B Biographies

A B C D E F G H I J K L M MC N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

BAADE, JOHANN "JOHN" GEORGE

John Baade was born in the Mecklenburg area of northern Germany on January 3, 1842 but, by 185 7, was working as a young farm hand in Garnavillo.

On August 5, 1862 he enlisted at National as a Private in what would be Company B of the 21st Regiment of the Iowa Volunteer Infantry, a unit then being raised in Iowa's northeastern counties, its 3rd Congressional District. John was described as being 5' 8" tall with blue eyes, flaxen hair and a light complexion. The Company was mustered in on August 18th and the regiment on September 9th, both in Dubuque where training, minimal at best, was received at Camp Franklin (formerly known as Camp Union), On September 16, 1862, they left for war.

Except for a few brief bouts of illness, John maintained his health better than most who served in the western theater. After initial service in Missouri (Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville, West Plains, Ironton, Iron Mountain, Ste. Genevieve), the regiment was transported down the Mississippi to Milliken's Bend where General Grant was organizing a massive army to capture the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg. Assigned to a corps led by General McClernand, the regiment moved south through bayous and swamps west of the river. When a planned crossing at Grand Gulf proved unfeasible, the army continued south and, on April 30, 1863 crossed to the Bruinsburg landing on the east bank.

The first regiment to cross was assigned to high ground above the landing so it could sound the alarm if the enemy approached. The second regiment, the 21st Iowa, was ordered to move inland and to continue moving until fired upon. The orders were ominous, but they did as instructed and, about midnight, drew first fire near the residence of Abram Shaifer. The two sides exchanged gunfire only a short time before resting for the night.

The next day, May 1, 1863, John Baade was with the regiment as it fought the day-long Battle of Port Gibson. On May 16th they were present, but held in reserve, during the Battle of Champion's Hill. Rotated to the front on the 17th, they were in a four-regiment brigade that met entrenched Confederates at the Big Black River. An assault was ordered and, in three minutes, the Confederates were routed, but the regiment had suffered heavy casualties. While other reports differ, an analysis of National Archive documents show that the correct number was seven killed, eighteen fatally wounded, and thirty-eight non-fatally wounded. By May 22, 1863, they had reached the Union line at the rear of Vicksburg where they participated in that day's assault on the city. Casualties in the regiment were twenty-three killed, twelve fatally wounded, and forty-eight non-fatally wounded. Again, John Baade was uninjured and he remained with the regiment throughout the ensuing siege and during an expedition to, and siege of, Jackson, Mississippi.

On September 1, 1863 they were camped at Carrollton, Louisiana, when John received a thirty-day furlough to go north on a surgeon's certificate of disability. Like most others, he was late returning but eventually reached the regiment at Matagorda Island, Texas, on March 30, 1864, just in time for a prayer meeting held that night in the surgeon's tent. John was returned to duty without punishment and served with the regiment for the balance of its service in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and in Alabama during the campaign to capture the city of Mobile.

On July 15, 1865 they were mustered out at Baton Rouge and, on July 24th, were discharged from the military at Clinton, Iowa.

On March 10, 1870, twenty-eight year old John Baade married Doris Krambeer (also known as Anna Maria Dorothea Krambeer and Dorista Krambier). John said they had four children - Johann Friedrich Heinrich born May 26, 1871, Gustave Johann Carl born July 20, 1972, Ida Bertha Elizabeth born August 7, 1875, and Johann Fredrich Heinrich born March 14, 1876.

Doris died in 1876 and, on December 30th of that year, John married Maria Hoth in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the mostly-German community ofClayton Centre. They would have eleven children Mathilde "Tillie" Caroline Marie born November 3, 1877, Heinrich "Henry" Joachim Johan born March 8, 1879, Louisa Wilhelmina Elizabeth born on October 8, 1880, Arthur August Friedrich born January 28, 1883 (or 1884), Theodore Johann Wilhelm born October 10, 1885, William "Willie" Heinrich Carl born March 4 (or March 5), 1888, Atha "Etta" Doris Friedricke born October 20, 1890, George John born September 3, 1892 (or 1891), Jenne "Jennie" August Friedericke born March 16, 1893(or1894), Laura born July 25 (or July 20), 1895, and Leona Wilhelmine born August 31, 1897.

All of the above names and dates, must be regarded as somewhat approximate since, even though reported by John, they sometimes varied from one document to another.

Many soldiers were suffering from wounds or illnesses when they returned to their families, but John Baade did better than most as he and Maria worked a farm about one mile southeast of Froelich. It was not until July 22, 1890 that John asked the Department of the Interior's Pension Office for an invalid pension. By then he was forty-eight years old and said he was partially unable to earn a living by manual labor due to asthma, chronic diarrhoea (an illness that had killed at least sixty-five men while still on the regiment's muster rolls) and general debility. His claim was supported by two ofhis neighbors, Conrad Butts and C. E. Nichols, who said John was "a man ofgood character and steady habits" and appeared to be suffering as he claimed. He was examined by a board of pension surgeons in McGregor and, on July 29, 1891, one year after the application was filed, he was approved for a monthly pension of $8.00.
John continued to work, one by one his children were married, and before long John was a grandfather. His pension, now age-based, was gradually increased to $12.00, then $24.00 and eventually to $72.00 monthly, an amount he was still receiving when he died on November 2, 1929 at eighty-six years of age. He was buried in Monona Cemetery.

Later that month, Maria applied for payment of John's pension that had accrued but not yet been paid when he died and for her own widow's pension. With affidavits from friends and neighbors who knew them, Maria was able to prove she had married John, they had not divorced, and she had not remarried after his death. On April 12, 1930 a $69.60 check was mailed to cover John's accrued pension and on April 14, 1930 a check was mailed to Maria for $132.00 as her own widow's pension.

Maria died on March 23, 1943 (elsewhere 1944) and was buried with her husband in Monona Cemetery.

~Compiled & submitted by Carl Ingwalson December 2020

BAAL, MARTIN

The youngest of three sons born to European immigrants John and Margaret “Mary” Baal, Martin was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 14, 1841. When he was twelve years old the family of five moved to Iowa and settled on a farm near Sherrill’s Mound in Dubuque County.

Nineteen-year-old Martin was still living and working on the farm when Abraham Lincoln was elected President on November 16, 1860. Southern states had threatened secession, but few in the North thought it would happen. As the Clayton County Journal said, “We do not believe that the people of South Carolina desire a dissolution of the Union simply because a Northern man was elected President. There are only a few hot-heads in our opinion who make all this disturbance and they cannot effect anything.” The Journal was wrong. States did secede and, on April 12, 1861, General Beauregard’s Confederate cannon fired on Fort Sumter.

As the ensuing war escalated through a second year and casualties mounted, more men were needed. On July 9, 1862, Iowa’s governor, Sam Kirkwood, received a telegram asking him to raise another five regiments. If not raised by August 15th, a draft was likely. On August 16th, twenty-two-year-old John Baal enlisted and on the 20th Martin joined him. At 5' 10" Martin was slightly taller than average and was described as having dark hair and a dark complexion, occupation farmer. On the 22nd, the brothers were mustered into Company E of what would be the 21st regiment of Iowa’s volunteer infantry. Training at Dubuque’s Camp Franklin was brief and on September 9th, with a total of 985 men, ten companies were mustered in as a regiment. On a rainy 16th, those able for duty boarded the sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside and started south.

On the 17th they stopped at Rock Island for one night and, while there, learned that Thompson Spottswood had become the first to die. Ill and left behind, he had succumbed to measles and lung congestion while being treated at his uncle’s house in Epworth. The regiment resumed its trip on the 18th, debarked at Montrose due to low water, traveled by rail to Keokuk, boarded the Hawkeye State and arrived in St. Louis about 10:00 a.m. on the 20th. The weather was hot and by the time they reached Benton Barracks many were exhausted. After the next day’s inspection, they marched to the rail line, boarded cars usually reserved for freight and livestock, and traveled through the night to the railhead at Rolla.

