James Howard "Jim" ABRAHAM was born February 4, 1911 to James Willard and Maud Evelyn (née SUMNER) ABRAHAM at the family ranch in the Elkhorn River Valley. The ABRAHAM ranch was located about five miles northeast of the town of Valley, Douglas County, Nebraska. Jim's birth certificate states he was born in Arlington, Washington County, Nebraska, but he was born at home in the Elkhorn River Valley. It was customary during this era to list the town where the doctor summoned to assist in a birth had his office instead of the actual place of the baby's birth. A doctor from Arlington attended the birth, so Arlington was recorded as Jim's place of birth on the certificate. If a doctor from Fremont had attended the birth, Fremont would have been listed as Jim's birthplace.

Jim was the fourth child and second son in a family of nine children born to James and Maud. His siblings were: Ila May, Mary Leona, Ralph Sumner, Margaret Elise, Alice Marie, Willard Earl, Catherine Jean, and Donna Lee.

In the June 1914 family portrait posted on this memorial, three year old Jim is pictured on the back row with his father, James Sr., older brother Ralph, and mother Maud, and on the front row are (left to right) his oldest sister Ila, baby sister Margaret, and older sister Leona. Jim adored his father, notice his hand resting on his father's shoulder and the smile on his face at being placed next to his Dad for the photograph (place your cursor on the photo and left click to enlarge). Ila May often spoke that of the three sons born to James Sr. and Maud, Jim was the most like his father.

In 1916, James and Maud moved their family from the Elkhorn River Valley to Siloam Springs in Benton County, Arkansas. Siloam became Jim's "hometown" where he grew from a five year old boy into a young man. Throughout his life, he returned to Siloam Springs for regular visits with his family and friends.

Jim was in the 1928 senior class of the Siloam Springs High School, but he left school before graduating to help his father with their cattle and property located near Chewy, Adair County, Oklahoma. After helping his father for about a year, he decided to join the harvest crews that were headed to western Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. While working for a German family in Nebraska, he became seriously ill with the mumps and had a difficult time recovering. The family he was working for took him into their home and kindly cared for him until his recovery.

After about two years of working on the harvest crews, he returned home to Siloam. At his mother's (a former school teacher) urgings, he returned to high school to work toward graduating with the senior class of 1932. In that graduating class was his younger sister, Margaret Elise ABRAHAM, who was 2 1/2 years his junior. Jim was successful in completing the classes he needed to graduate and the entire Abraham family joined in celebrating Jim and Margaret's graduation (the photograph taken to commemorate this occasion shows eleven members of the ABRAHAM Family standing in chronological order (right to left) starting with the head-of-family James Sr., then his wife Maud, and progressing to their youngest child, Donna).

It was during 1932, prior to his graduation, that Jim met Margaret "Maggie" LEE from Marble City, Oklahoma. She had moved to Siloam Springs to help care for the children of a recently widowed cousin. On December 30, 1933, they were married.

Jim and Maggie met at a dance in Siloam Springs where he had attended with some of his friends and she with some of her friends. Both were enjoying being with friends for an evening of dancing to a live "big band" when there was an intermission. While people were eating, drinking, talking, and mingling during the break, Jim noticed a beautiful young woman standing across the room. As he admired her from afar, she happened to turn her head and her eyes met his gaze. In that moment, they each felt as though they had just found "the one special person" that they were meant to share their lives with.

As destiny would have it, they had friends in common and they got to know each other through their friends. Not only did Jim and Maggie marry, but a couple of their friends who also met for the first time that night got to know one another and they married. At the time of their marriage, Jim was employed at the ice plant shoveling coal as part of the process used by the plant to produce electricity needed for the production of ice.

After their marriage, Jim began working with his brother-in-law, Earl McNAIR, to learn how to be a plumber; Jim often credited Earl as being the person who taught him the most about plumbing, a skill he put to good use in the construction business he started after World War II. The Depression affected the steadiness of the number of plumbing jobs available and with news of a baby on the way, Jim decided to accept a job with a steady income at Allen Canning Company in Siloam Springs.

The 1934 photograph posted on this memorial of Jim and Maggie shows the couple standing in front of the steps of their first home. It was a two bedroom, one bath rental in Siloam Springs where their first child, a baby girl, was born. During this time Jim worked at the Allen Canning Company at the brick ovens where the canned goods were heated. Later Jim, Maggie, and their daughter moved to Kansas City where he worked at Allen Canning Company in the department which manufactured the company's metal cans.

