The Oak men who served, from Marlborough's garrisons to the Cold War

62 veterans · 1692 to 1979 · 28 Confirmed, 34 Likely · Both lines: Veterans of the family

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On April 19, 1775, word reached the towns west of Boston that British troops had marched on Lexington and Concord. Four men who were probably grandsons of Nathaniel Oak, the cabin boy who had settled at Marlborough nearly a century before, set out that day or the next. Seth Oak went as a sergeant with the Winchendon company. Nathaniel and Beriah Oak marched with the Bolton companies, and Sylvanus Oak went from Rutland to Cambridge.

They were not the first of the family to be called out, and they were far from the last. The family's service runs from a Marlborough garrison list of March 1691/2 to a Chaparral missile crewman in 1977, and a second part follows the men of the families the Oaks married into.

Most of these men appear on rolls that give a name and a town but no parents, so many of the family links below are probable rather than proved. Where a regiment's battles are named, they show where the unit was, not that a particular man fought there. Living relatives appear only through public records. The Clarkson family's service, including the Fairfield militia officers of the same era and town (shared in time and place, not in ancestry), is on Clarkson-line military service.

Before 1755: the garrison years

In the 1690s, Marlborough was a frontier town in a long war with the French and their Native allies, and its families were assigned to fortified houses, called garrisons, for safety. On March 18, 1691/2, a garrison list recorded eight men under Lieutenant Abraham Williams, six of them by name: "Lieut. Abraham Williams, Richard Barns, Nathaniel Oak, Alexander Stewart, Thomas Bemon, Bartle. Cozley" (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 43, October 1889, p. 372). This is probably the family's settler. The list gives only his name, and the place and date fit, but it offers nothing more to tell one Nathaniel Oak from another.

Charles Hudson's History of the Town of Marlborough (1862, pp. 109–110) prints a second, undated list, from "about this time," assigning the town's households to twenty-six garrisons. "Nathaniel Oakes" is at Samuel Goodnow's garrison, no. 12, with Jonathan Forbush and Gershom Fay. Rice families were placed at three other garrisons (nos. 17, 19 and 20) and Adam Holloway at Simon Maynard's (no. 23). It is a plan for sheltering families, not a muster for a fight, and it is again probably the same Nathaniel.

Two other names are leads that we haven't been able to tie to anyone in the tree. A Massachusetts list of four men killed at the Great Swamp Fight in Rhode Island on December 19, 1675 includes "George Howard of Concord," whom the book's footnote cross-references to Hayward; the same page lists a George Hayward among the men impressed "From Concord" (George Madison Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip's War, 1906, pp. 171–172). Mary Holloway's mother was Hannah Hayward, born in 1647, but the tree's George Hayward died in 1671, four years before the fight. Whether the slain man belonged to Hannah's family, the record doesn't say. And a John Butler of Westborough went to Crown Point in 1755 in Captain John Fay's company, under Colonel Josiah Brown (Heman Packard De Forest, History of Westborough, 1891, pp. 146–147). The tree holds four John Butlers of that time and place, and nothing on the roll tells which one he was.

Crown Point, 1755

In September 1755, Massachusetts raised a new regiment of foot to reinforce the army under Major General Johnson, "Destined for Crown Point," the French fort on Lake Champlain. On September 15, Seth Oak signed the enlistment roll, one of a group who "Volentareley Inlisted" as private soldiers (Henry S. Nourse, Military Annals of Lancaster, 1889, p. 34). The roll was found among the papers of Colonel Oliver Wilder, but it names no colonel or company for the new force and doesn't say which company Seth joined, or give his age, home or parents. Nourse adds that the Lancaster-area men on it served in Colonel Josiah Brown's regiment and in other companies whose muster rolls are in the Massachusetts Archives. The 1906 Family Register says Seth served in "Col. Oliver Wilder's regiment of horse"; the roll doesn't show it, and it stands as family tradition, not a record.

The signer is probably the Seth Oak of the family tree, born at Westborough in 1733, who married Elizabeth Shevally at Bolton, where Nathaniel Oak Jr. lived. The surname, the date and the Bolton and Lancaster setting all fit, but no record names Seth's parents. His life is told in Seth Oak of Winchendon and Athens.

The Family Register remembers more of the family in the French wars than any roll yet found. It says the immigrant's son George was "mustered into service September 25, 1755, for the Crown Point expedition; enlisting again April 2, 1759; and serving as ensign 1762 in Captain Jonathan Fay's company." William Oak of Bolton and Winchendon, a grandson, "from April 7, 1759, sending his family to Bolton, served 10 months and 28 days against the French and Indians in the company of Capt. Samuel Clark, Col. Ruggles," and William's brother Seth "in 1759-60 also served in the army, his family meanwhile living in Harvard." None of these enlistments has turned up on a roll. One figure may have strayed from another record: a William Okes served exactly "10 mos. 28 days" in Captain Timothy Ruggles's company of guards at Rutland in 1781 (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 11, p. 627). The register's William had died in 1774.

A tradition older than the rolls

The family's best-known war story is the one no record has yet tested. According to the Family Register (1906, p. 12), Jonathan Oaks, probably the immigrant's son born in 1717, served with Wolfe at Quebec in 1759 and made Wolfe's coffin. Nothing we have seen confirms or contradicts it; it remains family tradition, and it is not counted as service.

The Revolution, 1775–1782

The alarm

Seth Oak marched as a sergeant in Moses Hale's company from Winchendon. By autumn he was in Abel Wilder's company of Ephraim Doolittle's regiment, in the siege camps around Boston; a return from Winter Hill dated October 6, 1775 calls him quartermaster sergeant (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. XI, p. 598).

Nathaniel Oak, a grandson through John Oak, marched with Captain Benjamin Hastings's Bolton company. Hastings was probably the father of Nathaniel's wife, Susanna; his own record is in the second part of this page. More than fifty years later, Nathaniel described the march himself. In his pension declaration, sworn at Chelsea, Vermont, in 1832, he said the company reached Cambridge on April 20 and stood guard and did fatigue duty there. The alarm roll gives him eighteen days, while he remembered about six weeks. In 1776 he served again, under Captain William Humphrey in Colonel Wingate's New Hampshire regiment, at Mount Independence on Lake Champlain, and helped cut a road toward Hubbardton. He dated that service from June into November, while the regiment's history says it was raised in July and August. He is probably the Nathaniel Oak born in 1751.

His recorded rank was private. At Chelsea he was later called Captain, but no commission has been found and no one recorded why. His life is told in Nathaniel Oak of Chelsea.

