After the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917 and President Wilson proclaimed conscription in May 1917, Robert S Shackford competed his World War I Draft Registration Card on June 5, 1917. He stated that he was born on January 3, 1889 in Aquascalienuteo, Aguas, Mexico and a United States citizen (both his parents were United States citizens). He said he was employed by Elliot Fisher Company and asked for an exemption as he was supporting a wife and two children.
As the war developed, Brookline wrote multiple articles describing the details of the town’s draft. The Brookline Townsman’s July 21,1917 article listed the resident’s Red Ink Numbers which included #437, Robert S Shackford. The local newspapers continued to follow the draft status including this article published on August 25, 1917 which pointed out that Robert Shackford had not had a draft physical examination but had received a passport and traveled to Mexico.
“Brookline is not a town of shurkers, judging from the record of missing registrants In the first quota of 240, there were first reported as not having shown up in Brookline for physical examination, forty two men, but the investigation of the board has shown that all but a very few of those men are in some branch of the service. There are less than half a dozen men actually unaccounted for
Of those who failed to report to the board, one man, Jesse Serverson is dead, and two other men are serving jail sentences. Robert Shackford of 3 Verndale Street, as far as the board can learn, has had no physical examination under the draft, nor has any request arrived from any foreign board for his physical examination elsewhere Mr Shackford received passports from the government on July 17 and is reported to be in Mexico.”
We don’t know if Robert or his family ever saw this newspaper article which seemed to infer he was a shirker but we do know that the same newspaper did publish his name on September 1, 1917 in a list of people who had received an exemption from the draft.
So why did Robert go to Mexico during WWI and the Mexican Revolution?
Robert, the son of Charles Edwin and Elizabeth Rebecca (Kennedy) Shackford was born in Mexico on January 3, 1889. His family had moved there when his father took a job as a master mechanic for the railroad. Robert’s father died of a fever when he was only eight and his mother married Daniel Baker Smith six months later. Thus Robert had grown up in Mexico except for a few years of education in the Boston and New Hampshire area. Robert’s mother, now known as Lizzie R Smith who had lived in Mexico since about 1885 had returned from Mexico City to the United States about 1912 sometime after the death of her second husband. She had not dealt with her second husband’s estate which included a stockholder role in the Conejo Blanco Mine which was trying to schedule a stockholder’s meeting in Mexico City in July 1917. She also had been asked to sort out her taxes, mining company shareholder responsibilities, and some titles for land in Irapusto and other locations. Lizzie tried to obtain a passport around July 7, 1917 but had been turned down by the United States passport office because the United States believed it was unsafe for it’s citizens to travel to Mexico due to the ongoing Mexican Revolution.
Robert requested a passport on July 13, 1917 to help his mother or to go in her place (am not sure). He included a letter from Conejo Blanco Mining Company dated June 25, 1917 asking him to have his mother sort out her issues regarding the mining company and land titles.Robert’s passport request was signed by the War Department stating that he had satisfied the War Department by registering for the draft and a General Crowder had agreed to his travel to Mexico City.
We don’t know how long Robert remained in Mexico but we know his passport was cancelled at some point during his trip or after he returned. He did have an exemption from the draft or perhaps by then it had been retracted but on October 10, 1918 he joined the Navy Reserves and was assigned the position of Quartermaster. He was discharged a little over a month later on November 15, 1918 right after the war ended. Robert received Veteran’s Administration benefits – his death certificated says he was treated at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Wilshire & Sawtelle Boulevard before he died, and he was buried at the Los Angeles National Cemetery with a stone that mentions his service with the CH QMC US NAVY – WORLD WAR I.
After the war, Robert applied for a new passport on November 12, 1921 stating that his last passport which had been issued in July 1917 had been cancelled. The purpose for his new passport was to travel to arrange a paper mill connection for the importation of paper related to paper. He asked for the passport to be sent to the Export Corporation of West Broadway, New York but stated that he had an office in New York.
Will share more about Robert’s life sometime in the future.
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Robert S Shackford is my sixth cousin 2x removed.
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SOURCES:
“Brookline’s Complete Draft Quota,” The Chronicle (Brookline, Massachusetts), 1 September 1917, Robert S Shackford; digital images, Brookline Public Library (https://brookline.advantage-preservation.com/ : accessed 15 April 2023).
“DRAFT QUOTA STILL UNFILLED FORTY-FOUR MEN NEEDED TO COMPLETE THE LIST Among Deliquents One is Dead and Two are in Jail,” The Chronicle (Brookline, Massachusetts), 25 August 1917, Robert Shackford; digital images, Brookline Public Library (https://brookline.advantage-preservation.com/ : accessed 8 February 2021).
“Draft Registration List RESIDENTS GET THEIR “RED INK” NUMBERS,” The Brookline Townsman (Brookline, Massachusetts), 21 July 1917; (https://brookline.advantage-preservation.com/ : accessed 15 April 2023).
Find a Grave, Find A Grave, digital images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 1 August 2014), Robert Smith Shackford, Find A Grave Memorial# 3751382.
Robert Smith SHACKFORD, death certificate XC-9817742 R-282 379 GH-2 519 (1953), County of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County.
“TOWN FILLS QUOTA, WITH RESERVE OF 34 MEN,” The Brookline Townsman (Brookline, Massachusetts), 1 September 1917; (https://brookline.advantage-preservation.com/ : accessed 15 April 2023).
“United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 31 December 2013), Robert Smith Shackford.
U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, , Robert S Smith, ; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 December 2013).
, U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, , Robert S Shackford, 12 November 1921; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 December 2013).
“U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 April 2023), Robert Smith Shackford.
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