Known Information
Louis B Graham was the son of William Henry Graham and Mary “Mollie” Thomas. He was born in 1896 and died in 1927. He was 29 years old.
Sources
Draft Card
In 1917, the Selective Service Act allowed the government to raise a national army to fight in World War I. Registration began for men between 21 and 30 years old on June 5, 1917. Louis Bernard Graham was one of the men who registered.
His registration card lists his occupation as “Stable Boss” and that he was employed by “W. H. Marlowe.
Washington, District of Columbia, City Directory, 1917
Given Graham’s listed address, there are two possible branches that he worked at:
- 216 A NE
- 1237 1st NE
Close to Home
The 216 A NE branch is a smaller branch, in the same neighborhood as Graham. Graham lived in square 786, in the lower right of the map excerpt below. The Marlowe Branch (yellow building) located on A street is northwest diagonal from his home, in square 758.
As a Stable Boss, he would have been responsible for the care of horses, mules, and ponies, and assigning the animals to workers during the shift. This location would have needed the animals to make home deliveries. Marlow advertised in the Evening Star, a DC newspapers, prompt deliveries, and as evidenced by the for sale ad, he kept stable of work horses at the 216 A NE location.
Coal Dump near Union Station
It’s also possible that Graham worked a little farther from home, and closer to Union Station. Marlow had a Coal Yard Dump north of Union Station. Unlike the local coal yard near the Capitol Building, this is where Marlow brought his imported coal before distributing it to the local yards. Union Station had been built a decade earlier, and with it the landscape north of it changed from housing into warehouses and ice pants. The railway lines leading into Union Station had spurs that allowed for the offloading of coal from Cumberland and Pennsylvania.
stories of Then 