A look at a typical early 20th Century American life. Michael B. Ellis.
Ellis is an Irish last name, and Michael B. Ellis is certainly a very Irish name. We can presume that his St. Louis parents were of Irish extraction and perhaps were Irish. They were undoubtedly Catholic.
He was born on October 28, 1894. His mother died while he was still an infant. His father was so poor that he couldn't provide for his motherless son. He was accordingly adopted by another Catholic family, the Moczdlowskis, who were Polish. That's how it was done at that time in that demographic. Catholic families took in and adopted orphans and poor children. Irish children became French children. German children became Italian children. And in this case, an Irish child became Polish.
He went to St. Laurence O'Toole school in East St. Louis until he was twelve years old, at which time he went to work in his adoptive father's printing shop. At age sixteen, of February 8, 1912, he joined the Army and became an infantryman, signing up for three years.
He served on the Mexican border prior to World War One. When his hitch was up, he took an Honorable Discharge. Six months later he reenlisted. As an experienced soldier he went to France with the 1st Division and received the Silver Star. He rose to corporal in April and sergeant in March.
On October 5, 1918, as we saw the other day, he singlehandedly took out eleven German machine gun positions and captured a large number of German soldiers. For this action, he was awarded with the Medal of Honor, his citation reading:
During the entire day's engagement Sergeant Ellis operated far in advance of the first wave of his company, voluntarily undertaking most dangerous missions and single-handedly attacking and reducing machinegun nests. Flanking one emplacement, he killed two of the enemy with rifle fire and captured 17 others. Later he single-handedly advanced under heavy fire and captured 27 prisoners, including two officers and six machineguns, which had been holding up the advance of the company. The captured officers indicated the locations of four other machineguns, and he in turn captured these, together with their crews, at all times showing marked heroism and fearlessness.
His advance in the service continued and he was promoted to First Sergeant. He left the Army after this second hitch was up and the war over.
Following the war, in the economic downturn, he couldn't find work. President Coolidge learned of this and arranged for him to have a position in the Post Office of his native St. Louis. In 1921 he met a Polish girl who had been a childhood playmate and they married in 1923, at which time he would have been 29 years old.
He died in 1937 of pneumonia and was buried at Arlington. He was 43 years old.
A sad life?
Probably not as much as it might seem. More likely, a fairly typical one for the era, but one of a heroic man in more than one way.
