George Grant Crewson, Sr[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33]
1887 - 1977 (90 years)
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Name George Grant Crewson [8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65] Suffix Sr Born 21 Jun 1887 Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio, United States 
[8, 10, 11, 18, 21, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 58, 63, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89] Gender Male Died 18 Aug 1977 Sun City, Maricopa, Arizona, United States [18, 21, 42, 48, 67, 69, 83, 87] - Age at Death: 90
Buried North Tonawanda, Niagara, New York, United States [18, 21, 48, 87] Person ID I139 Costner Descendants Last Modified 3 Oct 2019
Father Grant E. Rehard Crewson, b. 24 Aug 1865, Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio, United States , d. 3 Nov 1890, Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio, United States (Age 25 years) Mother Effie Afton Fisher, b. 9 Apr 1867, Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio, United States , d. 9 Apr 1938, Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States (Age 71 years) Married 31 Aug 1886 Steubenville, Jefferson, Ohio, United States [90] Family ID F66 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family 1 Ada Jane Moon, b. 28 Jan 1887, Ohiopyle, Fayette, Pennsylvania, United States , d. 27 Mar 1968, Sun City, Maricopa, Arizona, United States (Age 81 years) Married 3 Sep 1913 Morgantown, Monongalia, West Virginia, United States [12] Children 1. George Grant Crewson, Jr, b. 13 Jun 1914, Tottenville, Richmond, New York, United States , d. 16 May 1977, Santa Ana, Orange, California, United States (Age 62 years)2. Allen Morse Crewson, b. 7 Feb 1917, Tottenville, Richmond, New York, United States , d. 2 Sep 1982, Cloquet, Carlton, Minnesota, United States (Age 65 years)3. Effie Zoe Crewson, b. 27 Mar 1919, New Castle, New Castle, Delaware, United States , d. 15 Oct 1978, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States (Age 59 years)4. Charles Roy Crewson, b. 2 Jan 1924, Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States , d. 24 May 2005, Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States (Age 81 years)5. Harriet Jane Crewson, b. 17 May 1932, Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States , d. 31 Jul 1999, Lake Montezuma, Yavapai, Arizona, United States (Age 67 years)Last Modified 3 Jan 2023 Family ID F60 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family 2 Bess Wehner, b. 14 Jun 1888, West Virginia, United States , d. 5 Aug 1981, Palm Harbor, Pinellas, Florida, United States (Age 93 years) Last Modified 3 Jan 2023 Family ID F4197 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Documents 
George Grant Crewson By Ann Crewson Flannagan GGC 1971 letter to Chuck and Sue
Letter to son Chuck, reviewing his (George) life and seeking blessing to marry Bess.George Grant Crewson By Ann Crewson Flannagan
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Notes
Following are assorted notes and treatises by or about George Grant Crewson. One may jump between documents by searching/finding "o--" in Explorer or Firefox browser etc.
1. WVU Thesis
2. First car
3. Biography by Ann Crewson Flannagan
4. What Do The Germans Think, from typewritten 8pp 1945
5. Impressions of Germany, from typewritten 7pp 1945
6. News article re Masonic installation, 1945
7. Personal letter re marriage to Bess, from handwritten 10pp 1970
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Thesis,referenced in the West Virginia University library card catalogue, Books by author, G.G.Crewson,W378.7541, Eng 'g, "The variation of Tensile Strength with Percent Carbon in Iron-Carbon Alloys".
The staff was unable to locate a copy. Ann Crewson Flannagan, 2000
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Grandad bought his first car, a big seven-passenger Franklin, air cooled, big ornament on the front. He paid cash for the car. The dealer asked him if he knew how to drive. He had never driven before so they went around a few streets to learn how to drive. No car licenses were required at the time.
Info from GGCrewson's son, Chuck Crewson, 2000.
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George Grant Crewson By Ann Crewson Flannagan, granddaughter February 15, 1997, edited May 2008
George Grant Crewson was named George Rehard Crewson when he was born June 21, 1887 in Steubenville, Ohio. He changed his name to George Grant Crewson in later years in honor of his father, Grant Rehard Crewson. George was only 3-1/2 years old when his father died. At that time, he, his baby sister and his 22-year-old widowed mother, moved back home with her parents in East Liverpool, Ohio.
George graduated from high school in 1905 in New Cumberland, West Virginia where he was encouraged by the principal to go to college. He told his uncle that he would like to go to college. His uncle knew a state senator and at that time senators had the authority to give what we now call scholarships. It was a military cadet appointment. George went to college in Morgantown, West Virginia at WVU, starting in 1906 with $50.00, 1 pair of pants, 1 jacket, 1 pair of extra shoes and a small suitcase. He worked as a table waiter and any other odd jobs he could find. During his college years he met and fell in love with Ada Moon, a local girl who was in the class ahead of him, studying to be an English teacher. He graduated from the University of West Virginia in 1910 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
George was married to Ada on 3 Sep 1913 in the Methodist Church in Morgantown, West Virginia, her parents' home town. They moved to Tottenville, Staten Island, New York City and for the next 11 years he worked at the Eastern Steel Company, Roessler, Hasslacher and Dupont in many phases of engineering, research and development. This work took him to Peru, Chile and Cuba, as well as to many parts of the United States. He was then made Plant Manager at Quigley Company, manufacturers of refractory cements, and later Project Engineer at National Aniline and Chemical Company.
In 1924, at the age of 37, he went into business for himself as Sales Engineering Representative for such well-known chemical equipment companies as Swenson, Whiting Corporation, Duriron, Labour, General Ceramics, Swortout Company, Schutte and Koerting. One very interesting job during this period was his designing and supplying the special casting and annealing table on which Corning made the 200'' mirror for the world's largest reflecting telescope at Mt. Palomar. During this period his efforts were outstanding in concentrating electrolytic caustic soda and in drying chlorine. When defense mobilization restricted availability of special materials, he helped speed the magnesium program by working out the concentration of magnesium chloride for available wartime equipment.
During the war, he served as Chemical Engineering Consultant to the Chemical Warfare Service and helped solve many of the problems in the manufacture of Lewisite. In 1943 he came to Buffalo Electro-Chemical Co. and directed the program for more efficient production of hydrogen peroxide in that company's expanding facilities. He was particularly responsible for this country's early production of highly concentrated hydogen peroxide, independent of foreign developments. He was a member of the three-man team which the US government sent to survey the German hydrogen peroxide industry, entering on the heels of our advancing armies in 1945.
August 20, l953, George G. Crewson was selected by the executive committee of the Western New York Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers to receive their 2nd annual Professional Achievement Award. The award was given in recognition of outstanding services to the local section and the national organization for contributions to the chemical engineering profession as a whole. The award was presented at a dinner where GGC was the speaker. At the time, according to a clip from Vol.49, No.10 of Chemical Engineering Progress (P.77), George G. Crewson was Chief Engineer/Director of Engineering and a director of Buffalo Electro-Chemical Co., Inc. He was also engineering consultant on the staff of the vice president of the Chemical Division of Food Machinery & Chemical Corp.
In addition to his employment, George was a member of the Masonic Temple or Knights Templar, and as their representative, he traveled internationally giving speeches about friendship, loyalty, ambition, humor, the Holy Grail etc. He held the post of Grand Commander of the Knights Templar in New York State in 1938.
George's mother, Effie Fisher Crewson and her sister, Adda Fisher, lived with them while they raised their family of five children: Grant, Effie, Allen, Charles and Harriet in Buffalo, New York. One of George's hobbies was photography. He took 16 mm movies and slides during his extensive worldwide travels. He traveled in every state of the United States, every province of Canada, the Far East including Japan and China, every country in South America and all of the European countries except the communist countries.
He went to Germany for the US Department of War with the ranking of colonel to investigate chemical warfare weapons used. The main concern was the use of high concentrate hydrogen peroxide. When he retired at the age of 67, and for approximately 10 years, George worked as an engineering consultant for FMC (Food Machinery Corporation), traveling all over the world with his wife, Ada, investigating specific companies.
George and Ada were generous both materially and spiritually. Special gifts from them included sweaters from Norway, watches from Switzerland and pearls from Japan. They set up a college endowment fund for all of their grandchildren. George and Ada eventually sold their Buffalo home and moved to Sun City, Arizona. After Ada died in 1968, George's health started to fail.