The water at their first campsite “oppressed the senses like the breath of sewers” and they soon relocated to Sycamore Springs southwest of town. For the next month they practiced their drill and waited for orders. On October 18th they left Rolla for Salem followed by Houston and Hartville where they arrived on November 15th. After a wagon train was attacked on November 24th, they returned to Houston but, when word was received that a Confederate column was advancing on Springfield, a hastily organized relief force including 262 volunteers from the 21st Infantry hurried in that direction. On January 11th, before reaching Springfield, they engaged in a one-day battle at Hartville. Military records do not indicate that Martin was present during the battle.

After the battle, the able-bodied returned to Houston by way of Lebanon and rejoined their comrades. The regiment then moved to West Plains where they spent nine nights before moving northeast through Ironton and Iron Mountain to Ste. Genevieve where they arrived on March 11th. From there they were transported downstream to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant was organizing an army to capture Vicksburg. So far, Martin had been marked “present” on all bimonthly company muster rolls and he continued with the regiment when it started a slow march through swamps, along dirt roads and over bayous west of the river. On April 30th, they crossed to Bruinsburg on the east bank and, with the 21st Iowa as the point regiment for the entire 30,000 man army, started a slow march inland. Continuing to maintain his health while many others had been discharged due to medical disabilities, Martin participated in the next day’s Battle of Port Gibson.

On May 16 the largest battle of the campaign, the Battle of Champion Hill, was fought with heavy casualties on both sides, but the 21st Iowa had been held in reserve by General McClernand and did not participate. “Those who stood there that day,” said William Crooke, “will surely never forget the bands of humiliation and shame which bound them to the spot, while listening to the awful crashes of musketry and thunders of cannon close by." Having not been engaged on the 16th, they were moved to the front on the 17th and continued to advance toward Vicksburg. West of the rail depot at Edwards they encountered entrenched Confederates who were hoping to keep the railroad bridge over the Big Black River open. Officers conferred and then ordered their men forward. The 21st and 23rd Iowa led the charge, a successful assault that only took three minutes but came at a heavy price. Seven members of the regiment were killed, another eighteen had wounds that would soon prove fatal and at least forty suffered wounds that, although not fatal, were often serious. Martin Baal was among them.

Martin was wounded in the right foot and that evening the foot was amputated above the joint.

As soon as safe access to the river was available, Martin and eight of his comrades were taken on board the hospital steamer City of Memphis and transported upstream where they were admitted to the Adams U.S.A. General Hospital in Memphis. Martin was later transported to the general hospital at St. Louis’ Jefferson Barracks and that’s where he was when he was discharged from the military on September 26, 1863.

Three months later he applied for an invalid pension. With a supportive affidavit from his former captain, Jacob Swivel, Martin’s application was approved and on March 5, 1864, a certificate was issued entitling him to $8.00 per month, payable quarterly. In September he was provided with an “artificial limb” made by Charles Stafford but, still unable to effectively return to farming, he worked as a cigar maker. In 1866, with the support of John Buckholz (another comrade from the 21st Infantry), Martin received a pension increase to $15.00 monthly payable through the agency in Marion.

On October 3, 1873, thirty-year-old Martin and eighteen-year-old Mary Hoerner were married by Rev. Herman Ficke in Dubuque where they made their home at 1335 Iowa Street. They were living at 379 Windsor Avenue in 1885, 381 Windsor Avenue in 1887 and 904 Davis Street in 1920. In answer to a 1915 government questionnaire Martin said all of their children “living or dead” were Alvin Frederick Baal born July 27, 1874, John Andrew Baal born February 16, 1878, and David J. Baal born March 31, 1892.

Martin’s pension had been increased to $40 by 1926 when he applied for another increase. That May, after Dr. Matthew Moes signed an affidavit saying eighty-two-year-old Martin had “developed many of the infirmities that go with age” and constantly “requires the care and attention of another person,” the pension was increased to $72. An application for another increase was pending when Martin died on April 12, 1930, sixty-nine years after Confederate guns had fired on Fort Sumter.

Indicating that Martin had left no personal or real property and only $60.00 cash, Mary applied for and received her husband’s accrued but unpaid pension and her own widow’s pension that was soon granted at an initial rate of $30 monthly. She was still living at her home on Davis Street when she died on May 13, 1938.

Martin’s parents are buried in the Sherrill United Church of Christ Cemetery while Martin and Mary are in Linwood Cemetery as are two of their sons (John and David) and both of Mary’s parents, Andrew and Maria Hoerner.

~Compiled & submitted by Carl Ingwalson December 2020

BABB, WASHINGTON I

was born in Des Moines County, Iowa, October 2, 1844. His education was begun in the public schools and continued in the Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant. Early in 1863 he enlisted in the Eighth Iowa Cavalry, serving with his regiment in the Army of the Cumberland until the close of the war. He took part in the Atlanta campaign, the battles of Franklin and Nashville and the Wilson expedition through Alabama and Georgia. Upon his return to Mount Pleasant, Mr. Babb reentered the University, graduating in 1866. He studied law, was admitted to the bar and entered upon practice in 1868. He was a member of the law firm of Woolson & Babb, which for eighteen years was regarded as one of the ablest in that section of the State. Although originally a Republican, Mr. Babb differed with his party on reconstruction policy and united with the Democrats after the war. In 1883 he was elected to the House of the Twentieth General Assembly in a strong Republican county, serving as a member of the committees on judiciary and railroads. In 1890 he was chosen judge of the Second Judicial District, resuming practice upon leaving the bench in 1895. When the free silver issue became prominent Judge Babb was largely instrumental in securing the adoption of a sound money platform at the Democratic State Convention of 1895, which nominated him for Governor. In 1896 he received the Democratic vote in the General Assembly for United States Senator. He adhered to the sound money wing of the party in the campaign of 1896. Judge Babb has taken a deep interest in education, serving for more than twenty years as a trustee of the Iowa Wesleyan University, and several years as regent of the State University. The former institution has conferred upon him the degree of LL. D.

Jeremiah R. Bailey, a farmer residing on section 32, Yellow Spring Township, Des Moines County, Iowa, was born in Center County, Pa., June 5, 1835, and is a son of Ephraim and Mary H. (Rankin) Bailey, both of whom were also natives of Center County. Our subject was reared upon a farm, educated at the common schools, and emigrated to Iowa with his parents in 1855, they locating on section 32, Yellow Spring Township, Des Moines County, and adjoining where our subject now lives. Ephraim and Mary H. Bailey are the parents of six children, all of whom are now living. Jeremiah R. is the eldest; Sarah, the next, is the wife of Martin L. Heizer, of Mediapolis; Mary J. is the wife of James McMullen, of Burlington, Iowa; John N., who was a member of Company K, 2d Iowa Calvary, of which he was Sergeant, is now a resident of California; Rachel E. is the wife of David R. Bruce, living near Grafton, Neb.; and Ephraim E. D. lives with his father in Kossuth, Des Moines Co., Iowa. Jeremiah lived with his father until Nov. 12, 1861, when, responding to his country's call for volunteers, he enlisted in Company K, 2d Iowa Calvary, serving for three years, and participating in the battles of Corinth, Iuka, Holly Springs, Tupelo, and numerous other skirmishes, in one of which he was slightly wounded in the arm. Returning home in November, 1864, Mr. Bailey worked as a farm-hand for a year, and then rented land in various localities until 1870. On the 20th of November, 1866, he wedded Sarah Hinson, a native of Ross County, Ohio, and a daughter of Joab and Eve (Philips) Hinson, whose birthplace was also in the Buckeye State. Her parents were among the earliest pioneers of Des Moines County, having settled in Benton Township in 1839. The mother died Jan. 5, 1883, aged seventy-nine years, but the father is still living at Kingston, Iowa.

