Before I get into the mysteries of James, the youngest Grace son, first we have to talk about oil. Because when it comes to the Grace family, oil is absolutely crucial to their story and their lives. Because by the time they came to the US, Pennsylvania was deep in the grips of petroleum fever. The "oil business" is usually traced back to 1859 and Edwin Drake's oil well in Titusville, PA. It was a sensation to be sure, and was followed in short order by people drilling for oil all over Western Pennsylvania. Interestingly enough, this was LONG before the advent of the automobile, which today is the one of biggest users of petroleum. No, back then petroleum was viewed as useful for illumination and lubrication, and the biggest product (after some refining) was kerosene.
It's hard to imagine today the absolute mania for oil back in Pennsylvania, especially after the Civil War, though once oil was found elsewhere in the area, especially West Virginia and then Ohio, and further west from there, it caused endless get-rich-quick dreams. And one of the areas where oil was struck was near Clarendon, PA.
And Clarendon was where the Graces went after coming over from Ireland. Initially in my research, I wasn't sure why. And no one in the family ever seemed to know why the family came to Clarendon. The only big industry in the town seemed to be tanneries, because the town was in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest area (even though the park hadn't been set up when the Graces moved there), and was surrounded by hemlocks, the perfect tree bark needed for the tanning process. And the only surviving census showing the Graces in Clarendon (1900, since the 1890 Census was lost to a fire), shows Richard Grace as a laborer in a tannery).
But as I was able to uncover more about the boys, I found out that all of them got involved in the oil industry. The first hint I got was when Ellen died; her obituary mentioned that while James and Margaret were still living at home in Clarendon, "Mike, John and Thomas" were living in Sistersville, West Virginia and Bridget was married and living in Ohio. I was actually able to find after that a marriage registry for Bridget; in 1896 she married an older man named John MacDonald, an oil driller from Fostoria, OH. At the time they were in western Ohio, it was undergoing a major oil boom. But when I looked at Sistersville, it was going an immense oil boom in the late 1890s (some sources say it was the center of the American oil industry briefly in the mid 1890s, with a population that went from 600 to 7000 or more in short order). And as I looked deeper, the few sources I found told me that all three of the Grace boys there were oil men. I don't think at that point any of them were leasing land and putting in their own wells. No, they were labor. Tool dressers, riggers, and drillers, likely. Mike was the first to marry, but also was an odd one, because it appeared he may have also been going by Bertram at times, or Bertram Michael Grace, though he was still referred to as Mike in the family. I'm not sure where Bertram came from, though it may have been a middle name, because once in America, many of the Graces suddenly sprouted and used middle names. John was John William Grace, or "J.W. Grace" in newspaper accounts, while Mike was "B.M. Grace in newspaper mentions or property deeds, and James was James Lawrence Grace, or "J.L. Grace" later in newspaper mentions. And in Ohio, Bridget went by Elizabeth, which might have been her middle name. Margaret and Thomas were the only ones who didn't appear to use middle names much. From what I understand through research, middle names were not usually on any official documents, like birth or baptism records in Ireland, but quickly became used to separate all the family members with the same names, thanks to the naming convention! So while a family may have had several generations named "John Grace," it was easy to separate them by referring to them with their middle name, like "John William" in polite conversation.
Further locating of the sons was helped out inadvertently by Richard Grace dying in 1903 of influenza, because I actually managed to find his will on FamilySearch through a catalog search. And his will listed each of his children, and where they were at that time, so I was able to really locate them. Mike was in Woodsfield, OH, where I could find his marriage information and his children's information eventually; Bridget and her husband were in Cygnet, OH, which was ground zero for a huge oil boom in western Ohio, and I was able to find them there in a Census document and later some legal documents; Thomas and James were in Jacksonville, WV, which was another huge oil boom area known as the Stringtown Field, and John was in Japan (more about that later!).
But James disappears after that. And he was already part of a mystery, because everyone in the family among my mom and her cousins had heard of him, but they all had different stories, some of which I already disproved. A few heard he never immigrated with the family ... wrong, that was Richard Jr., and he was already deceased back in Ireland. My finding their passenger list, Ellen's obituary, and now Richard's will all disproved that. But the prevailing story was that he was in India ... he was in the British Army in India ... no, he was in the Royal Navy ... no, he was in the British Army, and he had been wounded, and his sister took care of him and nursed him back to health. Which sister? Well, his sister (some of the cousins didn't know there were two daughters, they thought there was just one). No, he was in Burma. And that's where it was left. No one really knew about James (some didn't even know his name, he was just the brother who was in the army in India), though everyone had heard of him, likely through their fathers, who were all the sons of John William Grace.
So I set out to work. I had subscribed to FindMyPast, the British genealogical site, to track my English ancestors, but I also used it to find anything on the Irish ones as well, and didn't have much luck. I used it to see if there were any military records for James, though unfortunately I soon learned that a great many WWI military records were destroyed when the building they were in got bombed during the Blitz in World War Two. Either way, I didn't find anything on James in the military records. But for the hell of it, while trying to dig things up on the English ancestors in the newspaper search on FMP, I tried searching on James, just using "James Grace" as a search term.
