World War I draft registration card and registrar's report, Precinct 4, Lompoc, Santa Barbara Co., California, registered 5 June 1917 — Roly Orvell Cooper, serial 3749, card No. 14.

What this document records

Form

Form 1, card No. 14; serial number 3749

Registration card: 1 name in full

Roly Orvell Cooper

Registration card: 1 age in years

23

Registration card: 2 home address

Ocean Ave, Lompoc, Cal.

Registration card: 3 date of birth

Sept 21 1893

Registration card: 4 citizenship

Natural [i.e. natural-born citizen]

Registration card: 5 where born

Nickerson, Kan., U.S.

Registration card: 7 present trade occupation or office

Laborer

Registration card: 8 by whom employed

Kieselguhr Co.

Registration card: 8 where employed

Lompoc

Registration card: 9 dependents

No

Registration card: 10 married or single

Single

Registration card: 10 race

Caucasian

Registration card: 11 military service

No

Registration card: 12 exemption claimed

Partial support of family

Registration card: affirmation signature

Roly Orvell Cooper

Registrars report: report number

4-5-18.A

Registrars report: height

Med

Registrars report: build

Med

Registrars report: color of eyes

Blue

Registrars report: color of hair

Brown

Registrars report: bald

No

Registrars report: disabled

No

Registrars report: registrar signature

F. A. Callis [?] — a signature, read at 1x, the surname not certain

Registrars report: precinct

4

Registrars report: city or county

Lompoc

Registrars report: state

Cal.

Registrars report: date of registration

JUN -5 1917

✅ it confirms both his vitals from a record he signed

Sept 21 1893 and Nickerson, Kan. — exactly the birth date and birthplace Roly Orvell Cooper carries, which until now rested on a Find a Grave memorial whose date line [G.614] notes is "partly under grass". ⇒ Both are now on a record he signed himself at 23.

🖋️ his signature

Roly Orvell Cooper, in his own hand over the printed (Signature or mark) line, read at 3×. The highest-ranking image on Roly Orvell Cooper's file. Corrected before commit: he already held a HEADSTONE photograph from [G.614] (since 2026-10-11), so this is not his first image - but a signature is preference 2 and a headstone preference 4, so it outranks it. No true likeness of him has been located.

👔 whom he worked for

Item 8: Kieselguhr Co. of Lompoc — the diatomaceous-earth works, the town's principal industry. ⇒ A named employer, and the catalog's only occupation detail for him before the 1930 census. His brother Glen Sylvester Cooper is a labourer for Tom Archer on his own card fifteen months later ([B.134]); both brothers were labourers at Lompoc.

📌 he claimed an exemption

Item 12: Partial support of family — at 23 he claimed exemption on the ground that he partly supported his family, while item 9 (father, mother, wife, child under 12 … solely dependent on you) is answered No. ⇒ Partly, not solely. His parents Andrew Peter Cooper and Hannah A. (Gingrich) Cooper were then at Lompoc.

📐 two brothers two registrations one registrar

This is the first registration (5 June 1917, men 21-31); his brother Glen Sylvester Cooper's is the third (12 September 1918, which widened the ages) — [B.134]. Both at Lompoc, and both carry what appears to be the same registrar's signature, read as F. A. Callis on each and certain on neither.

What this document does not say

It names no parents — item 9 asks only whether any are dependent — gives no street number, and says nothing about schooling. The registrar's surname is a signature and is not read with confidence.