Harold Leddy and the African-American 23rd Engineers

Jack says that his father Harold was a member of the 23rd Engineers.  He says that this was an almost all African-American unit, and that although Harold was only a private he was put in charge of the unit (I supposed because he was white - these were racist times).  Here is information about the 23rd Engineers coming from The Association of the Third Armored Division Veterans http://www.3ad.org/23en/23en_wwi.htm

"The 23rd was constituted on 15 August 1917, in the National Army by the War Department General Order 108, as the 23d Engineer Regiment (Road). In spite of the problems faced by the War Department and the Corps of Engineers since the declaration of war in the previous April, it took just three weeks to gather a nucleus of men and activate the 23d Engineers on 5 September 1917 at Camp Meade, Maryland. There they began their training. Very little has been recorded of these early days of the 23d Engineers except the terse entries in Army Records.
The 23rd Engineers began deploying to France in November 1917, and served in support of various allied actions, earning for itself the title "The Road Builders of the AEF." Based upon the written histories of other units in the same sections, we know that the 23rd Engineers contended successfully with building and maintaining highways destroyed by shell fire, areas contaminated by chemical warfare that had to be rehabilitated in order to be used by the support troops, and as in any war, the enemy of all armies, mud. The degree of success of the unit is measured by their nickname and earning three campaign streamers: Lorraine, Saint Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne.
From the day of surrender of the Germany Army until June 1919, the 23rd Engineers were engaged in the standard after action (post hostilities) missions of clean up and repair. In that month of June, the unit was returned to the United States." 

My dad says that they dug trenches, buried bodies, and built bridges. 

The picture was taken from a web site "Military Life - World War I, WWI African-American Soldiers." There are more pictures here.

Jack and the MIT Rad Lab

Radiation Lab MIT [I believe this to be an open source photograph]

Jack spent at least a year during the war taking classes at Harvard.  He was also associated with the Rad Lab at MIT.  Here's a description of the Rad Lab.  "During the war, large scale research at the RadLab was devoted to the rapid development of microwave radar. Projects included physical electronics, microwave physics, electromagnetic properties of matter, and microwave communication principles. The "RadLab" designed almost half of the radar deployed in World War II, created over 100 different radar systems, and constructed $1.5 billion worth of radar. At the height of its activities, the RadLab employed nearly 4,000 people working on several continents. What began as a British-American effort to make microwave radar work, evolved into a centralized laboratory committed to understanding the theories behind experimental radar while solving its engineering problems."  This is from the Research Library of Electronics MIT website

Jane's Grandma and Grandpa Robbins

Jane tells me that her grandfather Robbins (her mother's father) died when she was little.  She was two or three at the time and her mother left her with the Winter grandparents at their farm, Winterbourne, while attending to her father.  Later, grandma Robbins lived with her son Don.  They were farmers, but rented their farms.  As a result they often moved from farm to farm, usually in March, which is when these things would happen.  Jane also mentions that the Robbins family came from Indiana, and her grandmother came from Kentucky.   There was also another uncle in the Robbins family named Fred. 

Jane remembers that family reunions in the summertime would usually be head in country schoolyards as they had places to play games and outdoor toilets.

Jack Sees Einstein

Albert Einstein visited CalTech in Pasadena in 1930, 31, and 32.  Jack's dad had some sort of connection with CalTech and Jack was able to attend one of Einstein's events, even though he was between 8 and 10.  He wanted to shake Einstein's hand, but never did.

Pine Inn, Carmel

We recently dropped Jack and Jane off for their 62nd wedding anniversary at the Pine Inn in Carmel.  This is where they went for their honeymoon in 1948.  The Pine Inn is Carmel's oldest hotel. It was built in 1889.  Steinbeck met his future wife there in 1949. 

