Condol, Leon Washington

Leon Washington Condol was born on January 6, 1887, the son of William Henry and Louise Washington Condol in Elmira, New York. The oldest of two sons, Condol grew up in Elmira. He later worked in New York City for a representative of a French cloth manufacturing firm (possibly Victor Galaup Inc.). He joined the Navy in 1913, serving throughout the First World War as a cook. During 1917 and 1918, Condol served on the U.S.S. Agamemnon and the U.S.S. Wilhelmina, naval transport ships that carried thousands of troops from New York to France. In 1914, Condol married Marie Erienne Stent, a dressmaker from Charleston, SC, with whom he had two children, Louise (1915-1998) and Willfred (1917-1920). After his divorce from Stent, Condol was employed again in New York City between 1924 and 1927, this time as a valet, cook and general houseman to Mr. Robert Angles. Around 1930, he worked as a servant in the home of Henry Ufford, a stockbroker living in Montclair, NJ. Condol moved to Washington, D.C. in the early 1930s and married Virginia Lewis Callaway, a graduate of Howard University and great niece of the Banks family from Baltimore, on October 31, 1931. In Washington, D.C., he was employed by the Freedman's Hospital as chief storekeeper from the time of his marriage to his retirement, while Virigina worked as a public school teacher. The Condols moved to Elmira, NY, around 1953 and remained there through the 1960s. Leon W. Condol died October 22, 1986, while living in a retirement home in Olney, MD.

From the guide to the Leon Washington Condol papers, 1809-1972, null, (State of Maryland and Historical Collections)

Storekeeper, valet, Navy cook, and manufacturing firm representative.

Great-grandson of Mary Ann Cord, the subject of Samuel L. Clemens' "A True story, related word for word as I heard it" in his Sketches old and new.

From the description of Leon Washington Condol papers, 1864-1931. (University of Maryland Libraries). WorldCat record id: 17747073