Of soldiers, heroes and monuments: "a name on a wall"
Date
2022
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This work is the product of years of research. The Amory story begins in the days before The American Revolution, continues through The Civil War and to the family present day. This work examines the soldier’s life, service and death, family genealogical study, photographs, documents, and home addresses. ☐ Thomas Dwyer Amory’s name is found on one of the bronze tablets in the lobby at The University of Delaware Memorial Hall. My research answers the question: who was he beyond a name on a wall? ☐ Amory research has been long and exciting, even permeating a short vacation one summer in Cape Henlopen, Delaware in 2018, when I stopped at the Nature Center. Therein is a gift shop with a book section. One volume, entitled “Delaware in World War I” stood out with its bright yellow and red cover. I thumbed through the pages to the index wondering if Thomas Amory was there. He is! On page 141, his name jumped off the page (Wiggins). ☐ I can never forget the day I found Amory’s home address in Wilmington. on Ancestry.com. I searched Google maps and saw the home online. Minutes later I was racing down Kirkwood Highway to get there. It still stands! I walked in front of the home trying to capture the essence of life in the days when the Amory family moved to Wilmington, Delaware. Thomas lived there with his family and his father worked for Dupont before World War I. ☐ I read about Wilmington, Delaware back then and I researched his parents, sisters and his brother, grandfather and ancestors going back to the time before the American Revolution, where an Amory was a Loyalist in Boston, Massachusetts who took part in delivering a treaty. ☐ Amory’s hair was black, and his eyes were blue. His mother died when he was a young boy. He was 23 years old, single and would never know a wife, or a child. His younger brother George enlisted in service with his older brother – and survived. ☐ There are Amory family members now in Florida and in Boston, Massachusetts. I found a grandniece, Caroline Amory, who had no idea that her ancestor’s name was on a hero’s wall at a university. ☐ This thesis also addresses related topics, i.e. World War I, its impact in Delaware, soldiers and heroism, The University of Delaware Memorial Hall Lobby, and a study of the Amory family in America. ☐ In my research and writing a war memorial is given depth and meaning beyond bronze letters on a wall.
Description
Keywords
American families, Biographies, Delaware, Memorials, Soldiers, World War I