Edward Doty - An Unexpected Story

The first time I looked for the story behind a name on the family tree was while helping my son with a school project.  He needed to do research on an ancestor and decided to interview one of his grandparents.  He called grandma Clarice, who had been researching the family tree for a number of years (the old fashioned way, through letters and family contacts).

This proved to be a good choice since she was thrilled to share stories and photos from her early life as well as the family tree that she had found and added to over the years.  At the time, the ancestor who stood out was Edward Doty, my son's 9th great-grandfather and a passenger on the Mayflower!   The family tree had the basics - born 14 May 1598 and died 23 Aug 1655.  What was most interesting, though, was the story that was never taught in school.

It turns out that Edward Doty and many other passengers on the Mayflower were not Pilgrims. Edward was an indentured servant to a merchant, Stephen Hopkins.  As noted on Wikipedia, he had an "argumentative nature and display of temper caused him to be in the Plymouth court many times over the years."  He participated in the first duel in the colony, and though neither party was severely injured, their punishment was "to be tied head and feet together for twenty-four hours without meat or drink."  It was not easy to share this news with grandma.

[See the Pilgrim's story in  Desperate Crossing - The Untold Story of the Mayflower.]

My Dad - At Yale University during the Summer of 1943 with the Army Air Force

 

My father, Glen S. Remington, went to Yale – I knew that my whole life.  However, he did not go there as a student.  According to family letters, he was at Yale in 1943 as part of his Army Air Force training.  My mother has a picture of him when he was there – along with twenty four other men.  Recently I took it out of the frame to scan it.  On the back my dad had written the names of the other men.  He then had them sign it and added their home towns.  I became curious about the photo and why the men were training at Yale.

The Army Air Force was formed in 1907 and was part of the Army until 1947.  Also called the Army Air Corps, it played a large role in World War II.  The program is described in the book, With Courage, the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II. “Because the existing Army preflight schools could not absorb all the men seeking to enter the aviation cadet program. General Arnold made arrangements with colleges and universities, largely devoid of male students because of the war, to teach portions of the curriculum. Faculty members taught the academic aspects of preflight training like mathematics and meteorology, and officers assigned to each detachment handled the purely military instruction, including map reading and radio communication.” 

My dad’s story was that he took an intelligence test, and because of his high score, he was sent to the program at Yale instead of into the infantry with the rest of his unit.  He had enlisted in the army Air Corps on 9 Nov 1942 in Los Angeles and had a background in building aircraft.  I made the video below for my dad's grandchildren...

The names from the back of the picture below.

Front Row, Left to Right

C. Walker, Harriman, Tennessee

August F. VanDerWall, Grand Rapids, Michigan

James R. Wilson, Spurgeon, Indiana

Dr. John C. Schroeder

Lt. M. E. Sallee

Lt. Donald D. Willcox

Charles W. Schuler, Covington, Kentucky

Robert H. Rowell

Glen S. Remington, Santa Monica, California

Second Row, Left to Right

Arthur P. Poenisch, Berkeley, California

Gayle Olson, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Bernard J. Migliaro, Waterbury, Connecticut

Stanley Schermer, East St. Louis, Illinois/Madison, Illinois

Ralph I. Norquest,Fredonia, Kansas

Eugene I Stokke, Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin

Mart W. Seckman, Chicago Illinois

Paul E. Sims, Green Castle, Indiana

C. Frank Neef, Independence, Missouri

Third Row, Left to Right

Kenneth W. Theil, Washington, DC 

W. L. Ratican, St. Louis, Missouri

Robert C. Power, Winterset, Iowa

Charles V. Wert, Lansdale, Pennsylvania

Richard Scherzinger, Portland, Oregon

Joseph A. Wojcik, Chicago, Illinois

Don E. Ready, Hayes Center, Nebraska

Not in Picture

Pitsker

Ryan

Panning

Former Members

Bill Starr

Harry Weston

Harry N?ehr

Shimkey

Shartzkoff

Spitz

Wisler

Spalding

Smith

Weisgerber

Sharp

Taylor

Reese

Pessen

Saal

Wymer

Zingheim

Young

Slater

Shackford

Mauer

Pussilano

Ronen

Mole

Shields

Shreves

Pappas

Ristuccio