Two more grandsons marched that week. "Oak, Beriah, Bolton," the son of Nathaniel Oake Jr., was a private in Captain Robert Longley's company of Colonel Asa Whitcomb's regiment and served ten days (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 11, p. 597). The register adds that "he also served later, before June 26, and may have been at Bunker Hill"; no roll shows it. "Oak, Sylvanus, Princeton (probably)" was a sergeant in Captain Joseph Sargent's company, which marched to Cambridge on April 20 and returned on May 1 (p. 598). He is probably George Oak's son Sylvanus. According to the register, Sylvanus had bought a fulling mill and clothier's shop at Princeton in 1771 and "served 12 days, from April 20, 1775, at the Lexington alarm, in the company of Captain Sargent, marching from Rutland to Cambridge."

Captain Oaks of Winchendon

Pension files point to a Captain Seth Oaks at Winchendon in 1777. Thomas Atherton's pension declaration names him directly, and Stephen Boynton's file names the same captain in the same year. Calvin Oak's widow, Lucretia, named the captain and his lieutenant, Luther Graves, and remembered that Calvin was living at Winchendon when that service began. Zebedee Symonds's file names a captain of that name at about the same time, without giving a town. On May 22, 1777, Winchendon's town meeting "Voted to allow £18 to each man who went with Capt. Oaks." In March 1778 the town accepted a committee report about "them men that went with Lt. Parmenter and Capt. Oaks" (History of Winchendon, pp. 92–95). The town records give no first name, but taken with the pension files they point to Seth as the likely captain.

Seth may also have commanded a company of artificers, the skilled workmen who built and repaired for the army. A War Department letter of May 8, 1916 identifies a Captain Seth Oaks as commander of a Company of Artificers of the Continental Troops, citing a muster roll of September 7, 1777, and one of that company's men, James Dutton, is said to have served at Brandywine. No single record yet joins the Winchendon captain and the artificer company, so the question stays open. In September 1782, Vermont rolls list Seth marching in support of the sheriff (Goodrich, Vermont Rolls, pp. 609–611, 807–808). A fifth file, Beaman's (S.30266), hasn't been read because its passage image is unavailable, and Nathaniel's own pension account doesn't name Seth as his captain. The full account is in Seth Oak of Winchendon and Athens.

Calvin Oak, probably Seth's son, was probably in the same two companies that year, Hale's and Wilder's.

The long war

For some of the family, the war became years of service. John Oaks of Harvard, probably Captain Jonathan Oaks's son and later of Exeter, Maine, enlisted for a year about January 1776 in Colonel Prescott's regiment, then for three years in Colonel John Bailey's. The Massachusetts rolls credit "Oaks, John, Harvard (also given Littleton)" with Continental service from March 1, 1777 to December 31, 1779 (vol. 11). His own account, and his widow's long effort to prove their marriage, are on John Oaks of Exeter.

A Calvin Oak and a Nathaniel Oak served together as privates in Captain Jotham Houghton's company of Colonel Josiah Whitney's regiment in Rhode Island from July 31 to September 14, 1778, on a roll dated at Petersham. A Nathaniel Oak was also at the Rutland barracks for twelve days that July in Captain Josiah Wilder's company (roll dated Templeton), and at Claverack, New York, from October to December 1779, under Houghton again; and an "Oakes, Nathaniel, Winchendon" enlisted on June 30, 1778 for six months in Captain Benjamin Edgell's company of Colonel John Jacobs's regiment (vol. 11, pp. 597 and 601). On July 13, 1780, a Nathaniel Oak of Bolton, "age 18," enlisted at Springfield as one of Bolton's six-months men; he marched July 10 and was discharged December 16. These records fit Seth's sons, though the rolls name no parents. The Bolton man of 1780 is probably Seth's son Nathaniel, later of Athens, Vermont, whose widow's pension file is W.25398 (Seth Oak of Winchendon and Athens).

A Calvin Oak was mustered on July 30, 1779, engaged for Leominster, in Captain Boutwell's company of Colonel Rand's regiment, with a bounty order of August 18, 1780 for nine months' service (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. XI, p. 597). Page 603 has a Calvin Oaks, aged 20, engaged for Leominster on July 29, 1779 (spelled "Boutell" there), and serving in Captain Warner's company of the 10th Massachusetts from July 28, 1779 to April 28, 1780. The two entries may describe one term in two stages, or the same service recorded twice. Years later Lucretia remembered only that he served nine months under "Capt. Taylor or Warner," and could not recall the dates, which is probably the same term.

A George Oak is probably the man named in Captain David Bent's company for the Bennington alarm of August 20, 1777; the roll's eleven days were a travel allowance for the round trip. Bennington also has a place in family tradition. He is probably George, son of Nathaniel Oak and Mary Holloway, born about 1720, and so a son of the immigrant, which would make him about fifty-seven. The match depends on there being only one George Oak in Rutland between 1775 and 1786, and no record gives his age. Reed's History of Rutland (p. 177) lists a George Oak among the town's alarm men of 1775, not among its minute-men. The register's account of his French-war service and of "a company of Rutland minute men at the Lexington alarm, 1775" cites no rolls and stays unconfirmed. Rutland's school-district report of May 8, 1780 does list "Ens. George Oaks" as a head of family (Reed, pp. 63–64), which fits the rank. His life is told in George Oak of Westborough and Rutland.

The register names others of the Revolutionary generation. Captain Jonathan's grandson Jonathan Sampson of Ashburnham, born at Middleborough in 1759, was "a Revolutionary soldier, serving 5 or 6 enlistments," and his brother Abraham, a blacksmith at Westminster, was also "a Revolutionary soldier" (register, p. 59). The Massachusetts rolls have Ashburnham men of these names: "Sampson, Jonathan, Ashburnham," a private in Captain John White's company in 1778; "Samson, Jonathan, Ashburnham," at Dorchester Heights in Captain Manasseh Sawyer's company; and "Samson, Abraham, Ashburnham," a private in Captain William Henry's company in 1779, whose entry adds, "Name appears as David Sampson on a duplicate roll" (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vol. 13, pp. 760, 765, 771). With only names and a town to go on, these are probably the register's two brothers. Harvard's birth records enter "Jonathan, son of Jonathan and Mary (Oak) Sampson, May 7, 1759." The same page also lists a Jonathan Sanderson born the same day to parents with the same first names, so one entry may be a copying slip (Henry S. Nourse, History of the Town of Harvard, 1894, p. 563).

Ebenezer Conant of Ashburnham married Captain Jonathan's daughter Lydia. He was the father of the John Conant who wrote down the cabin-boy story, and a lieutenant in the Ashburnham company at the Lexington alarm. The DAR's lineage book calls him adjutant, and his record shows a nine-month enlistment in Colonel Shepard's 4th regiment in 1779–80.

