Peck's Bad Boy

From Rapscallion to Honorable Veteran

My paternal grandfather, Zeno Boatright, was often described as a Character. His nickname as a young man was “Peck,” and even into my day, I remember some people calling him Peck. This referred to a comic strip of the 1920s called Peck’s Bad Boy, created by George Wilbur Peck in 1883. The comic ran in newspapers and then movies until 1942. The part of Henry ‘Hennery’ Peck was played by several actors, including Jackie Coogan in 1921 and Jackie Cooper in 1934.

Jackie Coogan as Hennery Peck. Photo: Irving M. Lesser / Associated First National Pictures. Public domain.

George Peck drew inspiration for Peck’s Bad Boy from a young telegraph messenger named Edward James Watson whom he met in the late 1880s. Edward’s real-life antics supplied Mr. Peck with numerous pickles in which to cast his character.

Art by True Williams (1839-1897). Public domain.

My grandfather served in the U.S. Navy in both WWI and WWII. He initially enlisted on May 24, 1919 in Peoria, Illinois. In the 1920 census, he is aboard the USS Eagle in Portsmouth, New Hampshire as a Seaman. I don’t know the circumstances of his enlistment in the Navy but per the records I obtained from the National Archives in Washington, D.C., beginning on May 26, 1919, two days after his enlistment, there is a Western Union Telegram requesting his whereabouts. It is signed L. Boatright which could have been my grandmother, Lydia Lillian Boatright, or his mother Lucy McCartney Boatright. Evidenced by additional letters to the Navy, it was Lucy. I will comment here that Lucy was a force to be reckoned with; a gale force. She wrote multiple letters to the Navy citing her husband’s (Frank) inability to work and requesting, pleading, and sternly recommending his discharge and return home to provide support for them.

Zeno, c. 1919

A copy of a June 1, 1920 letter from the Treasury Department, Bureau of War Risk Insurance, to the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation states that Zeno Boatright was exempted from the compulsory allotment to dependents of the War Risk Insurance Act of October 6, 1917. Why this exemption was granted is not explained and I don’t know if this initially included my grandmother and dad but it seems it did even though they are listed as his family. There are receipts from pay allotted to them later. An enlisted man could also make an allotment for dependent parents of $15 per month from his pay plus a match of $15 from the navy, so $30 a month. Zeno never assigned that allotment and the Navy did not force him to do so.

On August 1, 1919, Lucy chastises the Navy that she has yet to receive a decision from them and would like “immediate attention”to her plight since the family needs his support. A return letter states that if Zeno desires to be discharged, he will need to officially apply to the Bureau of Navigation through his Commanding Officer and his case would then be considered. On February 19, 1920, discharge from the Navy was denied. Fate took its course and due to a severe knee injury ten months later, he was honorably discharged on October 8, 1920.

I don’t know what led up to this, but a letter dated December 20, 1929 was sent to the Navy from Zeno’s older sister, Irma Boatright Falls, my Great Aunt. Like her mother, she was 100% no-nonsense but in a less Victorian Matriarch way.

Irma explains that Zeno left Eldorado on the 10th of December and no one had seen him since. She asks that they check to see if he joined either the Navy, Army, or Marines. Knowing her younger brother quite well, she suggests they check to see if he joined under a different name. She then gives a physical description of him, including a right hand thumbnail that is “defected.” She informs them that he has “talked quite a bit about airships” lately so they can take this into consideration. Her entreaty that they find him for his mother’s sake because she is “almost crazy” is a good indication that the pot was boiling over in Eldorado. And I would imagine all of Eldorado knew the details. So, Irma is not pulling any punches here.

Zeno, date unknown.

R.H. Leigh, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, replies only eight days later on the 28th that Zeno cannot be located in the Navy or the Marines. Presumably they are still checking with the Army.

On February 12, 1930, word comes from Chief Leigh, that “the fingerprints of the above named man (Zeno Boatright) are found to be identical with those of Paul Boatright who enlisted in the Army on Dec 14, 1929 at Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Paul was my grandfather’s first cousin. He joined the Army under his cousin’s name. They sent him home.

Letter from R.H. Leigh, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, 1930.

Zeno’s past difficulties did not prevent him serving in the Navy again in WWII. He was stationed at the U.S. Naval Operating Base in Palermo, Italy as a member of the 120th Construction Battalion.  He received a commendation for his service on March 24, 1944 and was honorably discharged on October 19, 1944.

Peck’s Bad Boy took a few decades to settle down, but he eventually did and entertained us with his stories for the rest of his life.