End of the Line - Charles Chapin Adsit Jr. ~ 52 Ancestors #31

Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr. was born in 1892, to Charles Chapin Adsit and Mary Bowman Ashby. His father and his grandfather, James, had been prominent businessmen in Chicago for many decades. He was four years old when his sister, Elizabeth, was born. He is the end of this particular ancestral line of men with the Adsit surname as can be seen at Surname Saturday:Adsit. See a photo of him and his sister at 1904 Car.

By 1917, he was a stock and bond broker, working in his father's office at The Rookery Building, an historic office building at 209 South LaSalle Street, as reported in his World War I Draft Registration Card.

This is one section of his registration. All men were required to register for the draft, but not all men served in the military.

From the WWI Draft Registration Card for Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr., June 5, 1917

However, one week after he registered for the draft, he enlisted in the navy.

Illinois Activities in the World War, Covering the Period from 1914 to 1920 by J. Seymour Currey, (at Google Books) provided the following information (on page 367):

 

I have several photographs of great uncle Charles. Pencil notations on the back of this photo suggest it was taken in 1918. 

In 1920 he was living with his parents in Chicago and working as a clerk in an office (1920 census).

There are several photographs from the family's visit to his sister in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1926. His father likely took this photo of the family.

Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit, Charles Adsit, Jr., Elizabeth (Adsit) Pyle

By 1930, Charles was living at 44 West 44th Street in Manhattan, working as a bond dealer (1930 census). In 1940, he is living at The Harvard Club, just down the street from his 1930 address. No occupation was listed for him in that census, but "OT" suggests that he he is engaged in "other" work. The majority of his fellow seven residents at the Harvard Club worked in investments or law.

This photo is from 1939, when he was about 47 years old.

By 1940, his widowed mother, Mary Bowman (Ashby) Adsit had moved from Chicago to Manhattan, living on East 52nd Street, just over half a mile away from her son. (Actually she was in Manhattan by 1936, when a newspaper reported that her daughter in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts "had as her guest during the holidays" Mrs. Charles Chapin Adsit of New York.)

Charles's WWII draft card reported that he was still living at the Harvard Club, that he was unemployed, and that the "name and address of the person who will always know your address" was his mother, Mrs. C. C. Adsit on East 52nd Street.

From the WWII Draft Registration Card for Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr., April 27, 1942

Two years after he completed this draft registration, he died of pneumonia in the early afternoon of April 21, 1944, after one day at the New York Hospital. His mother was the informant on his death certificate. She was still living at 21 East 52nd Street. His occupation on the death certificate was "Investment Broker" in his "Own Business." 

It is unclear to me whether he continued working in his last years, or if something prevented him from working and he lived off of his family's investment income

The New York Times published a brief death notice, as did the Chicago Tribune.

Charles Chapin Adsit, The New York Times obituary, 22 April 1944, p. 13, col. 5

After a service at St. James' Chapel in Chicago, his remains were buried in the Adsit family plot at Chicago's Graceland Cemetery.

He was my great uncle and our common ancestors are Charles Chapin Adsit and Mary Bowman Ashby.

Charles Chapin Adsit = Mary Bowman Ashby

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Elizabeth Adsit

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Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr.

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Me

This week's theme is End of the Line.