AUSTIN BRESNEN RICHESON was the son of MARY BRESNEN and FRANKLIN EDWARD "FRANK" RICHESON. He was raised in Chicago, Cook Co., IL. The family home of longest residence there was on N. Fairfield Ave. in the 15th ward.
AUSTIN'S father FRANK was born in Amherst county, VA but his parents moved the family to Carroll County, MO when he was young. As a young adult in 1880 he lived in a boarding house and worked as a saddler (saddle maker) in St. Louis, MO, then as a harness cutter in a harness shop in Chicago, a job he held for at least 10 years while his children were growing up. After moving to Portland, OR around 1907 he continued his trade as a leatherworker for the George Lawrence Co.
AUSTIN'S mother MARY BRESNEN was born the daughter of Irish immigrants in WI. Her surname is given different spellings on different documents, sometimes written as Bersen, Bresnahan, Bresnehen, and possibly even Bramwell. But on her marriage license she is MARY BRESNEN.
AUSTIN was the oldest child of four, brother to siblings FRANK ALLISON RICHESON, WALTER JOHN RICHESON., and MARY J. RICHESON, later the wife of GEORGE DOUGHERTY.
How AUSTIN met the young divorcee ALICE MAY BRAZIER BENTLEY is unknown, but in the early 1900s he was stationed at times at Fort Vancouver (Vancouver Barracks) in Clark Co., WA. in 1911, four years before they married, AUSTIN was a witness to the wedding of ALICE'S sister ASHLEY in Vancouver, WA to RAYMOND CARROL VIVIAN. It seems likely the men may have known one another through Army service and crossed paths with the BRAZIER sisters at that time.
Although possibly still married to her first husband as she claimed on the 1910 census, ALICE was living in Vancouver with her mother ANNA (CONLIN) PANCOAST STUART, divorced sister ASHLEY BRAZIER BISSENER, teenaged half-sister MYRTLE VIDE BRAZIER, and ALICE'S own daughter THELMA CLAUDIA BENTLEY, the child with her first (and faithless) husband, FRANCIS EARL BENTLEY.
This marriage to BENTLEY eventually ended in divorce (no record fouond at this writing) after FRANK BENTLEY'S theft of saloon funds from the brother-in-law who employed him in Vancouver, WA, and subsequent flight back to his home state New York. It seems he and ALICE were never in touch again.
ALICE worked as a telephone operator and it's possible she and AUSTIN met at a dance or over the switchboard while he was stationed at Vancouver Barracks awaiting discharge. He left the army in July 1914 when he returned to Honolulu, HI and went to work for about a year as cable editor for the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper. But he quit that job and sailed for San Francisco aboard the SS Sierra in Feb 1915.
There he met up with ALICE, who probably came down by train, and they were married in San Francisco on 2 March 1915.
Little was known about AUSTIN'S background by his children, and how much his wife ALICE ever knew is a mystery. For reasons unknown he cut himself off from his birth family except for his father FRANKLIN EDWARD "FRANK" RICHESON, who also moved to Portland and for some years, until his death, lived with AUSTIN and ALICE and their young children.
AUSTIN told his children he was his family's "black sheep" without giving any specifics. He claimed he left his Michigan home (actually from Chicago) and enlisted in the army, left out the part about lying about his age, and never went back to visit or had any other contact. In truth he returned for his mother's Minneapolis, MN funeral in 1926 as did his brother FRANK ALISON RICHESON.
At his death in 1962 his children tried to contact any Richeson relatives in MI by running AUSTIN'S obituary in a Detroit, Michigan newspaper, but without result. Available records of his life so far indicate no connection to Michigan at all. His army enlistment record confirms the fact he lied about his age to enlist as he was 19 but claimed to be 21.
In reality AUSTIN enlisted on 14 July 1905 in Chicago, where he gave his civilian occupation as "clerk". He stated he'd had three years of high school and a year and a half of business college. One record later in life claimed he had spent 3 years with the Illinois National Guard, but no sources confirm it as yet and it seems unlikely he could have joined the Guard at age 16.
He came west with the army and got as far as the Philippine Islands. By that year the Philippine Insurrection, as it is usually known in the U.S., had been officially declared over but for some years afterwards American troops were stationed there to keep order and continue fighting nationalist guerrillas who held out in remote areas. In 1906 he earned the rank of battalion sergeant major, the youngest man to hold that rank in the US army at that time (so claimed in his obituary).
Once back in Portland, OR with ALICE, AUSTIN went to work in the copy room for The Oregonian newspaper. He probably believed he was done with the military life but that was not to be the case.
A verifiable timeline of his adult life looks like this:
1904 -1914 - served in the 19th. Infantry Regiment, Company L. and later the 1st. Regiment U.S. Army.
1914 - discharged from the army as a battalion sergeant, 1st Regiment, in Honolulu. Lived in Honolulu where he became a cable editor on the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.
19 Feb 1915 - sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco, CA aboard the SS Sierra.
2 March 1915 - married ALICE MAY BRAZIER BENTLEY in San Francisco. They honeymooned for 5 days at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. With this marriage he became stepfather to ALICE'S little girl THELMA CLAUDIA BENTLEY. Residence: 1396 E. 17th St., Portland, OR.
