Author: Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist
Joseph A. Dughi was born on December 23, 1893, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Italian immigrants Antoine Leo and Louise Elizabeth Foppiano Dughi. Antoine Dughi worked as a street vendor, fruit vendor, confectionary store operator, and ice cream vendor. At the time of his draft registration for World War I, Joseph Dughi was listed as being an ice cream manufacturer (but was listed as a pipe fitter on his discharge certificate). Joseph Dughi enlisted at age 24 in the U.S. Army, and was inducted into military service on May 25, 1918.
Joseph Dughi served as a Pipe Fitter with the 156th Depot Brigade through June 26, 1918. Later, he was transferred to Company A, 306th Engineers, serving with the rank of private. On March 30, 1919, Dughi was transferred to the 155th Depot Brigade, serving the remaining portion of his military service in that unit until his discharge on July 7, 1919. He served overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces from July 31, 1918, to March 20, 1919.
Dughi was injured during the war in December 1918 in the St. Die sector, part of the Vosges Mountains region. He was noted as being hard of hearing in both ears, with 15% disability by the end of the war (though he was given a physical condition of “Good” when discharged, in keeping with military practice of the period).
Following his service in WWI, Joseph Dughi is listed in city directories as a vendor and later a peanut retailer. He never married according to available records, and remained living in Raleigh for the rest of his life. Joseph Dughi died in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 12, 1941, at the age of 47. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, in the Dughi family plot.
The only-known item from Joseph Dughi’s WWI service is his U.S. Army discharge certificate, housed in the collection Joseph A. Dughi Papers (WWI 25), held in the WWI Papers of the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina in Raleigh, N.C.
This blog post is part of the State Archives of North Carolina’s World War I Social Media Project, an effort to bring original WWI archival materials to the public through the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ (NCDNCR) various social media platforms, in order to increase access to the items during the WWI centennial celebration by the state of North Carolina.
Between February 2017 and June 2019, the State Archives of North Carolina will be posting blog articles, Facebook posts, and Twitter posts, featuring WWI archival materials which are posted on the exact 100th anniversary of their creation during the war. Blog posts will feature interpretations of the content of WWI documents, photographs, diary entries, posters, and other records, including scans of the original archival materials, held by the State Archives of North Carolina, and will be featured in NCDNCR’s WWI centennial blog.