Letter from Frank Bierce Maltby. Buzzard's Bay, Mass., Oct. 31, 1914. ".....I have no time just now as I am working night and day attempting to finish the Cape Cod canal and may have to go to Mexico in December.....

I had the pleasure of driving my car from New York to New London last fall and stopped at Branford and looked up the graves of our ancestors there, also found an old man who remembered the old Maltby homestead which he said formerly stood very near to where the new library now stands."

Letter. Mch. 25, 1915. 45 Wall Street, New York, % Walston and Brown.

"I finished my work in Cape Cod last week and came to New York expecting to have a vacation but it only lasted 24 hours, and I am busy again. I have today just returned from a trip to Ottawa and Montreal."

Letter June 28, 1915. 611 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

"I was in New York for about 6 weeks on a vacation and then went to Pittsburg for a few weeks. I am now back in Philadelphia, I hope permanently, and am with the same firm I was with when I was living in Philadelphia before."

Letter St. Nazaire, France. Oct. 25, 1918.

"Your letter of August 15th I received in Washington a few days before I sailed for France. As you addressed me at the Army Build- ing in New York, I must have written you that I had been called into the service last year.

About May 1, I was relieved of my duty as Consulting Engineer on Governor's Island, New York, and ordered to duty as Assistant to the Officer in Charge of the Construction Division of the Army at Washington. During the summer I had supervision, charge of Dock building and dredging for the great Army supply base terminal that the U.S. is building at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charlestown, S.C., and New Orleans, and spent most of my time in traveling back and forth between these points.

On July 31 (my birthday) my Mother passed away at Champaign, Illinois, after a very brief illness and at the age of 78. My sister Cora Rugg and I are now the only ones left of our immediate family, and as I have no sons and as my father's brothers altogether had but one son who died without a son, I am athe last male Maltby of my grandfather's family.

About the middle of August the authorities on this side cabled out Washington office asking that if I could be spared I be sent to France. They at first replied that I could not be spared, but after I heard of it, I convinced them that I could and finally I sailed on Sept. 20, arriving in France Sept. the 29th.

I have been assigned to duty here as Assistant to the Supervising Engineer in Charge of the additions to, and construction of, one of the busy large ports at which the Americans land troops and supplies. As the "Service of Supply" or S.O.S., as it is called, permit us to say where we are, I am not violating any military rules by heading my letter as I have.

I do not suppose that I will be permitted to go to the Front but I am assisting in making it possible to keep our soldiers supplied with necessaries......

For your information and record if you wish, I was commissioned Major of Engineers, Officers Reserve Corps, U.S.A., Feb. 23, 1917. Ordered to active duty, July 14, 1917, and assigned to duty as Con- structing Engineer, Depot O.M., New York. May 1st ordered to duty as Assist. to officer in charge of the Construction Division of the Army with station at Washington. Sept. 11th ordered to overseas service in France and assigned to duty with Section Engineer, Base No. 1, S.O.S., A.E.F., Headquarters St. Nazaire, France."

Letter from Col. Maltby, dated "St. Nazaire, France, June 26, 1919. (page of this letter is missing.)

"and as seems to be my lot have been working very hard since. For your information as to what it means I must explain that our S.O.S. is Service of Supply, in which includes all the army except the fighting army, have divided all of Western France into 5 Sections or Bases, each of which has one or more important and irregular aria of country beyond.

Base No. 1 has the ports of St. Nazaire and Nantes and the Base covers an area of about 125 miles wide by 150 miles long N. and S.

Each Base is under a Base Commander with about the organization of a Division and has his staff of Base O.M., Base Surgeon, Signal officer, Engineer, Etc. The Engineer is known as the Section Engineer officer who has charge of all construction work within the Base.

"It is impossible to tell you in the limits of a reasonable letter of all the activities of construction work.

It consists of Railroads, ware-houses, miles of them, Camps of all kinds, Hospitals, wharves and docks, water supply (The French don't drink any water and can not understand why the Americans want so much water). Sewers, and a hundred and one other things. Baker- ies and laundries; Y.M.C.A. huts and Red Cross buildings.

I an now building two new embarkation camps, each with a capacity of 10,000 men, for sending our men home.

The last order is to build and repair all the roads that the American trucks have mired and I have about 200 miles in this base, and that is some job in itself.

I have given a year and a half of my life to the country and as I have no permanent position to go back to I cannot afford to de- lay any longer than I can help."

Letter from Mrs. Frank Bierce Maltby, Washington, D.C.
  Feb. 3, 1920.

"Colonel Maltby is now on the Atlantic, enroute for Monvoria, Liberia, where he is going for the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury to make plans for the making of a Harbor, pier, breakwater, Custom House, etc. as Liberia has been aroused to its needs and is ready to take another step in this development. He will be gone three months--re- turning by France.....Of course he has never told you the French Government bestowed the Cross of the Legion of Honor on him, for his splendid work as Section Engineer of Base No. One.