One year he used Ada's Christmas card list to send greetings to friends and family members. An old high school girl friend of his, Bess Wehner, was on the list from several years past when she had visited George in his Buffalo home. Bess wrote to him to express her sympathy for his loss of Ada and a correspondence struck up and continued until George proposed. George and Bess were married in June of 1971 in East Liverpool, Ohio at the Methodist church at the ages of 83. George's physical health improved after that, however, as the years went by, he became more and more forgetful and confused. George died in August of 1977 at the age of 90 in Sun City, Arizona. Bess's relatives were unscrupulous in their claims to George's assets, both his money and belongings. A bank was set up as his trustee so that George's own sons and daughters had no control or legal ability to challenge the handling of the funds.
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From Personal Notes of
G.G. Crewson
- 1945 -
WHAT DO THE GERMANS THINK?
It has been my fortune, good or bad, to have visited many countries and localities, and in so doing I have been as much interested in trying to understand the people as in the sights and new experiences. After all, there is no subject quite so interesting as people.
But people cannot be understood merely by evaluating what they say or how they act. Most of us are actors on the stage of life, and we wear the costumes and masks of the parts we aim to play. But as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And it is not always easy to penetrate the mask and see the real man beneath it.
The German problem is one which can never be understood until we understand the average German. What does he think? That question is all important. And that question was uppermost in my mind as I traveled through Germany and talked to all classes of the native population.
The mission upon which I went across was one that afforded opportunity to learn to know the people. Its purpose was to quickly obtain detailed information with respect to certain phases of German Chemicals manufacture and required visiting a number of plants in widely scattered areas.
We flew to London, via Labrador and Scotland, and after a few days there after making necessary arrangements, flew to Frankfurt. Frankfurt was the headquarters of the American Army of Occupation and was our headquarters while in Germany. As from the hub of a wheel we went out from and returned to Frankfurt on our various trips of investigation. Now these trips were no pleasure jaunts. Remember, Germany had not merely been defeated - it had been wrecked. Every city of any importance was in ruins. There was no railroad transportation whatsoever. There was no communication system, mail, telephone, or telegraph except of army type and between army posts. So if our target was a German plant 300 miles away, we went there over wretched and bombed out roads in a jeep, command car, or weapons carrier.
In five weeks in Germany I traveled over 2,000 miles by such type of conveyance until my aging body was so wracked that I questioned if the parts would ever again fit properly together. We covered most of the American, British, and French Zones.
Now this type of traveling around brings you close to people. You see their mode of life in city, village, and countryside. You talk to the rank and file. Your audiences are not picked for you. In the course of our work we talked to millionaires and to paupers, managers, owners, technicians, skilled workmen and common laborers. And because I was so interested in trying to discover "What does a German Think?", I was always attempting to understand the mental process of the man to whom I talked. Also it was a part of our duty to report our impressions as to the trustworthiness of those whom we interviewed. So what I have to say on what the German thinks is my impression from first-hand contact.
There is one other thing that I must impress upon you in order not to be misunderstood. When you speak of a group or of a nation of people, you are or should be talking in terms of averages. It is of the mass psychology of the German people that I speak. If I give the impression that the Germans of a given age group are immoral, don't interpret that to mean that there are no good people in that age group. I met individual Germans last summer in Germany whom I am convinced are as upright and honest as the best of any other group.
With this understanding, let us review for a moment the background which has shaped the mass thinking of the German people. Nations, like individuals, have their mental processes fixed in their training and education. For many generations the German has had inculcated into his thinking certain fundamentals which govern his reasoning today. Among these were:
(a) The Germans are a superior people. Their scientists are the best, their artists are the best, and above all, their soldiers are the best. Now I don't think much of a man who is not sold on America nor the Briton who does not love Britain most, nor the German who does not in his heart, think that his country is God's own, but carry that preachment to excess where the citizen of every other country is deemed to be an inferior, and you have the foundation of fearful consequences. I am not so sure that American arrogance at times does not approach that of the prewar German.
(b) They have been trained to unquestioned obedience of those in authority, whether that be the father in the home, the foreman in the factory, the Burgermeister of the village, or the head of the nation. To a certain extent that obedience is a virtue; carried too far and it becomes dangerous, for the individual escapes personal responsibility. Most of the war criminals, some of whom I talked to, cannot understand why they are being held responsible for heinous crimes when they were but obeying the directions of their superiors.
(c) They were taught that warfare is a glorious and honorable activity. The German no more likes to kill nor to be shot at than does any other man, but warfare was glorified. The German Military Officer was on a level above his fellowman regardless of his individual character or ability.
It is a natural characteristic of the German, and they are proud of it, that each man tries to be the best in his field whether he be a scientist, carpenter, soldier or farmer, but takes essentially no interest in affairs except his own specialty. Thus, they lacked general knowledge or even interest in affairs in general. A good example of this was shown in the attitude of a chemist with whom I talked. He had an international reputation in his particular field and was indeed brilliant. He was also a quiet, courteous and likeable chap. I said to him, "Dr. A., I cannot understand why a thinker such as you are - could have ever been in agreement with so unsound a philosophy as Naziism." His reply was typically German, "I am a chemist. Politics is for the politicians, I am not interested. I only want to be left alone with my own research." So I am convinced that great masses of the German people simply didn't concern themselves with their internal affairs.
Now I am not going to discuss the merits or demerits of the Versailles Treaty. The fact remains that like all nations who exhaust their resources in manpower via warfare, the Germans were in a desperate situation following the 1st World War and desperate people grab at straws. If it had not been Hitler, it would have been someone else. The military was lost without an anchor; the industrialist had to have a government behind him, so they supported one not necessarily with whom they agreed, but in hope that his personal magnetism could mold a broken people together again.
Because Hitler, the military behind him and other elements who named him to power, were personally corrupt, such was the type of government which evolved. Having gained authority, that very spirit of the people - obedience to authority and lack of interest in affairs outside their family and vocation, gave full reign to Naziism in its most vicious form. There began an indoctrination of a people through education of the young of a most terrible type.
The old doctrine of German superiority was exploited to the point of teaching that being superior they had the same rights over other people that man has over the lower animals; to take their possessions, to take their lives if need be. Now to us, that seems horrible, but we must not be too self satisfied. Slavery flourished not too many years ago in this country and industrial slavery at a still later date. The heroes of our frontiers 100 years ago hunted the Indian, another human being, for sport - as others find sport today in slaughtering the wild life. The German creed of Hitler seems horrible but we are not too far removed from it to be smug.
The State was extolled to the extent that no crime, as we define it, was a crime if it were committed in the interest of the State. Stealing was stealing only if one stole from a German. If a man disagreed with the Nazi policies, to kill him was not murder. No promise was meant to be kept, even a treaty, if it conflicted with the interests of the State. Germany was to conquer the world and war needs manpower, hence to produce children was a duty and commendable; marriage was a nonessential. To prepare a nation for war, particularly one whose citizens love their homes and their jobs, required stimulating a war of nationalistic fervor. Hatred prepares for war, so some group or groups must be selected as outlet for teaching the people to hate. And they were all too successful. But hatred and the new philosophies were incompatible with Christianity, and the German people were fundamentally religious. Therefore Christianity must be - and was destroyed at least in the minds and hearts of this new generation ... and so Germany was prepared for conquest.
War came, and with it came the most terrible retribution ever visited upon a nation who had forsaken God. I will not dwell upon the destruction of the country - that is the subject of a discourse in itself. The people were left dumbfounded. They even believed in what those in authority told them. To lose was beyond their conception; the older people today go about in a daze. With the physical destruction came also terror and grief that has disturbed the mental equilibrium of many of the citizenry.
But I cannot help but emphasize that the tragedy of Germany today is not in the destruction of its cities, not in the loss of irreplaceable works of architecture and art, not in the loss of 5 million of its ablest manpower, not in the loss to science and industry, of its laboratories and libraries. Terrible as these are, the great tragedy of Germany is not in these. It is in the loss of the morality of its people. As in the individual, so it is with a nation. The all important thing is the integrity and morality of the man, not what he possesses.
Germany in defeat has not changed its moral and mental attitude. To the German he is still a superior being. Misfortune has come but another day is yet to come. To him, their crime was not to make war, to oppress their neighbor - it was to have lost the war. They have no sense today of having done wrong. They only criticize their military for having underestimated their enemy - and we are still the enemy.
