fails the age-at-death check).

Next step: chase down whatever document underlies FamilySearch’s New Diggings/Lafayette County claim, since that’s the last real open question in this set.

Don Taylor
Dontaylorgenealogy.com

Posted in Censuses, Raidt-Langford Project, Research & Methodology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Donna Montran in Chin Chin at the Drohen Avenue Theatre, Dunkirk, NY – March 8, 1920

Posted on August 7, 2026 by Don Taylor

Two days after closing its three-night stand at Rochester’s Lyceum Theatre, the touring company of “Chin Chin” moved on to Dunkirk, New York, for a single Monday-night performance at the Drohen Avenue Theatre on March 8, 1920.

Unlike the Rochester stop, which landed in Donna’s own hometown and drew a dedicated newspaper profile, Dunkirk was simply the next date on the route — a one-night engagement in a smaller mill and rail town on Lake Erie, about seventy-five miles west of Rochester. For the full background on the production, its Broadway pedigree, and Donna’s Rochester notice as the Goddess of the Lamp, see Donna Montran in Chin Chin at the Lyceum Theatre, Rochester, NY.

The Engagement

The Dunkirk Evening Observer began advertising the booking on March 5, 1920, running a notice for the Drohen Avenue Theatre’s regular picture-house program that closed with a call-out for the following Monday: “Monday the Big Road Show ‘CHIN CHIN,’ $1.00, $1.50 and $2.00.”[1] Ticket prices well above the theatre’s usual 13–25 cent admission for its film programs mark it as a special road-show event.

The following day, the Observer ran a dedicated announcement headlined “Chin Chin at the Drohen Avenue Theatre”:

It is with a great deal of pleasure, in fact pride, that Manager Drohen of the Drohen Avenue Theatre announces the coming of Charles Dillingham’s greatest musical comedy success “Chin Chin” on Monday, March 8. This play appeared first at the Globe Theatre in New York for two solid years, and is now on a transcontinental trip, touring the West for the first time. In the leading roles will be seen Walter Wills and Roy Binder, who come to us with the stamp of approval won in such productions as “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Red Mill,” “Hitchy Koo,” etc.

Dunkirk Evening Observer, March 6, 1920[2]

The same notice described “Chin Chin” as “a fantastic production rich in Oriental and Old English costuming, in seven sets, including the most startling surprises, ingenious trickery and grotesque dancing in plenty.”[2]

Reviews and Reception

The Observer followed up on March 9 with a review headlined “‘Chin Chin’ Makes Hit With Audience — Return Engagement of Big Musical Comedy at Drohen Avenue Drew Large Crowd,” confirming the show had last played Dunkirk two or three years earlier:

Charles Dillingham’s big musical comedy “Chin Chin” filled return engagement here last night, showing to a large and highly pleased audience. Although the show has not been here for two or three years, some of the members of the former cast were with the company, including Walter Wills and Roy Binder, who were the chief entertainers of the evening… The entire cast was good, the costuming magnificent, the play well staged and while there were no exceptional voices, the chorus was good looking and above the average.

Dunkirk Evening Observer, March 9, 1920[3]

The review singled out Irene McKay’s dancing as Fan Tan, the clown band, a ventriloquist act, and a “Paderewski at the piano” comedy bit as particular hits, and named “Good Bye Girls I’m Through” and “Temple Bells” as audience favorites among the songs.[3] Unlike the Rochester press, which had singled out Donna by name in her role, the surviving Dunkirk coverage does not mention her by name; her part as the Goddess of the Lamp in this engagement is documented in the family collection.[4]

The Drohen Avenue Theatre

The Drohen Avenue Theatre opened at 313 Central Avenue in Dunkirk on December 25, 1918, with 1,200 seats.[5] Confusingly for researchers, Dunkirk had two Drohen-affiliated houses running side by side in March 1920: the Drohen Avenue Theatre, which booked the touring “Chin Chin” production, and a separate, smaller Drohen Theatre a few blocks away, which was showing Mabel Normand in “Mickey” that same week.[1] The Drohen Avenue house was renamed the Capitol Theatre in 1923 and was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp. by the 1940s. It was demolished in the early 1970s as part of Dunkirk’s urban renewal program; the site became a parking lot.[5]

Location Today

The theatre stood at 313 Central Avenue, Dunkirk, New York 14048. No trace of the building remains; the site is now a surface parking lot.[5]

Significance

The Dunkirk stop is a useful counterweight to the Rochester engagement in reconstructing Donna’s touring career: where Rochester was a rare hometown booking with press attention aimed squarely at her, Dunkirk was routine touring work, one of many one- and two-night stands the “Chin Chin” company played on its transcontinental route. That the company’s two leads, Walter Wills and Roy Binder, and presumably Donna along with them, traveled directly from a Saturday closing in Rochester to a Monday opening in Dunkirk gives a small, concrete sense of the pace of a 1920 touring schedule.