We have bought a place of twenty acres where we hope to estab- lish a home...Cherrydale,".....

Letter.  Morristown, Pa.  Dec. 4, 1921.

"I was for nearly 4 months doing some special work for the U.S. Engineer Department at Norfolk and returned home about Nov. 1."

Letter. Kingston, N.Y.  Aug. 16, 1923.

"Your letter of May 27th found me in rather a serious condition. I have been here somewhat over a year, building a 1 1/2 million dollar Hydo-Electric plant, as Engineer in Charge. I am responsible for the plans and specifications as well as the details of construc- tion, and before I knew it I was entirely worn out and on the verge of collapse. I am very much better now and am only telling you this as a reason for not answering your letter.

I hope to complete the work in November and then am going home and stay there. 38 years in responsible charge of construction work, including 2 years of war, is enough and I am going to quit."

(It will be seen that Col. Maltby did not "quit.") 1925. Summer and Autumn, in Ogdensburg, N.Y. in connection with the development of St. Lawrence River for the United States and Canadian Governments.

1926, Jan.  He went to Liberia, Africa, by way of England and home
by way of France.
1926, 30 Sept.  Sailed for Peru, South America, for a short trip.
1929, June.  "I have not had any professional work since 1928.  I
I have secured a temporary appointment with the Government Engineers
and expect to go to Washington in about two weeks.  The job will
last probably not more than a few months."

Letter. July 19th 1941. (Replying for a request for further information)

"In 1935 I got a position in the Engineer Department in Washington.

In 1936, I was loaned to W.P.A., with headquarters in Philadelphia. I served as a Regional Engineer, covering New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia, until March 1st, 1939, when I was forced to give up my position on account of failing eyesight. The work was both interesting and profitable.

In 1938 I had four operations performed on my eyes which re- sulted in the entire loss of sight in one eye then in a cataract over the other. I am almost totally blind and have been for two years."

This is a sad end for a man who had accomplished so many things for the advancement along many lines vital to posterity.

Colonel Maltby lost his wife, who was greatly beloved--a com- panion and help-meet--on May 19, 1940. He sold his home in Morris- town, Pa., and went to live with his daughter, Ruth, at Denver, Colo- rado.

Here, he began writing a sort of memoir, entitled "The Wander- ings of an Engineer." It is the story of his professional life-- from Wyoming to East Africa; from New Brunswick, Canada, to Peru, South America. The work has been brought up to the first World War, with 72,000 words. "It consists of personal experiences and incidents of my professional life which has covered a wide field of experience and location than falls to the lot of most engineers."

This was Colonel Maltby's last letter.

Frank Bierce Maltby graduated at the University of Illinois, 1882, and was given an honorary Degree, 1907. Since leaving school he followed the Engineering profession and was connected with rail- road construction and work under the Government on the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers from 1902-1905, was in charge of all dredging operations on the Mississippi river below Cairo and had under his direction the largest dredge plant in the world.

In 1905 he went to Panama as a dredging expert in charge of all dredging operations and was afterwards made Division Engineer and then Principal Assistant Engineer, under Mr. Jno. F. Stevens, Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission after the Canal construc- tion was turned over to the Army Engineers. He resigned and was Chief Engineer of the firm of Dodge and Day, of Philadelphia.

While in the service of the Canal Commission he designed and built the dredges now in use in constructing the Canal, this plant has cost about 1 1/2 million dollars. His work also included the construction of wharves and docks and beginning the construction of the great Gatunlock and dam. He built also a cold storage plant, Laundry and bakery on the Isthmas. Mr. Maltby wrote in 1908:-- "If I have any reputation it is that of a hydraulic Engineer and ex- pert on all classes of dredging operations.

Our Company now have the contract for the erection of the largest cableway plant in the world for handling material at Gattun on the Isthmus."

Mr. Maltby left Dodge and Day of Philadelphia, about June 1, 1910, and became associated with James Stewart and Co., of New York-- General Contractors. At that time they had a large contract on the New York State Barge Canal which Mr. Maltby was looking after in a general way, as well as work in Buffalo and Lorain, Ohio.

                  (Italics underlined are by the compiler.)

Lieut.-Colonel Frank Bierce Maltby died at the home of his daughter Ruth (Mrs. Cornell) on Saturday, Dec. 20, 1941, aged 80. His death occurred at the Army Hospital, Whitriley(?), Colorado, (near Denver). Very ill only a few days. Funeral services were held Tues- day (Dec. 23, 1941) afternoon with full military honors, "beautiful and simple." Cremation by his own request, and the ashes were interred in his family plot in Champaign, Illinois.

CFG-FIG-A

Parents

Ruth McNavy

Marion Elizabeth