In 1871 Mr. Bailey made his first purchase of land, which consisted of a farm of forty acres on section 32 of Yellow Spring Township. Upon this land the family yet resides, though he now owns eighty acres. Mr. Bailey and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian Church, and he also belongs to Sheppard Post, No. 159, G. A. R.

Ephraim Bailey, the father of our subject, now lives a retired life in the village of Kossuth. His wife died in 1856, and he was again married, Abbie R. Rankin, a cousin by his former marriage, becoming his wife.

Rev. William French Baird was born on the 22d day of September, 1818. His ancestors were of Scotch extraction, from the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Some of the family sojourned in the northern part of Ireland, near Londonderry, and thence they came to the American Colonies and settled near Lancaster, Pa. His grandfather, Robert Baird, was barely twenty years of age when he entered the patriotic army of the Revolution. Mr. Baird's father, Alexander Baird, the eldest son of Robert Baird, was married to Nancy French, the daughter of Enoch and Mary French. The maternal side of the family was also of Scotch descent, and came to America prior to the Revolution, and settled near Germantown, Pa. Both grandparents of Mr. Baird settled in Fayette County, Pa., and were Ruling Elders in Dunlap's Creek congregation, of the Presbyterian Church. His grandfather Baird was married to Elizabeth Reeves, whose parents were of English and Welsh descent, and were natives of Long Island. His grandfather French was married to Mary McIlroy, of Scotch and Irish descent.

Mr. Baird's father was an officer under Gen. William Henry Harrison, for whom he ever cherished the most affectionate regard and admiration. The early influences by which Mr. Baird was surrounded were most favorable to early development of Christian life and character. His parents were members of Dunlap's Creek congregation, of the Presbyterian Church, which was organized about 1775 or 1776. During the long years of faithful ministrations of such men as Rev. Myers, Powers, McMillan, Dunlap, Jennings, Johnson and Samuel Wilson, D. D., now of Fairfield, Iowa, they could not fail in furnishing the most desirable society for childhood and youth. The observance of the Sabbath, prayer-meetings, Sabbath-schools, catechizations, temperance and education, were the results of such faithful labor.

Mr. Baird professed religion when twelve years of age, and united with Hopewell congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Baird had six brothers and six sisters; of his brothers three were ministers and three were Ruling Elders in the church. Mr. Baird's father not only gave his children a good education, but desired his sons to learn some trade, so as to be the better prepared for any misfortune that might befall them in the future. Two sons were millwrights, one a coachmaker, one a stonemason, one an artist and one a dentist. Of the six sons four received a collegiate education and one son died in his senior year at college.

Mr. Baird left home early in life and learned to build a nine-passenger coach, a barouche, phaeton and buggy. He then completed a collegiate course in Madison College, at Uniontown, Pa., and received his theological education under Rev. Milton Bird, D. D., and Rev. Azil Freeman, D. D., and was licensed to preach on the 8th of April, 1848. Mr. Baird came to Iowa, arriving in Burlington on the 16th day of December, 1848, and was appointed missionary the spring following, to operate in Iowa, with his home at Burlington.

Mr. Baird was ordained by the Union Presbytery at Hopewell, Pa., on the 3d of September, 1849, and on the 5th day was united in marriage to Miss Rebecca B. Harah, of Uniontown, Pa. It was a happy marriage. The religious influence surrounding Mrs. Baird's early life was of the most precious character. She was educated in Fayette Seminary, at Uniontown, Pa., and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. The fruit of this union was two sons--William H. and Henry M. Baird, both graduates of the dental department of the Iowa State University, and now located in the city of their birth.

Mr. Baird returned to Iowa, arriving at Burlington in the fall of 1849. At this time there was but one Cumberland Presbyterian Church house in Iowa, and now there are between thirty and forty, seven of which were built under the labors of Mr. Baird. Much of the vast field in Iowa, and some thirty counties in Illinois, were traversed on horseback. Mr. Baird made three extended tours, prior to the war, in the Southern States, under the direction of the Board of Missions of his church.

When the late war came on Mr. Baird remained a Union man, and presented a battle flag to the Burlington Zouaves, which severed his relation with the Board of Missions, which was located in the South. Mr. Baird was one of the three agents jointly appointed by the American Bible Society, and the United States Christian Commission, to superintend the Scripture work in the army and navy--styled Army Agents at New York and Field Agents at Philadelphia. Mr. Baird was assigned to the "armies of the Southwest, under Gen. Grant and Sherman," with headquarters at Nashville, Tenn., after the capture of the city. At the close of the war Rev. Dr. Hall, of the Gulf, and Rev. Mr. Gilbert, of the Potomac, were released, and the entire work was entrusted to Mr. Baird, to provide for the remnant of the army and navy, to re-open the Bible work in the Southern States, to select State agents and to bring in the freedmen. This required two years of hard labor and much travel. The last labor was performed in the trans-Mississippi Department. Mr. Baird was in New Orleans during the riot of July, 1865; a terrible day it was. He crossed over to Galveston, Tex., and thence north to Red River, visited the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, and provided for them the Scriptures, returning south to Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Brownsville. Here Mr. Baird found Rev. James Hickey, agent for Mexico, on his deathbed, received his dying requests, preached his funeral discourse, and laid him to rest. Mr. Baird took the aged widow, Thomas Sepulvada, Mr. Hickey's guide, the American Bible Society's ambulance, and drove to Monterey, reorganized the Bible work and returned to New Orleans, and thence to Burlington, after an absence of eight months, having traveled 8,000 miles and spoken 800 times. After recovering from a severe sickness, Mr. Baird went to New York in May, 1866, and closed his agency. He received $400 besides his salary as a token of appreciation for faithful services rendered amid danger and death. For several years Mr. Baird's health was so impaired as to demand rest, but at present he is quite well, and preaches every Sabbath, and had in charge a congregation at Mr. Hamill, Lee County, and two congregations in Cedar County. Every year of Mr. Baird's ministerial life has received tokens of divine favor in revivals of religion.

~Source: A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY,BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931

BAKER, HORACE W

during his many years of residence at Wapello has come in contact with many interests and activities, has been a school teacher, a practicing lawyer, merchant, public official and is at the high tide of his success today. Mr. Baker is a great-great-grandson of Robert Williams, one of the earliest residents of Louisa County. This family enjoys the distinction of being perhaps the only one in the state with members of the seventh generation living in Louisa County, where the ancestor Robert Williams, is buried. Horace W. Baker was born at Wapello, February 2, 1873. His father, William L. Baker, was born in Greenwich, New York, and was a child when his parents came out to Iowa in 1850 and settled at Wapello. He grew up there, attended local schools and finished his education in the University of Iowa. He was one of the capable early-day educators of Iowa, a profession he followed for a number of years. He died in 1925 and his wife, Matie I. Jones, a native of Wapello, died in 1878. Their two children were Horace W. and Mrs. Abbie A. Yakle, the latter now deceased.