Sources

  1. “Drohen Avenue Theatre” (display ad). Dunkirk Evening Observer, March 5, 1920, p. 6. Accessed via Newspapers.com (image no. 56318268).
  2. “Chin Chin at the Drohen Avenue Theatre.” Dunkirk Evening Observer, March 6, 1920, p. 9. Accessed via NewspaperArchive.
  3. “‘Chin Chin’ Makes Hit With Audience — Return Engagement of Big Musical Comedy at Drohen Avenue Drew Large Crowd.” Dunkirk Evening Observer, March 9, 1920, p. 9. Accessed via NewspaperArchive..
  4. “Capitol Theatre.” Cinema Treasures. https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/3092
Posted in Theatre History, In the news, 1919-20 - Chin Chin, Donna Montran, Vaudeville | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Donna Montran in Chin Chin at the Lyceum Theatre, Rochester, NY – March 4–6, 1920

Posted on August 4, 2026 by Don Taylor

In March 1920, my grandmother — billed under her own family name, Donna Montran — appeared in the touring company of “Chin Chin” when the show played a three-day engagement at Rochester’s Lyceum Theatre. Unlike most of her documented bookings, this one landed in her own hometown, and the local papers took notice: the Rochester Herald ran a feature portrait of her under the headline “Rochester Girl with Musical Extravaganza.”

Newspaper feature headlined “Rochester Girl with Musical Extravaganza” showing a portrait of Donna Montran in costume, with caption identifying her as the Goddess of the Lamp in Chin Chin at the Lyceum Theatre
“Rochester Girl with Musical Extravaganza” — Donna Montran as the Goddess of the Lamp in Chin Chin. Rochester Herald, March 6, 1920.[1]

The Engagement

The Lyceum booked its touring attractions on a split-week policy, and “Chin Chin” was slotted into the back half of the week: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, March 4, 5, and 6, 1920. An advance notice in the Times-Union on March 1 announced that the show “returns to the Lyceum on Thursday,”[2] and the Democrat and Chronicle’s theatrical column the same day listed it for “Thursday, Friday and Saturday.”[3] A second Times-Union item on March 3 pinned the run down further, previewing the show for “tomorrow, Friday and Saturday”[4] — that is, March 4 through 6.

The Democrat and Chronicle’s “In the Theaters” column confirmed on March 4 that the engagement opened “to-night,” describing it as a “half-week engagement.”[5] A review printed the following morning opened by noting that “the audience last night in the Lyceum, where it opened a week-end engagement, seemed to find much appeal”[6] — confirming the show opened Thursday evening, March 4, and was still running when the review appeared.

The Production and Cast

“Chin Chin” was already an established Broadway property by 1920. The musical fantasy — a comic retelling of the Aladdin story — opened at New York’s Globe Theatre on October 20, 1914, and ran 295 performances with Dave Montgomery and Fred Stone starring as the twin genii, Chin Hop Hi and Chin Hop Lo.[7] The book was by Anne Caldwell and R.H. Burnside, the lyrics by Caldwell and James O’Dea, the music by Ivan Caryll, and the staging by Burnside. Producer Charles Dillingham sent the show out on tour after its Broadway run, and by 1920 it was still drawing audiences under his management.[8]

The touring company that reached Rochester had a new comedy pair in the leading roles: Walter Wills as Chin Hop Hi and Roy Binder as Chin Hop Lo, succeeding Montgomery and Stone.[9] The supporting company, as documented in the Rochester press, included:

  • Irene McKay as Fan Tan
  • Carrie Dale as the Widow Twankey
  • Starr Dunham as Aladdin
  • Joseph Robinson as Abanazar
  • Ethel Lawrence as the American heroine
  • Donna Montran as the Goddess of the Lamp

Reviews and Reception

The Democrat and Chronicle’s “In the Theaters” column reviewed the production on March 5, 1920, the morning after opening night. The reviewer was complimentary of the show’s durability and of the new leads:

Walter Wills is a clever supple acrobatic comedian. His work is a little broader than Stone’s, but he follows the latter’s performance of Chin Hop Hi, one of the slaves of the lamp, with pleasing effects. His eccentric dancing, especially with little Irene McKay, a piquant miss, in the role of Fan Tan, wins “hands.” The Montgomery role, Chin Hop Lo, is well done by Roy Binder, and he and Mr. Wills work well together. Their comedy duets are amusing… Carrie Dale added to the comedy as the Widow Twankey, and Donna Montran and Ethel Lawrence sang and performed well as the Goddess of the lamp and the American heroine, respectively.