With America's involvement in World War II, the need for a United States militarized Naval Construction Force to build advance bases in war zones became self-evident. Rear Admiral Ben MOREELL was authorized on January 5, 1942, from the Bureau of Navigation, to recruit men from construction trades for assignment to a Naval Construction Regiment composed of three Naval Construction Battalions – this was the beginning of the renowned Seabees. The official motto of the Seabees, personally coined by Admiral MOREELL, summed up the story of their mission: Construimus, Batuimus -- "We Build, We Fight."

During World War II, James Howard "Jim" ABRAHAM served with the Seabees. The Seabees were a militarized United States Naval Construction Force. They obtained their designation from the initials of "Construction Battalions" (CBs) which became more commonly known as Seabees. More than 325,000 men served with the Seabees in World War II, fighting and building on six continents and more than 300 islands. In the Pacific, where most of the construction work was needed, the Seabees landed soon after the Marines and built major airstrips, bridges, roads, warehouses, hospitals, gasoline storage tanks, and housing.

Jim was stationed in the Aleutian Islands in the northern Pacific; the picture on this memorial where he is seated on his bunk was taken during 1943 in his quarters on Attu Island. He is dressed in a Pendleton wool plaid shirt which were noted for their warmth, durability, and comfort. The cold harsh conditions on the island required the servicemen to dress in layers for warmth, and like Jim, many of the men were first introduced to Pendleton wool shirts during their time in the northern Pacific as a reliable article of clothing needed to withstand the freezing conditions. The shirt became Jim's favorite throughout the rest of his life and it became a traditional gift for his youngest daughter to give him at every Christmas.

In the background of the photo where Jim is sitting on his bunk is a photographer's portrait of James with his wife, Margaret "Maggie" ABRAHAM, née LEE. In the lower left of the portrait frame is a photo of their firstborn, a daughter, and in the lower right is a photo of their second born, a son. The portrait of Jim with Maggie was taken in Kansas City, Missouri shortly before he left to serve during World War II. He had enlisted at Kansas City, Missouri, was shipped out to the state of Washington by train, was at Fort Lewis for awhile, then on to Seattle, Washington by train, then by ship to Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands.

Just A Brief Note: The story to his wife regarding the pin up girl poster on the wall was that it DID NOT belong to him but to one of his bunkmates. It was purportedly hung there so its owner could have a clear view of the poster when he lay upon his bunk, which was positioned in alignment with the poster -- whomever it belonged to, Jim didn't mind it!

When pilots couldn't make it back before having to ditch their planes in the freezing waters near Attu due to depleted fuel or damage from enemy fire, the PT-boats had to reach the downed plane as quickly as possible to save the crew. In addition to his construction duties, Jim skippered a PT on these air-sea rescues. He always had an eye and ear on a returning aircrew to the runway at Attu to judge if their aircraft was in trouble; at the first sign of trouble, their PT-boat was flying through the air with each impact of an oncoming Pacific Ocean wave as the PT crew endeavored to reach the downed aircrew as fast as possible. The PT crews met with several highs from successful rescues as well as the devastating lows from unsuccessful rescue attempts.

While serving in the Aleutian Islands, Jim's hair began to turn white. Upon returning from the war, it wasn't long until nearly all of his hair turned a pure snow white. It remained snow white, thick, and wavy for the rest of his life -- people would often comment on how strikingly attractive his white hair was.

After World War II, Jim and Maggie settled near Noel in McDonald County, Missouri and raised four children. Jim was self-employed as a construction contractor. In addition to the work he did in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, he traveled as far as Florida on construction jobs. He was well known for the quality of his work and he regularly had more requests from people wanting to hire him than he could accept.

After he retired from construction, he was often asked by young men new to construction, as well as experienced contractors, to come to their construction sites to advise them on their projects -- his knowledge and advice was highly sought after and greatly appreciated.

Jim was well-liked and respected. He was good-natured, kind, had a wonderful sense of humor, and was always available to lend a helping hand whenever needed. Most of the people in the area where he lived knew him and were his friends. As a father, Dad was gentle and guided his children with words of wisdom spoken one-to-one on a walk through a pasture to one of the ponds on the farm or on a drive in his pickup over the country dirt roads. He enjoyed having his children work along with him so he could teach us life-skills as well as work-skills. Whether it was farm chores, tractor or auto repairs, livestock care, cutting and hauling hay for our livestock or pickup loads of wood for the fireplace, new construction or repairs on our family homes or farm structures we built, he included his children (his daughters as well as his sons) and taught us skills and the satisfaction of a job well-done. He instilled in us to have confidence in our abilities to achieve whatever we set our minds to and to fulfill our obligations to those who depend on us; he was a thoughtful, kind-hearted man we all loved and miss.
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Biography contributed to Find A Grave by L. ABRAHAM, child of James H. and Margaret (LEE) ABRAHAM.