Joseph Fay, a son of the immigrant's daughter Hannah (Oak) Fay, born at Westborough in 1738, died of a wound received at Saratoga. By a 1910 family account, he was a sergeant in Colonel Bedel's New Hampshire regiment in February 1776 and, from November 8, 1776, an ensign in Captain John Gregg's company of the 3rd New Hampshire. Wounded in the thigh at the second battle of Stillwater, or Bemis Heights, he was taken to the hospital at Albany, where his leg was amputated; one night a ligature slipped, and he bled to death on November 2, 1777 (William Richard Cutter, Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts, 1910, p. 1365; Fay Genealogy, 1898, p. 334). New Hampshire's printed rolls list "Joseph Fay, Ensign," of Walpole, where he had moved, among the officers of Captain Gregg's company in Colonel Alexander Scammell's regiment, the 3rd New Hampshire (Rolls of the Soldiers in the Revolutionary War, vol. I, in New Hampshire State Papers, vol. XIV, 1885, p. 644). The Civil War musician Orlin P. Fay was his great-grandson.

William Oak's son Joel Oaks, born at Winchendon in 1767, "went to Ohio in 1787 and took an active part in the various Indian wars, his services as scout being especially valued," according to the register. He was with General Putnam's 1787–88 expedition to the Muskingum, where Marietta was founded, and at "Farmers' Castle" in 1792 (p. 27).

Between the wars, Captain Nathaniel Oak's son Benjamin Hastings Oak served "as musician in the United States army for a year or two, in 1799 being in the Second Regiment of Heavy Artillery, stationed at New London, Conn." That is how his family's 1903 sketch puts it; the register calls the unit the Second Regiment of Artillerists and Engineers.

The War of 1812

In 1814 the fighting reached Maine. The register names five men of the family in this war, none yet found on a roll. When the British took Bangor that year, it says, John Oaks of Exeter and his son John were both made prisoners of war (p. 36). An eyewitness to the fight at Hampden, just before Bangor fell, remembered that "one Oakes, who had been taken by the British, on attempting to escape when the action began, was shot down by them" (History of Penobscot County, 1882, p. 567). He gives no first name and doesn't say whether the man lived, so we can't say which Oakes it was.

The other three: Electrius Oaks, a son of John Oaks of Exeter, "was a veteran of the War of 1812"; later, "when the line was run between the U. S. and Canada his farm proved to be on the Canadian side" (p. 37). Two sons-in-law of Daniel Oaks of Wiscasset went to sea. Captain John Christie, an Englishman of Boston, was a "privateer in War of 1812, who died in Dartmoor prison, England, 1813." John Young of the U.S. Navy "lost both arms in a battle on the lakes" (p. 38).

The Civil War

Valentine Oakes, killed at Gaines' Mill

Valentine B. Oakes of Sangerville, Maine, had been a teacher and a lawyer before he was a soldier. He was a son of Colonel William Oakes and Mary Weymouth and a great-grandson of Captain Jonathan Oak. After Dartmouth (class of 1853), he "taught the Acad. at Warren, Me, from 1853 to 1854; read law with his brother, A. P. Oakes, of Waldoborough, Me; began practice at Damariscotta, Me; left in Mar. 1859; went to Minnesota; enlisted in the 12th U. S. Inf. Dec. 23, 1861, and fell the victim of rebellion. He did not marry" (George T. Chapman, Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College, 1867, p. 402). Dartmouth's general catalogue gives the outline: "Oakes, Valentine B. b. 4 Dec., 1828, Sangerville, Me. Lawyer. d. 27 June, 1862, in Battle of Gaines Mill, near Richmond, Va." The 1906 register places him among the eight children of Col. William Oakes of Sangerville (1795–1873). A handwritten list of deceased soldiers, its source unidentified, enters "Sergt. Valentine B. Oakes, Killed at Gaines Mills," on the 27th. Historical Data Systems' compiled soldier records name "Valintine B Oakes," a sergeant in Company B of the 12th U.S. Infantry (Ancestry, U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, from the American Civil War Research Database). The Army's Register of Enlistments indexes "Valentine B Oakes," born in Maine, aged 29 when he enlisted, about four years younger than Dartmouth's 1828 (Ancestry, U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914, from National Archives microfilm). A family account, which we know only at second hand, says he taught at Foxcroft Academy; he may have taught at both.

Colonel Douty at Aldie

Calvin Sanger Douty of Dover, Maine, a son of Lucy (Oak) Douty and so a grandson of Captain Jonathan, was sheriff of Piscataquis County when the war began. The register calls him "Deputy Sheriff and twice Sheriff"; the regiment's history says he had "thrice been elected" and was in the first year of his third term (p. 451). In 1861 he raised a company. The regiment's roster gives his record: "Sheriff; aged 48; res. Dover; com. major Oct. 5, '61," lieutenant colonel May 9, 1862, and colonel March 26, 1863. He led the regiment at Fredericksburg and Brandy Station. On June 17, 1863, he "was killed while leading the regt. in a charge at Aldie, Va." (Edward P. Tobie, History of the First Maine Cavalry, 1887, p. 451). The Family Register adds that "in a month was to have been Brigadier General" (p. 53), a claim made only by the register. His body, "pierced with two bullets," was sent home (Tobie, p. 160), and on June 28 about four thousand people saw him buried at Dover with Masonic rites (Ruel H. Stanley and George O. Hall, Eastern Maine and the Rebellion, 1887, pp. 266–267). His marble monument in Dover Cemetery calls him "Colonel 1st Maine Cavalry U.S. Volunteers," killed "at the head of his Regiment," and gives his age as 50, where Tobie's roster says 48. His brother Oaksman Douty, a militia colonel, had died in 1844 "from a fall from his horse at a muster."

A surgeon, a recruiter and a musician

Two more of Captain Jonathan's grandsons served. Dr. Thomas Fletcher Oakes, a son of Daniel Oaks of Wiscasset, was "a skilful physician, serving in the war as assistant surgeon, First Massachusetts Volunteers, from July 29, 1862; and surgeon Fifty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteers, 1863-5; also acting as Brigade surgeon" (register, p. 39). The state's roster carries both commissions. "Thomas Fletcher Oakes," of South Dartmouth, was assistant surgeon of the 1st Massachusetts from July 29, 1862, discharged August 10, 1863 "to accept commission in 56th Mass. Inf."; "T. Fletcher Oakes," of Dartmouth, aged 42, was surgeon of the 56th from July 31, 1863 until he mustered out on July 12, 1865 (Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, vol. 1, p. 2; vol. 4, p. 764). After the war he moved to Pennsylvania. He was living at Titusville when he died in 1876, having "suffered much from dyspepsia, and died poor."