Democrat and Chronicle, March 5, 1920[6]
Democrat and Chronicle theatre review of Chin Chin at the Lyceum, March 5, 1920, naming Donna Montran and Ethel Lawrence as the Goddess of the Lamp and the American heroine
“In the Theaters” review of Chin Chin at the Lyceum. Democrat and Chronicle, March 5, 1920.[6]

The Rochester Herald followed the next day, March 6, with a standalone feature on the hometown angle, running Donna’s photograph under the headline “Rochester Girl with Musical Extravaganza” and this caption:

DONNA MONTRAN, a Rochester girl, is prominent in the cast of “Chin Chin,” the musical extravaganza that is playing at the Lyceum. Miss Montran is given the role of the Goddess of the Lamp, and with her beauty and pleasing voice is a much noticed feature of the production.

Rochester Herald, March 6, 1920[1]

Lyceum Theatre Profile

By 1920, the Lyceum was Rochester’s principal “legitimate” house — the Julius Cahn-Gus Hill Theatrical Guide’s 1921 edition lists it as playing “legitimate attractions” and represented in New York City by the powerful Erlanger booking syndicate.[10] Fred Reinish led the resident orchestra and John Tierney served as stage carpenter, under the management of M. E. Wollf. Seating capacity was recorded at 1,819 in the same trade guide (a modern source gives 2,000).[10][11] The stage was substantial for a house of its era: a 40-by-40-foot proscenium opening, 80 feet wall to wall, 27 feet to the rigging loft, and 59 feet from footlights to the back wall.

Vintage color postcard of the Lyceum Theatre, Rochester, New York, showing the red-brick facade with a horse-drawn carriage and early automobile parked outside
The Lyceum Theatre, Rochester, New York. Unposted divided-back postcard, early 1900s.

History of the Theatre

The Lyceum was owned by Abe E. Wollf and members of his family and opened its doors in 1888 at 36 Clinton Avenue in downtown Rochester — more than three decades before Donna Montran’s appearance there.[11] Over the course of its history it hosted many of the most celebrated names of the American stage, among them Edwin Booth, Otis Skinner, Sarah Bernhardt, Helen Hayes, and members of the Barrymore family.[11] The filmmaker George Cukor got his start there as well, running a resident stock company and directing plays at the Lyceum for seven years before he was called to New York.[12]

Pressed by competition from newer and larger venues, the Lyceum closed in 1934. The building was later demolished, and the site was eventually replaced by a series of parking lots.[11]

Black and white photograph of the Lyceum Theatre entrance at 36 Clinton Avenue, Rochester, New York, with a marquee reading “The Garden of Allah” and period automobiles parked at the curb
The Lyceum Theatre entrance, 36 Clinton Avenue, Rochester, NY, later in its run, with its marquee advertising “The Garden of Allah.”

Location Today

The Lyceum Theatre stood at 36 Clinton Avenue, Rochester, New York 14604, in the city’s Central Business District. No trace of the building remains; the site was absorbed into the surface parking that replaced it after demolition.[11]

Theatre Specifications

The following specifications reflect the Lyceum Theatre as recorded in the 1921 Julius Cahn-Gus Hill Theatrical Guide, the trade reference nearest in time to Donna Montran’s 1920 engagement.[10]

  • Seating capacity: 1,819 (per 1921 trade guide); 2,000 per modern sources
  • Manager: M. E. Wollf
  • Represented in New York City by: A. L. Erlanger
  • Orchestra leader: Fred Reinish
  • Stage carpenter: John Tierney
  • Proscenium opening: 40 x 40 ft.
  • Stage width (wall to wall): 80 ft.
  • Height to rigging loft: 27 ft.
  • Depth, footlights to back wall: 59 ft.
  • Distance between fly galleries: 50 ft.
  • Address: 36 Clinton Avenue, Rochester, NY 14604
  • Year opened: 1888
  • Year closed: 1934

Significance

Donna Montran’s appearance in “Chin Chin” at the Lyceum in March 1920 stands apart from most of her documented engagements for one simple reason: it happened in her own hometown (although it appears she only lived there for a year or two). Touring in a nationally known Broadway property, in the role of the Goddess of the Lamp, she returned to Rochester not as a passing act on a vaudeville bill but as a hometown girl the local papers were proud to claim — earning her a dedicated feature in the Rochester Herald alongside the standard theatrical notices and reviews.

