52 Ancestors 52 Weeks – Out of Place

Blogger Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us with writing about an Ancestor once a week for the year 2019.  She will give us prompts to get us started.  This week's prompt is Out of Place.

I have written about this William Mathews the actor on my blog before but thought it fit perfectly with this week’s challenge.

My grandfather’s family Mathers/Mathews all could be found in the New York City area.  Mostly Manhattan and Queens.  I was looking for William Mathers/Mathews born in May of 1890.  He was the son of James Mathers/Mathews and Cecelia O’Brien. 

This person was a mystery I couldn't find anything about him after 1940 or when and where he died.  I had found him in all the Census records available, I had a picture of him, and knew that he was a dancer on Broadway. William was first living with his parents in Manhattan and then after 1910 he lives with his grandmother, until she dies in 1933.  He continued to live in that same house in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York with his Aunt Katie Morris and cousin Bunny.

William Mathers/Mathews about 1935

I had decided to search for him after many years. I searched on Ancestry.com.  When I searched for William Mathews a WW11 Draft Registration card was indicated to belong to him.  I almost passed it by because it was from Saranac Lake, in upstate New York.  All I ever knew was he lived in Manhattan and Queens most of his life.  I looked anyway in this Out of Place area.  It was definitely him.  He gave his  closest relative as Catherine Morris in Queens.  The only new thing about this Draft Registration document was that he was living at the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital in Saranac Lake, New York.

WW11 Draft Registration

Ancestry.com

I did some research on the hospital and found that it was for people in the entertainment industry who had contracted Tuberculosis (TB).  According to several books and articles I have read on the subject, the clean fresh air was supposed to help cure the body of TB.  They had special porches on all the houses (which they called cottages) all screened in with long deck chairs where the patients would lay all day.

I contacted the public library in Saranac Lake and the librarian found this patient card from the hospital.  It indicates he was in the hospital in 1946.

REPORT OF A CASE OF

TUBERCULOSIS

FULL NAME

William Mathews

PRESENT ADDRESS Will Rogers Memo.

Former Address

94-39 111^th St.

Richmand Hill, L.I.

Age—55 occupation _stage__hand__

Incipient? Advanced? Far Advanced?

T.B Pos. Present  P-3 Plus Absent

Has patient been instructed as to disposal of

sputum and all other means of prevention ?

yes

Saranac Lake, N.Y.___6/24/1946

Geo Wilson

M.D.

Attending Physician

It is very important to check every clue and hint even if you think they never would have been in that Out of Place area.