1915 - 1917 - went to work for The Oregonian newspaper in the copy room.
1917 - quit his job in the copy room at the Oregonian to re-enlist at Camp Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) south of Tacoma, WA. Rank raised to captain upon completion of officers training in Los Angeles, CA.
1918 - not listed in the Portland city directory. Following months of training at Camp Lewis, in Sept. AUSTIN arrived in France via England with the 1st Battalion 364th. Regiment to fight the Germans under command of General GEORGE PERSHING. A regimental history was written in 1919 (see sources below).
1918 -AUSTIN was shot in the chest by a German machine gun on the western front and discharged the following spring back in the U.S.
1919 - city directory not found.
1920 - residence 52 - 410 Harrison, Portland, OR. AUSTIN went to work for Portland's first Veterans Bureau.
1921 - worked for the VA.
1922 - worked for the VA.
1923 - AUSTIN worked for the rehabilitation dept. of the U.S. Veterans Bureau. His father FRANK lived with AUSTIN and ALICE and lists himself as a harnessmaker with the George Lawrence Co. This is the first listing of FRANK at the same home as AUSTIN and ALICE.
1924 - Superintendent of the US Vets Bureau, residence at 297 Fargo, Portland, OR.
1925 - Chief of service division, US Vets Bureau Residence at 3120 62nd. SE, Portland, OR. His father FRANK still lives with them at the 297 Fargo address.
1926 - AUSTIN and ALICE are listed but not FRANK. This was the year of FRANK'S death.
.
1927 - same.
1928 - Assistant regional manager for the US Vets Bureau.
1929 - Assistant manager for administration and compensation, US Vets Bureau.
1930 - 1933 - same.
1933 - wrote his last will and testament leaving everything to ALICE. He was 48 yrs. old. What prompted him to do so at that time is unknown.
1934 - 1937 - Assistant to the manager of the US Vets Bureau, Portland, OR.
1938 - 1941 - assistant manager of the Social Security Board, Portland, OR. Residence at 1831 Park Ave. apt. 310.
1942 - 1949 - residence at 1620 NE Irving, apt. 81. AUSTIN retired in this year.
1959 - AUSTIN suffered from a form of senility and was placed in Barnes Hospital in Vancouver, Clark Co, WA where he died in Jan. of 1962.
The NARA has no compiled service record for AUSTIN RICHESON due to the fire that destroyed so many centralized records in 1973 in St. Louis, MO. They did provide proof of honorable discharge in 1918. He had an officer's uniform and riding boots in the closet of his office until his death and some sort of framed certificate signed by Pershing hanging on the wall of his office. What became of these items is unknown.
The 91st was one of the divisions formed by Pershing specifically to end the War in France. Known as the Wild West division, the men trained at Camp Lewis, WA before taking trains across the continent to New Jersey. From there they embarked from New York aboard the Oceanic, sister ship to the Titanic. The Oceanic was painted in camouflage colors, outfitted with depth charge paravanes, and all twelve decks used as a troop transport. Though the 91st's Atlantic crossing was uneventful, upon arrival at Southhampton, England they learned the German U-boats they'd been on the lookout for had turned their attention to the Carpathia and sunk her while they were en route.
Landing in France at Le Havre, the troops of the 91st. were crammed into 8:40s, rail cars on which was written "40 men or 8 horses" to denote their capacity.
After billeting in barns of French villagers for another week the 91st entered into combat along the trenches near the Argonne forest. The 1st. battalion, commanded by AUSTIN RICHESON, was one of two lead groups on the first day of fighting, taking early casualties to get past German machine gun fire and take the front line position.
They pushed forward for 5 days until forced to stop so battalions to their west and east could catch up. On 29 Sept AUSTIN was shot in the chest by a machine gun bullet that ended his WW I service. He returned home in the spring of 1919 and was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star, which decorations looked very different than those in later years in the form we now know them.
AUSTIN and ALICE, their known children:
1) Thelma Claudia BENTLEY ALDEN b. 24 Dec 1904 d. 6 Oct 1981. AUSTIN'S stepdaughter.
Husband: George Clair Alden (1900-1973).
2) Alice Mary "Mary" ANDERSON (1918-1997).
Husband: William Morris "Morry" Anderson (1917–2010).
3) John Austin RICHESON (1922 -2001).
Wife 1: Living
Wife 2: Living
Wife 3: Mary Lou Ellis (1935–2019).
AUSTIN was a member of the American Legion for 44 years and was active in other Veteran's organizations. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Honolulu, HI. At the time of his death he had six grandchildren, with a seventh born a few years later.
Sources from Ancestry.com:
Federal censuses for 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940.
U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914.
California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957.
U.S. City Directories for Portland, OR (various years).
U.S. Returns from Regular Army Infantry Regiments, 1821-1916.
U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942.
U.S., Military Registers, 1862-1970.
U.S., Army Registers, 1798-1969 at Fold3.
Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007.
Oregon Death Index, 1903-98.
Other sources:
Oregonian obituary.
NARA military records and various articles and mentions in The Oregonian newspaper for Portland, OR.