And I found something intriguing; a story in the Devon and Exeter Daily Gazette (England) from December 10, 1915 describes a meeting of the Crediton Board of Guardians, a group of trustees overseeing Crediton’s workhouse for the poor, and describes how a candidate for a position as porter had to withdraw, because a close relative had been killed, and didn’t want to take the post as it was too far from his home. The article noted that the clerk of the board “had received an application from Sapper James Grace, of the Bombay Volunteer Artillery, who stated that during the last eight years he had been in the oil fields of Burma, serving in the capacity of engineer. On the outbreak of the war, he had joined the British cause, but was shortly afterwards taken ill, subsequently being invalided to Exeter, where, after being restored to health, he was discharged. He had for some little time been employed in the Devon Voluntary Aid office, where he received information of the vacant situation, for which he was now applying.” At first blush, it could have been a completely different James Grace, but the fact that he was working in the oil fields of Burma does sound like the family story, since I knew he was an oil driller … so he could have worked for the “Burmah Oil Company,” (as it was spelled at the time) or he could have followed in his brother John William Grace’s steps, and headed to the Far East to drill for oil an exotic land (note that Great Britain ruled Burma at the time, and it was considered a province of India, so technically he was in India as much as he was in Burma).
Nothing else came up, so I expanded further into "James Lawrence Grace," and suddenly MORE popped up. An article from The Western Times in November 4, 1916, nearly a year later, another newspaper in Exeter mentions a “James Lawrence Grace,” who was ordered to appear at the local barracks and be conscripted into the military as part of the Military Service Act of 1916, which made all men 18-41 eligible to be drafted. Apparently he showed up, collected a day’s pay, and then went AWOL. He was arrested, and claimed he was an American citizen, and had been living in the United States since childhood … which was true for our family’s James Lawrence Grace. The article gave his address as Sun Street in Exeter, and said that he had claimed that he became a citizen at age 21, but did not receive any papers at the time but had “been in communication with the United States;” so the local authorities had him escorted to an American Consul.
A slightly different story, one with better details, appeared in the November 4, 1916 Devon and Exeter Gazette: the article focused on the case at Exeter Police Court and the issue with James Lawrence Grace, “described as a boring engineer” (English term for oil well driller, not an engineer who was dull) of Sun Street, and the charges of being absent without leave since October 28. Grace was asked what he would plead to the charges, and he replied that he really didn’t know whether he was “guilty or not under the circumstances,” claiming he was registered in England as an alien from a neutral country, “being an American citizen” (the US was not involved in the war at this time). When the clerk asked if he was willing to serve, Grace replied that he did not tell the officers in the recruiting barracks in Exeter that he was willing to serve. A clerk at the barracks indicated that Grace received a notice on October 12 directing him to report on October 28; Grace did personally go to the barracks on that date, documents were drawn up, and apparently, he signed a document about a separation allowance. The clerk said that he was considered a reservist under the Military Service Act, he received his 2 shillings, 7 cents pay, and signed for it, and then disappeared.
Grace said he went to the barracks to be examined by the doctors, claiming he “did not do this with a view to joining the Army there and then, but wished to undergo such examination in order to know the state of his health, which at the present time was not good.” He then claimed that he and another man were giving a pass by a soldier at the barracks, allowed to leave, but told to return the following Monday. He then claimed that he had been made an American citizen at age 21 (which would have been in 1899-1900, as he was 37 in 1916) in Pennsylvania, but when questioned further, said he didn’t have a certain paper, which the court clerk told him was necessary to “legally establish the manner,” at which point Grace said investigations were being made about his American citizenship and asked for the case to be held over for a few days, at which point that a recruiting representative said he would be given every opportunity for this, though he would have to stay at the barracks.
So this helps to confirm that this was really our James Lawrence Grace, and also confirms the original story from earlier in 1916 in Devon. The story continued in 1917, with a follow-up in The Western Times on February 19, 1917. The small story indicated that Private J. L. Grace was charged a few days previously with being absent without leave since earlier in the month, and that Grace admitted it. He had been handed over to the military, but he stated that he went to the American Consul in Plymouth to get a passport, using a pass from the Exeter barracks on medical grounds, but did not come back on the date stipulated. The article mentioned again that he came to Exeter from “just before the war” from Bombay, where he had been in the Volunteers. The story ended with Grace being handed over to the military again. And then his trail goes cold; we don’t know if he did try to seek an American consul, or just tried to avoid the military whatever way he could, but he got caught up in the military draft, whether he wanted to serve or not, and lost his three-month effort to avoid rejoining the military, and was presumably shipped out to the Western Front. As for naturalization, he doesn’t appear in available Warren County, PA naturalization files; only Richard appears to be the only family member naturalized, but James could have filed papers elsewhere, though he may also have generally just claimed to have been born in the United States, like his older brothers did. And technically, he may have actually been naturalized because he was still a minor when Richard filed his papers, but there wasn’t any papers for James to prove it in England.
