November 20, 1985
    After my father, John William Augustine, died on July 3, 1979 I was sitting at his desk down in "his" room idly looking around. I noticed a loose leaf notebook on the bookcase behind the desk chair, I took it from the shelf, wondering what he had been working on. It was a handwritten narrative of some of the things that he remembered from his childhood. I had enjoyed his stories of when he was a boy that he told when I was visiting but I could never get him to record them on tape for me. If I tried to get out the tape recorder he would freeze up. I told him that it was a shame to lose such good things, and maybe he could write them down. When I said that I didn't realize how bad his sight was getting. But sometime during 1978 and 1979 he had laboriously written out, using a magnifying glass to see with, this account of his childhood.
    Remember while reading that "Mama" refers to Mary Lucy Boeheir Augustine,, and "Papa" refers to Fabian Adam Augustine, my Grandpop-with-the-white-whiskers, and the various brothers or sister of my father.

Myrle Augustine Carden

They were married, 16 April, 1893, and stayed in Camden, N.J. I was born 26 July 1894. Fabian Leo Augustine, also was born in Camden, N.J., 13 August 1896.

I have no recollection of this part of my life. Papa evi-dently went to Washington, D. C. to work as a boot and shoemaker, on Pennsylvania Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets, where the Standard oil Co. building is located. This must have been some time before 1898, as Louise Roselee Augustine, my sister, was born 17 January 1899, lst & K St., N.W.

How long Papa stayed on Pennsylvania Avenue I do not recollect, as my first memories were at 1020 First Street, between K & L Streets. We lived in a small frame building in a row house. That had an airy way between us and the next store. Maybe, it was about 3 feet wide and went the full length of house to the back yards. 2 gates, one to our yard and the other to the neighbors yard. On the other side of the house was a vacant lot, fenced in by a 6 foot board fence. We used this lot.

Next to this was a large alley known as ABC Alley. Horses were stabled in this Alley as well as black people who lived, usually upstairs. Across this alley, going south was a grocery store, then some houses, across the street on the southeast cor-ner was a drug store, coming north more houses, then a small candy store, next to this was a large school going all the way to the northeast corner. Around the corner, on L Street, was a small bakery. Also on L. St. half way up the block was another small store. It seemed as if every family had some kind of business in their down stairs front room. Papa included.

I remember Mama stuffing geese. She would sit on the goose and stuff whole handfuls of shucked corn down their throats until their craw was filled. She did this 3 or 4 times a day. The goose was then put into a confined place, so it could not move around, this made it get very fat, Mama also made root beer for us. There were no soft drinks or ice cream in those days. Not for us anyway. Papa would give us a penny each and we would take them across the street and Fabian would buy a peppermint stick of candy and I would buy a lemon or pickle, stick the candy into the lemon or pickle, and take turns in sucking on the candy stick. Boy was it good. Fabian and I were very close, we would go all over the place. Down at North Capitol and L Street was the Sand Lot . To us it was the end of the city. Buffalo Bill's circus would show there, as well as all ball games. Papa was a great ball game fan. He could win or lose a game for a team. He would stand behind the home plate, and as the pitcher would throw the ball, yell, "Hit it," and batters would swing and usually miss.

The railroad, the B & 0, was beyond the Sand Lot. We would go there and throw stones at the passing engine. The fireman would then throw coal at us, we would pick it up and put it in a bag and take it home. Papa would give us a scolding for going near the railroad. Another adventure was going to Daisy Hill to pick blackberries and daisies. This was a large meadow where the freight yard now is located. Nash's feed mill was located here and burnt down while we lived there. Also the New York Avenue street cars running here, made a complete S turn. On the north side of this turn was the Beanery, it said 1000 beans on a plate, 10 cents.

Papa, each Sunday, would take us two boys and walk up to 7th and L Street, hire a horse and surrey drive back to the house, pick up Mama and Louise, drive out to the Rose Wine House on Lincoln Road, only about 16 blocks from home. Rose Wine House had a long shed for the horses. You drove into them, took the bridle off the horse, put hay in the feed bin. He was out of the sun or rain and quite comfortable. Papa and Mama would take Louise into the club. Papa would get his beer, served in a cup, because it was Sunday, Mama would eat, I guess. We would go ad-venturing, get bugs, flowers, tad poles and snakes, We would stay all afternoon, drive back home, Mama would get out with Louise, we would take the horse back, pay $1.25 for its use and have to walk back home.

