Nelson Oren Phelps Packet - cem.va.gov Irish people immigrated to the American colonies and later the United States, the most significant emigration from Ireland occurred amid a devastating

VA U S. 'Department of Vetera1 s Affairs

National Cemetery Admi n ,stration

UCF

Department of History

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

Nelson Oren Phelps

August 4, 1899 March 22, 1989

World War I

Veterans Legacy Program Curricular Materials: Nelson Oren Phelps vlp.cah.ucf.edu

Nelson Oren Phelps (August 4, 1899March 22, 1989)

Margaret M. Phelps (May 3, 1900April 18,1990)

By Gramond McPherson

Early Life

On August 4, 1899, Charles and Katherine Phelps gave birth to Nelson Oren Phelps in

the city of Gouverneur in Saint Lawrence County, New York.1 Phelpss father Charles also

originated from New York, while his mother Katherines family came from Ireland.2 Though

various Irish people immigrated to the American colonies and later the United States, the most

significant emigration from Ireland occurred amid a devastating potato famine in the mid-1840s.

Between 1846 and 1851, an estimated one million Irish arrived in the United States and by 1860,

the Irish comprised nearly half of New York States foreign born, and they were the largest

immigrant group in Saint Lawrence County.3

Phelps spent the first few decades of his life in Gouverneur. He grew up with his older

brother Herbert, sister Ella, and his younger brother Charles.4 The 1905 New York State Census

shows a young Phelps at age six too young for school, and his father Charles employed in the

hotel business.5 By the 1910 Census, Charles continued working as a hotel bartender while

Nelsons brother Herbert worked as a laborer. Phelpss mother Katherine maintained the home as

a housewife while ten-year old Nelson studied at school.6

Service: Phelps in the Navy

As the United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917, thousands of military age

men enlisted in the Armed Forces. On January 28, 1918, at age eighteen, Phelps enlisted in the

United States Navy at a recruiting station in Syracuse, New York. For eight months, he served at

the Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island as a Landsman for Electrician General

(LEG), as seen here.7 The large influx of recruits overwhelmed the facilities at Newport,

requiring the station to use tents and tar-papered temporary barracks. Plans to build additional

facilities dissolved upon the conclusion of the war. Over 65,000 men received training there

before proceeding to other assignments.8 Phelps possessed some form of prior expertise in


electricity that allowed the Navy to assign him to this position. A landsman is a person with no

experience at sea. They essentially served in caring for the electrical machines and apparatuses.9

The Navy established the rank in 1838 and its disestablishment occurred in 1921.10 After his

training ended on August 30, 1918, he moved to the Naval Operating Base in Hampton Roads,

Virginia, where he served until the conclusion of the war on November 11, 1918.11 With his

training so close to the wars conclusion, Phelps likely did not serve overseas in any capacity. On

February 19, 1919, the Navy honorably discharged Phelps.12

Postwar: Working for Sheffield Farm

After his discharge, Phelps returned to his hometown of Gouverneur where on November

24, 1919, he married Marguerite Magdaline Burkhard, known commonly as Margaret, also a

native of New York.13 The 1920 Census shows the couple living and working in a local hotel

owned by Everett Peck and his wife Eva in Gouverneur. Nelson worked as a cook while

Margaret worked as a waitress.14 However, by 1925, the family moved to neighboring Lewis

County, New York where the 1925 New York Census shows Phelps and his wife settling down

in the town of Lowville with their two children, three-year old Margaretta and one-year old

Catherine. Phelps worked as a steamfitter at a local factory, a job that saw him involved in pipe

and repair work that required great strength and dexterity.15

By 1930, the family moved back to Saint Lawrence County, settling in the city of

Hermon where Phelps worked as a superintendent at a local milk plant, perhaps Sheffield

Farms.16 The milk marketing industry proved important for the economy of upstate New York,

especially Saint Lawrence County, which led the state in manufactured dairy products.17

However, the Depression brought difficult times for the milk industry and Phelps. The decline in

prices for milk frustrated dairy farmers who organized the Dairy Farmers Union in 1936. Their

strategies involved milk strikes and diverting their milk to put pressure on milk plants. This tactic

proved effective in temporarily shutting down some plants. For example, the Sheffield Farms

Milk Company closed down its local Canton plant, the largest receiving station in the world, for

over one hundred days.18 Certainly as a superintendent and later inspector at the milk plant, this

milk recession affected Phelps and his familys lifestyle.


http:products.17http:Farms.16http:dexterity.15http:waitress.14http:Phelps.12

Nevertheless, Phelps continued to maintain employment, transitioning into the 1940s as

an inspector at Sheffield Farms in the city of Boonville in Oneida County, New York. The 1940

Census shows Phelps working at the milk farm, while his oldest daughter Margaretta, now

eighteen, worked as a newspaper correspondent at a local newspaper.19 Phelps continued

working for Sheffield Farms into the 1950s, as seen here.20 After years of service for the

company, Phelps and his wife moved to Hillsborough County, Florida. On March 22, 1989,

Phelps passed away at the age of eighty-nine. He is buried at the Florida National Cemetery in

Bushnell, Florida along with his wife Margaret. In serving in various occupations throughout his

life and in his service in the United States Navy, Phelps demonstrates a life well lived.

