Philadelphia Latvian Baptist Youth Society

Adolph Kurmin

Adolph Kurmin (Korman, originally Adolfs Kurmiņš) was part of a large Latvian Baptist family that settled in Philadelphia. He was born March 27, 1894, in Lubin, Russia.¹ The Latvian Baptist colony at Lubin was one of several founded in the 1870s in the Novgorod guberna.² According to the 1910 U.S. census, the Kurmin family immigrated to America in 1905 and lived in the Peter and Lilly Robinson household at 869 Holly St. The Kurmin family included the father and mother, David and Lydia (Lote or Lotte or Leotte, née Peterlewiz), as well as children Bertha, Tillie, Adolph, and Robert.³ Both Peter Robinson and David Kurmin worked as carpenters for a railroad company. The Robinsons, also Latvian immigrants, had a son, Robert.

Adolph Kurmin registered for the draft in 1917.⁴ He entered the U.S. Army on Oct. 17, 1917, and was stationed at Camp Meade in Maryland, according to his petition for naturalization. While serving as a private in the U.S. Army's 315th Infantry Regiment, Kurmin was killed Sept. 26, 1918, in France and is buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial.⁵

Adolph Kurmin's mother, Lydia, died May 28, 1929, in Lavallette, New Jersey, according to an obituary appearing in the Rīga-based periodical Kristīgā Balss. She was buried June 2, 1929, in the White Lawn Cemetery in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Lydia Kurmin was born in 1864 or 1865 in the Latvian emigrant colony at Novgorod, Russia. She became involved at an early age with the Latvian Baptist congregation at Lubin, where she met David Kurmin. While the family immigrated to the United States in 1905 and first settled in Philadelphia, by 1913 Lote and David were living in Lavallette. She was known as someone who loved growing flowers, so on the day of her funeral the Kurmin home, the church, and the cemetery were decorated with blossoms.⁶

Notes

1. "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6K7-7FW : 12 December 2014), Adolph Kurmin, 1917-1918; citing Philadelphia City no 19, Pennsylvania, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,907,638.

2. J. Kronlins, "Latviešu baptistu draudzes aiz Latvijas robežām," in Uz augšu! Latvijas baptistu draudžu 75 gadu darbības apskats, comp. J. Kronlins (Rīga: Latvijas baptistu draudžu savienība, 1935), 41-46.

3. "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGC6-T3J : accessed 19 January 2017), Adolph Korman in household of Peter Robinson, Philadelphia Ward 24, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 522, sheet 5A, family 93, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1398; FHL microfilm 1,375,411.

4. "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6K7-7FW : 12 December 2014), Adolph Kurmin, 1917-1918; citing Philadelphia City no 19, Pennsylvania, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,907,638.

5. "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVKR-PQSB : 11 July 2016), Adolph Kurmin, 1918; Burial, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Departement de la Meuse, Lorraine, France, Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial; citing record ID 55960681, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com. See also History Committee, 79th Division Association (1922). History of the Seventy-Ninth Division A.E.F. During the World War: 1917-1919. Lancaster, PA: Steinman & Steinman. See also an obituary written by Jūnags, "Nekrologos," Drauga Balss, January 1, 1919, p. 13.

6. J. Kvietiņš, "Late Kurmin," Kristīgā Balss, August 15, 1929, p. 320.