But while his story appeared to end in 1917, continued research resulted in a discovery that that really broke open the story in a huge way. A front-page article found in the Glasgow Sunday Times on December 16, 1923 was about a woman from Warren, Pennsylvania named Margaret Grace who came to Glasgow looking for her brother James L. Grace. Jackpot! The story read:
A remarkable story was told me to-day by an American lady, who has just arrived in Glasgow from Warren, Pennsylvania, in the hope of tracing her long-lost brother.
She has come to Glasgow – a journey of 3500 miles – to find James L. Grace, said to have been a patient in a city hospital.
Grace, it is stated, joined the Royal Engineers on coming to Britain from India, where he had been engaged in the oil trade.
The missing soldier served with distinction in the British Army for four years, and is understood to have lived for several months in the South of England {note: Exeter is in the south of England}. He was discharged on the 21st March, 1919, and having failed to learn of his whereabouts from the Department of State in America, Miss Margaret Grace communicated with Mr. Lloyd George, who was then Premier. She received a reply to the effect that James L. Grace had served with the Royal Engineers, and resided in lodgings for a period at 17 Sun Street, Exeter.
After being demobilized he is stated to have met several friends from America then in England, and at a later date to have been employed as an engineer at an oil works in the Midlands.
Advertisements soliciting information about the ex-soldier appeared in several newspapers, and in reply to one of these Miss Grace received a letter from her brother, who was then a patient in a Glasgow hospital, explaining that he had lost the power of one of his arms, and owing to this infirmity had been rendered unfit for work.
The ex-soldier made a fervent appeal for money, in response to which his sister wired a hundred dollars and later a draft for a considerable sum of money.
The communication, Miss Grace believes, was written by her brother, but a part of the money was returned to her, and despite the most exhaustive inquiries since, she had been unable to obtain any further information concerning him.
His sister now believes he may be resident either in England or Ireland, and hopes that any of the hospital medical superintendents or patients who have met the man will communicate with her at the General Post Office, Glasgow.
There is the possibility that Miss Grace has been duped by someone posing as her brother, but the lady does not hold that view.
A follow up story appeared in the Glasgow Sunday Times a week later, on December 23, 1923:
American Lady’s Search of Scotland For Soldier Brother Who Went Missing
Owing to the extensive publicity afforded by “The Sunday Post” in the search for James L. Grace, the missing ex-soldier, whose sister has come from America and is searching Scotland for information, two important letters have been received.
One of the letters is from a man in Kelvindale Street, Glasgow, who states that James L. Grace served with him in France in No. 3 Water Boring Section of the Royal Engineers, being demobilized at La Flague immediately after the Armistice.
Another hospital is from a nurse in Dysart Union Hospital, Thornton, Fife, in which is enclosed a snapshot phot of a man answering the description of the missing soldier.
The photograph was taken while he was a patient in Horton War Hospital, Epsom, Surrey, but the name is given as J. W. Grace.
There doesn’t appear to be any further follow-up articles, but the Glasgow articles do confirm the earlier articles from the Exeter newspaper, that the James Grace in those articles was my wayward great-great-uncle, James Grace. So the story that he had been in India or Burma with the oil trade was true, and he did join the British Army there, and was ultimately sent to England, possibly to recover after an illness, and appears to have been discharged after his illness. Then he was out of the military, and somehow ended up in Exeter/Devon, working various jobs for several years, and then was drafted in 1916 when he would have been eligible under the draft act enacted then, though he tried to get out of it by claiming he was American into 1917. No naturalization documents have not been found for him, nor any passport application, though those were not in common use before World War One, and if the British knew he was born in Ireland, to them he essentially WAS a British subject still, especially as he couldn’t come up with the necessary paperwork to prove otherwise.
I had solved the mystery of James Lawrence Grace! How cool was this? The lack of surviving British military records from World War One made it hard to confirm the water boring engineer story. I did email the Royal Engineers Museum in England, and the curator there admitted they had no personnel records, but they also said that if the military had found out he was a boring engineer, they would have put him to work in that particular job, which was crucially needed on the Western Front, as supplies of water were difficult to secure during the war. She also directed me to the unit's war diary, and while it doesn't mention individual soldiers (other than a couple of officers), at least I know what they did and where they did it, as it's quite detailed about the wells they dug and how much time it took them.
And while I've not found any newspaper articles about him serving as an oil driller in Burma, I did find a LOT of articles in American newspapers about other young men going to Burma to drill. It was surprisingly more common than I had ever thought, and from their articles, I had a very good idea on the things he experienced over there.
Nor have I been able to find any additional information about what he did in England after the war ended, but at least I have what the government reported to Margaret, which was printed in the newspaper, and that seems fairly plausible.
But while I essentially solved the mystery, it turns out that there was even more information I was able to locate!
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