I never met either my maternal or my paternal grandfathers. This week in #52Ancestors I attempt to get to know a man about whom I have only heard stories.
Harold Doremus Tompkins was born 17 February 1888 to Samuel D. (1838-1926) and Gettianna Vreeland (1841-1918) Tompkins. He was the youngest child of seven, 5 of whom lived to adulthood. As his oldest sister was born almost nineteen years before him, many of the stories I have heard are of the “darling little baby of the family” variety. Certainly, this picture puts his position in perspective. His siblings were literally adults by the time he was old enough to know what was what.
Harold was baptized at Lafayette Church in Jersey City, NJ and attended the local public school, and the Hasbrouck Institute for high school. He took classes at Rutgers University, attending long enough to join Delta Phi fraternity like his older brother Vreeland. He then went on to study mechanical engineering at Cornell University. I am not sure how he had time as his senior yearbook also has him playing baseball, football, lacrosse, and being a member of the Mandolin Club.
After college he returned to Jersey City, where he was active in local activities, especially amateur sports. He served with the New Jersey National Guard in the signal corps and I have seen one mention of his serving in the Mexican Expedition in 1916 but I have not verified that he actually went to Mexico to take part in the US response to Pancho Villa’s Mexican Revolution.
However, his service there does seem to have made it possible for him to get a commission as a lieutenant in Company C, 101th Signal Battalion, 29th Division. As commonly occured during World War I, companies were reorganized constantly. I found a mention of Harold in the History of the 29th Division which placed him in Company A, 104th Signal Corp, where he was in charge of the company that set up the communications net used to communicate the news each day. He served in France and remained there after the war to take classes at the University of Bordeaux.
By 1920, he is back in Jersey City living with his father Samuel and working at Smooth-On. He is 32 years old at this point and the family tells the story that his older brother told him that he needed to “grow up, get married and get out.” As the baby of the family, I imagine this was received with due respect (ha, ha) but he managed to meet, get engaged to and marry Katharine Van Syckel Tennant, so he must have taken it to hear. They were married 4 November 1922.
Harold and Katharine Tompkins had three children: Anne Van Syckel (1923-1994), Mary Vreeland (1925- ) and Louise (1928-). By the 1930 Census, they are living at 132 Bentley Ave., close to family but on their own. Shortly after 1940, the entire family moved to Summit, New Jersey to a large house at 160 Oakridge Avenue. Many adventures occurred in this house, but I only knew about the house Granny moved into after he died, on Valley View Rd.
Harold D. Tompkins died on 27 November 1951 and is buried at Arlington Cemetery in Kearny, NJ.
Telling My Story 