Hometown Heroes
Delor Dumas - brawler, jailbird, fugitive & soldier
By Michael Rocchetti
The attributes of fighting men can sometimes get them in trouble with the law if they are not careful. The story of Delor Dumas is a good case in point. He was a well-known local boxer who would fight at the drop of a hat. He was full of bravado and fighting spirit — but apparently he didn’t like cops, and this got him in a lot of trouble. On June 19, 1913, after causing a disturbance in downtown Putnam, he got into a rough-and-tumble fistfight with Captain John Murray of the Putnam Police and in the ensuing melee, Captain Murray was shoved through a plate glass window. Dumas was eventually subdued and arrested. In city court the next morning, Dumas was sentenced to the Brooklyn Jail House for nine months and was fined $100.
Dumas boasted that the Brooklyn jail could never hold him. He was true to his word, because on the morning of Aug. 15, 1913, he loosened a bar in his cell, climbed up to the roof of the jail and made a daring escape. It was reported that he briefly returned to Putnam where he was given sufficient money to make his way to Canada, leaving behind a wife and a 3 year old daughter.
Later it was stated that he had enlisted in the 24th Canadian Infantry Regiment from Quebec and was fighting in France during WW1. On Oct. 6, 1916, the Putnam Patriot Newspaper reported that Delor Dumas, 27, was wounded - shot through the head in France on Sept. 19, 1916, during the intense fighting around Courcelette, France, at the Battle of the Somme, and was in the Military Hospital No. 13, at Bologne. He survived this wound and returned to his unit at the front.
On April 25, 1917, another local newspaper, the Windham County Observer, reported that Delor Dumas, 28 years of age, a former resident of Putnam, met his death on April 10, 1917 while fighting in France for the Allies. The telegram announcing his death was received from Military Headquarters at Ottawa Canada, and gave no details. It read as follows: ‘Ottawa, April 20, 1917. Deeply regret to inform you that Number 458341, Private Delor Dumas, of Infantry, officially reported to have died of wounds on April 10, 1917. Canadian Military Records indicated that he was killed by a shell wound to his back.
The Putnam Patriot reported that “Whatever faults or failings Delor Dumas had will be forgotten in the fact that he gave his life for the cause of liberty. What finer ending could the best of men have?”
Delor Dumas was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Adelard Dumas, of Smith Street in Putnam. He was married to the daughter of George Farley, of Providence Street. 
The British Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes the following: Private JOSEPH ADELARD DUMAS. Service Number: 458341. Unit: Canadian Infantry 24th Battalion. Date of Death: 10 April 1917, Age 27 years old. Buried or commemorated at ECOIVRES MILITARY CEMETERY, MONT-ST. ELOI V. E. 2. France. Country of Service: Canada.
From the Canadian Virtual War Memorial: In memory of Private Delos Dumas. Died: April 10, 1917. Service Number: 458341, Born: August 3, 1889, Son of Adelard and Elise Dumas. Born in Putnam CT. Age: 27. Force: Army. Unit: Canadian Infantry (Quebec Regiment). Division: 24th Bn. Cemetery: ECOIVRES MILITARY CEMETERY, Pas de Calais, France. Grave Reference: V. E. 2.
The 24th Canadian Infantry Battalion, also known as the Victoria Rifles of Canada, was a prominent unit in World War I, formed in Montreal, fighting with the 2nd Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from late 1915 until the war’s end, known for its fierce engagements at battles like Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, and the Hundred Days Offensive, before being disbanded in 1920.
Hometown Heroes is a series published in the Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger with this mission: We owe it to our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines to make sure that they are never forgotten, and that the memory of their service and sacrifice will forever live on in the hearts and minds of the grateful people of Putnam.

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