Hamish B. Eddie

My grandmother's only brother was Hamish Eddie.  One site lists his dates as Oct 9, 1892 to June 1977, with the death benefits location being Glendale, Los Angeles. That seems plausible. We heard that when he was young he was a socialist and voted for Eugene V. Debs.  However when I knew him he was a right-winger and fond of the John Birch Society (we used to tease him about his former views).  He was a lawyer and people referred to him as a lawyer's lawyer.  We visited him once in his law offices in Los Angeles near Japantown.  I have found two on-line references to his cases, both of which were at the appeals level.  One was Adams vs. Bell in the California Supreme Court, 1936.  Another was People vs. Hammer, which was before an appeals court in 1925.  In this case Hamish was standing for the respondent which was "the People."  The case was one of rape in which the appellant claimed that the judge had wrongly instructed the jury.  Hamish's case was successful.  Hamish was a drill sargent during WW1.  The family knew him as a professional boxing fan. I believe he married a Christian Scientist and became one himself.  As far as I know he had no children. I'll try to find a picture of him for a future entry..

California Relatives

Jane says she remembers one summer in Iowa when several members of the Winter family from California came through Iowa used their place as a bed-and-breakfast.  They all remarked on how green the hills were compared to the dry brown hills of California.  She also mentioned once that she visited with these relatives in Sacramento the first time she came to California.  I wonder if there are Winter relatives still in California.

Jack Helps War Department after Pearl Harbor

U.S.S. Arizona, Pearl Harbor, 1941

Jack says that when Pearl Harbor was attacked he was a student at Bakersfield Junior College and was operating a ham radio station in their science building.  He says he was tasked with relaying coded messages about the attacks from Hawaii to the War Department in Washington.  This was through his membership in the American Radio Relay League.  A book called Aacs - Air Communication says that the American Radio Relay League worked in coordination with the Army Amateur Radio System and that after Pearl Harbor amateur radio operations were suspended. (pg. 30.)   Jack was 19 at this time, and had been a radio ham since the age of 13.  I asked him why the army couldn't do this itself and he implied that they just weren't prepared and that the amateurs were better at it.

Harold Leddy in Pasadena

Harold organized the traditional Annual Freshman Banquet at the Maryland Hotel, Pasadena on Feb. 14 for 150 members of the College of Law, this stated in the University of Southern California El Rodeo Yearbook class of 1924, pg. 141.

Bowles Hall

Bowles Hall Today

Jack is listed as one of the Bowles Hall Seniors at Bowles Hall, University of California, in the Blue and Gold yearbook of 1946, page 239.  He says that he and his brother Don were both Presidents of Bowles Hall.  Jack was President in 1941.  I remember seeing a plaque saying as much several years ago.  The Bowles Hall newsletter says that Don was in room 503 and graduate in 1948.

My Grandfather, Jack's Father, Harold D. Leddy

Harold D. Leddy

Jack Leddy, Harold D. Leddy, Margaret Leddy (my grandmother) and Don Leddy (Jack's brother)

Harold was born May 18, 1892 and died in September 1967.  He met his wife Margaret at U.C. Berkeley. He served in WWI with the Engineers digging trenches.  Jack says he was strongly influenced by the French.  The story is that when he came back his hair was completely white even though still a young man.  He was said to have suffered from a mustard gas attack.  Harold eventually became a lawyer.  There is a story that his teeth were very crooked and that one day, to improve his delivery in trials, he had all his teath pulled.  For as long as I knew him he had false teath.  Harold, Margaret and their family moved from Pasadena to Bakersfield maybe in the 1930s. Their place in Bakersfield still exists on Oleander Drive.  It is a two story California bungalow.  My Dad had the attic room with windows on three sides.  When he was young it must have been filled with electrical equipment.  I remember that the floor in the kitchen was tilted because of an earthquake.  During the Depression, for a while, the Leddy family had a place in Mountain Ranch, California.  Eventually that place burned down. Late in life Harold and Margaret moved to Costa Mesa. Their son Jim often lived with for some of that period.   Harold loved to read and he also loved used book stores.  His study in Costa Mesa had quite a few books.  He also loved to gamble.  When we were kids he would take us to the race tracks and give us two dollars to bet.  Jane says that once we went to her and said that we needed more money: we asked her to take us to the race tracks so that we could bet some money.  I remember that when my grandpa took me to the races I always bet $2 for the favorite to show:  I usually made about fifty cents.