Category: Philadelphia

My First World War Ancestors: Mitcheson

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In this year that marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, I would like to pay tribute to some members of my extended family who served in that horrific conflict. This is the second in a series of four profiles. There may be others in my family who served, but these are the ones I know about.

courtesy University of Pennsylvania

A Philadelphia lawyer, Joseph M. Mitcheson was in active service on the USS Von Steuben during the First World War, serving in every line of duty from senior watch to executive officer. 

Joseph McGregor Mitcheson was born in Philadelphia on Oct. 11, 1870, the son of lawyer McGregor J. Mitcheson and Ellen Brander Alexander Bond. His grandparents, Robert Mitcheson and Fanny (MacGregor) Mitcheson, were my three-times great-grandparents. Joseph had a brother, Robert Stanley, who died as a child, and his sister, Mary Frances, married Arthur L. Nunns. 

Joseph was active in student athletics at the University of Pennsylvania.  He graduated with an arts degree in 1890 and got his law degree in 1895.  

He volunteered in the United States Navy during the Spanish American War, entering as a Lieutenant in June 1898, and being honorably discharged two months later. 

The Mitcheson family monument, St. James the Less Cemetery; photo by Janice Hamilton 

He was in command of the Naval Militia of Pennsylvania at the outbreak of the First World War, but resigned to enter active service. According to his obituary in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, March 27, 1926, “his interest in the Naval Reserve of Pennsylvania was said to have been the most important factor in preparing that organization to enter the First World War at full strength.” 

Joseph enrolled in the Fleet Reserve with the rank of Lieutenant in March,1917, and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in December. He made nine round trips across the Atlantic aboard the USS Von Steuben, which was used as a troop transport ship, during the war and made nine more crossings after the armistice. Joseph was second in command of the vessel from July to October, 1919, when the ship was taken out of commission. In November of that year, he was promoted to Commander in the Naval Reserve.

 He had a varied legal career, working as an assistant solicitor for the City of Philadelphia before the First World War, and for many years represented the Union Traction Company.  He did not marry. He died of cirrhosis of the liver at his home at 1608 Locust Street – the house he inherited from his parents – on March 26, 1926, age 55, and was buried in the family plot at St James the Less Church in Philadelphia. 

Research notes:

I obtained the basic information about Joseph’s First World War service from newspaper clippings and other background provided to me several years ago by the alumni office of the University of Pennsylvania.

A quick search of various databases on Ancestry brought up additional information. The Pennsylvania and New Jersey Church and Town Records, 1708-1985 revealed his baptismal and burial records. U.S. School Catalogues, 1765-1935 brought up an alumni publication from the University of Pennsylvania that told me he played football and enjoyed photography. Records of Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Spanish-American War, 1898 documented his service in that conflict. The 1910 U.S. Census showed he was living at home that year with his mother and half-sister. Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1963 revealed that he died of cirrhosis of the liver, a discovery that cast a new light on his life since it raised the possibility of alcohol abuse.

The USS Von Steuben, built in Germany as the passenger liner Kronprinz Wilhelm. It was seized bythe Allies and used as a troop transport ship. The ship’s history, including links to photos of the ship and its crew, can be found at http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-v/id3017.htm. A Wikipedia article has additional details.

Reflections on a Great-Great-Grandmother

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Catharine Mitcheson Bagg

It was 3 a.m. and I was squinting at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, but it wasn’t just myself I saw. Without my glasses on, I recognized my mother’s eyes looking back at me, and the eyes of my great-great grandmother, Catharine Mitcheson Bagg.

As my mother aged, she had increasingly resembled the large portrait of Catharine that used to hang in my grandmother’s dining room; still, it was a shock to realize that Catharine’s features lived on in me too.

My mother told me she always felt that Catharine, dressed in mid-19th-century finery, stared down disapprovingly from her spot on the wall. Mother’s older cousin Clare had described Catharine as “terrifying.” Clare remembered visiting her in a dark and musty house on Sherbrooke Street, but at the time of the visit, Clare was about three years old and her great-grandmother was over 90, so it is no wonder she felt intimidated.

Catharine was born in 1822 and grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia with her four siblings. Her English-born father was a merchant, her mother was from Scotland. Catharine’s education included sewing an intricate sampler when she was 10 and painting landscapes. In 1844, she married Stanley Clark Bagg, the grandson of her father’s oldest sister, and she moved to Montreal, where her new husband was a notary.

Stanley owned large tracts of land in Montreal that he had inherited from his grandfather, and, although the area was still primarily agricultural, he was starting to sell lots to would-be homeowners and developers. When he died of typhoid fever in 1873, at age 53, the eldest child and only son, Robert Stanley Bagg, a recent law graduate from McGill, took over management of the family real estate business. Over the years, his four sisters expressed opinions about when and what to sell and for how much, but he relied most on his mother’s advice.

When I came across some letters Catharine had written to her son, R. Stanley Bagg. I was thrilled. Suddenly this woman whose image I was so familiar with had a voice! They revealed her as a mother who worried about her son’s health, believed in the benefits of sea air and trusted that “all things work together for good in those who love God”.

She described her husband’s death as a calamity for the family, especially for Stanley who was “so young and inexperienced in the ways of the world.” And when Stanley retired after 27 years, she commended him for the “able, honourable and efficient manner” in which he had performed his arduous duties.

Another letter, dated 1889, was written on stationery from a hotel in Kennebunkport, Maine, an area I know well. Stanley and his young family were in Georgeville, Quebec. Catharine wrote, “You and Clara should have gone to some seaside place for several weeks this summer. Georgeville is not a sufficient change in air and scene.” Those words could just as easily have been written by my mother, or by me. 

photo credit: McCord Museum

Research Remarks.  Catharine Mitcheson was born on Jan. 12, 1822, according to her baptismal record. She was baptized at St. John’s Church, Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, and a copy of the church registers is available in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. The record of her marriage to Stanley Clark Bagg, at Grace Church, Philadelphia on Sept. 9, 1844 can be found on Ancestry.com. Catharine’s brother, Rev. Robert Mitcheson, officiated at the wedding.

Catharine died on Oct. 29, 1914 in Montreal, and the record of her funeral at Christ Church Cathedral is included in the Drouin Collection of church and vital records on Ancestry. She is buried in Mount Royal Cemetery.

A few letters she wrote to her son are in the Abner and Stanley Bagg fonds at the McCord Museum, Montreal.

The portrait of Catharine Mitcheson Bagg, painted in 1865 by artist William Sawyer (1820-1889), now belongs to the National Gallery of Canada. http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=16157