We always had something to do, I learn-ed to ride the bicycle in the airy way, by holding myself straight, with my elbows on each side of the airy way and peddle from one end of the house to the other end. After a while I got brave and went out on the street. I did all right going straight ahead until I saw a 2 horse wagon coming at me. I froze, and went between both horses. Lucky I grabbed onto the [tree]. My bike was broken. About this time a few automobiles were on the road. I remember someone trying to make fun of them, rigging a pair of shafts to the back of a buggy, rearranging the horses, and hook-ing up backwards, guiding the front wheels with a pair of runs. This put the horse behind the rig pushing, we kids following.

The town was lighted by gas light and a man would come around twice a day, carrying a small ladder and a long stick with a V on one end to turn the gas on and off, the ladder was for cleaning and repairing.

Also a man would come along with a bag, a little broom and shovel and pick up dog dropping at each tree box. We were told he sold it to a tanning house.

Papa sent to the old country for his 2 sisters, Aunt Julie and Aunt Fronz, his 3 brothers, Uncle Ben, George, and John. The sisters went to Potstown, Pennsylvania and we never saw them again. Uncle George settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Ben, worked in the city as a baker. John went to Alexandria, Virginia to learn the barber trade. I saw them all their lives.

There was an old black man that drove a team of mules to a wagon. A rag man. He would stop in front of the house quite often, as soon as he stopped, one of the mules on the curb side would lay down, and stay that way until the driver would take the lines and say "Gittity up," that mule would get up and never miss a step,

There were two policemen on our beat, both named Smith, one was very short, the other quite tall, their hats were the old helmet type, they were called Little and Big Smith.

In the fall when we did not go buggy riding Papa took us walking, usually down lst Street to Pennsylvania Ave. There was a flour mill at about D Street. We would go to where Papa first worked to visit, and get his beer. About this time Papa decided to go West. He arranged a partnership with a shoemaker, a Mr. Ponholzer, to work the shop while he was gone, about 2 weeks. He got as far as Omaha, Nebraska. There, after looking around, he asked the Priest of a church, what he thought about an immigrant like him, with a family, should do about bringing them out West. The Priest advised him not to do it. Papa hi-tailed it back home,

Shortly thereafter he sold the shop to Ponholzerand moved back to Pennsylvania Avenue. Papa worked in the shop and lived upstairs again where he worked the first time in this country. Uncle Ben and Uncle John were living with us. As the house was lit by gas, John did not know that you had to turn the gas out, thought it just came out of the wall and tried to blow it out, good Papa caught him in time.

Pennsylvania Avenue was lighted by carbon light. High poles with long arm out over the street with large round globes, with 2 sticks of carbon with a gap between, would light when current was turned on.

In the winter the south side of the Avenue, when it snowed, was for horse sleighs only going both ways. They would race the sleighs and had a lot of fun. Street car ran in the middle. The north side-was for all other traffic.

Francis George Augustine was born at 229 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., 4 December 1903. We did not stay there too long as Papa always wanted to work for himself. So we moved to 405 K Street, N.W., sometime in the early spring of 1904. Fabian and I were transferred to St. Mary's School. Papa had opened his shop in the front room of our house.

There was a grocery store at the corner, #401, next was a Chinese laundry, then us, next to us were 2 old maid sisters run-ning a small notion shop, next was a private house, then came a junk shop, run by an old Jewish lady named Mrs. Rasher. Whenever we found something we would take it to her and she would pay us a few cents. There were about 10 or 12 private houses, then a lum-ber storage lot, a broom factory, then a feed store, next was the Northern Liberty Market, known as the K Street Market, it was a block long, running from K Street to L Street, On the top side was a convention hall, the largest in the City. It housed 5,000 soldiers from Pennsylvania at one time. They came down for the inauguration. On the other side of 5th Street at L Street was a blacksmith's shop. Each year there would be a great food show in the convention hall. The front entrance was on L Street, we soon found out that we could get in easy without paying, where the freight entrance was on K Street side, evidently they had no one on watch there. After getting in, we each, Fabian and I, got a bag at the front entrance, and as everything was samples we soon filled the bag, which we would take home,

On Saturday we would go into business with our little red wagon taking groceries home for ladies, 2 to 6 blocks away, we would get 10 cents per load. One of our customers was an old Jewish lady at 6th and I Street, N.W. She would put all the material needed in her stove on Friday and we'd go there early Saturday morning and light it for her, our pay 10 cents.