In evaluating what the German thinks today, I must divide them into three general classes:
First the elderly - these people are groping helplessly. They cannot understand what it is all about. They did nothing wrong. They never hated us. Why did we bomb their cities and occupy their country? Yes, Germany did that to other countries but they had to do so for self-preservation. Those people were bad people, but Germany never did anything to make us hate them so. These people are courteous to us - even are cooperative. Accustomed to obeying authority, they attempt even to anticipate our wishes - we are the bosses. We stop our car in a village to ask an old man the proper road to take - he removes his hat and smiles friendly as he tries to instruct us most fully.
They welcome us into their homes, if they have homes. On the bomb-riddled street if there is but room for one, he will scramble up on the rubble to let us pass. We are the bosses. He obeys and does so cheerfully but he grieves for his losses not for his errors.
Our heart is touched. We know they are simpleminded, not vicious. One early morning from my room window, I looked out over the ruins of what had been beautiful buildings across the street. An elderly man and woman were walking heads down along the street. Suddenly she stopped - climbed a few feet into the rubble and stared into the ruins of a building. The man who was with her came back, took her by the arm and dragged her weeping away. I do not know what had caused her grief. Perhaps they had had a store there - Perhaps even one of their children still lay beneath that pile of stone and mortar. One cannot be too harsh with such as these.
Then there is that large mass of the population from 10 to 40 years of age. These are the ones upon whom the Nazi government concentrated in its educational system. These are the ones who were taught to hate and any crime associated with hatred. Now deceit is one of the traits they were taught. It is to their advantage today to pretend to be friendly, but you can see hatred in their eyes even behind the smiles. They are opportunists without moral sense. Fraternization is a word of subtle meaning, and as applied to our soldiers means only their friendliness with the fräuleins. A candy bar is sufficient bribe to purchase any favor from them. We were stopped by a curb in a small town - a girl about 20 came along the sidewalk, paused close to our car and smiled most interestingly as she passed on. We joked with our good looking driver over his having made an impression, when I glanced back just in time to see the girl stopped, facing us, her tongue out and face almost livid with hatred. These people, with moral sense destroyed, will be the dominating group in Germany for the next generation. Just imagine what danger to peace they constitute.
Then I would speak of the small children. The streets swarm with them - begging, stealing, quarreling - their education had already begun in learning to hate and to fight. One day in Frankfurt, I saw a gang of 6-8 year olds milling around in Hindenburg Square. I walked over and found that five or six of them had one youngster down - kicking and pounding him - but the significant thing is that they were shouting "du Osterreicher" (you Austrian). Pure hatred among these tots of 6-8 years old. There are the children in the street 2-4 years old - little blonde, blue-eyed, dirty ragamuffins. I could not be unkind to them. Babies are babies whatever their parents might have been. I was criticized on occasions by American Officers for giving the "brats" candy bars, but they were not my enemies. Who are these children? Most of them never knew a father. Many of them never knew a mother... placed in the Institutions for State Babies after birth , they escaped when the buildings were leveled and their superiors fled. No one was concerned about them now. Banded together like our city slum kids, they crawl into basements or cans under the rubble at night and come out during daylight to beg or steal in order to live.
Our Military is primarily concerned with controlling the elders. Means for taking care of the homeless children are far from complete. I think I shall never forget the sacrifice of these innocents.
The older people are too dazed to think at all. The younger more active people hate as they have been taught hatred, are hypocritical to the degree of fooling most of our soldiers, and indoctrinated to the degree that there is no moral responsibility among them.
With such a situation, Germany must long be a threat to the peace of the world. There seems to be no answer but to maintain control by force until these people, whose mental processes have clearly been fixed, are no longer the predominant group. This new generation must be taught that peace, not war, is glorious - that truth and morality are virtues, not weaknesses.
Not until those so trained have grown to be the predominant group, can Germany be trusted, and over this period their educational system must be clearly supervised, and the bad fallacies rooted out.
Such programs will cost us much. Out time must be taken to police them. We must make many sacrifices, but peace and the reclamation of a great people are worth the cost.
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IMPRESSIONS OF GERMANY
After one month of travel through the American, British and French occupied zones in Germany, under conditions which brought us in close contact with all strata of the native population, certain impressions with respect to the past, present and future of the German people became very definite in my mind. In order to fix such impressions and to organize my thinking logically on this highly important subject, I did, on my last evening in Germany, record the same. What I then wrote was under some emotional stress for I had been deeply affected and, being close to the situation, it was much more real than were I merely trying to visualize it from reports by others. The following is, therefore, a transcript of my attempt, at that time and under such motional tension, to put my thoughts on paper.
WHAT OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE?
Germany is the most defeated nation the modern world has known. The destruction of their cities is indescribable. Means of transportation and communication for the civilian population simply do not exist. There is insufficient food, fuel and clothing for even the most stringent necessities except as may appear from hidden stores. To provide housing for the homeless will require fifty years of rebuilding with all available resources utilized to that end. In the meantime the population will lack homes and industries.
The dead run into millions and the civilian dead, men, women and children, must be at least equal to their military losses. In one town, Kassel, about the size of Syracuse, N.Y., it is estimated that there must yet be 30,000 or more buried beneath the rubble that was once a prosperous city. Every city of importance, from an industrial or transportation standpoint, has its business and industrial areas not merely damaged, but demolished. Both to earn a living and to find a place, of any sort, to live, the people must go to the villages and countrysides, yet they swarm around the ruins of the city, many of them living like rats in caves, dugouts, leantos, etc., among the rubble.
The population balance has been greatly disturbed. So many of the younger men have been killed or disabled that there are, in some areas, three women to one man in the 20-30 year old group. Thus, two generations will be required to restore the balance in population.
But sad as it is, the great tragedy of Germany lies not in the destruction of its cities, the loss of irreplaceable monuments of architectural, historic, or artistic value nor even in the destitution of its people, but rather in the loss of moral sense on the part of the masses. I do not mean to say that all Germans are evil; one can never generalize so far. Doubtless there are many who hold to the old tenets of honesty, truth, industry and religion that characterized that people in years gone by. This is particularly true of the older folk and of those who lived in the villages and rural districts. But for a generation there has been a sinister and planned indoctrination which has broken down the ideals of virtue on the part of the masses of the people, to the extent that as a nation, Germany has lost its moral sense.
The leaders have mostly been killed, have committed suicide or imprisoned. But the German masses are accustomed only to follow leaders and, therefore, lack independence of thought and action natural to ourselves. Thus, unless the Allies furnish the leadership, the people will be like lost sheep, ready to follow any unscrupulous person who may assume the lead. The enigma seems to be almost without solution except by jurisdiction of the Allied nations and even that part in such jurisdiction as may be the lot of the Russians holds great danger. But control by the Allies means that thousands of our young men and millions of our dollars must be devoted to such cause and I wonder if America will be willing to make such sacrifice to save a remnant of Germany.
I have little patience with the politicians who come over here for a tour and then go back home to preach a solution of these problems. I have seen such groups. They ride from place to place in a comfortable automobile, stop at specially prepared quarters, talk to a few high ranking officers and rush on again. They never reach the masses, not even our doughboys who know the people as does no desk chair general. Even most of the commentators who come here get only a superficial view. For that matter, we ourselves, only touched the surface. Anyone to obtain a trustworthy understanding must spend months here, devoted to a study of the people and particularly as to their psychology and mental attitudes.
To me it seems that there are three basic reasons for Germany being a threat to world peace and to their downfall. For some time I was inclined to agree with many that wars, including this last one, were the result of economic and political competition and that Great Britain, in particular, was almost in much to blame as was Germany. Unfortunately, many of our soldiers, especially the lower ranking officers, hold that view today. But I am now convinced that the disease is even deeper rooted. I referred to three causes; they are
(1) The existence of a very strong element in Germany, frequently referred to as the Prussian military clique, to whom war was a profession, who are trained for it from birth, who inherit their right to be so trained and become officers, and who, through generations, have been bred into the doctrine that war is the most honorable instead of the foulest of all activities.
(2) That the German educational system his glorified the state, as represented by its government rather than by the achievements of its people. Thus, the state his superseded religion and even morality as a motif in life and with the inevitable corollary that to be a German is to be of a superior race.