Books: "The Story of the 91st Division", San Francisco 91st Division Publication Committee, San Mateo, CA 1919. Also, "The 364th Infantry in America, France, & Belgium" by Wilson and Bryant, available online through the Internet Archive at: http://www.archive.org/details/with364thinfantry00wilslala
AUSTIN'S father FRANK was born in Amherst county, VA but his parents moved the family to Carroll County, MO when he was young. As a young adult in 1880 he lived in a boarding house and worked as a saddler (saddle maker) in St. Louis, MO, then as a harness cutter in a harness shop in Chicago, a job he held for at least 10 years while his children were growing up. After moving to Portland, OR around 1907 he continued his trade as a leatherworker for the George Lawrence Co.
AUSTIN'S mother MARY BRESNEN was born the daughter of Irish immigrants in WI. Her surname is given different spellings on different documents, sometimes written as Bersen, Bresnahan, Bresnehen, and possibly even Bramwell. But on her marriage license she is MARY BRESNEN.
AUSTIN was the oldest child of four, brother to siblings FRANK ALLISON RICHESON, WALTER JOHN RICHESON., and MARY J. RICHESON, later the wife of GEORGE DOUGHERTY.
How AUSTIN met the young divorcee ALICE MAY BRAZIER BENTLEY is unknown, but in the early 1900s he was stationed at times at Fort Vancouver (Vancouver Barracks) in Clark Co., WA. in 1911, four years before they married, AUSTIN was a witness to the wedding of ALICE'S sister ASHLEY in Vancouver, WA to RAYMOND CARROL VIVIAN. It seems likely the men may have known one another through Army service and crossed paths with the BRAZIER sisters at that time.
Although possibly still married to her first husband as she claimed on the 1910 census, ALICE was living in Vancouver with her mother ANNA (CONLIN) PANCOAST STUART, divorced sister ASHLEY BRAZIER BISSENER, teenaged half-sister MYRTLE VIDE BRAZIER, and ALICE'S own daughter THELMA CLAUDIA BENTLEY, the child with her first (and faithless) husband, FRANCIS EARL BENTLEY.
This marriage to BENTLEY eventually ended in divorce (no record fouond at this writing) after FRANK BENTLEY'S theft of saloon funds from the brother-in-law who employed him in Vancouver, WA, and subsequent flight back to his home state New York. It seems he and ALICE were never in touch again.
ALICE worked as a telephone operator and it's possible she and AUSTIN met at a dance or over the switchboard while he was stationed at Vancouver Barracks awaiting discharge. He left the army in July 1914 when he returned to Honolulu, HI and went to work for about a year as cable editor for the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper. But he quit that job and sailed for San Francisco aboard the SS Sierra in Feb 1915.
There he met up with ALICE, who probably came down by train, and they were married in San Francisco on 2 March 1915.
Little was known about AUSTIN'S background by his children, and how much his wife ALICE ever knew is a mystery. For reasons unknown he cut himself off from his birth family except for his father FRANKLIN EDWARD "FRANK" RICHESON, who also moved to Portland and for some years, until his death, lived with AUSTIN and ALICE and their young children.
AUSTIN told his children he was his family's "black sheep" without giving any specifics. He claimed he left his Michigan home (actually from Chicago) and enlisted in the army, left out the part about lying about his age, and never went back to visit or had any other contact. In truth he returned for his mother's Minneapolis, MN funeral in 1926 as did his brother FRANK ALISON RICHESON.
At his death in 1962 his children tried to contact any Richeson relatives in MI by running AUSTIN'S obituary in a Detroit, Michigan newspaper, but without result. Available records of his life so far indicate no connection to Michigan at all. His army enlistment record confirms the fact he lied about his age to enlist as he was 19 but claimed to be 21.
In reality AUSTIN enlisted on 14 July 1905 in Chicago, where he gave his civilian occupation as "clerk". He stated he'd had three years of high school and a year and a half of business college. One record later in life claimed he had spent 3 years with the Illinois National Guard, but no sources confirm it as yet and it seems unlikely he could have joined the Guard at age 16.
He came west with the army and got as far as the Philippine Islands. By that year the Philippine Insurrection, as it is usually known in the U.S., had been officially declared over but for some years afterwards American troops were stationed there to keep order and continue fighting nationalist guerrillas who held out in remote areas. In 1906 he earned the rank of battalion sergeant major, the youngest man to hold that rank in the US army at that time (so claimed in his obituary).
Once back in Portland, OR with ALICE, AUSTIN went to work in the copy room for The Oregonian newspaper. He probably believed he was done with the military life but that was not to be the case.
A verifiable timeline of his adult life looks like this:
1904 -1914 - served in the 19th. Infantry Regiment, Company L. and later the 1st. Regiment U.S. Army.
1914 - discharged from the army as a battalion sergeant, 1st Regiment, in Honolulu. Lived in Honolulu where he became a cable editor on the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.
19 Feb 1915 - sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco, CA aboard the SS Sierra.
2 March 1915 - married ALICE MAY BRAZIER BENTLEY in San Francisco. They honeymooned for 5 days at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. With this marriage he became stepfather to ALICE'S little girl THELMA CLAUDIA BENTLEY. Residence: 1396 E. 17th St., Portland, OR.
1915 - 1917 - went to work for The Oregonian newspaper in the copy room.