Horace W. Baker was educated at Wapello, and graduated from high school at Morning Sun in 1893, having taught two terms of school before finishing high school. For four years he was superintendent of schools at Winfield, Iowa, remaining there until 1898, when he entered the University of Iowa for the law course. The LL. B. degree was given him in 1900, and on returning to Wapello he practiced law in association with Arthur Springer until 1905. Mr. Baker was elected and served five terms, ten years, as county auditor of Louisa County and in 1918 was called upon to take up further work in connection with this office, acting as county examiner for the state auditor's department. This was his official relationship until 1925, when he resigned to engaged in the business of collector of delinquent taxes and other accounts due the counties. Mr. Baker has some valuable farming interests, real estate investments,and is one of the owners of the Commercial Hotel at Wapello. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Kaaba Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Davenport, thirty-second degree, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America and a Republican in politics.

He married Miss Katharine H. Pierce of Winfield, Iowa, March 16, 1897. They have four children, Kenneth B.; Vern M.; William H. and E. Pierce. Three of their four children, Kenneth B., William Horace and E. Pierce, are members of the firm H. W. Baker Company, and are engaged in collecting accounts, having had contracts in nearly one-third of the counties of Iowa. Vern M. is connected with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, now located in New Mexico.

Mrs. Katharine Pierce Baker is a daughter of Lyman Beecher and Lea Ann (Bandy) Pierce, who were early settlers of Des Moines County, Iowa. Mrs. Pierce came from Indiana with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Bandy, in 1838. Mrs. Baker represents a long line of educators, both her father and mother having been teachers in Des Moines and Louisa counties and both were students in the Yellow Springs Academy when the Civil war broke out. Lyman B. Pierce served all through the war as a member of the Second Iowa Cavalry and afterwards he wrote and published a history of his regiment. Following the war he took his family out to Kansas and for five years was superintendent of schools at Manhattan. Later he homesteaded a claim in Dickinson County, near Solomon City, Kansas. In 1876 the Pierce family returned to Iowa again located at Kossuth in Des Moines County. In 1882 they moved to Winfield, Iowa, where L. B. Pierce was active in civic and church matters. Mrs. Pierce died June 14, 1918, and Mr. Pierce on February 20, 1922. Besides Mrs. Baker their children were:

C. H. Pierce, an engineer with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, living at Winfield; Grace, wife of William Price, a merchant at Winfield; J. Ed., owner and manager of one of the largest tile manufacturing plants in Iowa; and Mrs. Mary Pierce Van Zile, dean of women of the State Agricultural College at Kansas at Manhattan, a position she has held for the past twenty years.

~ Source: History of Iowa, Vol IV, 1903

BAKER, NATHANIEL B

is a name which will for all time be intimately associated with Iowa' war history. He was born at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, September 29, 1818. A graduate of Harvard, he entered the law office of Franklin Pierce in 1839 and began practice in 1842. He was for three years editor of the New Hampshire Patriot and in 1846 became Clerk of the Supreme Court. In 1851 he was elected to the Legislature and chosen Speaker of the house of Representatives, serving two terms. In 1852 he was one of the presidential electors and voted for his old preceptor for President. In 1854 he was elected Governor of New Hampshire and was the last Democrat who held that office before the political revolution which left his party in the minority. In 1856 Governor Baker became a resident of Iowa, locating at Clinton. In 1859 he was elected to the Iowa Legislature and when the War of the Rebellion began he led the war wing of his party to give cordial support to Governor Kirkwood's administration. The Governor appointed him Adjutant-General of the State and all through the Rebellion his superb executive ability was given to the work of organizing the fifty-seven regiments of volunteers which Iowa furnished to the President. He organized a system that has preserved a permanent record of the service of every Iowa soldier who entered the army. As the war progressed the duties of Inspector-General, Quartermaster, Paymaster and Commissary-General were imposed upon him, and the duties discharged with promptness unsurpassed. He was untiring in caring for the comfort of Iowa soldiers, and as the regiments were discharged he gathered at the State Arsenal all of the battle flags which were brought home for careful preservation. He planned and superintended the great reunion of Iowa soldiers in 1870, where every one of the 20,000 veterans was eager to take him by the hand. He held the office of Adjutant-General to the day of his death, which occurred on the 13th of September, 1876. Governor Kirkwood issued a proclamation announcing his death and enumerating his great services to the State. The national flag was displayed from the public buildings at half-mast and minute guns were fired the day of his funeral, which was one of the most imposing ever seen in the State. A monument was erected to his memory over his grave in Woodland Cemetery, Des Moines, by voluntary contributions of Iowa soldiers.

BANBURY, JABEZ

was a native of England but came to America when quite young. He was a mechanic and located at Marshalltown, Iowa. Before the Rebellion he had some military experience as a member of an independent company. In June, 1861, he helped raise a company which was attached to the Fifth Iowa Infantry, as Company D, of which Banbury was elected first lieutenant. He won rapid promotion, becoming captain in February, 1862, major in July following and colonel in April, 1863. After the fall of Vicksburg, he was for a time in command of a brigade. He was mustered out of the service in August, 1864, and removed to California in 1870, where he died on the 11th of December, 1900.

BANDY, ELIJAH W

has been a resident of Yellow Spring Township for almost half a century. Here he was born March 25, 1840, and is a son of John and Mary (Vannice) Bandy. John Bandy came to Des Moines County in 1838, settling upon the farm where our subject now lives. He was a wheelwright by trade, but during his residence in Iowa, was engaged in tilling the soil. Twelve children were born to them, ten in Indiana, and two in this county, of whom nine are now living, two being residents of the county, and four of the sons were soldiers in the late War. William, now a farmer in Scott County, Minn., was a soldier in the 4th Minnesota Infantry; Isaac died in this county in 1884; Rachel became the wife of S. A. Hall, a resident of Santa Cruz, Cal.; Thomas resides in Brookings County, Dak.; John, who lives in Fairfield, Iowa, and is engaged in dairying, was a soldier in the 2d Iowa Cavalry; Samuel is engaged in farming on section 19, Yellow Spring Township; Peter is a merchant of Holt County, Mo.; Henry died at the age of twenty years and eleven months, in September, 1853; Jacob F., a soldier in the 2d Iowa Cavalry, served from 1861 to 1865, as Captain of Company K, and died Oct. 11, 1878, near Memphis, Tenn.; Lee A. is the wife of L. B. Pierce, of Winfield, Iowa; our subject is next in order of birth; and Catherine is the wife of Isaiah Messenger, who is engaged in the manufacture of tile at Fairfield, Iowa. The father of these children, who was born in 1794, died at an advanced age, May 5, 1873. His wife, who was born in 1799, died June 2, 1881. They were both active members in the Presbyterian Church, of which Mr. Bandy was an Elder for thirty-five years, and his aid was largely given to the advancement of the cause. In his earlier life he cast his ballot with the Whig party, but later became a Republican. He also served in the War of 1812, and was a native of Virginia, and his wife of Mercer County, Ky.

There are few men in the county who can boast of having been born and reared upon a farm where they now reside, but this is true of Mr. Bandy. His early education was received in the district schools, supplemented by a course in the Yellow Spring College. At the age of twenty-one, in 1861, he enlisted under the stars and stripes, becoming a member of the 2d Iowa Cavalry, and serving three years. He participated in the siege of Corinth, the battles of Iuka, Black Land, Farmington, Boonville, Rienzi, Paton's Mills, battle of Corinth, Holly Springs, Yockeney River, Water Valley, Collierville, Moscow and Prairie Station, Miss., and in all Mr. Bandy was always found at his post of duty, serving his country faithfully and well. Being mustered out of service in October, 1864, Mr. Bandy returned home and worked for his father for five or six years. On the 22d of May, 1873, he was united in marriage with Elizabeth Frame, who was born in Yellow Spring Township, and is a daughter of Milton J. and Maria (Allen) Frame. Their union has been blessed with two children--John E. and Herbert F. Mr. and Mrs. Bandy are both members of the Presbyterian Church, of which he is a Deacon. He has served on the Township Board for several terms, and is a member of the I. O. O. F., and also of the G. A. R. He has a fine farm of 100 acres, all highly cultivated, and is one of the progressive farmers of Yellow Spring Township.

