Two brothers,
Harold and Roland Booma were star athletes at Dartmouth College and the hockey
rookie of the year award is called the Booma. These brothers are my wife,
Stephanie’s, great-great uncles. Their half sister Emily Catherine was
Stephanie’s great- grandmother. Emily’s uncle, Frank Booma, was a New Hampshire
soldier killed in World War I and the American Legion Post in Portsmouth is
named for him.
Harold E. Booma
for whom the award is named was born on the 4th of July in 1908. His
parents, Scott Booma and Annie May Stevens, were married in 1906 in Milton
Mills, NH and were living in Swampscott, MA 2 years after his birth so he was probably
born there. Scott was from Lancaster, NH and Anna from Milton Mills, NH. There
were many Stevens from this area including Tufts kin and the Booma records lead
back to Connecticut and Canada. The opportunity for research of both these
lines is apparent. A copy of the book French-Canadian
Emigrants to New England. An account of the Booma family would probably
have the full story but I have not found a copy except in the Baker Berry library
at Dartmouth. Harold would have
attended Swampscott schools and then went to Dartmouth where he graduated in
1930. In 1929 he was in the Delta Nu fraternity (which was overseen by my great-uncle
Nathaniel Burleigh). The yearbook “Aegis” lists Harold on the football team as
a left end and a right defenseman on the hockey team. He captained the hockey
team for the 1929-1930 season. He certainly appears to have been a standout
athlete, playing baseball as well. His name must appear in local newspapers and
sports sections of the day. He was awarded the Kenneth Archibald Prize for
outstanding athletic achievement and scholarship. He is mentioned in one book
describing the Yale game which was always a rival at Dartmouth (Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American
Obsession by Mark F. Bernstein) (http://books.google.com/books?id=n3i4KOu7MiEC&dq=harold+Booma). Many other records are available at the
Dartmouth athletics website http://www.dartmouthsports.com/
The 1929-1930 season was the first in Davis rink. Before this they played outdoors at Ocom pond.
There is even some film footage of the Dartmouth-Yale game in 1929
The Boomas also
enjoyed outdoors hunting sports. There is a picture in the Dartmouth library
collection of a group called the “Bait and Bullet” club with another called the
“Eight for Eight”. The Eight for Eight club is pictured at the Merrill Brook
cabin in Dartmouth Grant lands of northern NH. They apparently had a good year:
at least two nice bucks are pictured and eight total deer for eight hunters.
The letter accompanying the picture mentions that Harold is the first on left
and his brother Roland is fifth from left. It also says the fourth from left is
the president of the United Shoe Machinery Company where Harold worked. (United
Shoe was a very large shoe equipment company in Beverly MA.) He is listed in
census and directories available at ancestry.com as a manager and one trade
magazine (Steel vol. 159 1966) states he was a vice president. He is also
mentioned in the Who's Who in America.
38th edition, 1974-1975 and Who's Who in Finance and Industry. 18th edition,
1974-1975 presumably for his accomplishments with the company. Harold and his wife Dorothy settled in Marblehead by
1940 and raised 2 sons, Scott and Richard. Richard also played hockey at
Dartmouth.
Roland Clayton
Booma was born June 11, 1906 and died May 8, 1977. His wife was Dorothy
Margaret MacLean. They had a son, Roland C. Booma, Jr., and lived in Salem and
Lynn MA. He started Booma Oil Company which exists today. Roland probably attended
local schools before going to Dartmouth where he graduated in 1930. In addition
to hockey(?), he also played football and was a member of Kappa Kappa Kappa
fraternity.
Stephanie and I
will add the Frank Booma story when we have completed the research. Many New
Hampshire baseball players will be familiar with the name if they follow Legion
baseball because the Portsmouth post is named for him.
If anyone has
further information on the other families from these Booma families, please
post it in the comments or send me an e-mail. We do have information on some
but the story is confusing because of name changes and secondary marriages. Also,
if anyone has sports memorabilia or news copy of the Dartmouth teams of
1928-1930, please let us know in the comments section or by e-mail. As of this
writing, we have accumulated data that result in this story about Emily
Catherine. If there are errors and anyone has verifiable information, please
let us know. This is one of those genealogical mysteries that we feel is very
close to being solved.
Emily Catherine
Booma was born Sept. 1, 1902 in Portsmouth, NH and died Jan. 24, 1995. She was
the daughter of Scott Booma and Mary (Monahan) (his first wife). Emily grew up
in the George W. Dame household when Scott Booma remarried and went to
Massachusetts. When she married William Sears (or Cyr) she had adopted the name
Dame and her mother had remarried Percy Freeman after George Dame’s death. She
later adopted the name Cyr even though it may have been Sears. She had three
daughters Margaret, Catherine and Lyla. Margaret died very young, Catherine
died in a house fire with her daughter, and Lyla is my wife Stephanie Catherine
Toland-Tufts’ grandmother on her mother’s side. Many of her descendents are
living today but will not be published here. They include members of the Kidd,
Grogan, Harris, Jordan, and Toland families.
Dartmouth library collections available on the internet were used in this story: http://libarchive.dartmouth.edu/cdm/search/searchterm/Booma
Football at Dartmouth history and archives:
Hockey at Dartmouth history and archives:
Yearbook pictures used above are available at ancestry.com
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