(3) That the German people, that is the masses, have for generations been trained to obey those in authority until it has become a universal characteristic. With such training the moral justification for such authority is not questioned, nor is the justice of the rule a matter for consideration. Except in the narrow field, in which an individual may specialize, he exercises little judgment of his own.
As a result of these three conditions it is not difficult for any person who gains authority, whether rightly or wrongly, and who uses that authority either justly or unjustly, to indoctrinate a generation in any mode of thinking he desires, and to obtain, from the masses, a passive obedience. Nothing could be further apart than the theories of government as propounded by the Kaiser's and by the Nazi regime. Yet a people, trained to follow leadership rather than exercise it, could, at least for a time, subscribe first to one and then to the other. That is so apparent now in their attitude toward us. With a few exceptions, to prove the rule, they have not changed their attitudes, only their rulers. To us they are subservient, sometimes almost disgustingly so. Sincerity is not a factor in governing their attitude. We are now the bosses so they not only obey but do so with apparent anxiety to please.
But their education has been vicious. Nazism is not merely a form of government but has become a system of ideologies. As such it cannot be wiped out by command or even supervision but only by a new system of education. But ideals are formed, moral standards developed, and character shaped in the formative years, Rarely can an adult be changed in these respects.
I can see no hope for Germany as a safe and peaceful neighbor in the community of nations unless, for two generations, their education has been supervised and they are taught that war is evil and peace honorable, that honesty, truth and religion are the true virtues. And those who are too old to be taught new ideals, must be supervised or policed to restrain their influence.
It is hard to describe the immorality of Nazism. I do not just mean some immoral practices but the cancerous condition of the people, as a whole, that this curse has left. Twice on a Sunday we have been driving through the countryside and in the small villages have seen a few people, particularly the older ones, going to church. But on Sunday in the cities we have not seen nor heard of any religious services. Even in the countryside the activities on Sunday seem to be the same as on any other day. Religious thinking is a rare exception except in rural areas of the Catholic South.
The young women seem to have, with so few exceptions, lost their sense of morality. Again I must guard against too much generalization. Unquestionably there are many virtuous young women in Germany but they are the exception rather than the rule if one is to judge by appearances. But consider what their education has been with respect to morality. They have been trained to believe that sexual immorality, as we term it, is to be commended. Marriage is but incidental. Awards were given to those who bore children for the state. In one small town of approximately 1,000 inhabitants, we were told that sixty Hitler medals (the mother of pearl medal given to mothers who produced children outside of wedlock) were collected. Promiscuity became general. And now, that the nationality of the available men has changed makes little difference to them. The streets are full at night. A soldier can choose almost any girl at will, from those on the streets, with little likelihood of being repulsed. Yet, one cannot say that they are friendly. On the other hand, the sullen attitude on the part of many of them reflects their inner hatred for their conquerors. But they are opportunists and they have been trained to obey. Their present moral standards permit them to practice any hypocrisy if it serves them, and to sell anything, even their ideals for the sake of temporary gain.
The same if true of the men. To lie, to cheat, to kill, to be cruel; all these to them are not to be condemned if advantage is to be gained thereby.
In other words, Germany has a deep seated disease, the destruction of their moral consciousness. There are two methods of treating disease; that of the physician and that of the surgeon. The latter is the more severe and drastic and is used when the former fails but can effect cures when no milder treatment will suffice. The surgical method of treating Germany's disease is by stern authority, the dismembering of the nation, the liquidation of their former leaders and all who are in agreement with them, the destruction of their industries and the reduction of most of the people to destitution. That was their program with the peoples they conquered. Such seems to be what our Russian allies would insist on. From such treatment there would probably arise a new and healthy German people. But to do this, unless there is no other way, would be lowering ourselves to the level of the Nazis. A tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye was discarded as a righteous doctrine some 2,000 years ago.
The pathological treatment is less sure of success but is the humane way. It would be to hold the present generations in restraint, requiring them to work for their subsistence at jobs dictated by us. You cannot change the way of thinking of an adult though he may pretend to change, hence, I fear that those of 12-40 years of age, generally, are not subject to conversion.
But the younger children, and those to come, can be taught the ways of humanity, democracy, morality and peaceful living with their neighbors. And it is with them that a new Germany should be built. It will take 50 years and cost us much but I am becoming more and more convinced that this would be the way of the Great Physician.
Not for two generations can Germany be trusted; not until those who have been so thoroughly indoctrinated have lost their influence and been superseded; not until by work and sweat they have rebuilt their homes and established an industrial system dedicated to ways of peace instead of war.
If the Physician's method is to be used, we must use it with the Physicians antiseptic precautions. With all the evil there is in Germany, there are also tens of thousands of men and women who are sound and trustworthy, who have merely been confused by the kaleidoscope of the past years. When one organ of the body no longer performs its functions, the Physician attempts to encourage the other undeceased organs to assume added duty. But these then must be guarded against contamination.
War lowers the morality of all who engage in it, even those who may fight in the cause of righteousness. I do not mean to imply that the American soldiers, en mass, have become degenerate. On the other hand, I am very proud that the average American boy in Germany has proven to be not merely a grand warrior but has retained his standards of decency.
But men cannot be engaged in killing, burning, and conquering, even in self defense, without having their standards lowered and their souls coarsened. Those who have any tendency toward licentiousness; and such always are present in any body of peoples; have had a free rein to exercise it. Those who would not degrade themselves, and they are the great majority, are embittered and impatient of their former enemies and allies alike. They are weary and homesick. These men should go home and be replaced with those who have been specially trained in the humanities while restraining even a degraded people. The military service is a poor education in such respect. Policemen are essential but these should be men who have not been taught to hate those they are to police.
If a people who have produced many of the world's most brilliant minds and greatest artists, and who have a great record of achievement in the past are to be saved for the benefit of future generations, then the physicians method of treatment must be used. It will cost the rest of the world much but anything else would be lowering ourselves to the moral level which we now condemn, instead of raising them to ours and to their former greatness.
I cannot prescribe the treatment. I am not a physician. That is why I am confused as to the ways and means of its accomplishment. I only hope that there are those, wiser than I, who can accomplish it and hope that the American and British peoples still have sufficient humanity in them that they will insist that it be done.
GGC:mp George G. Crewson
Written Aug. 10, 1945
Copied Jan. 2, 1946
HITLER'S CHILDREN
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for small children, regardless of their race or creed, and am firmly convinced that environment has the greatest effect in shaping one's moral attitude. So it has been difficult for me to look upon the children her, in Germany, as other than the children at home. Yet they are different - so different.
The streets swarm with them; even late at night; girls and boys and from toddlers up. Those 7-10 years seem to be in predominance. Whining, begging, scowling, fighting among themselves, they hunt in packs like young wild animals. Who are they? Nobody knows.
Most of them never knew a father, many of them remember no mother. Products of a vicious doctrine that it is good for any girl or woman to produce a child for the state, many were turned over to the government at birth to be brought up in institutions established for that purpose. Others merely lost their homes and parent, or parents, in the terrible air raids and were left to shift for themselves.
Their indoctrination in Nazism began with their first speech; and by Nazism I do not mean merely a theory of government. They were taught that might makes right, that war is a glorious aim, that belligerency denotes manhood and that cruelty, theft and crime are justifiable to attain one's purpose.
When destruction came, these children were alert to get to the air raid shelters. Many are scarred or crippled. Afterwards they came out with no homes, institutional or otherwise, no supervision, and to live by their wits. Housed (?) now in dugouts or corners among the rubble, travelling in groups like our older city gangs, they constitute one of the major menaces to a stable Germany for their present education is one in criminality. For they have been thoroughly indoctrinated. Even at 12 years old, their case may be hopeless. Some of the social workers here say that the need for a generation of Germans is primarily that which necessitates physical labor, rebuilding, agriculture etc. rather that education, and that it will be safer to make laborers of all these children now 10 years of age or older. Their way of thinking and their character has already been shaped by the teachings they now have.
Swarming in the streets, boys and girls, they pounce on anything discarded or unguarded.
Cigarette snipes are their principal aim regardless how small. They do not smoke them but carefully recover the bits of tobacco, hoarding it in small boxes or pouches. This they sell or trade. K-Rations have been stolen by the boys swarming over our car, in from of our eyes but unseen. Frequently two will go for the same snipe and a fight results. With all their pleading and begging, you can see the hatred in their eyes and frequently a derisive motion when they think they are unobserved.