Endnotes

1 "New York, County Marriages, 1847-1848; 1908-1936," database with images, FamilySearch.org, https://familysearch.org (accessed June 26, 2017), entry for Nelson Oren Phelps and Marguerite Magdaline Burkhard, November 24, 1919; citing county clerks office, New York, United States. 2 "1910 United States Census," database with images, FamilySearch.org, https://familysearch.org (accessed June 26, 2017), entry for Charles H Phelps, Gouverneur, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States; citing enumeration district 128, sheet 7B, family 201.

3 Richard Rummel, Irish Immigrants in St. Lawrence County, The St. Lawrence County Historical Association Quarterly XXX, no. 4 (October 1985): 1213, http://www.slcha.org/quarterly/issues/v030no4.pdf; "New York, County Marriages, 1847-1848; 1908-1936," FamilySearch.org.

4 "1910 United States Census," FamilySearch.org. 5 1905 New York State Census, database with images, FamilySearch.org, https://familysearch.org (accessed June 26, 2017), entry for Nelson Phelps, Gouverneur, A.D. 01, Gouverneur Village, E.D. 01, St. Lawrence, New York; citing p. 11, line 66.

6 "1910 United States Census," FamilySearch.org. 7 New York, Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, Ancestry.com, https://ancestry.com (accessed 26 June 2017), entry for Nelson Phelps. 8 John W. Kennedy, The Naval Training Station at Newport: A Place in U.S. Naval History, Small State Big History, October 26, 2016, http://smallstatebighistory.com/naval-training-station-newport-place-u-s-naval-history/. 9 United States. Navy Electrical School, The U.S. Navy Electrical School: General Electricity, Wireless Telegraphy, 3rd ed. (New York: Wilbur & Hastings, 1908), 5. 10 Compilation of Enlisted Ratings and Apprenticeships, US Navy 1775-1969, Naval History and Heritage Command, April 1, 2015, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/c/enlisted-ratings-in-u-s-navy-1775-1969.html#anchorl.


https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/onlinehttp://smallstatebighistory.com/naval-traininghttp:https://ancestry.comhttp:Ancestry.comhttp:FamilySearch.orghttp:https://familysearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp://www.slcha.org/quarterly/issues/v030no4.pdfhttp:https://familysearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp:https://familysearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp:newspaper.19

11 New York, Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, Ancestry.com. 12 Ibid.

13 "New York, County Marriages, 1847-1848; 1908-1936," FamilySearch.org. 14 "1920 United States Census," database with images, FamilySearch.org, https://familysearch.org (accessed June 26, 2017), entry for Nelson Phelps in household of Everett Peck, Gouverneur, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States; citing ED 128, sheet 18A, line 32, family 491. 15 1925 New York State Census, database with images, FamilySearch.org, https://familysearch.org (accessed June 26, 2017), entry for Nelson Phelps, State Population Census Schedules, 1925; Election District: 04; Assembly District: 01; City: Lowville; County: Lewis; Page: 3; Industrial and Labor Conditions, Monthly Labor Review 33, no. 3 (September 1931): 548, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41861064.

16 "1930 United States Census," database with images, FamilySearch.org, https://familysearch.org (accessed June 27, 2017), entry for Nelson Phelps, Hermon, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 29, sheet 6A, line 1, family 151.

17 Trent Trulock, An Overview of the History of Agriculture in St. Lawrence County, The St. Lawrence County Historical Association Quarterly XLVIII, no. 12 (Winter/Spring 2003): 10.

18 Thomas J. Kriger, Power Lies in Their Milk: The Story of Archie Wright and the Dairy Farmers Union, The St. Lawrence County Historical Association Quarterly XLI, no. 1 (Winter 1996): 34. 19 "1940 United States Census," database with images, FamilySearch.org, https://familysearch.org (accessed June 27, 2017), entry for Nelson Phelps, Boonville, Boonville Town, Oneida, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 33-6, sheet 13A, line 39, family 369. 20 U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com (accessed June 28, 2017), entry for Nelson Phelps, Canton, New York, 1950 and 1958.


http:https://www.ancestry.comhttp:Ancestry.comhttp:https://familysearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp:https://familysearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp://www.jstor.org/stable/41861064http:https://familysearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp:https://familysearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp:FamilySearch.orghttp:Ancestry.com

Name PHELPS - NELSON OREN Service Number Enlisted RECRUITING STATION- SYRAC USE N. Y. at En(IIIJ(l\i: X Age at Entrance 18 YR S 5 MOS Rate LANDSMAN Home Address 78 BABCOC K ST.

R County Served at From To

NAVAL TRA INING STATI ON NEWPORT R.I . 1-28- 18 8 - 30- 18

NAVAL OPERATING BASE HAMPTON RO ADS VA . 8 - 30- 18 11 -11 -18

Remarks:

Date 1-28-18 FOR ELECT RICIAN GENERAL

Town GOUVERNEUR State N. Y.

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SCHEDULE No. 1.-POPULATION.:::,~}


Nelson Oren Phelps.pdfNelson Oren Phelps (August 4, 1899March 22, 1989)Margaret M. Phelps (May 3, 1900April 18,1990)By Gramond McPhersonEarly LifeService: Phelps in the NavyPostwar: Working for Sheffield Farm

Endnotes

Nelson Oren Phelps Packet - cem.va.gov Irish people immigrated to the American colonies and later the United States, the most significant emigration from Ireland occurred amid a devastating

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