Lebbeus Oak of Garland, Maine, a grandson of Captain Nathaniel Oak of Chelsea, served at home. When the legislature formed the State Guards in 1863, "Lebbens Oak, of Garland," became major of the First Regiment (History of Penobscot County, 1882, p. 102). His son Henry wrote in 1903 that, as captain of the town militia and then major, he "did more than any other person toward raising the Garland quota of recruits for service in the Civil War." His family is on Benjamin Hastings Oak.

Orlin P. Fay, a descendant of the immigrant's daughter Hannah (Oak) Fay, went to war as a musician. A descendant of Hannah "in the fourth generation," he was born at Prattsburgh, Steuben County, New York, on September 13, 1820, and on April 19, 1851 married Laura Bridges, who was born at Williamstown, Massachusetts. "Dec. 24, '61, he enlisted in Company E, 101st N. Y. Vol. Inf.—was mustered in as a musician, playing the part of solo alto. Owing to sickness he was discharged for disability June 12, 1862." He later made shovel handles for Oliver Ames & Sons at Vermontville, Michigan, and "obtained a pension which brightened his later days." Both their sons "died before reaching manhood"; he died on January 10, 1904, and his widow survived him. He was also the Fay family's genealogist: by 1896 he had gathered 7,000 names, "doubtless including most of Hannah's descendants" (register, page 10, text and footnote). The register doesn't trace his line from Hannah. His own genealogy does: Hannah's son Joseph Fay, Joseph's son Levi, and Levi's son Orlando Prentice Fay, Orlin's father (Fay Genealogy, 1898). Orlin Prentice Fay and those three generations are now in the family tree.

The war with Spain, 1898

In May 1898, two brothers from Presque Isle, Maine, enlisted in the First Maine Volunteer Infantry. They were sons of James Hastings Oak and grandsons of Lyndon Oak of Garland. Lynden J. Oak, 24 and single, enlisted on May 10 and went into Company H as a private. His brother, 20, enlisted two days later and went into Company K, rising to corporal. The state's record lists him as "Charles W.," but he is Walter Charles Oak, born in 1878, with his given names reversed: his age, his town and the family's 1903 sketch all point to him (Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Maine for the Year Ending December 31, 1898, in Public Documents of Maine, 1902, vol. I).

World War I

Ernest Linwood Oak of Gardiner, Maine, was inducted at Waterville on July 25, 1918 and assigned to Company A, 73rd Infantry, part of the 12th Division, then forming at Camp Devens. He was made corporal on November 20, nine days after the Armistice, and discharged on January 17, 1919; the Maine roster notes no service overseas. His headstone and the Veterans Administration index agree. The roster's index gives his birth month as January, where his draft card, the VA index and his headstone say June.

Donald P. Oak, a son of Charles Edson Oak, was born at Caribou, Maine, in 1889. He was living at Bangor, by Maine's roster, when the Army inducted him at Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 6, 1918. He served as a private in Company B of the 1st Replacement Regiment of Engineers at Washington Barracks and was honorably discharged on November 30, 1918, nineteen days after the Armistice (Roster of Maine in the Military Service ... World War, 1917-1919, vol. II, p. 45).

World War II

Wendell Merle Oak served in the Navy from 1944 to the end of the war. In January 1944, an "OAK, Allan Eugene," seaman first class, who had enlisted at Portland, Maine, on October 20, 1943, was at the Navy's radio materiel school at the University of Houston (National Archives, Navy muster rolls). The roll gives no birth date or family detail, so that he is the family's Allan is probable, not proved.

Korea and the Cold War

According to his public tribute, Ivan Oak was at Camp Rucker, Alabama, in 1951 with Battery A, 188th Field Artillery Battalion, 47th Division, a division that trained replacements for Korea, and by December 1953 in Alaska with Battery B, 274th Armored Field Artillery Battalion.

Richard Dixon Oak Sr. served from June 17, 1977 to February 21, 1979, as a specialist 4 and Chaparral senior missile crewman. See Richard Oak Sr..

Relatives by marriage and other family lines

The men below came from the families the Oaks married into, or from other lines gathered with them. They aren't descendants of Nathaniel Oak, so their service is told separately, in the order of their records.

Militia captains and the Crown Point expedition

In 1756, the Connecticut General Assembly made "Mr. John Ford" lieutenant of the west company of Milford (Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. 10, p. 499), and his gravestone names him as that lieutenant. The "Mr. John Ford" made ensign of the same company in 1754 (p. 313) may be he or his son. It was a local militia duty, and no battle service is recorded for him.

A printed transcription of a roll probably places Samuel Corson among Shadrach Walton's New Hampshire men, billeted by the commissary Samuel Penhallow from July 21 to November 8; the roll gives no year, and its editor dated it to 1710 (New Hampshire State Papers, vol. XIV, pp. 2-3). Walton led New Hampshire troops on the successful expedition against Port Royal in 1710 (Potter, Military History of New-Hampshire, pp. 32–36).

Benjamin Hastings of Bolton, Susanna Hastings's father, was probably the provincial captain of that name and town. Nourse lists a Captain Benjamin Hastings of Bolton in Willard's regiment on the 1759 Crown Point expedition (Military Annals of Lancaster, pp. 77–78). That September, Lemuel Wood's journal records a captain named Hastens who refused to work without pay. His entry for September 15 begins a court-martial, and continues on the next page with the verdict: guilty, dismissed "with Disgrace." That the captain was Benjamin is probable, not certain. Sixteen years later, Hastings commanded Bolton's minute company in the alarm of April 1775. His story is told in Benjamin Hastings of Bolton.

The Revolution and the militia beyond New England

Joseph Chandler III served in Colonel Isaac Wyman's New Hampshire regiment and died at Mount Independence on September 17, 1776. Nathaniel Oak worked at the same northern camp that year; nothing shows the two men knew each other.

Abraham Moulton was probably the Duplin County, North Carolina militia officer recorded as captain, major and commandant; the name and the county match.

William Russell came to Farmington, Maine, in 1800 and "commanded the West Company of Infantry for several years," according to the town's history, which gives no dates (Francis Gould Butler, A History of Farmington, Franklin County, Maine, 1885, p. 565).

Maine and Confederate service in the Civil War

Joseph Oliver Evans was a twenty-year-old cooper from Somerville, Maine, when he enlisted: single, six feet tall, with a dark complexion, gray eyes and black hair (Maine State Archives, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Card Index). He served in Company I of the 3rd Maine Infantry from June 4, 1861 until his disability discharge on December 26, 1862, while the regiment fought at First Bull Run, Seven Pines and Fredericksburg; his enlistment ended before Gettysburg.

