Cato Lafayette Baskervill
Graduate of Sheffield Scientific School, 1928
Biography
Cato Lafayette Baskervill (sometimes spelled Baskerville) was born in 1903 to Erasmus Lafayette and Mary Effie Baskervill in Henderson, North Carolina, but moved to South Carolina during his youth. His father was a clergy member who served in the United States Army for nearly a decade and was stationed in the Philippines. Following his discharge in 1903, Erasmus joined the Episcopal Church where he eventually became an archdeacon and oversaw Black churches and schools across South Carolina.1
At the age of 16, Cato Lafayette Baskervill joined the United States Army and was a private in Company E of the 317th Engineers, a Black battalion. He was deployed to France in 1918 and returned to the U.S. in 1919. In 1920, he enrolled at St. Augustine College, a Black college in North Carolina, where Charles H. Boyer, an 1896 graduate of Yale College, served on the faculty. The following year, Baskervill went on to win the school’s Barber Prize, which was a $10 award to the student who delivered the best original address. He graduated in 1924 and passed Yale’s examination board, enrolling at the Sheffield Scientific School. Amidst a decline in Black college attendance at Yale in the 1920s, newspapers lavished praise on Baskervill, with the New York Age highlighting the honors he received at Yale within all his subjects. He graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School in 1928.2
According to the 1930 census, Baskervill returned home and worked as a chemist testing gases. He later moved to New York and worked as an inspector at the Department of Water Supply, Gas, and Electricity. At the same time, he joined the New York National Guard and was assigned to the 369th Infantry Regiment (nicknamed the “Harlem Hellfighters”). In 1935, he married Fannie Palmer who was from New Haven, Connecticut.3
Baskervill had a successful military career like his father. In 1942, he became a major and, in 1944, oversaw Black regiments that manned anti-air guns in New Guinea. In 1945, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel with the unit receiving praise for their service. Following World War II, he became a commanding officer for the 369th regiment and oversaw the regiment’s training with anti-air guns.4
Baskervill died in 1957 in New Rochelle, New York, and was interred with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.5
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“Short Illness Fatal to S. C. Rector-Deacon: The Rev. E. L. Baskervill Dead At 66; Archdeacon Of Diocese,” Philadelphia Tribune, 1937. ↩
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Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; RG 92, roll 507, and RG 92, roll 71, National Archives, College Park, MD; Annual Catalogue of St. Augustine's School, Raleigh, N.C....1916-1917 (Raleigh, N.C.: St. Augustine's School Press), 612; “St. Augustine Grad Passes Yale Exams,” New Journal and Guide, July 26, 1924; “Young Baskerville Makes Good Record As Student At Yale Sheffield School,” The New York Age, July 31, 1926. ↩
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“United States, Census, 1930,” Entry for L Erasmus Baskervill and C Mary Baskervill, 1930, FamilySearch; “Cato Baskervill, Formerly of 369th, Now Lt. Colonel,” Afro-American, October 6, 1945; “New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938,” Entry for Cato L. Baskervill and Edna E. Pierce, 9 May 1935, FamilySearch. ↩
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“Ack-Ack Units Take Up Permanent Guinea Post,” The Chicago Defender, January 15, 1944; “Three Lt. Colonels In The Pacific Now,” Afro-American, September 15, 1945; “Ack Ack Unit Wins Praise,” The Pittsburgh Courier, September 1, 1945; “369th, with ‘New Management’, Plans Summer Training Trip,” New York Amsterdam News, June 17, 1950. ↩
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“Obituary,” The Washington Post, October 16, 1957. ↩