The engagement also places her, however briefly, in a long line of major theatrical names who played the Lyceum’s stage over nearly half a century — from Edwin Booth and Sarah Bernhardt in the theatre’s early years to a nationally touring Broadway musical in its later ones. It is a useful, well-documented marker in the ongoing reconstruction of her career.

Sources

  1. “Rochester Girl with Musical Extravaganza.” Rochester Herald, March 6, 1920, p. 11. Physical clipping, Donna Montran Collection.
  2. “Chin Chin.” The Times-Union (Rochester, New York), March 1, 1920. Physical clipping, Donna Montran Collection.
  3. “Chin Chin.” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), March 1, 1920, p. 14. Accessed via Newspapers.com (image no. 135451482).
  4. “Lyceum Theater.” The Times-Union (Rochester, New York), March 3, 1920, p. 28. Accessed via Newspapers.com (image no. 1279345711).
  5. “In the Theaters.” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), March 4, 1920, p. 11. Accessed via Newspapers.com (image no. 135451621).
  6. “In the Theaters — Lyceum Theater.” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), March 5, 1920, p. 20. Physical clipping, Donna Montran Collection.
  7. “Chin Chin (Original, Musical, Fantasy, Broadway).” Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Opened October 20, 1914, Globe Theatre, 295 performances. https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/chin-chin-8070
  8. “Chin-Chin, Or A Modern Aladdin.” Operetta Research Center. http://operetta-research-center.org/chin-chin-modern-aladdin-musical-fantasy-music-ivan-caryll/
  9. Cast attribution for Walter Wills and Roy Binder as successors to Montgomery and Stone per the Times-Union, March 3, 1920, and Democrat and Chronicle, March 4, 1920 (sources 4 and 5 above).
  10. Julius Cahn-Gus Hill Theatrical Guide and Moving Picture Directory, v. 20 (1921), p. 108, “Lyceum Theatre, Rochester, N.Y.” Digitized by Google, from Cornell University. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924063709764
  11. “Lyceum Theater.” Cinema Treasures. https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/52670
  12. Comment by jverschakelen, April 14, 2026, on the Cinema Treasures Lyceum Theater page, citing George Cukor: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, 2001), p. viii.
Posted in Theatre History, 1919-20 - Chin Chin, Donna Montran, Vaudeville | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Donna in the News – Hagerstown, MD, November 1920.

Posted on August 1, 2026 by Don Taylor

“Ten of California’s Selected Peaches”: Donna Montran Brings the Bathing Beauties to Hagerstown — November 1920

1920 newspaper review praising Donna Montran and Tom Rooney's Bathing Beauties at the Maryland Theatre
The Herald-Mail‘s November 12, 1920 review called the show a “sure fire winner… from every viewpoint.”

In November of 1920, the Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown, Maryland, closed out its week with what the Herald-Mail called one of the greatest bills of vaudeville the city had seen. Topping the bill for the last half of the week — Thursday, Friday, and Saturday — was Tom Rooney’s touring revue, “A Beach Promenade,” featuring eight bathing beauties from the California coast and their headliner, billed in the paper as Donna Montram.

The Herald-Mail’s theatrical calendar had flagged the coming engagement days in advance, and when the show opened, the paper’s reviewer did not hold back: the offering had “captivated the audience” in a way the writer claimed happened perhaps once in a blue moon, praising the singing, dancing, and the sheer variety of bathing costumes representing seaside resorts from around the country.

Rooney’s beauties shared the bill with Galletti’s trained baboons in a comedy sketch called “Monkey’s Day at the Races,” comedian Bob Milligan, and a special film reel of the famous Man o’ War–Sir Barton match race. It was a full evening of entertainment, and Donna’s name sat right at the top of it.

A note on the name: the Herald-Mail printed her as “Donna Montram” throughout this engagement — instead of her actual stage name, Donna Montran. It’s a spelling that shows up severaltimes from this period with Tom Rooney, and I’ve preserved the paper’s version here since it’s what ran in print.

1920 theatrical calendar listing Tom Rooney presents Donna Montran and Bathing Beauties at the Maryland Theatre

“Attractions at the Leading Theatres”
The Herald-Mail, Hagerstown, MD
November 12, 1920, p. 5.

I love finding these little theatrical calendars — the kind of thing nobody kept on purpose, but which somehow survived. Seeing my grandmother’s name sitting right alongside Man o’ War in the same newspaper column made the whole week come alive for me. Hagerstown clearly gave her a warm welcome that November.