1917 - quit his job in the copy room at the Oregonian to re-enlist at Camp Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) south of Tacoma, WA. Rank raised to captain upon completion of officers training in Los Angeles, CA.
1918 - not listed in the Portland city directory. Following months of training at Camp Lewis, in Sept. AUSTIN arrived in France via England with the 1st Battalion 364th. Regiment to fight the Germans under command of General GEORGE PERSHING. A regimental history was written in 1919 (see sources below).
1918 -AUSTIN was shot in the chest by a German machine gun on the western front and discharged the following spring back in the U.S.
1919 - city directory not found.
1920 - residence 52 - 410 Harrison, Portland, OR. AUSTIN went to work for Portland's first Veterans Bureau.
1921 - worked for the VA.
1922 - worked for the VA.
1923 - AUSTIN worked for the rehabilitation dept. of the U.S. Veterans Bureau. His father FRANK lived with AUSTIN and ALICE and lists himself as a harnessmaker with the George Lawrence Co. This is the first listing of FRANK at the same home as AUSTIN and ALICE.
1924 - Superintendent of the US Vets Bureau, residence at 297 Fargo, Portland, OR.
1925 - Chief of service division, US Vets Bureau Residence at 3120 62nd. SE, Portland, OR. His father FRANK still lives with them at the 297 Fargo address.
1926 - AUSTIN and ALICE are listed but not FRANK. This was the year of FRANK'S death.
.
1927 - same.
1928 - Assistant regional manager for the US Vets Bureau.
1929 - Assistant manager for administration and compensation, US Vets Bureau.
1930 - 1933 - same.
1933 - wrote his last will and testament leaving everything to ALICE. He was 48 yrs. old. What prompted him to do so at that time is unknown.
1934 - 1937 - Assistant to the manager of the US Vets Bureau, Portland, OR.
1938 - 1941 - assistant manager of the Social Security Board, Portland, OR. Residence at 1831 Park Ave. apt. 310.
1942 - 1949 - residence at 1620 NE Irving, apt. 81. AUSTIN retired in this year.
1959 - AUSTIN suffered from a form of senility and was placed in Barnes Hospital in Vancouver, Clark Co, WA where he died in Jan. of 1962.
The NARA has no compiled service record for AUSTIN RICHESON due to the fire that destroyed so many centralized records in 1973 in St. Louis, MO. They did provide proof of honorable discharge in 1918. He had an officer's uniform and riding boots in the closet of his office until his death and some sort of framed certificate signed by Pershing hanging on the wall of his office. What became of these items is unknown.
The 91st was one of the divisions formed by Pershing specifically to end the War in France. Known as the Wild West division, the men trained at Camp Lewis, WA before taking trains across the continent to New Jersey. From there they embarked from New York aboard the Oceanic, sister ship to the Titanic. The Oceanic was painted in camouflage colors, outfitted with depth charge paravanes, and all twelve decks used as a troop transport. Though the 91st's Atlantic crossing was uneventful, upon arrival at Southhampton, England they learned the German U-boats they'd been on the lookout for had turned their attention to the Carpathia and sunk her while they were en route.
Landing in France at Le Havre, the troops of the 91st. were crammed into 8:40s, rail cars on which was written "40 men or 8 horses" to denote their capacity.
After billeting in barns of French villagers for another week the 91st entered into combat along the trenches near the Argonne forest. The 1st. battalion, commanded by AUSTIN RICHESON, was one of two lead groups on the first day of fighting, taking early casualties to get past German machine gun fire and take the front line position.
They pushed forward for 5 days until forced to stop so battalions to their west and east could catch up. On 29 Sept AUSTIN was shot in the chest by a machine gun bullet that ended his WW I service. He returned home in the spring of 1919 and was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star, which decorations looked very different than those in later years in the form we now know them.
AUSTIN and ALICE, their known children:
1) Thelma Claudia BENTLEY ALDEN b. 24 Dec 1904 d. 6 Oct 1981. AUSTIN'S stepdaughter.
Husband: George Clair Alden (1900-1973).
2) Alice Mary "Mary" ANDERSON (1918-1997).
Husband: William Morris "Morry" Anderson (1917–2010).
3) John Austin RICHESON (1922 -2001).
Wife 1: Living
Wife 2: Living
Wife 3: Mary Lou Ellis (1935–2019).
AUSTIN was a member of the American Legion for 44 years and was active in other Veteran's organizations. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Honolulu, HI. At the time of his death he had six grandchildren, with a seventh born a few years later.
Sources from Ancestry.com:
Federal censuses for 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940.
U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914.
California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957.
U.S. City Directories for Portland, OR (various years).
U.S. Returns from Regular Army Infantry Regiments, 1821-1916.
U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942.
U.S., Military Registers, 1862-1970.
U.S., Army Registers, 1798-1969 at Fold3.
Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007.
Oregon Death Index, 1903-98.
Other sources:
Oregonian obituary.
NARA military records and various articles and mentions in The Oregonian newspaper for Portland, OR.
Books: "The Story of the 91st Division", San Francisco 91st Division Publication Committee, San Mateo, CA 1919. Also, "The 364th Infantry in America, France, & Belgium" by Wilson and Bryant, available online through the Internet Archive at: http://www.archive.org/details/with364thinfantry00wilslala
AUSTIN BRESNEN RICHESON was the son of MARY BRESNEN and FRANKLIN EDWARD "FRANK" RICHESON. He was raised in Chicago, Cook Co., IL. The family home of longest residence there was on N. Fairfield Ave. in the 15th ward.