There are other children to be seen also; little tots 3-6 years old, mostly tow-heads, who smile trustingly and friendly to everyone. Babies are babies regardless of their parentage and one cannot condemn them. To these only I give candy and gum. I gave one such toddler a piece of compressed sugar from a K-Ration. He did not know what it was until told, then ran off excitedly to deliver it to his mother.
It is these small children who must be taught the true way of life in order to remake Germany.
GGC:mp George G. Crewson
Written Aug. 30, 1945
Copied Jan. 2, 1946
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Transcribed from Highland Light newsletter p.4, January 1945, titled
"Impressive Installation". Regarding G.G. Crewson's installation as Masons Lodge Master.
On January 5th, Wor. George G. Crewson was installed Master of Highland Lodge for the year 1945.
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF OUR NEW MASTER
Born - Steubenville, Ohio, June 21, 1887
Parents - One male, one female Both white
Ancestry - Welsh, Scotch, Irish, English, German, Dutch, French, in other words a mongrel.
As a baby was reported to be good looking and of a happy disposition, both characteristics having been subject to extreme changes as I matured.
After death of my father, when I was 3 years old, my mother moved to the home of my grandparents in West Virginia. I trailed along, thereafter grew up a hillbilly.
Education - The usual system of grade school, high school and college, graduating from West Virginia University in 1910 as a presumptive engineer.
Masonic Record - Initiated, passed and raised in Huguenot Lodge, Staten Island, N. Y. in 1914. Affiliated with Highland Lodge in 1927.
Member of - Summit-Triangle Lodge, R.A.M. - High Priest in 1942. Buffalo Keystone Council, R. - S.M. Tancred Commandery, Knights Templar - Commander in 1938. Ismalia Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S.
Other Affiliations - Confirmed joiner being a member of five technical societies. Chemists Club, New York City.
Employment - Like most engineers have been a floater. After various periods of employment with several chemical companies, I operated my own engineering sales office in Buffalo from 1924- 42, incl. Was a technical consultant in the office of Chemical Warfare Service during 1943. During 1944 and at present Chief Engineer of Buffalo Electric Chemical Co., Buffalo, N.Y.
Travels - By requirements of employment and by personal inclination have been a hobo. Have visited every state of the Union, all provinces of Canada and thirteen other foreign countries. Have visited Masonic Lodges in fifteen Grand Jurisdictions.
Family - Married in 1913 to Ada Moon of Morgantown, W. Va. We have three sons and two daughters, ranging in age from 30 to 12 years. Have never been sued for divorce or non-support. Also have three grandchildren.
Hobbies - Masonry, sports, primarily as a spectator, and amateur motion photographer, a reader of heterogeneous literature, generally of poor literary taste except for a penchant toward Masonic History and Philosophy.
o---------------------------------------------------------o
This is a transcription of a 10-page letter that Grandad wrote to his son, Chuck, and daughter-in-law, Sue, in his old age. He refers to it as an autobiography. It is highly personal, shared by permission of Chuck and Sue.
Typed by granddaughter: Ann Crewson Flannagan
George G. Crewson Letterhead
12418 West St. Andrew Drive
Sun City, Arizona 85351
PH 802/933-3180
Sunday- Mar 28 (assume 1971)
Dear Chuck and Sue,
This is going to be the most unusual letter I have ever written. Rather than write I do wish I could sit down and talk with you, and I hope your two can read it together. Then together or both of you write to me.
I think you both know me well enough to know that after the past 65 years experiences, I have developed a habit of thinking things out before making decisions and also the necessity and wisdom of changing decisions once made when they turn out to be wrong or ill advised. So much for the prologue, I just want you to know and believe that what I am to say is not a _____ of thought but has been mentally reviewed from every angle - so here goes - the basic message first - the defense of it following - to wit,
I am going to marry again - Hopefully on June 5th or thereabouts - place - East Liverpool- wife to be my boyhood sweetheart 65 years ago. Explanations follow.
My life has become almost unbearable Constant despondency and lonesomeness. Everyone of my children and their mates show me their affection at every opportunity and make me happier by doing so. But I see two of them almost 3 times a year and 2 once a year - getting less and less as I become less able to travel and their own home duties or financial demands limit them. I have been ill enough to be hospitalized three times since your mother died - three years - each time under skillful medical care I fully recovered - as I now have from the last experience. But each time I have been left weaker and with less desire to live. On strict analysis (you see my scientific training still shows) I live in the past, have little desire to live in the future and am dropping one by one the activities that once interested me but now do not because I have no one to be interested in them with me. I don't go out at all at night.
I will be 84 on the 21st of June , an age that less that one adult out of 50 can hope to reach. I had a very full, productive, rewarding and until the last three years - a happy life despite some very severe problems to be faced and overcome. Without your Mother, Chuck, and her remarkable wisdom and understanding - yes and patience - patience with me, patience with you, your brothers and sisters and patience with conditions that she those memories and I can say that I know better than I can express that for years, I have been not just supported but motivated by her love for me and mine for her and of both of us for our families. That, in truth, is much of the reason that we lived to the age we have in affection even in times of separations or discouraging circumstances. I hope I have made clear to both of you my undying love of Ada My Wife.
And she always understood so well. Because of my health deterioration and her apparent greater vitality both physically and mentally, we seemed to have taken for granted that she would be left alone - not me. We had the courage to face it as I have found that I have not. We used to talk, without it being emotional, about what we would do if left alone. I remember that not long before she died she suddenly asked me one night (with her arms around me) what would you do or try to do if I should have to leave you alive? My answer after thought was that home had always meant most of all things to us and I would keep and maintain it so long as I had the strength to do so. And when and if something happened to you at night when you are all alone and no one to help? Of course I realized that she had in mind was like a stroke. I answered if it were fatal that would be fine I could go to you without pain or worry. Otherwise I would be able to reach a phone and call for help.
Her reply came slowly and thoughtfully for she said - "I am glad you said that for it is what I would want to do if I were left alone. Now lets be contented just to be together so many years." She died with less than 10 minutes after a happy visit with Effie and me - she said she was coming home the next day. They had made all their tests and found nothing wrong with her. the Doctor assured me that it was so sudden that she felt no pain or fear, an instantaneous heart failure caused by a large blood clot completely blocking the exit artery from the heart shutting off all blood supply to the brain. That is how she wanted to go out though it left me this intense loneliness, it answered my prayers that she would never suffer.
Her affection for me was evidenced by something even greater. When she first showed me the lump in her breast, I was badly frightened. I rushed her to the Dr. When he examined her he said he knew she wanted the truth and would be frank. He said it was a tumor and probably a malignant one. Removal must be prompt. Than Dr.: "This is not something that has just come. How long has it been since you first noticed it?" Ada- "Oh, six months or maybe longer." Dr. "Why didn't you do something about it then or in all this intervening time?" Ada "Oh I didn't want to worry Dad. He has not been well as you know. "
To my mind comes the words of Christ "Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for another." I am totally convinced that the blood clot that took her life came from that source. They went deep into her body to get it all. It was large and was malignant. Her arm swelled up to an unsightly degree and that could only have been from blood clots interfering with circulation. One of them reached that critical part in the heart - she gave up her life rather than worry me.
Now do you doubt her love for me and mine for her. I cannot yet write of these things because of the tears. But all of this is not the information I set out to write. It is only the prelude that you may have best understanding.
Now I am going to go back some 65 years. I graduated from high school in 1905. For the last two years in high school, a girl, one year younger and one year behind me in school, and I developed a deep affection for each other. Yes, it was "kid love" but evidently despite our years, I 17-18 and she, 16-17, it was grounded in real affection and not desire. For about two years we were devoted to each other. I graduated from high school and got a job. The only outlook for me as a life's vocation was skilled or unskilled labor. I never even thought about the possibility of college. When Bess (the girl's name) and I talked of the future, we were sure that we would marry when I could earn enough to support the two of us, as well as my mother who had had a paralytic stroke when I was 11 years old and could not long be self supporting if ever. All these things Bess and I discussed like adults, which we were not, as well our discussing our desire to be together permanently.