M. J. Frame, the father of Mrs. Bandy, came to this county in 1851, and here improved a fine farm. He is a native of Indiana, and was a blacksmith by trade, which occupation he carried on at Kossuth, until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he enlisted in the 14th Iowa Infantry, serving three years. After the war was ended, he returned to Kossuth, where he again worked at his trade until 1876, and then removed to Champaign County, Ill., where he owns and carries on a large farm. His wife was formerly Maria Allen, a native of Kentucky

BARBER, WILLIAM CLAYTON

The son of Josiah W. and Marjane E. Barber, William Clayton Barber was born on August 31, 1843, in Clayton County. The 1882 county history says he was born in Farmersburg Township but William, in a sworn affidavit and elsewhere, said he was born in Garnavillo. A brother, Quincy, was born in 1847 and another brother, Henry, in 1848.

During the Civil War, on August 20, 1862, at Millville, he was enrolled by McGregor postmaster Willard Benton as a private in the military. They were mustered in as Company G on August 22nd at Dubuque and, with nine other companies, were mustered in on September 9th as the 21st regiment of Iowa’s volunteer infantry. William was described as being 5' 9¼” tall with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion. Like most others in the regiment, he had been working as a farmer prior to enlistment.

The regiment, crowded on board the Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside, left for war on September 16th and saw early service in Missouri. After one night in St. Louis, they traveled by rail to Rolla and then walked to Salem, Houston and Hartville but, when a wagon train carrying supplies was attacked on November 24, 1862, they returned to the safer confines of Houston. They were still there when word was received that a Confederate force was advancing on Springfield. A relief force was quickly assembled but, on the way to Springfield, it met the enemy in a one-day battle on January 11, 1863, at Hartville. After returning to Houston, they moved south to West Plains and then northeast to Thomasville, Ironton and Iron Mountain. On March 11, 1863, they walked sixteen miles and camped on a ridge north of Ste. Genevieve on the Mississippi River. Except for a short case of the measles when they were in Rolla, William maintained his health well and continued with the regiment when they went downstream to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant, intent on capturing the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, was organizing a large three-corps army.

Serving under General McClernand, they walked and waded along roads, through swamps and across bayous west of the river until, on April 30, 1863, they crossed to Bruinsburg, Mississippi. That night, they were the point regiment as the army started inland and, about midnight, they drew first fire near the Shaifer residence. After a brief exchange of gunfire in total darkness, men on both sides rested for several hours and tried to sleep. The next day, May 1st, they participated in the one-day battle of Port Gibson in which three of William’s comrades suffered fatal wounds.

Grant moved farther inland after the battle, drove the enemy to and through Jackson and then, having protected the rear of his army, changed direction and headed for Vicksburg. On May 16th, most of his army was engaged in battle at Champion’s Hill. Both sides suffered heavily, but the 21st Iowa, restrained by General McClernand, was held out of the battle. Late in the day, Companies A and B were permitted to do some skirmishing, protect prisoners and help gather arms, but many felt humiliated that they had been ordered to stand idle while others died.

The next day they were rotated to the front and, with the 23rd Iowa, led an assault on a Confederate line at the Big Black River. The successful assault lasted only three minutes, but the regiment had seven killed in action, eighteen more with fatal wounds, and at least forty with non-fatal wounds. While other regiments moved to Vicksburg and began to encircle the rear of the city, the 21st and 23rd Iowa were allowed to rest and care for their casualties.

A May 19th assault at Vicksburg was unsuccessful and General Grant ordered another for the 22nd. By then the regiment was present. An initial artillery barrage was followed by an assault along a three and one-half mile front. Men in Company B were held back as sharpshooters, but all other companies participated in an attack on the railroad redoubt in front of them. This, like the assault three days earlier, was unsuccessful and regimental casualties were worse than those incurred at the Big Black: twenty-three killed, twelve fatally wounded and at least forty-eight with non-fatal wounds. At the end of the day, many were left on the field - some dead, some dying, some with serious wounds - and there they remained until the 25th when Confederate General Pemberton proposed to Grant "in the name of humanity ... a cessation of hostilities for two hours and a half, that you may be enabled to remove your dead and dying men."

Among the living, carried from the field by four members of the company after more than two days without food or water, was William Barber. Nelson Reynolds, his Millville neighbor, accompanied William as he was taken to the field hospital and watched as William was laid on a table and Dr. Orr administered chloroform while a second doctor worked on the wound. Medicine was injected "that caused a large quantity of maggots to come from the wound," but the surgeon was unable to locate the musket ball and it would have to stay where it was, somewhere in William's hip. On June 4th, Jim Bethard, a friend from Grand Meadow Township, wrote to his wife, Caroline Bethard:

"Wm Barber was severely wounded and has gone up the river to what point I do not know."

William had been taken to the Gayoso U. S. Army General Hospital in Memphis and there he would remain for many months. On February 12, 1864, he was returned to duty but, by then, his regiment was in Texas and it was March 16th before he reached his comrades. On the 24th, Jim Bethard wrote:

"Wm Barber is quite sick at present with a fever caused by the inflamation of his old wound received at vicksburg last spring the ball is working out toward the surface and the doctor thinks he can cut out after a while."

Unfortunately, the embedded musket ball continued to cause problems, an abscess developed over the hip joint, and the surgeon had to lance it along the lower edge. On May 1st, Jim Bethard wrote again:

"Wm Barber has had quite a serious time with his old wound but was getting better yesterday I have not seen him this morning the wound inflamed and swelled up causing a fever and he has been quite sick for about a week the doctor probed his thigh on the back part and it has discharged a great deal of matter and he is getting along finely now but it is my opinion that he will never be of any account in the army.

On May 8th he wrote:

"Wm Barber has had quite a serious time with his old wound but he is getting along verry well now he has got so that he walks around without any cain.”

Despite Jim’s comments, Dr. Orr finally decided that William was “incapable of performing the duties of a soldier because of lameness.” William was discharged at Algiers, Louisiana, and, on July 24th, Jim wrote:

"Wm Barber has got his discharge and started home last friday he was in good health when he started As it is I am glad to see him out of the service but if he was all right I should like to have him with us Bill is a good boy and I think I may safely say he has not an enemy in the 21st Iowa he intended to stop in Illinois and take his Grandmother home with him I hope he will get through all right."

That fall, gravity caused the ball to slowly work its way closer to the surface. On October 15, 1864, it was removed by a doctor and William was presented with a souvenir, “flattened considerably by reason of the same striking the hip bone."

On April 4, 1867, he married Izora Hutchins, still a month short of her seventeenth birthday, at her father’s home in Monona Township. A daughter, Nellie, was born April 12, 1868, in the community then known as Gem in Marion Township. Nellie was followed by Dow DeLoss Barber on December 25, 1869, Peter Thaddeus Barber on June 23, 1872, and William Ray “Willie” Barber on April 11, 1882.

Meanwhile, on November 26, 1870, William gave his Post Office address as Gem when he applied for an invalid pension. With former comrades Maple Moody and Tim Hopkins as witnesses and Willard Benton signing a supportive affidavit, William said he had tried to resume farming, but was disabled by the old gunshot wound. Surprisingly, an examining surgeon said the disability was originally “a simple flesh gun shot wound” and William’s leg was “perfect.”

A pension was denied, but William persisted. Another surgeon felt William was three-fourths disabled from earning a living by manual labor, but the Adjutant General’s office said returns “do not show him wounded as alleged.” Finally, in 1875, he was awarded a $3.00 monthly pension. Subsequent applications gave his address as Luana, Iowa, in 1876, 1880 and 1883. In 1884 he joined McGregor’s Hervey Dix Post of the GAR, but in 1886 said he was living in Gem. In 1887 he moved to Nebraska where he lived initially in Dawes County and then for many years in Sheridan County.

