William Henry Tomes Sr. 1888-1964 (Pt.1)
- Robert Tomes
- Dec 27, 2020
- 8 min read
Updated: Jan 4, 2021
William Henry Tomes was born on Oct 27, 1888, the second child and first son of Edward and Sarah Tomes.
The name, William, is from Germanic origin which suits our family line since we originate from Germany. William means "vehement protector," "strong-willed warrior," or "resolute helmet." When Edward and Sarah named their son William, they had no idea that his name would be carried forward for the next 130+ years:
William Henry Tomes, Jr - Born 04/05/1926 - Died 01/23/1995
William Henry Tomes III - Born 10/10/1949 - Living
William Henry Tomes IV - Born 01/13/1972 - Living
William Henry Tomes V- Born 08/11/2000 - Living
When William Henry Sr. was born, his parents were still living at the house Edward purchased at 259 E. Philadelphia St. in York, PA.. At the time of his birth, there were three other William Tomes' that also lived in York, PA, they are as follows:
1) Great Great Uncle William Tomes - 1809-1894 - This William was brother to William Henry's great-grandfather, Peter Tomes. Unfortunately, Peter had died in 1881, just a few years before William Henry was born.
2) Grandfather William A. Tomes 1829-1898 -Although William A. Tomes would die only eight months after the birth of his first grandson, he would most definitely have been proud to hold the baby that bore his namesake.
3) Great Uncle William H. Tomes 1841- ? - This Uncle served as 1st Lt. in the 130th PA Volunteers and may have lived in York at this time. Not much is known about this Uncle after his departure from the Union Army in 1863.
Just as William's father Edward received an early public education in the cities of Philadelphia and York, his son would also be educated in York's public school system. The earliest glimpse we see into William’s school life is in November of 1896. Below is an article from, "The York Daily" that was published on 11/12/1896. For the sake of space I narrowed the article to include just William's school. The main heading of the article which cannot be seen in the clip says "Roll of Honor," with a sub-header that says "Pupils who attended everyday in the month of October." William would have been in approximately 2nd-4th grade for this time period.
The Pine St. School was/is located at the northeast corner of the intersection of E. Phila. St. and North Pine St. in York, PA. The building is still in use as a school, but is no longer part of the York City School District. William attended school along with some of the neighborhood kids but tended to be introverted and quiet. He made friends with others quite quickly when they earned his trust. William would also see and perhaps play neighborhood games like "fox and hounds" or "ox in the ditch"with some of the orphan kids that lived across the street from the Pine St. school at the Children's Home of York. The Children's Home was started primarily for orphans of civil war soldiers that never came home or died of wounds or disease shortly after the conflict ended in 1865.
Although we might not think perfect school attendance for one month to be much of an honor today, we have to realize the time period that William Henry was attending school. First, the industrial revolution was in high gear in America and many towns and cities had started to swell with not only rural families seeking a better wage/life for themselves, but also with many European immigrants looking for fresh starts. Second, the national public school system was just starting to take root and northeast America was leading the way in this endeavor. However, the majority of children were still unlearned, uneducated, and poverty stricken families would get children into the factory workforce as soon as possible. William's father, Edward, would employ hundreds of young girls and boys as young as eleven years old in the American Caramel Company's Broad St. factory in the wrapping departments. The small fingers of the children were ideal for wrapping the individual caramels. So, older children who were able to attend school each day enjoyed an opportunity over those that couldn't afford to keep their children out of the factories.
William Henry would only complete his education up to the eighth grade, after which time he became an apprentice with his father at the American Caramel Company as a "Candymaker." Most children who attended school after the eighth grade were going to study the "higher arts," of science, law, and languages. The assumption is that since William's father had a job lined up for William, there was no need for him to further his education. However, William's older sister, Evelyn, would graduate in the York High class of 1902 and his younger sister, Mariam, would graduate in the York High class of 1906. If William would have entered into York High and completed on time, he would have graduated in 1905 with the future four star US Army general, Jacob L. Devers.
William Henry would start apprenticing with his father around the age of 15 and was excited to learn the ropes and to start a real job with his dad. He wanted to work hard and to do the best he could to make his dad proud.
William was a hard worker, but he also liked two other things that caught his attention; baseball and females. Baseball in America had evolved since the early 1800's and had quickly became, "America's Past Time." William would have most likely heard and read about the following early national organized baseball teams that were playing throughout the region:
1) Brooklyn Bridegrooms
2) Chicago Colts
3) Philadelphia Phillies
4) Boston Beaneaters
5) New York Giants
6) Pittsburg Alleghenys
However, William wanted to get in on the action himself, he was young, quick, and limber but lacked height. (William was about 5'7" on a good day) When William wasn't hard at work he was wanting to be at the baseball field practicing with other workers from the candy factory. Below is the first glimpse we see from the local paper about William's involvement with the company team.
As you can see, William plays left field in a match between two teams from the American Caramel Company. The loser of the game would have to serve a banquet for the other team, which sounds like typical banter and competition that you would find within a group of young guys driven by pride and testosterone. Unfortunately, the paper doesn't give an update on what team won the match.