AUSTIN'S father FRANK was born in Amherst county, VA but his parents moved the family to Carroll County, MO when he was young. As a young adult in 1880 he lived in a boarding house and worked as a saddler (saddle maker) in St. Louis, MO, then as a harness cutter in a harness shop in Chicago, a job he held for at least 10 years while his children were growing up. After moving to Portland, OR around 1907 he continued his trade as a leatherworker for the George Lawrence Co.
AUSTIN'S mother MARY BRESNEN was born the daughter of Irish immigrants in WI. Her surname is given different spellings on different documents, sometimes written as Bersen, Bresnahan, Bresnehen, and possibly even Bramwell. But on her marriage license she is MARY BRESNEN.
AUSTIN was the oldest child of four, brother to siblings FRANK ALLISON RICHESON, WALTER JOHN RICHESON., and MARY J. RICHESON, later the wife of GEORGE DOUGHERTY.
How AUSTIN met the young divorcee ALICE MAY BRAZIER BENTLEY is unknown, but in the early 1900s he was stationed at times at Fort Vancouver (Vancouver Barracks) in Clark Co., WA. in 1911, four years before they married, AUSTIN was a witness to the wedding of ALICE'S sister ASHLEY in Vancouver, WA to RAYMOND CARROL VIVIAN. It seems likely the men may have known one another through Army service and crossed paths with the BRAZIER sisters at that time.
Although possibly still married to her first husband as she claimed on the 1910 census, ALICE was living in Vancouver with her mother ANNA (CONLIN) PANCOAST STUART, divorced sister ASHLEY BRAZIER BISSENER, teenaged half-sister MYRTLE VIDE BRAZIER, and ALICE'S own daughter THELMA CLAUDIA BENTLEY, the child with her first (and faithless) husband, FRANCIS EARL BENTLEY.
This marriage to BENTLEY eventually ended in divorce (no record fouond at this writing) after FRANK BENTLEY'S theft of saloon funds from the brother-in-law who employed him in Vancouver, WA, and subsequent flight back to his home state New York. It seems he and ALICE were never in touch again.
ALICE worked as a telephone operator and it's possible she and AUSTIN met at a dance or over the switchboard while he was stationed at Vancouver Barracks awaiting discharge. He left the army in July 1914 when he returned to Honolulu, HI and went to work for about a year as cable editor for the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper. But he quit that job and sailed for San Francisco aboard the SS Sierra in Feb 1915.
There he met up with ALICE, who probably came down by train, and they were married in San Francisco on 2 March 1915.
Little was known about AUSTIN'S background by his children, and how much his wife ALICE ever knew is a mystery. For reasons unknown he cut himself off from his birth family except for his father FRANKLIN EDWARD "FRANK" RICHESON, who also moved to Portland and for some years, until his death, lived with AUSTIN and ALICE and their young children.
AUSTIN told his children he was his family's "black sheep" without giving any specifics. He claimed he left his Michigan home (actually from Chicago) and enlisted in the army, left out the part about lying about his age, and never went back to visit or had any other contact. In truth he returned for his mother's Minneapolis, MN funeral in 1926 as did his brother FRANK ALISON RICHESON.
At his death in 1962 his children tried to contact any Richeson relatives in MI by running AUSTIN'S obituary in a Detroit, Michigan newspaper, but without result. Available records of his life so far indicate no connection to Michigan at all. His army enlistment record confirms the fact he lied about his age to enlist as he was 19 but claimed to be 21.
In reality AUSTIN enlisted on 14 July 1905 in Chicago, where he gave his civilian occupation as "clerk". He stated he'd had three years of high school and a year and a half of business college. One record later in life claimed he had spent 3 years with the Illinois National Guard, but no sources confirm it as yet and it seems unlikely he could have joined the Guard at age 16.
He came west with the army and got as far as the Philippine Islands. By that year the Philippine Insurrection, as it is usually known in the U.S., had been officially declared over but for some years afterwards American troops were stationed there to keep order and continue fighting nationalist guerrillas who held out in remote areas. In 1906 he earned the rank of battalion sergeant major, the youngest man to hold that rank in the US army at that time (so claimed in his obituary).
Once back in Portland, OR with ALICE, AUSTIN went to work in the copy room for The Oregonian newspaper. He probably believed he was done with the military life but that was not to be the case.
A verifiable timeline of his adult life looks like this:
1904 -1914 - served in the 19th. Infantry Regiment, Company L. and later the 1st. Regiment U.S. Army.
1914 - discharged from the army as a battalion sergeant, 1st Regiment, in Honolulu. Lived in Honolulu where he became a cable editor on the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.
19 Feb 1915 - sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco, CA aboard the SS Sierra.
2 March 1915 - married ALICE MAY BRAZIER BENTLEY in San Francisco. They honeymooned for 5 days at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. With this marriage he became stepfather to ALICE'S little girl THELMA CLAUDIA BENTLEY. Residence: 1396 E. 17th St., Portland, OR.
