Ramon Sweeney Letters

Ramon “Ray” Sweeney (1896-1986), was born and raised in San Francisco. Due to his father’s untimely death just before the 1906 earthquake, Sweeney dropped out of school at the age of ten in order to work and help support his family. He enlisted in the Navy in 1917 and was initially stationed at Mare Island, California. He sailed for the Far East in 1918, and spent time in Honolulu, Shanghai, and the Philippines. He was discharged in 1919, and returned to San Francisco where he worked in the wholesale fruit and produce business.

The collections contains sixteen letters written to his mother, Mrs. S.B. Sweeney, over a one year period (January 1918 and January 1919) while serving in the Navy during World War I.