But there was, I am sure, never a thought by either of us as to the premature love in its deepest sense. To begin with we were both unbelievably immature as to the facts of life, never mentioned or intimated by word or act any thought of such. I was raised by a grandmother and mother - no other males in my family not least close to me. I worked every hour since the age of 12 to earn all I could for the common support of the family. So I had no boyhood friends between whom certain information and misinformation is passed along. Bess was raised in a religious atmosphere at home and no doubt was equally uninformed. So our affection for each other was certainly without any physical significance.
One evening, one of the very few, when we were left alone as she stayed with a neighbor woman for the night who told her I could visit her there we were together in a large chair I sitting in the arm of it. She looked so sweet I leaned over and kissed her. In doing so my hands accidentally (I today insist as I know no different) caressed her in a suggestive (as generally interpreted) manner. She burst into tears, told me to leave her and never try to see her again. I took her entirely to her word. To indicate how naive I was, I can tell you that it was many months after when working and listening to remarks of older men that I came to realize what the offense was for which I was abandoned . Soon I knew as I know today that it was her purity of mind and spirit together with her strict upbringing that had armed her against any undue familiarity. I took her literally. I avoided seeing her even accidentally as she had said she wanted it that way. After a while I heard and a few times over that she had become the "girl of" a, as we then expressed it, of a man several years older and, or some of my friends delighted in telling me, more experienced than me. I couldn't take it and wanted to get away where I would never see them together.
A school principal told me that he thought I would do well in college if I could make it. I told my uncle I would like to go and he said he knew our state senator quite well and the senator had the authority to give what we now call scholarships. Then I was military cadet appointments and I could earn my living as he could keep my mother working in his store to earn her living. Remember how ignorant of the world I was, I went away to college in the fall of 1906 with my appointment and $50.00 which, which I had saved, in my pocket. I had just one pair of pants and one jacket - one pair of shoes all in one small suitcase, I didn't have sense enough to know that it couldn't be done. But I registered and within 24 hours I had a job - table waiting - that paid my meals and other small jobs for the extras as required. I didn't know I was poor for that is all the life I had known. I also found that I was deficient in entrance requirements but in those days one could make up deficiencies in the 1st year of college so I had what today we would call a 21 hr school program instead of the prescribed 15 hrs, some how or other I got through that year though was not in any good nervous shape at the end of it. I never so much walked around with a girl all that year - no desire to do so, no available time or money. But the emotional torture of Bess was still with me and I wept when someone wrote me that she had married.
At the fall term that 2nd year I was assigned a seat in a math class next to a girl who was very pretty, quiet and so reserved that I don't think I even spoke to her outside of class. On day unexpectedly and on her part timorously she quietly said that the young people of her church were having a student's evening on Saturday. She had seen me in church and thought that I might care to attend. I said I would like to and alter regretted it as for things like that those days, young folks dressed up somewhat for such affairs and my one pair of pants and a few shirts washed and rewashed repeatedly were not too impressive. But I went and in the course of the evening asked the girl if I could walk home with her and she graciously - though I think now largely from pity - said yes. The first girl in about 2 years that I was with alone. We saw each other more and more frequently though very little alone for her father a highly principled man didn't think that boy and girl affairs should share with educational efforts. But by the time summer vacation came we had agreed to correspond during the summer. The common sense, intellectuality and poise of her absolutely astounded and in the autumn we gradually grew to seeing each other more often.
As a by-line it is of interest in writing this autobiography - to think of another impediment that developed. Ada was popular and I was a nobody. I am sure that her earliest associations with me had a strong element of pity in them. But we came to like each other fix that we were. Her father in the meantime had remarried to an old maid school teacher who had neither understanding or sympathy for the younger element. She used her influence to try and break up our association so I no longer went to her home. We managed our schedule again us 15-20 in most days to see each other at the college library. Ada belonged to a popular college sorority. I of course could not afford a fraternity even had I been invited (as I was not). Her sorority and one of the fraternities were automatically associates. No Alpha X Delta girl could be dateless - a Sigma Na would see to that. I had a friend that I studied with quite a lot, who was a real friend, who told me that in one of these fraternity discussions it was mentioned that one of their Alpha Xi girls was getting too friendly with a non fraternity man and it was up to the Sigma Nas to date her and break up this other association. Ada later told me that on every occasion and Sigma Numen (?) would want to date her and she refused then she had a date. Her step mother gradually accepted me so I could call on her at home though impressed upon her that her father had put her through college to be a teacher and so she (Ada) used it to him to teach.
She graduated a year before me of course and went to Cameron(?) to teach. A year later I graduated and went east to work - I was ______at that to find a job. It was depression times much worse than any in your generation, we saw each other once a year when we manipulated vacations so that she would be at her sisters in Central Penn and I would come there for a week staying at the little country hotel and see her daily and each evening. I marvel today that our love for each other stayed so steadfast. Finally in the summer of 1913 she weepingly told me that she thought that our engagement (so considered by us, but unknown to others) should be broken off. Marriage was so distant. She had to make excuses that were misunderstood as other dates and refuse proposals without reasonable explanation. She could say - I don't love you to a suitor but she could not say that there is someone else. Well, we still loved each other as we had for years so we decided to gamble everything, disclose to family and friends, and to marry that autumn. She immediately resigned her teaching position, set Sept 3rd as her wedding date and we embarked on another great experience that had, by logical thinking, few prospects of success.
We married on Sept 3rd. She came east to Tottenville, New York and in due time our own family started to arrive. My mother lived with us until her death in 1936 (I think that is right) so that the first "our home" came 24 years after our marriage. She had a married life experience that very few could have endured but to her death she vowed that it was happiness and satisfaction. Have you ever known another person of such loyalty and affection and she had enough of those qualities(?) not only to hold me enthralled but to give liberally to all five of our children.
Of our discussions and closeness late in life I have already written, But why have I told you all this. I have for three years since she is gone been so bursting with memories that I have to tell someone who knew and loved me and who knew and loved her. Because.
In the first chapter of this book I have told you of my first experience in real love then of the 55 year experience as a lover and a father. I have also told you that in nervous stability and spirit I find myself breaking down. And now a peculiar, unexplained thing has happened. When I had just reached the part where I was really considering violation of my Christian belief by aiding or at least not trying to delay an early death, but actually welcome it, a new incentive to live, yes and be happy, has arrived.
I also told you of my early childhood love affair and the effect that had on shaping my life.
Well, your mother met Bess some years after we had been married. I had not remembered it though I did remember the frequent references Mother made to me about Bess. Mom knew little or nothing , nor did I in fact - about Bess's life after our parting although I had told her fully of that other early love.
But sometime when we lived in Buffalo Bess and another dear friend (and high school classmate of mine were taking a trip to Niagara Falls coming through Buffalo, Anna Cullen (the other friend also mention, over Bess' protest wrote mother that they were coming through Buffalo and hoped to see us. Bess has told me since that she was so embarrassed that she could hardly face us. She always was extremely sensitive. Ada wrote them a warm letter urging that they visit us and let us show them Niagara and other places of interest in Western N.Y. They did so and Bess has said that she never met a woman as kind and understanding as your mother (Chuck). As for mom's reaction I remember her saying to me that rather than jealousy as to the early love between Bess and me, she felt she should be, and was, grateful to Bess for having taught me the meaning of a real and pure love, But so much for that chapter. Now the next,
That our visit in Buffalo was the only time in our half a century that I have seen Bess or talked to her. Mother (Ada) sent her cards at Christmas each year and Bess says, sometimes added a little note about ourselves. I had my cards sent out this past Christmas by a woman who helps me sometimes with bookkeeping, filing and records, and she included me for Bess that I had not even known of.
I received shortly after a card from Bess with a short note saying that she was surprised and pleased to get a card from me and expressed her sympathy Yes and sorrow of knowing of Ada's death - she (Bess) said "one of the finest women I have ever met and I am so glad she made you happy all those years together."
That started a correspondence between Bess and I that has slowly grown on the past 4 months. I stirred up real unhappiness by asking her questions about her life her husband who I had heard died a long time ago etc. in a series of letters that have become more and more frequent she has at my inquisitiveness told me much more of her life.
The man she married deserted her, went away with another woman, he had become and alcoholic and she had three small children. She went to work to support them and worked for 35 years for Montgomery Ward until retired on a small pension which she has made do. Her children grew up and were married and the two daughters both had married children. She is a mother, grandmother and great grandmother and proud of them all.
