This is a spin-off of my 52 Ancestors: #14 Albert Spencer LILLIE (1848-1913) ~ Old Photographs Saved From Trash Can blogpost in which I featured a few photos from a collection of old photographs my 4C1R Joe Rooney shared with me. I asked Joe about using the photos and he kindly wrote, “Please use them at your will. I feel it is keeping it in the family and don’t need credit. If anything, I appreciate your evaluations, identifications and detective work. I’m hopeful you and yours enjoy them. On a blog, in a book, above a cloud.”
Links to previous posts in this series may be found in Old Photographs
#17 John Quincy ROYALTY 1866-1918
John Quincy ROYALTY was the third son of Samuel L. ROYALTY and Joanna PALMER. He never married.

During his earlier years John was a schoolmaster in Kansas and Missouri. Later he became a detective and, according to his obituary, was a trusted employee of a leading firm doing this sort of work. His duties took him to various places in the West and he resided at times in Colorado, New Mexico and California.
In 1898 while in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he enlisted in Company E, First Territorial U.S. Volunteer Infantry, and served during the Spanish War until mustered out at Albany, Georgia, in 1899.[1] Officially designated as the First Territorial Volunteer Infantry, the regiment became known as the “Western Regiment;” the “Big Four” from the four territories: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory; or “McCord’s Infantry.”

After a visit to his old home in Pope County, Illinois, he returned to the West. In 1900 he was once again in Albuquerque, living in the household of his brother-in-law John R. BOSWELL and his youngest sister Olive ROYALTY, and working as a watchman for the railroad.
By 1903 he became a resident of Los Angeles, California. He was working as a watchman on patrol per the 1910 census.
“While employed as private watchman during Nov. 1917, he suffered an attack of acute appendicitis, and in spire (sic) of heroic efforts of the surgeons during a prolonged illness, complications arose, and his weakened vitality at last succumbed to death.”[2]

Sources:
[1] “United States Index to Service Records, War with Spain, 1898,” Database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK7J-YKK8 : accessed 26 June 2015), John Q Royalty, 1898; citing NARA microfilm publication M871 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm .
[2] “Pedigree Resource File,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:3W51-L4J : accessed 2015-06-26), entry for John Quincy /Royaltey/, Submission ID MMDF-H5K.
Joe Rooney kindly gave me permission to use these photographs on my blog.
© 2015 Cathy Meder-Dempsey