Hunnell, John Fleming – 1848-1936

BIVANS, HONNEL, HUNNELL, JORDON, VAN GUNDY

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 11/30/2021 at 14:02:55

Hunnel May Be The Youngest Veteran
J. F. Hunnel of Runnells, who is visiting relatives in Des Moines, declares that he is about as young a civil war veteran as is alive in the entire country. He has just passed his sixty-seventh birthday and is in the best of health.
“I enlisted in the Union Army when I was just thirteen years of age down on Fourth street right here in Des Moines,” says Mr. Hunnel. “I was seventeen when I came out of the army, and was a drummer boy during the entire war. I enlisted during the entire war. I enlisted during the entire war. I enlisted in Company G, Twenty-third Iowa in 1862. I was given my discharge down in Texas in 1865. I was at the siege of Vicksburg under General Grant, and in that engagement lost my father who was a fifer in the same company, and an uncle. Both died from disease during the long days of the siege. I had one other uncle and a cousin in the same company with myself. Three out of the five of us came out of the war alive.
“I was never wounded altho I was pretty sick for several months just after going to the war. I was born in Polk county and now live within four miles of the place where I was born. I have heard some discussions of who is the youngest living civil war veteran and believe I might be ranked in that class.”
(NOTE: John G. Hunnell was born December 10, 1848 in Jasper County and died March 23, 1936 at Runnells, Iowa. He is buried at Vandalia Cemetery in Des Moines Township, Jasper County, Iowa.)
Source: Des Moines Capital; January 10, 1916
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Last Soldier of Runnells and Vandalia Dies
More than four-score and five years on the Polk-Jasper county line there lived a family by the name of Mr. and Mrs. David Honnel, and at that time a son was born into this home a few years before the Civil War broke out, whom they named John Flemming Honnel.
John’s mother died when he was quite small, and at the age of thirteen, when a call came from the president for volunteers, the father and this boy enlisted. His father died as a result of this war as did an uncle, but little, brave Johnnie went on as a drummer boy for some three years.
He wended his way alone in life and learned while impressions were easily made to look after his own welfare, which was a characteristic of the man till the close of his life.
He was for years after the war by vocation, farmer, and for twenty years city assessor for Runnells, where he has lived the past thirty-five years.
While a young man in the year 1870 he united in marriage to Barbara Ellen Van Gundy, a resident of Jasper county, and to this union ten children were born, and eight still survive, most all around the old home, near or in Runnells.
Over sixty years have Mr. and Mrs. Honnel fought life’s battles together, but for the past six weeks Mr. Honnel has been fighting a losing battle, only to give up to the grim reaper in the morning of March 23, 1936, at his Runnells home, leaving the wife, five sons around Runnells, Bird and William yet at home, while O. W. (better known as Tone), James and Jess live near the old home as does Mrs. James Van Gundy and Mrs. Lawrence Jordon, while the other daughter, Mrs. Nora Bivans, resides at Stanley, Wis.
Sympathy of the old neighbors and the friends go out to Mrs. Honnel in her declining years, yet she with the husband have seen all the children grown to manhood and womanhood.
The services were conducted at the Saints church in Runnells by Earl Warren of Ivy, while, like many of the old soldier boys, his body was buried at the Vandalia cemetery, the last of the old veterans of the community.
Services were held March 25, at 10:00 o’clock.
The mother and children wish to express their sincere appreciation for the many kindnesses extended to them in the time of their deep sorrow.
Source: The Prairie City (IA) News; March 26, 1936, page 1