#52Ancestors, Week 48: Trouble Finds Joseph

Several blog posts back, I wrote that my newest discovery was that Pierson McClure/Joseph Marion Miller was in the merchant marines.  At the time, I had not received his file, so I didn't have much more to report.  I finally received his merchant marine file a few weeks ago, and while I would have liked it to contain a bit more personal information, I did discover a few interesting items about my first cousin, twice removed.  First, I was incredibly pleased to find a photo included with the file.  I showed the picture to my mother, and her first response was, "He kinda looks like a troublemaker."  See for yourself.

Based on his file (and other information I was able to locate as a result of his file), he certainly experienced his fair share of trouble - self-inflicted and otherwise.

In December 1940, while working aboard the steamship Arthur Orr, Joseph was apparently injured during an assault.  The alleged perpetrator was Charles Finley MacLeod (alias James Ross Mallory). The paperwork did not indicate the nature of the injury Joseph received, but it did note that in June 1944 Joseph intended to take action against the Canadian Atlantic Transit Steamship Company.  There is no further documentation concerning the assault or the case, but the fact that Joseph intended to take action against the company makes me think the injury must have been significant. 

Another item of interest in the file is that, in December 1944, Joseph was the victim of a house fire.  Purportedly, his seaman's papers were destroyed in the fire, and in 1946, the Coast Guard asked for his documentation, and Joseph could not supply it.  It seems that trouble was following Joseph.

Then, in 1948, Joseph makes some of his own trouble.  He is living with his mother, Nettie Pearson, in Mattoon, Illinois.  While living there, he gets into an altercation with his neighbor.  Article follows: 

Mattoon Journal Gazette - June 28, 1948

An address in his merchant marine file helped me to confirm this is my Joseph Miller, and I was floored to discover he was blind!  Now, obviously, you can't work on a shipping vessel and be blind, so I surmise that whatever happened in December 1940 eventually led to this disability.  The last line of the article also suggests that Joseph might have been legally blind, but not totally blind.  Otherwise, I imagine running, finding a rock, and managing to hit someone with said rock would be difficult. 

Finally, in 1968,  trouble finds him once again - this time in East St. Louis.  

The Belleville News - Democrat - April 15, 1968

Unfortunately for Joseph, he really did seem to be a magnet for trouble.  8 cents wasn't much (equivalent to about 70 cents today), so he was probably targeted because of his blindness.  

Although I have made significant progress on him since receiving his file, I do not have any information on him after 1968.  I'm slightly afraid to find out how he met his end...