After being separated for 17 years her husband (she had gotten a divorce at the insistence of her children in the meantime) her husband died of cancer probably brought on by the excessive use of alcohol. He never gave her any support.
Her son grew up and married. He soon afterwards developed a brain trouble (probably a tumor) became totally unable to take care of himself and was institutionalized. After a year, showing no improvement and unable to stand the expense of his hospitalization, Bess brought him home and took care of him while holding down her job and missing the two girls. He died about 10 years ago. fortunately her health has remained good for her age and her pension with social security has enabled her to live and raise her girls to womanhood and marriage. She is greatly pleased with their husbands and their good homelife. Her grand daughter who lives in E.L. , never misses a week of staying with her for a day. Her home is a so called two room apartment over a garage where she has lived the past 35 years.
Now I will ask you two questions, (1) What do you think of the character and courage of a woman like that? (2) Is it possible that she could make an old lonely man contented in his few remaining years.
For Yes, it has reached that point, I haven't even seen her or heard of her for 55 years. I don't know what she looks like today. Her spirit is inspiring and her understanding great. That which separated us says that she has understood to have had no thought __ she had supposed on should have told me so long ago had there been opportunity.
So that is the story my dears. Not only loving Bess does not change or weaken my love for your mother. It actually strengthens it for it transpires(?) that each of them had the same thoughts namely,
(1) There actually would not be anything wrong in what they would ______so. We were both uninformed immature teenagers.
(2) Only Bess is the one that was hurt. She did care for me and moreover still does and now she confesses that she always has in this 55 years interim.
(3) We bot
-
Sources - [S767] 1920 United States Federal Census, http://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10133/1920-united-states-federal-census?s=241661121&itemId=112690977-&groupId=bab5c9a3526a52929b4495694bccb0f8&action=showRecord&indId=individual-241661121-2001091.
George G Crewson
Gender: Male
Birth: Circa 1888 - Ohio, United States
Residence: 1920 - New Castle, Delaware, USA
Age: 32
Marital status: Married
Race: White
Ethnicity: American
Can read: Yes
Can write: Yes
Own/rent: Own
Mother: Effie A Crewson
Wife: Ada M Crewson
Children: George G Crewson, Jr, Allen M Crewson, Effie Z Crewson
Census: County:New CastleSheet:10-BImage:903 State:DelawareFamily:245 Date:1920Line:78 See household members
Household
Relation to head; Name; Age
Head; George G Crewson; 32
Mother; Effie A Crewson; 52
Wife; Ada M Crewson; 32
Son; George G Crewson, Jr; 5
Son; Allen M Crewson; 2 years, 11 months
Daughter; Effie Z Crewson; 9 months - [S686] 1930 United States Federal Census, http://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10134/1930-united-states-federal-census?s=241661121&itemId=217778770-&groupId=621217eb92cace14df6d00c4c23440c9&action=showRecord&indId=individual-241661121-2001091.
George Crewson
Gender: Male
Birth: Circa 1888 - Ohio, United States
Residence: 1930 - Buffalo (Districts 1-250), Erie, New York, USA
Age: 42
Marital status: Married
Race: White
Language: English
Father's birth place: Ohio, United States
Mother: Effie Crewson
Mother's birth place: Ohio, United States
Wife: Ada Crewson
Children: George G Crewson, Allen Crewson, Effie Crewson, Charles Crewson
Census: Township:Buffalo (Districts 1-250)Enum. District:0220Line:11 County:ErieSeries:T626Image:685 State:New YorkRoll:1429 Date:1930Sheet:6-A See household members
Household
Relation to head; Name; Age
Head; George Crewson; 42
Mother; Effie Crewson; 62
Wife; Ada Crewson; 43
Son; George G Crewson; 15
Son; Allen Crewson; 13
Daughter; Effie Crewson; 11
Son; Charles Crewson; 6 - [S806] U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI), http://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10002/us-social-security-death-index-ssdi?s=241661121&itemId=86427443-&action=showRecord&indId=individual-241661121-2001091.
George Crewson
Birth: June 21 1887
Death: Aug 1977
Last residence: Sun City, Arizona 85351, USA
SSN issuing state: District of Columbia - [S724] 1940 United States Federal Census, http://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10053/1940-united-states-federal-census?s=241661121&itemId=35600630-&groupId=e59bcf19a057ba7d01355a65a2d69e89&action=showRecord&indId=individual-241661121-2001091.
George G Crewson
Gender: Male
Birth: Circa 1887 - Ohio, USA
Residence: 1940 - 97 Huntington, Erie, New York, USA
Age: 53
Residence in 1935: Same House - 97 Huntington, Erie, New York, USA
Race: White
Marital status: Married
Wife: Ada M Crewson
Children: Charles R Crewson, Harriet J Crewson
Census:
County: Erie Enum. District: 64-396 Page: 3B
State: New York Roll: m-t0627-02835 Family: 134
Date: 1940-00-00 Frame: 00438 Line: 65
See household members
Household
Relation to head; Name; Age
Head; George G Crewson; 53
Wife; Ada M Crewson; 53
Son; Charles R Crewson; 16
Daughter; Harriet J Crewson; 7 - [S3537] BillionGraves (MyHeritage), https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10147/billiongraves?s=241661121&itemId=991246-&action=showRecord&indId=individual-241661121-2001091.
George G. CrewsonBirth: 1887Death: 1977Burial: Acacia Park Cemetery, North Tonawanda, New York, United StatesRelatives: RelationNameBirthDeathWife (implied)Ada M. Crewson18871968 - [S811] 1910 United States Federal Census, https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10132/1910-united-states-federal-census?s=241661121&itemId=87409474-&groupId=c576b33c48d531425d30ca53de664f85&action=showRecord&indId=individual-241661121-2001091.
George CrewsonGender: MaleBirth: Circa 1888 - Ohio, United StatesResidence: 1910 - New Cumberland Ward 4, Hancock, West Virginia, USAAge: 22Marital status: SingleRace: WhiteEthnicity: AmericanMother: Effie CrewsonCensus: Township:New Cumberland Ward 4Series:T624Image:675 County:HancockSheet:11-B State:West VirginiaFamily:226 Date:1910Line:95 See household membersHouseholdRelation to head; Name; AgeHead; Effie Crewson; 43Sister; Adda Fisher; 32Son; George Crewson; 22 - [S1165] United States World War I Draft Registrations, 1917-1918, https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10513-22621201/george-grant-crewson-in-united-states-world-war-i-draft-registrations.
George Grant CrewsonGender: MaleBirth: June 21 1887 - Steubenville, Ohio, United StatesAge: 29Draft registration: 1918 - New York City, New York, United StatesNationality: United StatesLanguage: EnglishSource: NARA Publication:M1509 NARA Publication Title:World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards NARA Roll:NY341 Draft Board:New York City no 189; A-Knott, George - [S1332] 1920 United States Federal Census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Representative District 6, New Castle, Delaware; Roll: T625_203; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 147.
4295771-00905 (4295771-00905).jpg - [S26] 1930 United States Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0220; FHL microfilm: 2341164.
4661099_00685 (4661099_00685).jpg - [S156] New York, State Census, 1925, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1925; Election District: 06; Assembly District: 07; City: Buffalo Ward 20; County: Erie; Page: 31.
32849_b094173-00387 (32849_b094173-00387).jpg - [S164] New York, State Census, 1915, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 44; Assembly District: 01; City: New York; County: Richmond; Page: 12.
32848_B094117-00463 (32848_B094117-00463).jpg - [S165] West Virginia, Marriages Index, 1785-1971.
- [S2] 1900 United States Federal Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Clay, Hancock, West Virginia; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 1241759.
4123453_00770 (4123453_00770).jpg - [S4347] 1910 United States Federal Census, Year: 1910; Census Place: New Cumberland Ward 4, Hancock, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1681; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0009; FHL microfilm: 1375694.
4454891_00675 (4454891_00675).jpg - [S47] 1940 United States Federal Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02835; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 64-396.
m-t0627-02835-00438 (m-t0627-02835-00438).jpg - [S166] U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Roll #: 1418; Volume #: Roll 1418 - Certificates: 113000-113375, 20 Nov 1920-22 Nov 1920.
USM1490_1418-0189 (USM1490_1418-0189).jpg - [S11777] U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Number: 578-32-2329; Issue State: District of Columbia; Issue Date: Before 1951.