By this time we were 8 to 10 years old. We would roam all over the city. Down on Indiana Avenue was a large cookie bakery, Havaners. The wagon would bring in the broken cookies, we got a pound bag full, up to the top, for 5 cents. We would go as far as the water front market down southwest Washington. At watermelon time the boats would come up the Potomac River and dock to unload. They would form a line of men from the dock to the storage and sales place, and pass the melons one by one from the boat to the storage place. There usually was a crowd of kids around watching, quite often one of the men would miss, the melon would bust, and the kids would scramble to get a piece.

Of course, we were growing up then and going farther away, like going down to the freight yard at the Anacostia Bridge, we found a swamp and hunted for small turtles, which we took home and made a small pond for them in the back yard. Other times we would go down to the bathing beach at the Tidal Basin. Children had to be accompanied by their parents, we would get real close to a person and most of the time get in, it was a free beach, not there any more. Fabian would sometimes go by himself up to the White House and play with the Teddy Roosevelt children.

Papa sent money to the old country for Uncle Michael's fare to come here. I don't remember where he came in to this country. [When Daddy was telling me this story several years earlier he said that Uncle Mike came in at Baltimore.] He did get to the railroad station at 6th Street, N.W., the Pennsylvania Station. When he got off the train he saw a policeman and was surprised that he spoke German. The officer directed him how to go to 405 K Street, N.W. He had no trouble finding the place, he walked in and said to Papa, "Do you know who I am?" Papa smiled and said "Sure you are Michael." He stayed with us a while and then went to Baltimore,

I being the oldest, it was my job to wheel the baby buggy up and down the street evenings. It was about this time I got my first job, as a hopper on the milk wagon, The Buena Vista Dairy. He was our milk man and Papa made arrangements with him to bring 1 quart of milk from the same cow each day for Gerard John Augus-tine who was born 12 June 1906. The dairy farm was in Suitland, Maryland, run by the Landon family. One brother and father work-ed the farm, 2 sisters with the help of the men did the milking. The other brother delivered the milk in a two horse milk wagon. He came all the way from the farm as far as 9th Street, N.W. There was a bakery on 9th Street between L and M Streets, that was our last stop. He would always buy a dozen doughnuts which we would eat between us. He would drive on one side of the Street and deliver the milk, I would take the other side with a 1 gallon bucket and measure. The women came to the door with a container, I measured what they wanted in my measure and gave it to them. We left the farm about 7 in the morning and got back about 4 in the afternoon, It was here I got my first dog, Teddy, in 1907. I worked on the wagon in the summers 1907 and 1908 for $1.25 a week and Board.

The games we played were mumley peg, jacks for the girls, hup scouts, baseball, run sheep run, and skating. One game we liked very much, I can't for the love of me recall its name, how-ever we laid a short stick on the edge of the curb, hit it with a longer stick. The idea was to try and catch the small stick in the air, and then throw it back and try to hit the long stick held up straight against the curb. If it hit, the player would come in and do the hitting, if it did not hit, the striker would measure the number of length the short stick was away from the home plate, that was the score.

One time 2 men and a policeman came into the shop and told Papa and Mama they would have to go to the pest house for they were exposed to Small Pox. It was Papa, Mama, I, Fabian, Louise, Frankie and Gerardie, and Uncle John. They took all of us down by the City Jail, in southeast Washington. They fumigated the house and on the 2nd day turned Papa and Uncle John free to go to work, but Mama and all us kids had to stay the full 10 days. It was nice enough, but we had nothing to do. We were sure glad to get home. Someone was exposed to the disease but I do not remem-ber who.

Some time while our stay at 4th and K street, I got a job at the Bulletin office on 12th Street between H and I Streets, N.W., delivering the paper. My route was up 9th Street from L Street to Florida Ave, to 7th Street, then down 7th Street to K Street, N.W. The customers were saloons, barber shops, and eating places. The Bulletin was 1 single sheet, my job was to rush the paper along my route, each place had a bulletin board with 2 pins at the top. I would go in and stick the paper on the 2 pins. The Bulletin had the football or baseball scores, the race track re-sults and any up to date news. I had to make 3 runs a day. Some-times Fabian would help me deliver. He would take one side of the street and I the other side. He would run all the way, I rode my bicycle, but he would beat me to the end of the route, where I would pick him up on the handle bars and ride him back to the office on 12th Street.

I quit school in 1908. Graduating after 8 years, 6 grade school, the last 2 were counted as high school. St. Mary's only had the 8 grades and counted the last 2 as high school.