From there, William and Izora moved to the far west and in 1913 were living in Pasadena, California. William was receiving a $21.50 monthly pension and living at 531 Olive Avenue, Long Beach, when he died on December 9, 1916. William was buried in the nearby Sunnyside Cemetery, 1905 East Willow.

Two weeks later, still living in Long Beach, Izora applied for a widow’s pension with her son, Dow D. Barber as a witness. To prove that she had been married to William, she secured an affidavit from his brother, Quincy Barber and Quincy’s wife, Luretta, both of whom had attended the marriage more than fifty years earlier. A pension was granted, but Izora eventually moved back to Nebraska and lived with her son, Peter Barber, who was a dentist in Omaha. Izora died on August 8, 1835. Peter arranged for her burial in Long Beach and paid the $25.38 charge for her interment in Sunnyside Cemetery.

Dow D. Barber died in Alliance, Nebraska, in 1955 and Peter died in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1960. Nellie died young but her burial and that of Willie have not been located.

~Compiled & submitted by Carl Ingwalson December 2020

BARNES, WILLIAM H

one of the enterprising and influential citizens of Riley Township, residing on section 10, was born in Marion County, Ohio, January 11, 1841, a son of Benjamin and Cornelia (BOYATON) BARNES, the father born and reared in Delaware, and the mother a native of Vermont, but reared in New York State. The father died in Marion County, Ohio, June 6, 1840, aged fifty-four years. He left three children - Lydia, now living in Indianola, Iowa, married George W. LONGAKER, who enlisted in the Thirteenth Ohio Infantry, and died in the service of his country; William H., the subject of this sketch, and Benjamin O., who enlisted in Company C., Forty-eighth Iowa Infantry, and died at Rock Island, Illinois.

Our subject was reared in his native county. His father dying whne he was only eight years old, he was in early life thrown on his own resources, his youth being spent in toil. Receiving fair educational advantages, he made the most of his opportunities, and became a well-informated man.

In 1861 he came to Iowa, locating in Decatur County, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits, remaining there till May 22, 1864, when he enlisted in Company C., Forty-eighth Iowa Infantry, and was with his regiment at Rock Island and Chicago, Illinois, guarding rebel prisoners. During the last year of the war Mr. BARNES was active in recruiting his company, and on it organization he was commissioned Second Lieutenant. He was honorably discharged, october 20, 1865, when he returned to Decatur County, Iowa.

Desiring to better educate himself, he entered Simpson Centenary College, at Indianola, in 1865, attending that institution four years.

In 1868 his mother and stepfather, Harvey BONHAM, who had come West with him, moved to his farm in Riley Township, living there some nine years. After leaving college Mr. BARNES followed the teacher's profession, in which he was very successful.

Mr. BARNES bought 100 acres of his present property in 1865, although he did not locate there till the year 1868. This property is known by old settlers as the Riley farm, having been at one time the home of Robert H. RILEY, the pioneer settler of the township, and in whose honor at the suggestion of Mr. BARNES, the township, when organized, was named. Mr. BARNES has added to his original purchase, 160 acres, and has made it one of the best farms in his neighborhood, where he is still engaged in farming.

Mr. BARNES was united in marriage, November 13, 1884, to Miss Maggie A. SINCO, born in Decatur County, Iowa, November 2, 1854, a daughter of Henry and Jane SINCO, of whom her father is now deceased. Her mother now lives at Kellerton. They have one child - Virginia, born October 16, 1885.

In politics Mr. BARNES is identified with the Republican party. He has held the office of township clerk since the township was organized, with the exception of perhaps three years, and all the time has been secretary of the School Board. he has served three years as a member of the County Board of Supervisors, and has twice been elected assessor.

NOTE: William H. BARNES died at his home in Riley Township, Ringgold County, Iowa, on December 27, 1927 at the age of 86 years. Maggie A. (SINCO) BARNES was born in 1854, and died in 1936. William and Maggie were interred at Maple Row Cemetery, Kellerton, Ringgold County, Iowa.

Cornelia (BOYATON) BARNES BONHAM, William's mother died at the age of 75 years, 9 months and 28 days on September 18, 1894. Harvey BONHAM, William's stepfather was born in 1824, and died in 1911. John Luther BONHAM, Harvey's brother, was born on June 5, 1813, and died April 7, 1881. They were interred at Patrick Cemetery, Ringgold County, Iowa.

~Sources:
Biography & Historical Record of Ringgold County, Iowa, Pp. 366-67, 1887.
WPA Graves Survey
http://iagenweb.org/ringgold/ from Biography & Historical Record of Ringgold County, Iowa Lewis Publishing Company of Chicago, 1887, Pp. 366-67
~Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2009

BATES, JOHN F

was the first colonel of the first regiment furnished by Iowa to the War of the Rebellion. He was born on the 3d of January, 1831, at Utica, New York. He paid his expenses at school for six years by performing the labors of janitor. From 1852 to 1855 he was an insurance agent in New York City and then removed to Iowa locating at Dubuque. There he was elected Clerk of the District Court in 1858. When Governor Kirkwood issued his proclamation on the 17th of April, 1861, calling for volunteers for a regiment to serve for three months, thousands of citizens responded. But one thousand could be accepted and when they were organized into the First Iowa Infantry in May, John F. Bates was chosen colonel. He commanded the regiment in the battles of Booneville and Dug Springs under General Lyon, but at the greater Battle of Wilson's Creek he was not present. His military career closed at the end of three months when the First Iowa was mustered out.

BATTIN, NEWTON

of Bloomfield, at the age of ninety-one was one of the surviving veterans of the Civil war. He was a member of an Iowa regiment. For many years he had been one of the highly respected citizens of Davis County. He was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, January 2, 1839, son of Ezra and Julina (Keith) Battin, and grandson of John Battin, who was of old Quaker Pennsylvania ancestry. In 1856 the Battin family moved to Davis county, Iowa.

Newton Battin grew up on a farm, and in August, 1861, enlisted at Bloomfield in Company E of the Third Iowa Cavalry. He went all through the war, being commissioned a second lieutenant. He was a participant in the Wilson raid through Alabama and Georgia, and was in many campaigns and skirmishes, being twice wounded. He received his honorable discharge at Atlanta, Georgia, and returned home to Iowa, where he engaged in farming until he reached the age of seventy. Mr. Battin has always shown a disposition to work with others and assume duties and responsibilities in a public way. For three years he was a member of the county board of supervisors and has held other offices. During the World war, though nearly eighty years of age, he was made head of the Davis County war organization work. His chief hobby and recreation in recent years has been gardening. For many years he has been commander of Elisha B. Townsend Post No. 100 of the Grand Army of the Republic and has also been president of the Third Iowa Cavalry Association.
In December, 1865, he married Matilda E. Modrell, of Davis County. She died in 1870. Her daughter June died in 1869. In February, 1871, Mr. Battin married Harriet Modrell, a sister of his first wife. She passed away in 1911, at the home in Bloomfield, where he continued to reside. She was the mother of seven children: John E., a Davis County farmer, Fred E., of Pierre, South Dakota, who is married and has two daughters, Lala and Blanche; Margaret E., the wife of L. G. Senseney, of Bloomfield; Lenora, a graduate nurse, served as army nurse in France during the World war and is superintendent of a hospital at Monterey Park, California; Jason E., of Davis County, is married and has a daughter, Pauline: Newton Elmer; and Harriet Ruth, wife of E. F. Bandel of Denver, Colorado, and mother of a daughter, Bernice E.