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005265245_04429 (005265245_04429).jpg - [S168] Massachusetts, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943; NAI Number: 4319742; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: T843; NARA Roll Number: 431.
MAT843_431-0315 (MAT843_431-0315).jpg - [S169] Web: BillionGraves.com Burial Index.
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NYT715_7591-0025 (NYT715_7591-0025).jpg - [S170] California, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Francisco, California; NAI Number: 4498993; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85.
CAM1410_422-0139 (CAM1410_422-0139).jpg - [S592] Honolulu, Hawaii, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900-1959, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Departing from Honolulu, Hawaii, compiled 06/1900 - 11/1954; National Archives Microfilm Publication: A3510; Roll: 168; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: RG 85.
31178_170021-01142 (31178_170021-01142).jpg - [S18599] U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current.
- [S44] U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989.
2001375 (2001375).jpg - [S172] Delaware, Land Records, 1677-1947, Delaware Public Archives; Delaware Land Records; Roll Number: 350.
31303_256969-00454 (31303_256969-00454).jpg - [S250] New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1963, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger & Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at New Orleans, Louisiana; NAI Number: 2848492; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Record Group Number: 85.
42810_DC001124-01121 (42810_DC001124-01121).jpg - [S50] U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) for the State of New York; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System, 1926-1975; Record Group Number: 147; Box or Roll Number: 128.
44544_04_00015-00071 (44544_04_00015-00071).jpg - [S250] New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1963, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger & Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at New Orleans, Louisiana; NAI Number: 2848492; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Record Group Number: 85.
42810_DC001125-01438 (42810_DC001125-01438).jpg - [S35] U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007.
- [S172] Delaware, Land Records, 1677-1947, Delaware Public Archives; Delaware Land Records; Roll Number: 350.
31303_256969-00452 (31303_256969-00452).jpg - [S5895] U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for Minnesota, 10/16/1940 - 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 43.
- [S34] 1920 United States Federal Census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Representative District 6, New Castle, Delaware; Roll: T625_203; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 147; Image: 905.
4295771-00905.jpg - [S26] 1930 United States Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Roll: 1429; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0220; Image: 682.0; FHL microfilm: 2341164.
4661099_00685.jpg - [S156] New York, State Census, 1925, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1925; Election District: 06; Assembly District: 07; City: Buffalo Ward 20; County: Erie; Page: 31.
32849_b094173-00387.jpg - [S164] New York, State Census, 1915, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 44; Assembly District: 01; City: New York; County: Richmond; Page: 12.
32848_B094117-00463.jpg - [S2] 1900 United States Federal Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Clay, Hancock, West Virginia; Roll: 1759; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 1241759.
4123453_00770.jpg - [S27] 1910 United States Federal Census, Year: 1910; Census Place: New Cumberland Ward 4, Hancock, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1681; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0009; FHL microfilm: 1375694.
4454891_00675.jpg - [S47] 1940 United States Federal Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Roll: T627_2835; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 64-396.
m-t0627-02835-00438.jpg - [S166] U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925; Roll #: 1418; Volume #: Roll 1418 - Certificates: 113000-113375, 20 Nov 1920-22 Nov 1920.
USM1490_1418-0189.jpg - [S123] U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Number: 578-32-2329; Issue State: District of Columbia; Issue Date: Before 1951.
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005265245_04429.jpg - [S168] Massachusetts, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943; NAI Number: 4319742; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: T843; NARA Roll Number: 431.
MAT843_431-0315.jpg - [S69] New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, Year: 1948; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 7591; Line: 15; Page Number: 13.
NYT715_7591-0025.jpg - [S170] California, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Francisco, California; NAI Number: 4498993; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85.
CAM1410_422-0139.jpg - [S592] Honolulu, Hawaii, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900-1959, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Departing from Honolulu, Hawaii, compiled 06/1900 - 11/1954; National Archives Microfilm Publication: A3510; Roll: 168; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: RG 85.
31178_170021-01142.jpg - [S5] U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current.
- [S44] U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989.
2001375.jpg - [S172] Delaware, Land Records, 1677-1947, Delaware Public Archives; Delaware Land Records; Roll Number: 350.
31303_256969-00454.jpg - [S26] 1930 United States Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Roll: 1429; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0220; FHL microfilm: 2341164.
4661099_00685 (4661099_00685).jpg - [S2] 1900 United States Federal Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Clay, Hancock, West Virginia; Roll: 1759; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 1241759.
4123453_00770 (4123453_00770).jpg - [S27] 1910 United States Federal Census, Year: 1910; Census Place: New Cumberland Ward 4, Hancock, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1681; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0009; FHL microfilm: 1375694.
4454891_00675 (4454891_00675).jpg - [S47] 1940 United States Federal Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Roll: T627_2835; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 64-396.
m-t0627-02835-00438 (m-t0627-02835-00438).jpg - [S166] U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925; Roll #: 1418; Volume #: Roll 1418 - Certificates: 113000-113375, 20 Nov 1920-22 Nov 1920.
USM1490_1418-0189 (USM1490_1418-0189).jpg - [S69] New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, Year: 1948; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 7591; Line: 15; Page Number: 13.
NYT715_7591-0025 (NYT715_7591-0025).jpg - [S250] New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1963, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger & Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at New Orleans, Louisiana; NAI Number: 2848492; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Record Group Number: 85.
42810_DC001124-01121.jpg - [S50] U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration) for the State of New York; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System, 1926-1975; Record Group Number: 147; Box or Roll Number: 128.
44544_04_00015-00071.jpg - [S2] 1900 United States Federal Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Clay, Hancock, West Virginia; Page: 15; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 1241759.
4123453_00770.jpg - [S4347] 1910 United States Federal Census, Year: 1910; Census Place: New Cumberland Ward 4, Hancock, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1681; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0009; FHL microfilm: 1375694.
4454891_00675.jpg - [S47] 1940 United States Federal Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02835; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 64-396.
m-t0627-02835-00438.jpg - [S166] U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Roll #: 1418; Volume #: Roll 1418 - Certificates: 113000-113375, 20 Nov 1920-22 Nov 1920.
USM1490_1418-0189.jpg - [S250] New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1963, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger & Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at New Orleans, Louisiana; NAI Number: 2848492; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Record Group Number: 85.
42810_DC001125-01438.jpg - [S172] Delaware, Land Records, 1677-1947, Delaware Public Archives; Delaware Land Records; Roll Number: 350.
31303_256969-00452.jpg - [S5895] U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 43.
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- [S511] New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, Year: 1948.
- [S554] 1900 United States Federal Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Clay, Hancock, West Virginia; Roll: 1759; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 1241759.
- [S561] 1920 United States Federal Census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Representative District 6, New Castle, Delaware; Roll: T625_203; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 147; Image: 905.
- [S584] New York, State Census, 1915, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 44; Assembly District: 01; City: New York; County: Richmond; Page: 12.
- [S486] U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925; Collection Number: ARC Identifier 583830 / MLR Number A1 534; NARA Series: M1490; Roll #: 1418.
- [S562] 1940 United States Federal Census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Roll: T627_2835; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 64-396.
- [S556] 1930 United States Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Buffalo, Erie, New York; Roll: 1429; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0220; Image: 682.0; FHL microfilm: 2341164.
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- [S588] Boston, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1954, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1917-1943; Microfilm Serial: T938; Microfilm Roll: 431.
- [S53] U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Registration State: New York; Registration County: Richmond; Roll: 1818492; Draft Board: 189.
- [S2] 1900 United States Federal Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Clay, Hancock, West Virginia; Roll: 1759; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 1241759.
- [S175] New York, State Census, 1915, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 44; Assembly District: 01; City: New York; County: Richmond; Page: 12.
- [S153] U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-Current, Number: 578-32-2329; Issue State: District of Columbia; Issue Date: Before 1951.
- [S27] 1910 United States Federal Census, Year: 1910; Census Place: New Cumberland Ward 4, Hancock, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1681; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0009; FHL microfilm: 1375694.
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- [S173] Web: New York, Find A Grave Index, 1660-2012.
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NYT715_7591-0025.jpg - [S157] New York, State Census, 1925, New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1925; Election District: 06; Assembly District: 07; City: Buffalo Ward 20; County: Erie; Page: 31.
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TH-1-18084-124931-96 (TH-1-18084-124931-96).jpg
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