Sometime in 1908 we moved to Hyattsville, Maryland. There I got a job putting mail bags on the trains. I would hang the bags on an arm, the train would not stop but kicked the bags off and at the same time put an iron hook out and grabbed the hung bags. I picked the incoming bags up and carried them to the Post Office. We lived in the last house on the east side of the main road. It was a dirt road then. The street car ran right behind our house. There was a covered platform on the southwest corner where the street cars stopped. A drug store on the corner, a pool room, a barber shop, the electric power house and the Sheriff's office. Across the street from us was a grocery store, a plumber shop and an eating house. The Post Office and fire Department were around the corner.

There was a huckster, an Italian who sold vegetables around the town, with a beautiful gray horse. One day he hitched the horse to a hitching post in front of the grocery store, the train came roaring by and the horse reared up on his hind legs and came down on the hitching post killing him. A Mr. Rodge was struck by a train and his body was thrown under the platform. If someone had not seen it happen, it would not have been discovered in a long time. One morning while taking the mail bags to the train, I would always go the short way which was behind the row of busi-nesses, there I found a man killed by the electricity. He had gone in to turn the lights off and slipped, falling against the switch.

Papa bought 2 nanny goats so Mama could have milk for Gerard. They would jump all over the place. One gave birth to 2 kids. They sure were cute. If you think grown goats could jump you should of seen those kids, all over the place, on top of the sheds, boxes, etc. We made a set of harness and were trying to hook one up to our red wagon and Mama caught us, boy did we get it.

Fabian and I, one winter day that was nice the Eastern Branch was frozen over, put ice skates on and got on the ice and decided to see how far we could go. We made it to the Power House at Bennings Road, but the hot water coming out of the power-house softened the ice and we fell in. Luckily we were on the west side of the river and landed in the marsh about 300 feet from Bennings Road. We made it to the road, having no money we started the walk. We walked to 4th & K street, N.W., in our wet clothes, got some money from the 2 old maids for car fare home. Had we known, we could have walked out Bladensburg Road and got-ten home much sooner.

The black people had revival meetings in the summer in a field just across West Branch, west of Hyattsville. We got an idea to get the gang to gather and have some fun. Each kid was to get a sheet from home. We put them together with nails, cut a slim pole about 15 feet long, another about 10 feet, draped the sheets over the poles, put a rope on the short end of the short pole. As it was dark we slipped well behind the meeting and as the only light was by gasoline torch up behind the speaker, we got right behind the people and pulled the rope. This caused the short pole to point toward the speaker, who froze with his mouth wide open. The people sat there for a moment, then turned around, boy did they run. Of course we did not know that police were up on the bank along the street car tracks watching the meet-ing. They got all of us, about 8 boys. They took us to head-quarters, then decided to take us home. I could not but help seeing them trying to keep back smiling. Of course, it was another story when we got home, after scolding, etc., I believe Papa and Mama laughed, after putting us to bed.

We had a swimming hole in Eastern Branch. We put a rope up the tree on a branch over the water long enough to reach the water. One would go into the water swing it onto the bank, two or more boys would grab it and swing way out over the water and let go. This was fun and good in hot weather, but the police thought otherwise. They would chase us each time they came around. Some of us rode bikes. They got the bikes once. We could see them coming but no way out except out the same way they were coming in. So after getting bikes once, we would throw our bikes in the water, then swim or wade to the other side. They could drive about 3/4 mile, walk about 2 blocks to the far side of the swimming hole, by that time we got our bikes out of the water, got our clothes and scattered.

The main road was dirt and in the fall, great loads of hay, piled high and drawn by 4 horses would come down the road late in the evening going to market. The gang would get a large wooden box, hide in a doorway and when the team went past, run out of their place of hiding and place the box under the rear wheel, when the load went over the box it would make a great noise, the driver would stop the team and getting off the horse he was rid-ing, run back, thinking he had a broken wheel. He usually got madder, after seeing what happened then he would if he really had a broken wheel.

We did not stay very long in Hyattsville, and moved to Congress Heights .
 

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Note: The addresses in this narrative are in Washingtont D. C. or close to Washington in Maryland. The Eastern Branch is the eastern branch of the Anacostia River, which was the river that the British came up when they burned the White House during the War of 1812. As a matter of fact they landed at Bladensburg, Maryland, where Rosa Barkanda Augustine now lives. The river at that time was a whole lot wider and deeper, and when I was a child the river sometimes insisted on taking back a lot of the land that man had filled and built on, and great were the floods and the anguish of the people who had built on the river's old bed.