According to an account written by his great-grandson Ivan Oak, Evans was badly wounded at Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) on June 1, 1862, and when he couldn't answer roll call he was listed as a deserter, a mistake later corrected. He was carried by hospital ship to New York. A Maine state agent's list of Maine soldiers in hospitals in and near New York City at the end of October 1862 has "J. Evans," 3rd Regiment, of Somerville, at the Bedloe's Island hospital from October 20, "Wounded in Shoulder" (Frank E. Howe, report to October 31, 1862, Maine State Archives). The Adjutant General's report dates his discharge December 26, 1862 (Maine Adjutant General's report for 1863, p. 151), and he filed his own invalid pension claim on March 27, 1863 (Civil War Pension Index, NARA/Ancestry collection 4654).

He married Elizabeth Place at Somerville on December 7, 1863, and the 1870 census finds them at Palermo with three daughters, Etta, Clara and Susan. Ivan's note gives them five children. Elizabeth died in 1874, weeks after their youngest, Lizzie, was born, and Joseph died at Somerville on June 1, 1875, seven months later (Maine, Deaths and Burials, 1841–1910, FamilySearch index). On November 1, 1875, a guardian filed a "Minor" pension claim for the children. The pension file, which would name them and the guardian, is still to be obtained. In 1972, a survey of Somerville's burial grounds found his stone, "J. O. Evans," Co. I, 3rd Maine Infantry, with a U.S. flag, in the small Evans-Place lot north of Somerville Four Corners (Maine Old Cemetery Association record, at Find a Grave, memorial 315175147).

Joseph M. York of St. Albans, Maine, mustered as a private in Company B of the 30th Maine on December 18, 1863 (Adjutant General's report, p. 825). The regiment fought in Louisiana that spring. The 1890 Veterans Schedule for Skowhegan gives his enlistment as October 20, 1863 and his discharge as April 20, 1864. In 1860 he and his wife, Lovina, were living at St. Albans, as the family tree has them.

Jeremiah Holloway probably served on the other side. A Jeremiah Holloway enlisted at Aberdeen, Mississippi, in April 1862 in Company C of the 43rd Mississippi Infantry, part of the garrison at Vicksburg, and was paroled on July 7, 1863, three days after the city surrendered.

World War I

Bert Von Russell, born at Cornville in 1886, joined the Maine National Guard at Skowhegan in June 1916 as a bugler and rose to sergeant first class in Company E of the 2nd Maine, which became Company E of the 103rd Infantry. He went overseas with it in September 1917, was commissioned a second lieutenant in February 1918, and served in the 103rd, 326th and 18th Infantry in Lorraine, at St. Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne, where he was wounded on October 12, 1918. Maine's printed roster of its World War soldiers records that he was awarded a Silver Star citation; the Silver Star medal itself was created in 1932. He came home in June 1919 a first lieutenant and was discharged that month (Roster of Maine in the Military Service ... World War, 1917-1919, vol. II, p. 291).

Henry Leroy Foss served in Company D of the 3rd Machine Gun Battalion. A First Division certificate of January 1, 1920 names Private Henry L. Foss as wounded in the Meuse-Argonne offensive on October 9, 1918 (Digital Maine, item 241503MSL_006). Our records call him a private first class; no record of a promotion links the two.

Everyone in this line

Confirmed: an official record shows the service and ties it to this man. Likely: the record matches by name and place, or rests on the family's account; the note says why.

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1600s

Veterans in this line, 1600s

Name	Branch	War	Years	Service record
MilitiaHave a clipping or record about Nathaniel?Nathaniel Oak	Militia	King William's War (garrison list)	1692King William's War: one of eight men on a Marlborough garrison list dated March 18, 1691/2 (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 43, p. 372), and "Nathaniel Oakes" at Samuel Goodnow's garrison in Hudson's History of Marlborough (1862, pp. 109-110). Name and town only; the family's Marlborough settler.	Likely