Sources (All via Newspapers.com):

  • “Rooney’s Bathing Beauties Score Big Success at MD.” The Herald-Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 12, 1920, p. 5.
  • “Attractions at the Leading Theatres.” The Herald-Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 9, 1920, p. 5.
  • “Attractions at the Leading Theatres.” The Herald-Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 12, 1920, p. 5.
  • “Theatrical Calendar: Attractions at the Local Theatres This Week.” The Herald-Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 8, 1920, p. 5.
Disclaimer: This article was researched and written by the author. Claude (Anthropic) was used as a research and drafting aid, and Grammarly was used for editorial review and copy editing.
Posted in Beach Promenade (1920), In the news, Vaudeville | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Confirming Uncle Russ’s Military Service

Posted on July 29, 2026 by Don Taylor

Brown-Montran Line
By Don Taylor

When I set out to confirm Russell’s Korean War service, my search on Fold3 turned up only his draft card — no service record at all, which genuinely surprised me given how confident I was about his military service.

Uncle Russ’s Draft Registration

Russell registered for the draft on August 29, 1945 — his eighteenth birthday, and just months after his January commencement from Southwestern High. The card places him at 8542 Olivet Street in Detroit, working at Western Auto’s Woodward Avenue location, his first documented job before the electrician’s work he’d take up by 1950. The registrar’s physical description gives us the young Russell in miniature: five foot eight and a half, 142 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes, light complexion — “none” listed under other identifying marks, about as unremarkable a description as a Selective Service clerk could offer a boy who’d already crossed an ocean twice before he could walk. Perhaps the most telling detail, though, is administrative rather than physical: the card lists his mother as the person who would “always know his address,” and records her not as Donna Montran or Donna Knight, but as “Mrs. Russell Kees” — her apparent common-law married name.

Uncle Russ’s Military Service

Photo of the Columbarium - National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona
Columbarium – National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona
Photo: Jerry C. Goldsmith via Find-a-Grave
Photo of Russell E. Kees' Niche Marker.

Niche Marker – Russell E. Kees
Photo by Jerry C. Goldsmith via Find-a-Grave

With no military record for Uncle Russ turning up on Fold3, I tried Find-A-Grave instead, and there I found his niche marker. I’d seen buildings like the one housing his niche before and always wondered what they were called — turns out the word I’d been missing is columbarium, a building of niches for cremated remains. Along with a photo of the niche marker itself, Find-A-Grave also had a photo of the columbarium where he’s located. That niche marker at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona gave me exactly the confirmation Fold3 couldn’t: Russell had been a corporal in the U.S. Army, and he served in Korea.

Donna’s Partner: Russell Harrison Kees’s Draft Card

While I had draft records on my mind, I went looking for Russell Harrison Kees’s card as well — the man my mother and uncle took their surname from, though Donna’s partner never married her or legally adopted either of them. The 1940 census had listed Donna as his wife, but his February 1942 draft card tells a different story: the person he named to “always know his address” was the Commonwealth Loan Co., at the National Bank Building in Grand Rapids — not Donna. That suggests the relationship had ended sometime between April 1940 and February 1942.

That timing raises its own puzzle. In a 2001 letter, my mother told me that she, Donna, and Uncle Russ moved to Detroit in 1941, “after Harvey’s death.” But Harvey Knight didn’t die until May 1942. So something doesn’t line up — whether it’s the date of the move, the reason for it, or my mother’s memory of the sequence, I can’t yet say. What is clear is that the breakup with Donna’s partner and the move to Detroit both happened somewhere in that same narrow window between 1940 and 1942.

Russell Harrison Kees

  • Born: May 4, 1899, Milwaukee, Wisconsin — likely a WWI veteran, given his age and the shrapnel wound noted below
  • Residence: 37 Shelby St. SW, Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Employer: McInerney Spring & Wire Co., 655 Godfrey Ave. SW, Grand Rapids
  • Description: 6′, 225 lbs, hazel/brown eyes, gray hair, light complexion; shrapnel wound to left kneecap

Sources:

  • WWII Draft Registration Cards for Michigan, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947, Ancestry, Russell Erwin Kees – Order Number 14618. WWII Draft Registration Cards for Michigan, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947.
  • Find a Grave, Russell E Kees, CLP, USA, Korea – 1927-2016. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/161134930/russell_erwin-kees: accessed July 24, 2026), memorial page for Russell Erwin Kees (29 Aug 1927–16 Mar 2016), Find a Grave Memorial ID 161134930, citing National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona, USA; Maintained by Mark Utley (contributor 47178748).
  • WWII Draft Registration Cards for Michigan, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947, Ancestry, Russell Harrison Kees – Order Number 11398.
This post was researched by the author, drafted with the assistance of Claude.ai and edited with Grammarly.
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