Since the writing of the above sketch Mr. Battin died, February 19, 1931.

BAULE, JOSEPH

One of five children born to Anton (Anthony) Baule, a veteran of the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, and his wife, Fanziska Westze (Francis Weitz), Joseph was born on May 25, 1838, in Wältingerode, Germany. On June 24th of that year he was baptized as Johann Heinrich Joseph Baule. In 1846 the family immigrated to America. Leaving from Bremen on April 1st, they arrived in New Orleans on May 31st and soon thereafter left for Iowa.

Joseph’s parents died from cholera after their arrival in Dubuque and he and his siblings were split up and lived with other families in the area. An 1850 census indicates Joseph (age 12) was then living with Elizabeth (29), Mina (17), Catherine (14) and Johanna (8) Bentzen. Next door was the family of Elizabeth’s brother, John Thedinga, who had a store in Dubuque.

Samuel Kirkwood became governor on January11, 1860, and recognized the “anger and jealousy” that threatened to divide the nation but was convinced that “those who love our Constitution and our Union, have not very great cause for alarm.” During that fall’s election campaign some said “the Union will be divided if Lincoln is elected President” but Clayton County’s Journal thought this was “Ridiculous! Is there a sensible, an unprejudiced man, in the State of Iowa who believes this?” Abraham Lincoln was elected, Southern states seceded, Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, war followed and tens of thousands of men died.

On July 9, 1862, Governor Kirkwood received a telegram asking him to raise five regiments in addition to those already in the field. Joseph answered the call and, on August 22nd at Center Grove, enlisted as a Private in what would be Company C of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry. The company was mustered in at Camp Franklin in Dubuque on August 20th with 101 men and the regiment on September 9th with a total of 985 men. Many became sick due to crowded conditions and an outbreak of measles but, on a rainy 16th of September, the able-bodied boarded the four-year-old sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside and started downstream. They spent their first night on Rock Island before continuing the next day, being forced to debark at Montrose due to low water levels, traveling by train to Keokuk where they boarded the Hawkeye State, reaching St. Louis on the 20th and “marching” in sweltering heat and humidity to Camp Benton. After a morning inspection on the 21st, they walked to the St. Louis depot, boarded rail cars of the kind used for freight, and traveled through the night before arriving in Rolla the next morning.

After a month in Rolla practicing needed drill and being organized in a brigade, they moved to Salem, Houston, Hartville and, after a wagon train was attacked, back to Houston. They were still there on January 8, 1863, when word was received that a Confederate column was advancing on Springfield. A hastily organized relief force, with Joseph one of the volunteers from Company C, headed in that direction and on the night of the 10th camped along Wood’s Fork of the Gasconade River unaware the Confederates were camped along the same stream. The next morning bugles blew, the two sides became aware of each other and, after brief firing by pickets, they moved into Hartville where a daylong battle was fought. After returning to Houston, Joseph continued to be marked “present” on bimonthly rolls as they moved to West Plains and then northeast through Eminence, Ironton and Iron Mountain to St. Genevieve where they arrived on March 11th and made camp on a ridge overlooking the Mississippi River.

Joseph continued with the regiment when they were transported south to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant assembled a three-corps army to capture the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg. In a corps led by General McClernand, they moved south along dirt roads and through swamps and bayous until crossing from Disharoon’s Plantation to Bruinsburg, Mississippi, on April 30th. As the point regiment for the entire army, they moved slowly inland until, about midnight, they were fired on by Confederate pickets. Both sides rested for several hours and on May 1st Joseph participated in the Battle of Port Gibson. He was present on May 16th when the regiment was held out of action during the Battle of Champion Hill but participated in a successful May 17th assault at the Big Black River before moving to the rear of Vicksburg where he participated in an assault on May 22nd and in the ensuing siege. The city surrendered on July 4th and the next day Joseph was one of the men still able for duty when they were led by General Sherman in a pursuit of Confederate General Joe Johnston to Jackson.

After returning to Vicksburg, they saw service in Louisiana, along the gulf coast of Texas and in Arkansas and Tennessee. In the spring of 1865 they participated in their final campaign of the war, a campaign to capture the city of Mobile, Alabama. The campaign was successful and they were mustered out of service on July 15th at Baton Rouge and discharged from the military on July 24th at Clinton, Iowa. Like many others, Joseph paid $6.00 so he could keep his musket and other equipment.

On July 1, 1867, in Dubuque, he married Maria “Mary” Michels, a native of Luxembourg. Their children included Anna (1868), Henry (1869), Florence (1871), Frank (1873), Andy (1876), Edward (1878), Herman (1882) and Joseph Jr. (1884).

As a “dealer in groceries and provisions, 822 Main Street,” Joseph through his own efforts “built up a good trade.” They were living at 874 White Street when, one evening in November 1878, Mary saw three Franciscan sisters carrying suitcases as they walked up the street. They “had come to Dubuque to supervise the remodeling of the abandoned old Holy Trinity Church” and, at Mary’s invitation, stayed most of the time in the Baule home until the remodeling was complete.

Like most veterans who returned home with illnesses or injuries that affected their ability to do manual labor, Joseph applied for an invalid pension. His March 12, 1883, application indicated that, while on Matagorda Island, Texas, “he was ruptured in the right side of groin while assisting in unloading a vessel, and in handling barrels of meat over-strained himself” and, as a result, had been “assigned to light duty.” His application was still pending in June when he joined the Hyde Clark Post No. 78 of the G.A.R. in Dubuque on the 19th and when he was examined by a panel of pension surgeons on the 27th. “We know him well and fully credit his statements,” they said in recommending a pension be granted.

Four years earlier he had supported a pension application by Company C comrade William McCarty and now two of Joseph’s former comrades supported his application. John Kuntz and James Brunskill said Joseph was injured “in unloading a vessel and while handling heavy barrells.” Joseph had been “down below in the hole of the ship,” said John, when “some of the barrels and boxes fell on him and injured him between his legs.” The injury was so bad that it was only “by the assistance of others that he was taken ashore.” James, who was Joseph’s tent mate at the time, said that after the accident Joseph “was not fit for dutey” when others built breastworks. Despite their testimony, the process dragged on due in part to regimental records having no reference to such an injury. Joseph explained that, instead of asking the doctor for a truss, he had “tried a leather Belt with a wooden pad attached and found that after I had that arranged it answered for the purpose.” It was only after he returned home that he had purchased a truss from Junkerman & Haas City Druggists. William Orr, the regimental surgeon, didn’t remember the injury and the family doctor, Henry Minges, was now deceased. His son, George Minges, did recall Joseph worked as a “hostler at the New Harmony Hall, across from my father’s office.” On July 9, 1885, more than two years after the application was filed, a certificate was issued entitling Joseph to $4.00 monthly.

In 1887 he was one of fourteen veterans of Company C who attended a regimental reunion in Manchester where attendees devoted one afternoon “to social intercourse and renewing the memories of ‘the time that tried men’s souls.’” This, said the Manchester Press, was the best part of the reunion for men, most “with gray locks and furrowed cheeks,” who “had stood shoulder to shoulder fighting the country’s enemies, who had together withstood the shock of battle; had endured the privations and hardships of the field and the march; and who had grown in those long hours of toil and weariness of suffering and danger, nearer and dearer to one another than brothers.”

Joseph’s pension had been raised to $12.00 by the time a new act providing for age-based pensions was adopted on May 11, 1912. Joseph applied and said he was now seventy years old. Unfortunately, that didn’t correspond with the age shown on his muster-in roll or on his prior applications. It was only after he mailed his original birth certificate and baptism record to the pension office that they recognized the birth date he was now claiming. The application was approved but not before Joseph’s death on September 6, 1912. He was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Dubuque.

