We happily received correspondence from Jim Hamilton, a relative of Dallas D. Hamilton. Jim recounts:
"This is my granduncle. We have a framed tribute in our home to him. He was originally buried in France, exhumed, then returned to Defiance.
I have so many letters between Dallas and his sister, Edna, who was a school teacher in the Fourth Ward School.
He had eight siblings. His brother, Edward started the Hamilton Dairy. His brother, John, was also a soldier in World War I, but returned safely to Defiance.
By the way, his mother's blood line goes to the pilgrims from the Winthrop Fleet/ Massachusetts Bay Colony. Relatives for him included John Hancock and John Greenleaf Whittier. A very rich heritage, indeed."
Dallas' sister,
Edna, commissioned one of the stained glass windows in what would have been the Brethren Church in Defiance in memory of Aerodyne Hamilton.
Aerodyne was the mother of Edna and Dallas.
Jim has been in this church and was moved, just thinking about his earliest family worshipping there.
Jim goes on to say:
"He (Dallas) and his sister, Edna, were very close. They co-owned a house on Hopkins Street. My first five years of life were spent in this house. I also believe Ralph and Karen Hahn lived in that house. Karen is my cousin.
Edna was very shaken by her brother's death. She was instrumental in his body being returned to Defiance. She became mentally unstable after this occurred. So bad thet she was admitted to the Toledo Mental Hospital. I have letters she wrote to her dad and mom, stating her struggles.
His mother died a couple years after this occurred. She was a woman of great faith. That was translated into Dallas as well as Edna.
I have written about a thousand-page documentation of our family history. It's in three separate volumes. I inherited all of the Hamilton family history. Edna had a signifiant amount of information. My aunt Eleanor got me hooked on genealogy. She did outstanding research. I still use some of her information. There were times when I developed this I actually wept; it was so moving."
This is a picture of the cover of one volume written by Jim Hamilton of about 500 pages. He said it was "the good, the bad, the ugly of the Hamilton family."
To update on other members of the family, Jim added that there was a connection to Flint, Michigan.
"My grandfather, Edward, another cousin, Grover English, and Dallas' brother, John F. Hamilton III also moved to Flint. John was a welder, a trade he learned at American Steel Package Co. in Defiance. John, Grover and Dallas went to war...Edward returned to Defiance to start the Hamilton Dairy."
Jim sent photos of interest to Dallas' life and death, shown below.
Guest Blogger - Jim Hamilton
Thank you so much for helping to fill in Dallas' story.
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