1700s

Veterans in this line, 1700s

Name	Branch	War	Years	Service record
Have a clipping or record about Samuel?Samuel Corson	Branch not stated	Port Royal expedition, 1710	about 1710Estimated year: billeted from July 21 to November 8 by the commissary's account of Walton's men; the year is the editor's dating of the roll (probably 1710), and the roll gives no residence.	Likely
MilitiaHave a clipping or record about Benjamin?Benjamin Hastings of Bolton	Militia	French and Indian War, Revolutionary War	1755–1759, 1775Provincial officer 1755–1759 (identity Likely); captain of Bolton's minute company in 1775.	Confirmed
MilitiaSeth Oak	Militia	French and Indian War, Revolutionary War	1755, 1775–1778A Seth Oak is on the printed 1755 Crown Point roll (no company named); sergeant in 1775; Capt. Seth Oaks's artificers 1777–78. That these are one man is Likely.	Likely
MilitiaHave a clipping or record about John?John Ford	Militia	Colonial militia	1756Lieutenant of the west company of Milford, 1756 (Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. 10, p. 499), identified with this John Ford by his gravestone. A "Mr. John Ford" made ensign of the same company in 1754 (p. 313) may be he or his son.	Confirmed
Have a clipping or record about Jonathan?Jonathan Oak	Branch not stated	French and Indian War	1759Family tradition, given in the 1906 register (p. 12): served with Wolfe at Quebec in 1759 and made Wolfe's coffin. No record yet found.	Likely
MilitiaHave a clipping or record about William?William Oak	Militia	French and Indian War	1759–1760Per the 1906 register, 10 months and 28 days against the French from April 7, 1759, in Capt. Samuel Clark's company, Col. Ruggles's regiment. No roll found; a 1781 roll of a different William Okes shows the same length of service, so the register's figure may be misattributed.	Likely
MilitiaHave a clipping or record about Beriah?Beriah Oak	Militia	Revolutionary War	1775Private, Capt. Robert Longley's company, Col. Asa Whitcomb's regiment, Lexington alarm, April 1775; 10 days (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 11, p. 597).	Likely
MilitiaHave a clipping or record about Calvin?Calvin Oak	Militia	Revolutionary War	1775, 1779Eight months in 1775 and nine months in 1779, per his widow's pension; his 1775 company is Likely. His widow Lucretia's pension file (Vermont, 1849) is in the National Archives pension series (M804).	Confirmed
MilitiaHave a clipping or record about Ebenezer?Ebenezer Conant	Militia	Revolutionary War	1775–1780Lieutenant in Capt. Deliverance Davis's Ashburnham company at the Lexington alarm, April 1775; adjutant of Col. Abijah Stearns's regiment, 1776, and at Saratoga, 1777; nine-month man in Col. Shepard's 4th regiment, 1779–80 (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vol. 3, pp. 873-874). Husband of Lydia Oak, Captain Jonathan Oaks's daughter.	Confirmed
MilitiaHave a photo, clipping or record of Nathaniel?Nathaniel Oak	Militia	Revolutionary War	1775–1776Private: Hastings's Bolton minute company, 1775; Wingate's New Hampshire militia, 1776.	Confirmed
MilitiaSylvanus Oak	Militia	Revolutionary War	1775Sergeant, Capt. Joseph Sargent's company, Col. Sparhawk's regiment, Lexington alarm, April 20 to May 1, 1775; 12 days (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 11, p. 598). Likely this Sylvanus: the roll's 'Princeton (probably)' matches the 1906 register's account of his Princeton mill and this service.	Likely
MilitiaHave a clipping or record about Abraham?Abraham Moulton	Militia	Revolutionary War	1776–1781Separate records in 1776, 1778 and 1781, not one tour; recorded as Molton; identification Likely.	Likely
Have a clipping or record about John?John FollettBy marriage	Branch not stated	Revolutionary War	1776"A Revolutionary soldier and later captain of militia" (1906 register no. 19). A "John Follet" was a private in Capt. Joseph Whitcomb's company of Col. Samuel Ashley's Cheshire County regiment, which marched to reinforce Ticonderoga, October 21-November 16, 1776 (New Hampshire Revolutionary War Rolls, vol. IV, p. 98); the roll gives no town. Second husband of Hannah Oak, of Winchester, N.H.	Likely
Continental ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of John?John Oaks	Continental Army	Revolutionary War	1776–1779One year from about January 1776 in Col. Prescott's regiment, then Col. John Bailey's regiment, Continental pay accounts March 1777 to December 1779 (his 1818 declaration; Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 11). Of Harvard, later Exeter, Maine. His service is in his own pension declaration; his widow Abigail's file is in the National Archives pension series (M804).	Confirmed
Have a photo, clipping or record of Jonathan?Jonathan Sampson Jr.	Branch not stated	Revolutionary War	1776–1780Of Ashburnham: in Capt. Manasseh Sawyer's company, Col. Nicholas Dike's regiment, at Dorchester Heights, enlisted December 1, 1776; private, Capt. John White's company, Col. Abijah Stearns's regiment, April-July 1778; corporal, Capt. Timothy Boutell's company, Col. John Rand's regiment, July-October 1780 (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vol. 13, pp. 760, 771). The rolls give name and town only. The 1906 register (no. 216) says the family's Jonathan, son of Mary Oak and Jonathan Sampson, served "5 or 6 enlistments."	Likely
Have a clipping or record about Joseph?Joseph Chandler III	Branch not stated	Revolutionary War	1776Captain, Col. Isaac Wyman's New Hampshire regiment; died at Mount Independence, 17 September 1776.	Confirmed
Continental ArmyHave a clipping or record about Joseph?Joseph Fay	Continental Army	Revolutionary War	1776–1777Sergeant in Col. Bedel's New Hampshire regiment, February 1776; from November 8, 1776, ensign in Capt. John Gregg's company of the 3rd New Hampshire. Wounded at the second battle of Stillwater (Bemis Heights), he died at the Albany hospital on November 2, 1777, after his leg was amputated (Cutter, Genealogical and Personal Memoirs, 1910; DAR lineage book). New Hampshire's printed rolls list Joseph Fay of Walpole as ensign of Gregg's company (vol. I, p. 644). A son of Hannah (Oak) Fay; Likely: the roll gives no birth or family, and the tie to him rests on family histories and the town.	Likely
Have a clipping or record about Seth?Seth AlexanderBy marriage	Branch not stated	Revolutionary War	1776–1777Sergeant in Capt. William Humphreys' company of Col. Wingate's regiment, Northern Army, in the Continental service, 1776 (New Hampshire Revolutionary War Rolls, vol. I, p. 355); ensign in Capt. Oliver Capron's company of Col. Samuel Ashley's regiment, which marched to the relief of Ticonderoga, June 29-July 11, 1777 (vol. II, p. 54). The rolls give his name only; that this soldier is Hannah Oak's first husband (d. 1780) rests on the 1906 register's matching account (no. 19).	Likely
MilitiaDaniel Oak	Militia	Revolutionary War	1777, 1780, 1781The 1906 register says he served three enlistments, 1777-81, from Westborough and Bolton, and was 19 in 1780; a Daniel Oaks of Westborough, age 19, was a six-months man in 1780 (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 11). He applied for a pension in 1832, and his widow Deborah D. Oaks for bounty land in 1854 (National Archives, M804, roll 1836), so the service is his.	Confirmed
MilitiaGeorge Oak	Militia	Revolutionary War	1777Private, Capt. David Bent's Rutland company, Bennington alarm, August 1777.	Likely
Continental ArmyHave a clipping or record about James?James Lamson	Continental Army	Revolutionary War	1777–1780Private in Capt. James Bancroft's company of Col. Michael Jackson's regiment from May 1, 1777, then in Capt. Wade's company to April 18, 1780; the Massachusetts rolls give him as of Boothbay (vol. 9, p. 452). Likely: Greene's History of Boothbay places the James Lamson who died there in 1795 at Boothbay by 1776, with a daughter Lydia born in 1783, the Lydia Lamson who married John Evans.	Likely
Have a photo, clipping or record of Abraham?Abraham Sampson	Branch not stated	Revolutionary War	1779–1780"Samson, Abraham, Ashburnham": private, Capt. William Henry's company, at Castle and Governor's Islands, October-November 1779 (the entry adds, "Name appears as David Sampson on a duplicate roll"); private, Capt. Timothy Boutell's company, Col. John Rand's regiment, July-October 1780, the same company as a Jonathan Sampson (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vol. 13, p. 765). The rolls give name and town only; the 1906 register calls Abraham and Jonathan brothers, sons of Mary Oak and Jonathan Sampson.	Likely
Continental ArmyHave a clipping or record about Nathaniel?Nathaniel Oak of Athens	Continental Army	Revolutionary War	1780Six-months man raised by Bolton in 1780: enlisted at Springfield July 13, 1780, age 18; marched July 10, discharged December 16, 1780 (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 11). Probably Seth Oak's son; widow's pension W.25398. His widow Susan's pension file (Vermont) is in the National Archives pension series (M804, roll 1836).	Confirmed
MilitiaJoel Oak	Militia	Ohio's Indian wars (scout)	1787–1792Scout in Ohio's Indian wars after going west in 1787; at Farmers' Castle, 1792 (1906 register, no. 51). No roll found yet.	Likely
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Benjamin?Benjamin Hastings Oak	Army	Peacetime service	1799Musician in the U.S. Army for "a year or two," in 1799 in the Second Regiment of Artillerists and Engineers at New London, Connecticut (1906 register; the 1903 family sketch calls it the Second Regiment of Heavy Artillery). No enlistment record found yet.	Likely