1915 - 1917 - went to work for The Oregonian newspaper in the copy room.
1917 - quit his job in the copy room at the Oregonian to re-enlist at Camp Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) south of Tacoma, WA. Rank raised to captain upon completion of officers training in Los Angeles, CA.
1918 - not listed in the Portland city directory. Following months of training at Camp Lewis, in Sept. AUSTIN arrived in France via England with the 1st Battalion 364th. Regiment to fight the Germans under command of General GEORGE PERSHING. A regimental history was written in 1919 (see sources below).
1918 -AUSTIN was shot in the chest by a German machine gun on the western front and discharged the following spring back in the U.S.
1919 - city directory not found.
1920 - residence 52 - 410 Harrison, Portland, OR. AUSTIN went to work for Portland's first Veterans Bureau.
1921 - worked for the VA.
1922 - worked for the VA.
1923 - AUSTIN worked for the rehabilitation dept. of the U.S. Veterans Bureau. His father FRANK lived with AUSTIN and ALICE and lists himself as a harnessmaker with the George Lawrence Co. This is the first listing of FRANK at the same home as AUSTIN and ALICE.
1924 - Superintendent of the US Vets Bureau, residence at 297 Fargo, Portland, OR.
1925 - Chief of service division, US Vets Bureau Residence at 3120 62nd. SE, Portland, OR. His father FRANK still lives with them at the 297 Fargo address.
1926 - AUSTIN and ALICE are listed but not FRANK. This was the year of FRANK'S death.
.
1927 - same.
1928 - Assistant regional manager for the US Vets Bureau.
1929 - Assistant manager for administration and compensation, US Vets Bureau.
1930 - 1933 - same.
1933 - wrote his last will and testament leaving everything to ALICE. He was 48 yrs. old. What prompted him to do so at that time is unknown.
1934 - 1937 - Assistant to the manager of the US Vets Bureau, Portland, OR.
1938 - 1941 - assistant manager of the Social Security Board, Portland, OR. Residence at 1831 Park Ave. apt. 310.
1942 - 1949 - residence at 1620 NE Irving, apt. 81. AUSTIN retired in this year.
1959 - AUSTIN suffered from a form of senility and was placed in Barnes Hospital in Vancouver, Clark Co, WA where he died in Jan. of 1962.
The NARA has no compiled service record for AUSTIN RICHESON due to the fire that destroyed so many centralized records in 1973 in St. Louis, MO. They did provide proof of honorable discharge in 1918. He had an officer's uniform and riding boots in the closet of his office until his death and some sort of framed certificate signed by Pershing hanging on the wall of his office. What became of these items is unknown.
The 91st was one of the divisions formed by Pershing specifically to end the War in France. Known as the Wild West division, the men trained at Camp Lewis, WA before taking trains across the continent to New Jersey. From there they embarked from New York aboard the Oceanic, sister ship to the Titanic. The Oceanic was painted in camouflage colors, outfitted with depth charge paravanes, and all twelve decks used as a troop transport. Though the 91st's Atlantic crossing was uneventful, upon arrival at Southhampton, England they learned the German U-boats they'd been on the lookout for had turned their attention to the Carpathia and sunk her while they were en route.
Landing in France at Le Havre, the troops of the 91st. were crammed into 8:40s, rail cars on which was written "40 men or 8 horses" to denote their capacity.
After billeting in barns of French villagers for another week the 91st entered into combat along the trenches near the Argonne forest. The 1st. battalion, commanded by AUSTIN RICHESON, was one of two lead groups on the first day of fighting, taking early casualties to get past German machine gun fire and take the front line position.
They pushed forward for 5 days until forced to stop so battalions to their west and east could catch up. On 29 Sept AUSTIN was shot in the chest by a machine gun bullet that ended his WW I service. He returned home in the spring of 1919 and was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star, which decorations looked very different than those in later years in the form we now know them.
AUSTIN and ALICE, their known children:
1) Thelma Claudia BENTLEY ALDEN b. 24 Dec 1904 d. 6 Oct 1981. AUSTIN'S stepdaughter.
Husband: George Clair Alden (1900-1973).
2) Alice Mary "Mary" ANDERSON (1918-1997).
Husband: William Morris "Morry" Anderson (1917–2010).
3) John Austin RICHESON (1922 -2001).
Wife 1: Living
Wife 2: Living
Wife 3: Mary Lou Ellis (1935–2019).
AUSTIN was a member of the American Legion for 44 years and was active in other Veteran's organizations. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Honolulu, HI. At the time of his death he had six grandchildren, with a seventh born a few years later.
Sources from Ancestry.com:
Federal censuses for 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940.
U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914.
California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957.
U.S. City Directories for Portland, OR (various years).
U.S. Returns from Regular Army Infantry Regiments, 1821-1916.
U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942.
U.S., Military Registers, 1862-1970.
U.S., Army Registers, 1798-1969 at Fold3.
Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007.
Oregon Death Index, 1903-98.
Other sources:
Oregonian obituary.
NARA military records and various articles and mentions in The Oregonian newspaper for Portland, OR.
