In 1911 he lived in the "Turner Addition" of Poplar Bluff and worked as a "lather". It is not clear if he was on his own at this time or still lived with his parents.
Frederick married (first), ------ --, 19-- in ------, ------, Hazel M----- Sherman. She was born ------ --, 18-- in ------, ------, the daughter of ------ ------ Sherman and ------ ------ (------) Sherman. Hazel was half Cherokee.
Children:
According to his sister Anna, Frederick enlisted in the army and joined the cavalry, serving as a cook, chef and baker. He is said to have been stationed in Hawaii for six years (though it does not seem possible, chronologically, for him to have been there that long) and afterwards in Arizona and New Mexico during the bandit troubles on the Mexican border.
Frederick is known to have served as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps from August 2, 1916 to April 5, 1919. Whether this service was identical or in addition to the service cited above is uncertain.
On August 23, 1916, from El Paso, Texas, he wrote to his brother Ted in Missouri that "everything is quiet here now. In fact too quiet."
According to Anna, on one occasion when he was patrolling the border on horseback, he and his horse both fell asleep, having been on guard duty for twenty-four hours. The horse stepped in a hole and fell on him, rupturing a valve in his heart. He was sent to the government army hospital in Pasadena, California, where he spent two years recuperating.
In April, 1917 Hazel Traudt was living in Poplar Bluff.
In 1919 Fred was discharged for disability and pensioned. According to his obituary he was a veteran of World War I, though in view of his injury and recovery time it is unlikely that he saw active service. His heart problem is said to have persisted all his life.
In 1923 he was living in San Francisco, and put up his mother and sister for a month there that spring when they moved to California from Missouri.
In 1927 Fred went on a trip to the east, taking a job on a boat that went through the Panama Canal. He went to New York to look up his father's family, and called on his Aunt Laura in Brooklyn. On September 6 he was in Newark, New Jersey, where his father had been born. He returned by way of Missouri, where in October he visited his ex-father-in-law Mr. Sherman, and his children. He said the family had no use for Hazel's second husband. He also visited the graves of his father and brother Albert in Poplar Bluff. He reported the town was "pretty well shot." On the 15th he was staying at the Laclede Hotel, 6th & Chestnut Streets, Saint Louis, and wrote his brother Ted he planned to take the night bus to Detroit and try to accumulate some money there before attempting the return trip to California.
Later Fred moved to Oakland and opened a small restaurant called the "Percolator Shop". He tried to persuade his mother to settle there as well, but she prefered small towns.
At some point Frederick started living under the assumed name of Harold E. Gray‚ or Harry Gray. He is said to have done this either to conceal his whereabouts from his first wife or to avoid the anti-German prejudice during the First World War.
In 1933 Frederick resided at 1525 Fruitvale Avenue, Oakland, under the name of Harry Gray. His occupation was given as cook.
Frederick married (second), by 1934, Winifred M------ ------. She was born ------ --, 1--- in ------, ------, the daughter of ------ ------ ------ and ------ ------ (------) ------. They apparently had no children, though Winifred seems to have had a daughter from a previous marriage named Betty, who married a Mr. Clark and was living in Millbrae, California in 1960.
In 1934 the "Greys" were living in a house at 1811 27th Avenue, Oakland. Frederick's occupation was given as cook. The couple has not been identified in the Oakland city directory after 1934, although Frederick is said to have continued to own his restaurant in Oakland as late as the time of the San Francisco World's Fair in 1939.
Frederick is reported to have lived in downtown San Francisco before World War II, and in the Sunset District during the war. During this period he is said to have been a hotel clerk.
About 1945 Frederick and his wife moved to Millbrae, San Mateo County, California, where they spent their remaining years together. They first appear in the city directory of the year 1946. From that year through Frederick's death they lived in a house at 835 Chadbourne Avenue, Millbrae, as Mr. and Mrs. Harry E. Gray. Frederick's occupation was given as government employee in 1946, and as tobacco salesman in 1953 and 1954. In 1960 he was employed as a clerk at the Commercial Club in San Francisco.
In June, 1960 he suffered a heart attack while he and his wife were camping in Big Basin, Santa Cruz County, California. He was taken to Menlo Park Veteran's Hospital and died there June 29, 1960. Funeral services were held July 1, 1960 at 1 P.M. from Chapel of the Highlands, Millbrae. Interment was on the same date at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California, in section 2b, site 1546. His grave bears a marker with the following inscription:
From Jan. 24, 2006 revision.
Posted Apr. 7, 2004.
Updated Apr. 17, Sep. 23, 24, Oct. 13, Nov. 15, 2004, Jan. 24, 2006.