1800s

Veterans in this line, 1800s

Name	Branch	War	Years	Service record
MilitiaHave a photo, clipping or record of William?William Russell Sr.	Militia	Peacetime service	about 1810Estimated: "He commanded the West Company of Infantry for several years" (Butler, A History of Farmington, 1885, p. 565); the history gives no dates for his command, so about 1810 is a guess from his birth in 1780.	Confirmed
Have a photo, clipping or record of Electrius?Electrius Oaks	Branch not stated	War of 1812	about 1812Estimated: the register gives no dates for his service, so the war's first year is used. "A veteran of the War of 1812" (1906 register no. 84); son of John Oaks of Exeter.	Likely
ArmyHave a clipping or record about Enoch?Enoch ChallisBy marriage	Army	War of 1812	about 1812Estimated: the register says he went into the army after keeping the Boscawen hotel in 1812. Kept the Boscawen hotel in 1812, "but then went into the army, returning with shattered health" (1906 register no. 71). Husband of Susanna Oak.	Likely
Have a clipping or record about John?John ChristieBy marriage	Branch not stated	War of 1812	about 1812Estimated: the register gives no date for his privateer service, so the war's first year is used. Captain of a privateer in the War of 1812; died in Dartmoor prison, England, in 1813 (1906 register no. 88). First husband of Rachel Oakes.	Likely
NavyJohn YoungBy marriage	Navy	War of 1812	about 1812Estimated: the register gives no date for the battle, so the war's first year is used. U.S. Navy; "lost both arms in a battle on the lakes, War of 1812" (1906 register no. 89). Husband of Elizabeth Oakes.	Likely
John Oaks Jr.	Branch not stated	War of 1812	1814"With his father was a prisoner of war in 1814," when the British took Bangor (1906 register, p. 36). Son of John Oaks of Exeter.	Likely
MilitiaHave a photo, clipping or record of Oaksman?Oaksman Douty	Militia	Peacetime service	about 1840Estimated: the register gives no dates for his command, so about 1840 is a guess. "Colonel of Militia" at Sangerville; died August 9, 1844, "from a fall from his horse at a muster" (1906 register no. 175, p. 53). Brother of Col. Calvin Sanger Douty.	Likely
ArmyAratus Ames	Army	Civil War	1861Private, later corporal, Company B, 13th Maine Infantry: mustered into U.S. service November 28, 1861, age 21, of Skowhegan (Maine Adjutant General's report, 1863, p. 883); his gravestone names the same company.	Confirmed
Calvin Sanger DoutyIn uniform	Army	Civil War	1861–1863Major of the First Maine Cavalry, October 5, 1861; lieutenant colonel, May 9, 1862; colonel, March 26, 1863; killed while leading the regiment in a charge at Aldie, Virginia, June 17, 1863 (Tobie, History of the First Maine Cavalry, 1887, p. 451).	Confirmed
ArmyEdgar D. Ames	Army	Civil War	1861Private, Company B, 13th Maine Infantry: mustered into U.S. service December 28, 1861, age 19, of Skowhegan (Maine Adjutant General's report, 1863, p. 883). The roll lists Aratus Ames of the same town in the same company; it does not say they were related.	Likely
Confederate ArmyGeorge Washington Philyaw Sr.	Confederate Army	Civil War	about 1861Estimated: the index gives no dates, so 1861 is used. A George W. Philyaw, private, Co. K, 17th Alabama Infantry (Confederate), is in the index to Alabama Confederate service records (National Archives M374). The index gives no age or residence, and other researchers have tied it to two different George Washington Philyaws (born about 1827 and 1840), so that it is this man, of Butler County, Alabama, in 1860, is likely, not proved.	Likely
Joseph A. ClarkNot in uniformBy marriage	Army	Civil War	1861–1866Corporal and sergeant, Company H, Fifteenth Maine Infantry, enlisted December 5, 1861; adjutant from October 1863; wounded in the right arm and left a prisoner at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, April 1864, "a prisoner-of-war for several months"; captain of Company C, May 1865; mustered out July 5, 1866 (Shorey, The Story of the Maine Fifteenth, 1890, roster p. 3, pp. 98 and 104; Maine Civil War card index). Husband of Maria Fellows Oak.	Confirmed
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Joseph?Joseph Oak	Army	Civil War	1861–1862Corporal in a Massachusetts cavalry company that was later counted part of the 3rd Massachusetts Cavalry, a name the regiment took only in June 1863, after his discharge: enlisted November 19, 1861, at 32, a carriage maker of West Amesbury; discharged for disability December 5, 1862 (Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, vol. 6, p. 394).	Confirmed
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Joseph?Joseph Oliver Evans	Army	Civil War	1861–1862Private, Co. I, 3rd Maine Infantry, enlisted June 4, 1861; discharged for disability December 26, 1862 (Maine Adjutant General's report for 1863, p. 151). According to his great-grandson Ivan Oak, he was severely wounded at Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Virginia, on June 1, 1862, was first listed as a deserter because he could not answer roll call, later corrected, and was carried by hospital ship to New York. A Maine state agent's October 1862 list places "J. Evans," 3rd Regiment, of Somerville, at the Bedloe's Island hospital, New York Harbor, "Wounded in Shoulder." Buried in the Evans-Place lot, Somerville.	Confirmed
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Orlin?Orlin Prentice Fay	Army	Civil War	1861–1862Musician, Company E, 101st New York Volunteer Infantry, solo alto in the regimental band: enrolled December 24, 1861, discharged for disability June 12, 1862, by his own Fay Genealogy (1898); a pensioner. A descendant of Hannah (Oak) Fay in the fourth generation.	Likely
Confederate ArmyThomas Philyaw	Confederate Army	Civil War	1861Private in Company C, the Blue Rifles, of the 17th Alabama Infantry, organized in Butler County on September 14, 1861 (company roster printed in the Greenville Advocate, 1903, checked against the muster roll). A brother of George Washington Philyaw Sr. in the 1850 census; Likely, by name and county.	Likely
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Valentine?Valentine B. Oakes	Army	Civil War	1861–1862Enlisted in the 12th U.S. Infantry on December 23, 1861; killed at Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862 (Chapman, Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College, 1867, p. 402; Dartmouth General Catalogue 1910, p. 285). Historical Data Systems' compiled soldier records (Ancestry, U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles) list "Valintine B Oakes," sergeant, Company B, 12th U.S. Infantry.	Likely
Confederate ArmyJeremiah Holloway	Confederate Army	Civil War	1862–1863Private, Co. C, 43rd Mississippi Infantry; enlisted April 1862, paroled at Vicksburg July 1863.	Likely
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Thomas?Thomas Fletcher Oakes	Army	Civil War	1862–1865Assistant surgeon, 1st Massachusetts Infantry, commissioned July 29, 1862; surgeon, 56th Massachusetts Infantry, commissioned July 31, 1863, mustered out July 12, 1865 (Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, vol. 1 p. 2 and vol. 4 p. 764); acting brigade surgeon (1906 register no. 94).	Confirmed
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Joseph?Joseph M. York	Army	Civil War	1863–1864Private, Co. B, 30th Maine Infantry, of St. Albans: enlisted October 20, 1863, mustered in December 18, 1863, discharged April 20, 1864 (Maine Adjutant General's report, App. D, p. 825; 1890 Veterans Schedule). The 1860 census places Joseph M. York and his wife Lovina at St. Albans.	Confirmed
State troopsHave a photo, clipping or record of Lebbeus?Lebbeus Oak	State troops	Civil War	1863Major, First Regiment, Maine State Guards, 1863 (History of Penobscot County, 1882, p. 102); captain of the Garland militia, credited with raising the town's Civil War quota (1903 Biographical Sketches).	Confirmed
ArmyLyndon Johnson Oak	Army	Spanish-American War	1898Private, Company H, First Maine Volunteer Infantry: enlisted May 10 and mustered in May 11, 1898, age 24, of Presque Isle (Maine Adjutant General's report for 1898, final record of Company H). His brother Walter served in Company K.	Confirmed
ArmyWalter Charles Oak	Army	Spanish-American War	1898Enrolled as "Charles W. Oak": Company K, First Maine Volunteer Infantry, enlisted May 12 and mustered in May 13, 1898, age 20, of Presque Isle; private, then corporal (Maine Adjutant General's report for 1898, final record of Company K and index). His brother Lyndon served in Company H.	Confirmed

