1940 Census: Cheney and Paulus

As you might know, the 1940 US Census was released this week. There was a lot of excitement, so much that the website of the National Archives crashed the first day and had to get more servers to handle the traffic.

My uncle has been doing some of leg work and showing me the files, and I have to say, it is pretty interesting. To me, the occupation information is the most interesting.

For example, the census tells us that in 1940 my great grandfather William Cheney (age 61) was working as a post office clerk at the local post office. His wife, Leila (53), was not working. My grandfather - Bruce Cheney - was working in the stock room at a hosiery mill. He was 22 at the time, had graduated high school but did not go on to college. 

His future wife, Elizabeth Paulus (20), was already working at the arsenal as an inspector (they married in 1943 after having met at the arsenal). Elizabeth's brother Alvin (24) was also working at the arsenal as "labor" in the storage department. Her other brother Frederick (27) was not at the arsenal but a meter reader for the gas company (both brothers would serve in World War II). Her sister Edna (29) was a cashier at a loan company and Edna's husband Russel (31) was an ammunition inspector at the arsenal.

Frederick Paulus - father of Elizabeth, et al - had passed away six years prior (at the age of 47 - a post about his early death is coming soon).  Margaret (52), their mother, was working at a silk hosiery mill as a "finisher". All of the children except Edna were living at home with Margaret.

Anyway, that's the interesting stuff so far. I'll keep you posted.

Picatinny: Margaret Williams Paulus

Margaret Williams Paulus
Born: Nov 4 1887, Neath(?), Pennsylvania
Died: March 4 1972, Succasunna, Morris, New Jersey
Relation to Author: Great Grandmother
Mother of Elizabeth (Betty) Paulus Cheney

Margaret Paulus (nee Williams) was born in Pennsylvania in 1887 to Robert Williams and Elizabeth Williams (nee Thomas), who were both immigrants from Wales. She married Frederick Paulus - the son of immigrants from Germany. At the age of 56 and then again at age 64 Margaret went to work for Picatinny Arsenal.

I am guessing that part of the reason Margaret worked at this late age was because of the early death of her husband, who died on March 12, 1934 at the age of 47. Before working at Picatinny, Margaret worked at Van Raalte Hosiery on Myrtle Avenue in Boonton, New Jersey - from 1926 through June of 1943. So she was working before her husband died, but it seems she might have continued because of the loss of his income. How Social Security played into her decision is unclear to me - maybe something for a future post.

Margaret Paulus' first stint at Picatinny was from June of 1943 through October of 1945. She started as a senior laborer making $4.80 per day ($62.68 in today's dollars) and ending as a shop inspector making $0.87 per hour ($10.92 in today's dollars).

Her second stint was from March 1951 through February 1957. Margaret worked as a machining inspector / machine tool inspector / machined parts inspector - inspecting inert components with a starting pay of $1.40 per hour ($12.17 in today's dollars) and ending at $1.96 per hour ($15.76 in today's dollars).

To get a sense of the work she performed, here are the duties from a job description for the Machining Inspector:

Inspects metal parts manufactured by the Arsenal metal shops. Inspections performed cover a great variety of grenades, fuzes, boosters, primers, rockets, and shells, as well as numerous small components parts such as lock assemblies, rotors, firing pins, springs and other items which are internally assembled into the major components. From completed lots selects samples in accordance with Standard Sampling Plan and performs inspections visually and by the application of gages and precision measuring instruments, such as micrometers, verniers, calipers and dial indicators.

Margaret's time at Picatinny ended in October of 1945 ostensibly because of the end of World War II. Though the termination notice does not spell this out explicitly, it seem obvious since notice was received September 24, 1945, only 22 days after victory over Japan. The personnel records show her being terminated in 1957 due to a reduction in force, but it doesn't explain why there was a reduction at that time and I can think of no obvious historical reason.

As you can see, I included her wages in today's dollars. I think it puts it into perspective better. After all, seeing that she was paid $0.87 per hour seems ridiculous and gives the wrong impression. And just to add a little more perspective, $10.92 per hour is roughly $22,700 for the year (assuming 40 hours per week and 52 weeks). 

Picatinny: Family Job Machine

Margaret Paulus (nee Williams) b. 1887; d. 1972
Russel Shultz b. 1909; d. 2007
Edna Shultz (nee Paulus) b.1911; d. 1995
Frederick Paulus, Jr. b.1913 d. 1984
Margaret Paulus (nee Webber) b. 1915; d. 2002
Alvin Paulus b. 1915 d. 1995
Bruce Cheney b. 1917
Elizabeth Cheney (nee Paulus) b. 1919; d. 2009


What do the above 8 people have in common? Besides being family, they all worked at Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County, New Jersey. Of the Paulus family - parents (Margaret and Friedrich) and their four children and their spouses - only two did not work at Picatinny Arsenal (Friedrich Paulus; and Lee Paulus, nee Vanoli - married to Alvin Paulus).

Picatinny Arsenal, founded in 1880 as a powder depot (starting in 1749 it was used as a forge and during the Revolutionary War was manned by Hessian prisoners and served the Continental Army), the Arsenal would become a major location for munitions storage, production, development, and training. During its height in World War II, when my ancestors worked there, the arsenal employed 20,000 people.

You'll notice that 4 of the above mentioned are women, and Picatinny hired 10,000 women. In fact, it was one of the first plants to use women for tasks such as, "machine operators, smokeless powder workers and carpenters."

While ultimately the work would prove safe, the explosion of 1926, which killed 19 people, injured 38 others, and destroyed all buildings within 3,000 feet, must have made workers 15 years later a little nervous.

The explosion was caused by a lightning strike to one of the magazines that stored 670,000 pounds of munition which then caused a second magazine with 1,600,000 pounds of TNT to explode. Damage was estimated at $1,265,000 and the WPA would spend $2,953,920 to rebuild during the 1930s. Congress would authorize another $8 million during World War II and in 1945 another $7 million.

In future posts we'll learn what our relatives did at the Arsenal, starting with the matriarch, Margaret Paulus (nee Williams). And we'll see that some worked there longer than others.

Sources:
Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey; Images of America Series. by John W. Rae, Aracdia Publishing, Charleston, SC. 1999.