Books: "The Story of the 91st Division", San Francisco 91st Division Publication Committee, San Mateo, CA 1919. Also, "The 364th Infantry in America, France, & Belgium" by Wilson and Bryant, available online through the Internet Archive at: http://www.archive.org/details/with364thinfantry00wilslala
AUSTIN'S father FRANK was born in Amherst county, VA but his parents moved the family to Carroll County, MO when he was young. As a young adult in 1880 he lived in a boarding house and worked as a saddler (saddle maker) in St. Louis, MO, then as a harness cutter in a harness shop in Chicago, a job he held for at least 10 years while his children were growing up. After moving to Portland, OR around 1907 he continued his trade as a leatherworker for the George Lawrence Co.
AUSTIN'S mother MARY BRESNEN was born the daughter of Irish immigrants in WI. Her surname is given different spellings on different documents, sometimes written as Bersen, Bresnahan, Bresnehen, and possibly even Bramwell. But on her marriage license she is MARY BRESNEN.
AUSTIN was the oldest child of four, brother to siblings FRANK ALLISON RICHESON, WALTER JOHN RICHESON., and MARY J. RICHESON, later the wife of GEORGE DOUGHERTY.
How AUSTIN met the young divorcee ALICE MAY BRAZIER BENTLEY is unknown, but in the early 1900s he was stationed at times at Fort Vancouver (Vancouver Barracks) in Clark Co., WA. in 1911, four years before they married, AUSTIN was a witness to the wedding of ALICE'S sister ASHLEY in Vancouver, WA to RAYMOND CARROL VIVIAN. It seems likely the men may have known one another through Army service and crossed paths with the BRAZIER sisters at that time.
Although possibly still married to her first husband as she claimed on the 1910 census, ALICE was living in Vancouver with her mother ANNA (CONLIN) PANCOAST STUART, divorced sister ASHLEY BRAZIER BISSENER, teenaged half-sister MYRTLE VIDE BRAZIER, and ALICE'S own daughter THELMA CLAUDIA BENTLEY, the child with her first (and faithless) husband, FRANCIS EARL BENTLEY.
This marriage to BENTLEY eventually ended in divorce (no record fouond at this writing) after FRANK BENTLEY'S theft of saloon funds from the brother-in-law who employed him in Vancouver, WA, and subsequent flight back to his home state New York. It seems he and ALICE were never in touch again.
ALICE worked as a telephone operator and it's possible she and AUSTIN met at a dance or over the switchboard while he was stationed at Vancouver Barracks awaiting discharge. He left the army in July 1914 when he returned to Honolulu, HI and went to work for about a year as cable editor for the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper. But he quit that job and sailed for San Francisco aboard the SS Sierra in Feb 1915.
There he met up with ALICE, who probably came down by train, and they were married in San Francisco on 2 March 1915.
Little was known about AUSTIN'S background by his children, and how much his wife ALICE ever knew is a mystery. For reasons unknown he cut himself off from his birth family except for his father FRANKLIN EDWARD "FRANK" RICHESON, who also moved to Portland and for some years, until his death, lived with AUSTIN and ALICE and their young children.
AUSTIN told his children he was his family's "black sheep" without giving any specifics. He claimed he left his Michigan home (actually from Chicago) and enlisted in the army, left out the part about lying about his age, and never went back to visit or had any other contact. In truth he returned for his mother's Minneapolis, MN funeral in 1926 as did his brother FRANK ALISON RICHESON.
At his death in 1962 his children tried to contact any Richeson relatives in MI by running AUSTIN'S obituary in a Detroit, Michigan newspaper, but without result. Available records of his life so far indicate no connection to Michigan at all. His army enlistment record confirms the fact he lied about his age to enlist as he was 19 but claimed to be 21.
In reality AUSTIN enlisted on 14 July 1905 in Chicago, where he gave his civilian occupation as "clerk". He stated he'd had three years of high school and a year and a half of business college. One record later in life claimed he had spent 3 years with the Illinois National Guard, but no sources confirm it as yet and it seems unlikely he could have joined the Guard at age 16.
He came west with the army and got as far as the Philippine Islands. By that year the Philippine Insurrection, as it is usually known in the U.S., had been officially declared over but for some years afterwards American troops were stationed there to keep order and continue fighting nationalist guerrillas who held out in remote areas. In 1906 he earned the rank of battalion sergeant major, the youngest man to hold that rank in the US army at that time (so claimed in his obituary).
Once back in Portland, OR with ALICE, AUSTIN went to work in the copy room for The Oregonian newspaper. He probably believed he was done with the military life but that was not to be the case.
A verifiable timeline of his adult life looks like this:
1904 -1914 - served in the 19th. Infantry Regiment, Company L. and later the 1st. Regiment U.S. Army.
1914 - discharged from the army as a battalion sergeant, 1st Regiment, in Honolulu. Lived in Honolulu where he became a cable editor on the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.
19 Feb 1915 - sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco, CA aboard the SS Sierra.
2 March 1915 - married ALICE MAY BRAZIER BENTLEY in San Francisco. They honeymooned for 5 days at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. With this marriage he became stepfather to ALICE'S little girl THELMA CLAUDIA BENTLEY. Residence: 1396 E. 17th St., Portland, OR.
1915 - 1917 - went to work for The Oregonian newspaper in the copy room.