Myrle Augustine Carden

John W. Augustine 16 Jul 1891 Born
16 Aug 1910 Enlisted USN Mex. Vera Cruz 1914
Served on the USS Utah BB31
Picture of USS Missouri (BB-11) Collection of J.W. Augustine, 1968.
15 Aug 1914 Disch.
29 Sep 1915 Married
10 Jun 1918 WW 1 (USNR)
19 Mar 1919 Disch.
25 Jul 1931 USMCR
13 Jun 1942 (WW2) USMCR
18 Apr 1946 Inactive Duty
24 Jul 1950 (Korea) USMCR
25 Jun 1951 Inactive Duty
30 Sep 1951 Retired USMCR (unrecognizable scribble) Civil Servie

233-072 Enlisted 2316 Munition Handler Foreman
04787 Officer 4510 Amm Ofc 4801 Ord Shop Ofc
296-660 CSA#
C-2-033-244 Vet. Adm. #
578-46-4809 SS#

Service Record 1910 to 1951 Retired 30 Sept 1951 4th Div. Nal. Bn. D.C. NG. 30-6-10   15-8-10
U.S. Navy (Vera Cruz Mex) 16-8-10   15-8-14
U.S.N.R (WW1) 10-1-18   19-3-19
U.S.M.C.R. 0 25-7-31   7-7-40
U.S.M.C.R. H.T.L 8-7-40   12-6-42
U.S.M.C.R. (WW2) 13-6-42   8-4-46
U.S.M.C.R. 9-4-46   11-8-49
U.S.M.C.R. 12-8-49   23-7-50
U.S.M.C.R. (Kor) 24-7-50   25-6-51
U.S.M.C.R. 26-6-51   30-9-51
 

Record of medals* Letter of commendation with medal Sep 1945
Navy Good Conduct Jan 1914
Fleet Marine Corps Res. Apr 1940
Mexican Campaign against Vera Cruz Feb 1914
World War I Mar 1918
American Defense May 1942
American Campaign Jun 1943
World War II Oct 1945
Pacific Occupation Nov 1945
Presidential Citation Jul 1945
Reserve 10 Year Dec 1948
Asiatic Pacific Campaign Aug 1944
* in the order he wrote them

Also included in the notebook was a list of items he donated to the U.S. Navy Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., Feb 21, 1968. Most (possibly all) were photographs and drawings. Given his duties while in the military it is possible that he actually had three experimental torpedos from 1885 and some old Gatlin guns so perhaps they weren't all photographs.

Macrame done by John W. Augustine and hung in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

John W. Augustine's funeral was handled by Nalley's Funeral Home, 3200 Rhode Island Ave, Mt. Rainer, MD.

As of Jan. 14, 2001, you can also check out  Four Generations in the United States Marine Corps

John William Augustine  (1894 - 1979)

Hey Thor, I finally found the list of places where we lived, so here they are:
           1916        Tuxedo, MD     Elizabeth   born
           1917-1919   Seat Pleasant, Md  John  born
           Feb. 1910-July 1927  No.3 Eastern Ave. Kenilworth  Washington D.C.  Francis and Myrle  born
           1927-1928. Colony,( now South Cheverly ) MD
           1928 - 1929  23 LaBlonde Ave. Cheverly, MD
           1929 - 1932 Johnies Corner  Bladensburg MD  Rte.202 and 450
           1932 - 1933  5811 Landover Rd.
           1933 - 1934 7 Pierce Ave.  Riverdal;e MD
           1934 - Sept. 1935  24 LaBlonde Ave. Cheverly, MD
           1935 - Dec. 1935  Berwyn MD.
           1935 - 1936   Shepherd St. Hyattsville, MD
           August 4, 1936 - Jan. 1967 5803 Landover Rd. Cheverly, MD
           Feb. 1939  Purchased the vacant lot , 5801
           1967 -     Bladensburg ,MD

          OK  Thor , u now have the strate scoop on all the former homes of the gypsies called the Augustines.  By the way, I should also mention a temporary  home , which was a tent on a waterfront lot at Sylvan Shores, MD on the South River near Annapolis , Ma and all four kids spent a couple of weeks each summer of 1930, 31 and 32 down at the shore. Dad would  come down and spend Sunday with us but drive back in order to open the gas station on Monday.

Interment No.  49456
Age 87
Date of internment July 7, 1979
Place of death  National Naval Medical Center
Section 28  See map of section 28
Lot 138-D See map of Lot 138
Site 1
Regular - Wilbert Vault
Owner of lot  T.A. & Mary S. Augustine
Undertaker Nalleys Funeral Home

Disclaimer:  The purpose of this Web Page is to share information for the purpose of research.  I have not proved documentation of all genealogy material, nor have I kept source notes as I should.  But I had lots of fun and met some great people along the way..

If you find any mistakes please contact the Web Page creator, Trisha Carden  , and I shall try to correct them.

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