Samuel Donly, b 10 Nov 1831

HOGE

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 3/4/2004 at 07:55:58

This gentleman is numbered among the noble veterans of the late Civil War, who fearlessly faced even death in its various forms on Southern battlefields, that they might preserve the Union, and it is largely due to their self-sacrifice and heroic conduct that the Stars and Stripes are waving today over an undivided country. Our subject won an honorable record as a brave and efficient soldier, faithful in every duty that he was called upon to perform, but while fighting his country's battles, he gave up for the honor of the old flag, that thing so precious in a man's life, his health, and ever since leaving the army, has been but a shattered wreck of his former self, an invalid, who for several years could not walk, and he has not been able to perform any manual labor. He is an esteemed citizen of Perry Township, where he has an interst in his father's estate.

Mr. Donly comes of good Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, James Donly, a native of Adams County, Pa., having been a gallant soldier in that war. He was a farmer, and was also engaged in teaming and transporting goods. He eventually removed from his native county to Washington County, in the same State, and there passed his last years. He was a strong Whig, and in the Revolutionary times was bitterly opposed to the Tory element in the Colonies. His father, Henry Donley, great-grandfather of our subject, was born in Enneskillen, Ireland, and when fifteen years of age came to America in Colonial times, and locating in Pennsylvania later in life became a farmer in Adams County.

John Donly, the father of our subject, was born in Adams County, Pa., in 1801, and after attaining manhood, he chose the calling of farmer, which he pursued in his native county, until his removal to Washington County in 1821. He rented land near Washington, and farmed until 1835, when he took up his abode in Mercer County. He was there extensively engaged in farming and stock-raising for many years. In the fall of 1865 he left Pennsylvania, having disposed of his property, and coming to Iowa, bought 100 acres of land in Perry Township, and carried on farming here from that time until his death, April 13, 1881. He thus rounded out an honorable, exemplary life of eighty years, wherein he had won the esteem and confidence of all who knew him. He was a stanch member of the United Presbyterian Church, and in his political views was a thorough Republican. His wife, whose maiden name was Lucinda Hoge, was born in Washington County, Pa., and died in Perry in 1873. Her father, Prof. Mordecai Hoge, was a native of the same county as herself, and was of German antecedents. He was a graduate of Dickinson College, and was a well-known instuctor in his native State, spending his entire life in teaching. The marriage of the parents of our subject, was blessed to them by the birth of twelve children - William, Samuel, Rebecca, James, an infant unnamed; Sarah A., Calvin C., Mary J., Ellen M., Margaret, and Elizabeth (deceased); and George. James and Calvin were soldiers in the late war, James serving three years in the same regiment as our subject, and Calvin two years in the 134th Pennsylvania Infantry, in the nine-months' service, the balance of the time in the 6th Heavy Artillery.

Samuel Donly, the subject of this brief biography, was born in Washington County, Pa., Nov. 10, 1831. His school advantages were limited, but he managed to pick up a good deal of information, being an intelligent, observing lad. He was reared on a farm, and was early set to work at such labors as are required of a farmer's boy. He learned the carpenter's trade, and continued to live with his parents, engaged in farming and carpentering until 1861. August 27, that year, he threw aside all personal aims to take part in the great Civil War then raging, and enlisted in Company B., 100th Pennsylvania Infantry, as a musician. He was sent with his regiment on the expedition to Port Royal, S.C., going by ocean steamer, and from that place he went to Newport News, Va., and joined the Army of the Potomac. He took part in the second battle of Bull Run, and in the battles of South Mountain, Antietem, and Fredericksburg. At the latter place he was transferred to the Western Army, and he and his comrades were sent to Vicksburg to re-enforce Grant, and they took part in the siege of that city, which surrendered July 4, 1863. Our subject was at the battle of Jackson, and was afterward put on the sick list, and sent to the hospital at Camp Dennison, Ohio. He subsequently joined the convalescent camp, at Hickman's Bridge, Ky., but left that department in the spring of 1864, to join the 9th corps of the Army of the Potomac. He fought in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and took an active part in the various skirmishes in which the army engaged, and crossing the James, was present at the siege of Petersburg. In September, 1864, after more than three years of valiant service, in which the hardships and bitter sufferings of a soldier's life in camp and field had made fearful and irremediable ravages on his constitution, he was honorably discharged from the army, and paid off at Pittsburg, Pa. For what he did and suffered in that terrible conflict, he is today a pensioner. He was unable to walk for some twelve or fifteen years after leaving the service, and has never been able to perform any manual labor. In the fall of 1865 he came to Perry by rail from his native State, with his father, and has ever since been a resident here, living on his father's old homestead, of which he inherited a share.

Notwithstanding his severe affliction, Mr. Donly bears himself with patience and fortitude, and his cheerful geniality have won him many friends in his community, where he has lived nearly a quarter of a century, and he has the respect of all loyal and patriotic citizens for his military record. Politically, he is identified with the Republican party, having joined it in his early days, and cast his vote for its first Presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, and he is as loyal to it as when he fought for its principles on Southern soil.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)