Joseph Harlon Anderson (1914 - 1990)

Born 11 Mar 1914 in Oxford, Chester, Pennsylvania, USA

Ancestors

Joe was a great guy around kids. As a salesman, he always had plenty of good jokes to tell. He enjoyed my visits and took me fishing at the Loch Raven Dam, north of Towson, Md. Joe was a very accomplished pianist and could play both Classical and Jazz. He was a serious Jazz musician and often times went into the black nightclubs in Baltimore to play his own improvised music. He was respected by the blacks there and never had a problem with them at a time when this was not normally accepted. Joe gave me a Chemistry book of his. He was in the Army in India (possibly Pakistan) during World War II. He related a story about a problem of thefts perpetrated by some of the locals there. He stated that one of men in his encampment took a dufflebag, stuffed it with clothes and twelve sticks of dynamite connected to a timer. This dangerous trick was executed one night by leaving the bag in an moderately accessible area and letting it dissappear. The result was a heavy concussion off in the distance. There were no more thefts. Joe enjoyed telling his stories over a bottle of bourbon.

Joe was born and raised in Oxford, Pa. His father Ephraim "Eph" worked for the Post Office. Joe was a very bright and talented young man. As a young high school student, he aspired to get an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Joe encouraged me, as a boy, to try to get an appointment into this venerable institution. He had a real talent for math and enjoyed the sciences. Joe also had a gift of musical talent in the piano. Joe had a great sense of humor and greatly enjoyed being a "party animal". To his great disappointment, he did not go to Annapolis and spent a year at the University of Pennsylvania, possibly in a curriculum leading to a Pharmacy degree. I have his violet lab book from his introductory chemistry course. His partying terminated his term at U. of P. Shortly after this, Pearl Harbor was bombed and he entered the Army and eventually ended up in a quiet area of the war in British India.

Joe had a piano with him when I used to visit. He enjoyed sitting down in the evenings and playing it. He played all kinds of music, classical, "boogie-woogie", big band sound and above all jazz. He sold insurance in the black neighborhoods of Baltimore during the early '50s and got to know many of the people associated with the music scene there. He was invited to play in their clubs with his improvised style of jazz and was respected by the blacks for his talent. He said that they would many times invite him to stay for a chicken dinner. He also took his big boxer dog "Baron" with him when he worked in the black ghettos of that period. He left the car doors unlocked and the windows open with the dog sitting patiently in the back. Joe never had anyone bother his car.

Joe was a great salesman and a great story teller and knew a vast number of jokes that he used to use to keep family gatherings in a great uproar of laughter. He almost always had a beer in his hand or by his side either while he was telling jokes or playing the piano. Everyone loved to be around Joe. He told me a story about when he visited Oxford after the War. There was another boxer dog that lived near my Grandparents house named "Max". Joe enjoyed taking Max with him around town, which often ment trips to the bar in the Oxford Hotel. One particularly hot day, some of the patrons felt sorry for Max and decided to buy him a cold beer. According to Joe, the dog at first turned his nose up at the offering, but then started lapping it up. After the first bowl was gone, he begged for more - and got it. By this time, Max was providing entertainment as he attempted to walk between the chairs and tables and stools and careened through the establishment. All this was accompanied by howls of laughter from the mob. Finally Max collapsed, completely drunk, he just was not capable of "holding his liquor". Joe gently picked up Max, put him over his shoulders and walked back through the center of town, with the unconscious animal staring blankly, back home to sleep it off.

Joe married Bea Devon possibly upon returning from his overseas military service. They moved to Baltimore, MD. where Bea had worked in the Pennsylvania Railroad Station as a ticket agent. While they never had any children of their own, they both greatly enjoyed visiting and being visited by their Devon nephews. Early in their marriage, they moved to Towson, MD. Joe was a natural salesman and sold mostly life insurance and cars which he had several different jobs of in the Towson area and in Baltimore. They lived at Park St. in Towson in the early to mid 1950's on the second floor of an older style "air frame" type house. To get to their apartment, one had to knock on the front door of the landlord Jack's first floor residence and then walk up the steps to Joe and Bea's. They later moved to a large first floor apartment from a converted old federal style brick home on Joppa Rd. about two blocks from the Park St. residence. The big Joppa Rd. home had large grounds with big trees and a spacious view to the north into Dulany Valley. They later moved to their own home in nearby Riderwood, MD and finally to, their last residence, a condominium in Timonium, MD. Both Bea and Joe are buried in the Timonium area.^[1]

Joseph enlisted in the Army and served from 9 Apr 1943 to 6 Dec 1945^[2]

He died at the age of 76 ^[3] and is buried alongside Bea in the Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens, Timonium. Baltimore County, Maryland, USA

Census

1920 Oxford, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States^[4]

1930 Oxford, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States^[5]

1940 Oxford Borough, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ devonchem Ancestery ID
2. ↑ "United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KMJ1-F34 : accessed 2 June 2015), Joseph H Anderson, enlisted 02 Apr 1943, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; citing "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938-1946," database, The National Archives: Access to Archival Databases (AAD) (http://aad.archives.gov : National Archives and Records Administration, 2002); NARA NAID 126323, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
3. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J1HC-C35 : accessed 2 June 2015), Joseph H Anderson, 08 Apr 1990; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
4. ↑ "United States Census, 1920," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFRF-PHQ : accessed 2 June 2015), Joseph H Anderson in household of Ephraim L Anderson, Oxford, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States; citing sheet 9A, family 216, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,821,550.
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHDW-QBQ : accessed 2 June 2015), Joseph Anderson in household of Ephraim Anderson, Oxford, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 0055, sheet 5A, family 125, line 24, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2020; FHL microfilm 2,341,754.
6. ↑ "United States Census, 1940," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ82-NW6 : accessed 2 June 2015), Beatrice Anderson in household of Joseph L Devon, Oxford Borough, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 15-59, sheet 7B, family 165, NARA digital publication T627 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), roll 3465.