We again see William playing for the American Caramel Company's baseball team in the Spring of 1908, this time he is playing in the catcher position.
As mentioned before, work and baseball wasn't all that took up William's time. Sometime between 1907-1910 William met and fell in love with the first cousin of fellow candy co-worker and baseball buddy, John "Anthony" Kahley. Her name was Annie Catherine Kahley and she was the daughter of Anthony Kahley (1847-1892) and Catherine Greenawalt (Maiden Name) (1852-1927) - {Catherine Kahley would remarry after Anthony Kahley's death in 1892 to William H. Jones}
Before Annie met William she was in a relationship with Herbert Shaffer, a local fellow with whom she conceived her first child, Julia Irene Catherine Kahley-Shaffer in May of 1906. (The last name "Kahley" is listed on Julia's 1907 birth certificate, however, Annie lists Julia's last name as "Schaeffer" on the 1910 census.) This out of wedlock pregnancy and birth was very problematic for Annie and Herbert and between the family tension, stress, and perhaps shame, led to the couple going their own separate ways sometime shortly after the birth of Julia.
We don't know how William and Annie met, perhaps they were both at the "old" Eastern Market House, which was located just east of the Broad and Market St. intersection on the right hand side just before the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. ( currently - 480 E. Market St.) This market had fresh produce and meat that many families would patronage daily since modern refrigeration would not become popular until the 1930's. If you follow the link above, you can see a car repair shop obscuring the old Eastern Market from view. This blog from June Lloyd at the York Daily Record, gives us the Old Eastern Market history: https://yorkblog.com/universal/yorks-eastern-market-didnt-sta/ The Eastern Market would have been a perfect place for two young people to meet since everyone had to go to the market and it was halfway between William's home on E. Phila St. and Annie's home on E. King St.
How William and Annie met will continue to be a mystery, however, one thing that is for certain is the scandalous talk and chatter which was the result of Annie already bearing a young child to another man before William and her got married. We have to remember that William's father, Edward, was a prominent member of York‘s business society and still had connections to the Catholic Church. We can come to the conclusion that because of the lack of blessing from their families and their religious communities, Annie and William opted for a quick out of town nuptial in the city of Harrisburg, PA on Saturday, November 19, 1910.
William and Annie now twenty-two and twenty-three, acquired a marriage license at the Dauphin County Courthouse and were married the same day by the Baptist minister, Rev. William J Lockhart. Below is the documentation from the Dauphin County Courthouse:
According to the 1910 Census of Harrisburg, PA, Rev. Lockhart is listed as "Pastor of a Baptist Church." Further investigation from the 1910 Harrisburg Directory reveals that he was the pastor of "Tabernacle Baptist," which was located near the corner of Forster and 6th St. in the City of Harrisburg. William and Annie would not be married at the church he ministered in, but would be married at his home at 611 Briggs St.. We don't know how they found this minister or if they had any type of connection with him, but he marries the couple in his home and the couple returns back to York, presumably on the afternoon train from Harrisburg to York. Although their little escape to Harrisburg may have been to keep themselves out of the limelight, the papers would quickly reveal that their marriage license was issued to them:
1910 seemed to be a year that saw quite a bit of change for not only William and Annie, but also with William's father, Edward, who uproots the entire family from their long established home on E. Phila. St. to live at 50 W. Jackson St.; a relatively new home that was built in 1900. As mentioned in Edward A. Tomes' blog, there was a falling out at the American Caramel Company between Edward and one of the main York candy businessmen, Daniel Lafean. Although I believe Edward didn't leave American Caramel Company until around 1913, I believe he could see the writing on the wall and started making preparations for his family to get into other businesses and jobs before his employment officially was discontinued.
Somewhere between 1910 and 1912 William Henry, his older sister Evelyn and his younger brother Gerald start to work at a different candy company. The new candy company they start to work for was called, R. C. Boeckel & Co., which was built and opened in 1909 and was located on West College Avenue next to the Pennsylvania Railroad and across the street from the York Hospital and Dispensary. According to the York Directory, Evelyn would be employed as a "bookkeeper", William as a "candymaker," and Gerald as a "helper."This employment change would also coincide with William and Annie moving into their first apartment at 634 E. King St. in York.
Below in the embedded google map is how the old R.C.Boeckel & Co. candy factory looks today. The R C Boeckel & Co would change ownership many times over the next 100 years. I will be going over the history of this factory in a later post.
If you toggle the above map to the left, you will see the remnants of the York Hospital and Dispensary that prominently stood there for many years. Below is how the York Hospital looked in 1910.
During William's 1.3 mile daily commute, he would walk past these early York Hospital buildings to go to work and would see people being rushed into their awaiting infirmary rooms. During his tenure at the candy factory he would eventually help fellow workers that were injured on the job across the street to the awaiting nurses and doctors. We will be investigating many of these injuries that occurred at the plant and more of William‘s story in my next post, William Henry Tomes, Sr. 1888-1964 (Pt2)
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