1900s

Veterans in this line, 1900s

Name	Branch	War	Years	Service record
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Bert?Bert Von Russell	Army	World War I	1916–1919Maine National Guard from June 1916; first lieutenant, 18th Infantry; wounded in the Meuse-Argonne on 12 October 1918 and awarded a Silver Star citation (the Silver Star medal itself dates from 1932); overseas September 1917 to June 1919 (Roster of Maine in the World War, vol. II, p. 291).	Confirmed
ArmyDonald P. Oak	Army	World War I	1918Private, Company B, 1st Replacement Regiment of Engineers, at Washington Barracks: inducted at Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 6, 1918, and honorably discharged November 30, 1918; of Bangor, born at Caribou in 1889 (Roster of Maine in the World War, vol. II, p. 45). A son of Charles Edson Oak.	Confirmed
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Ernest?Ernest Linwood Oak	Army	World War I	1918–1919Corporal, Co. A, 73rd Infantry.	Confirmed
Henry Leroy FossIn uniformBy marriage	Army	World War I	1918Wounded in the Meuse-Argonne on 9 October 1918; his enlistment date is not recorded.	Confirmed
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Kenneth?Kenneth John Russell	Army	World War II	1942Sergeant, 806th Base Unit, Army Air Forces, in World War II, by his government headstone at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. Probably the Kenneth J. Russell, born 1909 in Maine, who enlisted at Portland, Maine, on June 23, 1942 (Army enlistment record; Likely, as it names no parents). A son of Bert Von Russell.	Confirmed
ArmyHave a photo, clipping or record of Lawrence?Lawrence Gilbert Ames	Army	World War II	1942Enlisted at Portland, Maine, January 8, 1942, as a private in the Air Corps (Army enlistment record); his grave marker at Skowhegan reads CPL U.S. Army Air Forces, World War II. A son of Lorenzo W. Ames.	Confirmed
Allan Eugene OakNot in uniform	Navy	World War II	1943U.S. Navy, World War II: the Navy's January 1944 report of changes for its radio materiel school at the University of Houston lists "OAK, Allan Eugene," service number 209 16 83, seaman first class, enlisted October 20, 1943, at Portland, Maine (National Archives, Navy muster rolls, Record Group 24). Ancestry's index gives the year as 1942; the roll reads 1943. The roll gives no birth date or family detail, so that this is the family's Allan is likely, not proved.	Likely
Wendell Merle OakNot in uniform	Navy	World War II	1944Entered after graduating from Skowhegan High School in 1944 and served through the war.	Confirmed
Ivan Ray OakNot in uniform	Army	Korean War	1951–1953Served in the Korean War era: Camp Rucker, Alabama, then Alaska. Not recorded in Korea. A 1951 pictorial review of the 47th Infantry Division names an Ivan R. Oak in Battery A, 188th Field Artillery Battalion, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Christmas 1953, a Sgt. Ivan R. Oak at Ladd Air Force Base.	Likely
Sidney Francis Borges Jr.Not in uniformBy marriage	Air Force, Army	Vietnam War	1968–1974Air Force until 1974, during the Vietnam War, per his wife. She gives 28 September 1968 as his enlistment and 28 September 1977 as his re-enlistment in the Army; both dates are still to be checked against his discharge papers, and the Army end year is not yet known, so the years shown are the Air Force years. The only dated record found so far is a 1969 notice of aircraft equipment repairman training at Chanute Air Force Base; no Army record has been found yet.	Likely
Richard Dixon Oak Sr.In uniform	Army	Cold War	1977–1979Specialist 4, Chaparral missile crewman, 17 June 1977 to 21 February 1979.	Confirmed

Date not yet found

Veterans in this line, Date not yet found

Name	Branch	War	Years	Service record
MilitiaSamuel WiswellBy marriage	Militia	Lieutenant of militia	date not yet foundLieutenant of militia, styled captain, by the 1906 family register (no. 56); no dates given.	Likely
MilitiaHave a photo, clipping or record of William?William Oakes	Militia	Colonel of militia	date not yet foundColonel of militia, by the 1906 family register (p. 44); no dates given.	Likely

What we're still looking for

Rolls older than the 1755 Crown Point enlistment: a search of the Marlborough, Westborough and Northborough town histories found no Oak on any roster from 1722 to 1775. Also the company Seth joined in 1755, the record that would tie him to the artificers, and the ships and later units of the twentieth-century men. If you know of any of these, or of a veteran we've missed, please write.

Know a veteran we missed? Send us their details.

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