— Others Listed from Previous Genesee County Rolls —
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Ellsworth F Brainard
Quartermaster 3rd Class, U.S. Naval Reserve Force. Released from active duty January 8, 1919. Died of influenza at Batavia Hospital, Batavia, New York, February 20, 1920. Age 23.
Listed on County Lists 2 and 3.
Home town: East Pembroke, Genesee County (also Attica, Wyoming County; see text).
Burial: Forest Hill Cemetery, Attica, Wyoming County, New York
Ellsworth Fuller Brainard was born in Attica (Wyoming County), New York, on June 25, 1896. He was the only son of Merritt Jasper Brainard and May nee Fuller Brainard, and graduated from Attica High School in 1913. The 1910 US Census shows the family living in Attica. By the time the 1915 New York State Census was taken, Ellsworth and his parents were living on State Road in East Pembroke (Genesee County). When Brainard died on February 20, 1920, the family was living in Stafford (also Genesee County).
Ellsworth Brainard served in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force during the war. He enlisted in Buffalo on March 20, 1918, and by September, 1918 had attained the rank of Quartermaster 3rd Class. According to newspaper reports, he made three trips overseas as a crew member of the Navy transport USS Agamemnon. Documents in his Official Military Personnel File show him serving aboard that troopship from September 1918 through December 1918, which means that he made at least one round trip before the Armistice, in the face of danger from enemy submarines.
Brainard, however, was no longer in the service when he died, and no evidence was found suggesting that his disease or death was service-related.
According to the February 21, 1920 Batavia Daily News article announcing his death the previous evening, Ellsworth Brainard had returned to the area from service with the Naval Reserves more than a year earlier, when, in January, 1919, he had been released from active duty. His NYSS and the documents in his OMPF support this, showing that he was placed on “inactive duty” on January 8, 1919. This was essentially a discharge. At the time, after the Armistice ending the war but before the actual peace treaty was signed, nearly all members of the U.S. Naval Reserve Force were so designated, and sent home, their service ended.
County Honor Roll List 2, the NY Roll of Honor (upon which County List 2 was based), and his NYSS (upon which the Roll of Honor was based) all list Brainard’s place of death as “3d Naval Dist., New York, NY.” This, however, is an error. Documents in his OMPF show that he died at Batavia Hospital in Batavia, New York of influenza. Likewise, both the February 21, 1920 Batavia Daily News and the February 25, 1920 LeRoy Gazette-News state that he died in Batavia and that he had been working in Buffalo as a bookkeeper/clerk when he fell ill. The 1920 US Census, taken on the 29th and 30th of January, about three weeks before Ellsworth died, shows him residing in Genesee County (Stafford; Morganville hamlet) with his parents. An article in the February 14, 1920 Batavia Daily News, published six days before his death, mentions that he “is at the house of his parents ill with neuritis.”
Ellsworth Fuller Brainard clearly deserves to be honored as a Genesee County and Wyoming County World War I veteran, but apparently he did not die while in (or as a result of) military service. He is interred at Forest Hill Cemetery in Attica.
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—— [CLICK ON DOCUMENTS TO OPEN FULL VIEW IN SEPARATE TAB] ——
February 21, 1920 Batavia Daily News p6 c5
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February 25, 1920 LeRoy Gazette-News p5 c5
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February 28, 1920 Batavia Times p2 c4
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Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York
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Source: Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), U.S. Navy, Archival, Record Group 024, National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri.
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Source: Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), U.S. Navy, Archival, Record Group 024, National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri.
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Ellsworth F Brainard Sources:
– County Lists 2, 3
– June 3, 1915 Attica News p1 c2
– Feb 14, 1920 BD p9 c3
– Feb 21, 1920 BD p6 c5*
– Feb 25, 1920 LG p5 c5
– Feb 26, 1920 Attica News p1 c1
– Feb 28, 1920 BT p2 c4
– Nov 21, 1918 BD p6 c4
– “United States Census, 1910.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Merritt J Brainard (head) and Ellsworth (son, age 13), citing Census Records, Attica, Wyoming, New York; sheet number 3, line numbers 20 and 22, microfilm series T624, Roll 1086, page 271.
– “New York State Census, 1915.” Online index and images, Ancestry.com. Entry for Ellsworth F Brainard, age 18, citing Census Records, Pembroke, A.D. 01, E.D. 01, Genesee, New York; page number 14, line 49.
– “United States Census, 1920.” Online index and images, HeritageQuest.com. Entries for Merritt J Brainard (head) and Ellsworth (son, age 23), citing Census Records, Stafford, Genesee, New York; sheet number 11, line numbers 17 and 19, microfilm series T625, Roll 1113, page 291.
– List of Names of the Soldiers, Sailors and Marines of Wyoming County, N.Y., p 13
– NYSS
– Roll of Honor (NY State), p 65
– “Brainard, Ellsworth Fuller,” Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), U.S. Navy, Archival (Record Group 024); National Archives – St. Louis, Missouri.
– “USS Agamemnon,” NavSource Online, http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/173004.htm
– “Report of the Secretary of the Navy” [remarks regarding Naval Reserve Force inactive duty status], The Abridgement 1919, pp 891, 963-64
– “Ellsworth Fuller Brainard,” tombstone transcription, Findagrave.com online database
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