1917 - quit his job in the copy room at the Oregonian to re-enlist at Camp Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) south of Tacoma, WA. Rank raised to captain upon completion of officers training in Los Angeles, CA.
1918 - not listed in the Portland city directory. Following months of training at Camp Lewis, in Sept. AUSTIN arrived in France via England with the 1st Battalion 364th. Regiment to fight the Germans under command of General GEORGE PERSHING. A regimental history was written in 1919 (see sources below).
1918 -AUSTIN was shot in the chest by a German machine gun on the western front and discharged the following spring back in the U.S.
1919 - city directory not found.
1920 - residence 52 - 410 Harrison, Portland, OR. AUSTIN went to work for Portland's first Veterans Bureau.
1921 - worked for the VA.
1922 - worked for the VA.
1923 - AUSTIN worked for the rehabilitation dept. of the U.S. Veterans Bureau. His father FRANK lived with AUSTIN and ALICE and lists himself as a harnessmaker with the George Lawrence Co. This is the first listing of FRANK at the same home as AUSTIN and ALICE.
1924 - Superintendent of the US Vets Bureau, residence at 297 Fargo, Portland, OR.
1925 - Chief of service division, US Vets Bureau Residence at 3120 62nd. SE, Portland, OR. His father FRANK still lives with them at the 297 Fargo address.
1926 - AUSTIN and ALICE are listed but not FRANK. This was the year of FRANK'S death.
.
1927 - same.
1928 - Assistant regional manager for the US Vets Bureau.
1929 - Assistant manager for administration and compensation, US Vets Bureau.
1930 - 1933 - same.
1933 - wrote his last will and testament leaving everything to ALICE. He was 48 yrs. old. What prompted him to do so at that time is unknown.
1934 - 1937 - Assistant to the manager of the US Vets Bureau, Portland, OR.
1938 - 1941 - assistant manager of the Social Security Board, Portland, OR. Residence at 1831 Park Ave. apt. 310.
1942 - 1949 - residence at 1620 NE Irving, apt. 81. AUSTIN retired in this year.
1959 - AUSTIN suffered from a form of senility and was placed in Barnes Hospital in Vancouver, Clark Co, WA where he died in Jan. of 1962.
The NARA has no compiled service record for AUSTIN RICHESON due to the fire that destroyed so many centralized records in 1973 in St. Louis, MO. They did provide proof of honorable discharge in 1918. He had an officer's uniform and riding boots in the closet of his office until his death and some sort of framed certificate signed by Pershing hanging on the wall of his office. What became of these items is unknown.
The 91st was one of the divisions formed by Pershing specifically to end the War in France. Known as the Wild West division, the men trained at Camp Lewis, WA before taking trains across the continent to New Jersey. From there they embarked from New York aboard the Oceanic, sister ship to the Titanic. The Oceanic was painted in camouflage colors, outfitted with depth charge paravanes, and all twelve decks used as a troop transport. Though the 91st's Atlantic crossing was uneventful, upon arrival at Southhampton, England they learned the German U-boats they'd been on the lookout for had turned their attention to the Carpathia and sunk her while they were en route.
Landing in France at Le Havre, the troops of the 91st. were crammed into 8:40s, rail cars on which was written "40 men or 8 horses" to denote their capacity.
After billeting in barns of French villagers for another week the 91st entered into combat along the trenches near the Argonne forest. The 1st. battalion, commanded by AUSTIN RICHESON, was one of two lead groups on the first day of fighting, taking early casualties to get past German machine gun fire and take the front line position.
They pushed forward for 5 days until forced to stop so battalions to their west and east could catch up. On 29 Sept AUSTIN was shot in the chest by a machine gun bullet that ended his WW I service. He returned home in the spring of 1919 and was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star, which decorations looked very different than those in later years in the form we now know them.
AUSTIN and ALICE, their known children:
1) Thelma Claudia BENTLEY ALDEN b. 24 Dec 1904 d. 6 Oct 1981. AUSTIN'S stepdaughter.
Husband: George Clair Alden (1900-1973).
2) Alice Mary "Mary" ANDERSON (1918-1997).
Husband: William Morris "Morry" Anderson (1917–2010).
3) John Austin RICHESON (1922 -2001).
Wife 1: Living
Wife 2: Living
Wife 3: Mary Lou Ellis (1935–2019).
AUSTIN was a member of the American Legion for 44 years and was active in other Veteran's organizations. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Honolulu, HI. At the time of his death he had six grandchildren, with a seventh born a few years later.
Sources from Ancestry.com:
Federal censuses for 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940.
U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914.
California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957.
U.S. City Directories for Portland, OR (various years).
U.S. Returns from Regular Army Infantry Regiments, 1821-1916.
U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942.
U.S., Military Registers, 1862-1970.
U.S., Army Registers, 1798-1969 at Fold3.
Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007.
Oregon Death Index, 1903-98.
Other sources:
Oregonian obituary.
NARA military records and various articles and mentions in The Oregonian newspaper for Portland, OR.
Books: "The Story of the 91st Division", San Francisco 91st Division Publication Committee, San Mateo, CA 1919. Also, "The 364th Infantry in America, France, & Belgium" by Wilson and Bryant, available online through the Internet Archive at: http://www.archive.org/details/with364thinfantry00wilslala