The following month Mary requested a widow’s pension in an application witnessed by her daughter, Florence. Mary was awarded the accrued amount due to Joseph at the time of his death and her own widow’s pension of $12.00 monthly. On her death, an obituary in The Witness newspaper on Thursday, March 29, 1923, said Mary, “an old resident of Dubuque, died Friday at the family residence, 874 White street. The funeral was held Monday to St. Mary’s church, father Smith officiating.” She, like Joseph, is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery.

~Compiled & submitted by Carl Ingwalson December 2020

BEACH, BENJAMIN

was born in Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, January 20, 1827; he died at Muscatine, Iowa, May 16, 1913. When thirteen years of age he was apprenticed to a tinsmith in Richmond, Indiana, and after learning that trade followed it for many years. At the outbreak of the Mexican War he enlisted in the First Ohio. Volunteers and remained in the service about sixteen months, participating in the most of the marches and campaigns, and received honorable discharge at the close of the war. In 1850 he removed to Muscatine, Iowa, and opened a store which he conducted until the beginning of the Civil War. On April 17, 1861, he enlisted in Company A, First Iowa Volunteers, was elected First Lieutenant and served through three months' campaign, participating in the battle of Wilson's Creek. He then organized a company for the Eleventh Iowa Regiment and re-enlisted as Captain of Company H for a service of three years. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, the campaign against Atlanta, and was present at the grand review In Washington in May, 1865. During this time he was promoted rapidly until he reached the rank of Colonel. He had the unusual record of never being off duty by illness, never wounded'or captured and but once absent on leave. He was mustered out of the service at Louisville, Kentucky, July 19, 1865. He returned to Muscatine and engaged successfully in the hardware, grocery and tile manufacturing business, and for eight years acted as postmaster of Muscatine.

~ Source: "Notable Deaths" Annals of Iowa. Vol. XI, No. 4. Pp. 235-36. Historical Society of Iowa. Des Moines. January, 1914.
~Transcribed by Sharon R Becker

BECKMANN, FRANK HENRY

Frank Henry Beckmann was born in Auglaize County, Ohio, on June 17, 1838, and, like many others, immigrated to Iowa where farmland was plentiful and title could be acquired by homesteading. Anna Katharina Dorothea Dahling (who normally used the name Dorothea) was born on August 31, 1840, in Mecklenberg, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1854. Frank and Dorothea were married in Clayton County on March 6, 1857, while the state was still suffering from “wild and giddy speculation” and the “hard times” that had settled on the county. The soil, however, provided a good living, “the surplus products of the farm could be exchanged for the few simple manufactured articles which the settler was obliged to have” and on January 28, 1861, a son, Frank, Jr., was born to Frank and Dorothea. It was only two and one-half months later that General Beauregard’s Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter and four days later Iowa was called upon for one regiment of infantry.

By the middle of the following year, the war that few expected had escalated beyond comprehension and, on July 9th, Governor Sam Kirkwood received a telegram asking for five regiments of three-year men. If not raised by August 15th, the shortage would be made up by a draft. By then, “farmers were busy with the harvest, the war was much more serious than had been anticipated, and the first ebullition of military enthusiasm had subsided,” but the Governor was confident the state would meet its quota. “We have,” he said, “scarcely men enough to save our crops, but if need be our women can help."

On August 19, 1862, at Guttenberg, Frank Beckmann signed a Volunteer Enlistment agreeing to serve for three years unless sooner discharged. Enrolled in what would be Company D of the state’s 27th Infantry, he went into quarters at Dubuque’s Camp Franklin where the company was mustered into service on September 13th and the regiment on October 3rd. Frank was described as a 6' 1½” farmer with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion. Charles Hennrich, one Frank’s Company D comrades, said they were furnished with a blanket for every two men, an overcoat, two pairs of underwear, two shirts, one pair of shoes, two pairs of socks, a hat, a cap and a pair of trousers. After brief service in Minnesota they moved to Cairo, Illinois, and from there, on November 20th, left for Memphis where they would serve with General Sherman in Tennessee, moving to Waterford, Jackson, Lexington, Humboldt and Moscow before returning to Memphis.

Frank had been marked “present” on all bi-monthly muster rolls since his enlistment and on September 10, 1863, participated with his regiment in the capture of Little Rock. On March 14, 1864, he was with the regiment at Fort DeRussey, Louisiana, when it fell to Union troops. From there they moved to Alexandria and, on April 7th, General Nathaniel Banks’ “troops took the advance, on the road towards Shreveport.” On the 8th, heavy cannonading was “heard in front; indicating that the troops in advance had become engaged with the enemy.” This Battle of Mansfield (Sabine Crossroads) ended with a Confederate victory.

Up to this time, the regiment “had never participated in a great battle,” but on the 9th it was “called upon to go into action against great odds.” Their brigade moved to the front as ordered but by 3:00 p.m. “the situation was becoming critical.” Reinforcements were promised but didn’t arrive and a “few minutes before 5 o'clock the enemy opened heavily.” Initially, men “held their ground” but they were soon compelled to fall back. Despite another Confederate victory, brigade commander William Shaw would write, “of Colonel Gilbert Twenty-seventh Iowa, and his regiment, I can say they did their whole duty. Although they had never been under fire before, they gave their fire with the coolness and precision of veterans, and fully sustained the reputation of Iowa soldiers.” By day’s end, fourteen commissioned officers were wounded, four enlisted men had been killed and sixty-six wounded, and another fourteen were missing (either killed or taken prisoner). Among the wounded who were left on the field was Frank Beckmann who had a musket ball enter the left side of his abdomen about one inch above the umbilicus and track eight or nine inches through his abdomen before exiting on the right side.

To the west, near Tyler, Texas, Camp Ford was the largest Confederate prison west of the Mississippi. In a wooded area, some prisoners had constructed log cabins and shebangs inside an oak timber stockade eight to ten feet high and supplied with water from Ray's Creek and nearby springs but others had no shelter. Meager rations usually included only beef and cornmeal. Some said conditions were better than elsewhere, and they may have been, but the camp’s population swelled to an estimated 4,900 when Union prisoners from Mansfield and Pleasant Hill arrived and it was described as a "sewer pit," a "hellhole" that was a "sty not fit for pigs." Among its prisoners was Frank Beckmann who had been taken to Camp Ford by his captors and remained there from the time he arrived until October 22, 1864, when he was paroled for exchange at the Red River landing. By then he was suffering not only from the abdominal wound, but also from varicose veins and ulcers on his legs.

From the landing, Frank and other exchanged prisoners were transported south to New Orleans where he reported on October 27th but was then sent north and on November 27th rejoined his regiment at Cairo, Illinois. Near Nashville on December 2, 1864, Assistant Surgeon David Hastings wrote that Frank was still suffering from his wound, was unfit for duty and “a furlough enabling him to visit his family and the consequent change of climate diet & c. will be the surest and most speedy means to restore him to health & duty.” Captain Garber then wrote to an Assistant Adjutant General and requested a furlough that on the 11th was granted for thirty days. Like many receiving disability furloughs, Frank was late returning and on February 14th reported at Davenport’s Camp McClellan as a “straggler” awaiting transportation. On March 15th he was reinstated without penalty when he rejoined the regiment then on Dauphin Island, Alabama, preparing for a campaign to capture Mobile. After crossing the entrance to Mobile Bay, they were part of an army that moved north along the east side of the bay and participated in the siege and capture of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely. Confederates abandoned Mobile on April 12th and by June the regiment was in Vicksburg. On August 8, they were mustered out of service at Clinton, Iowa, received the $75.00 balance of their enlistment bounty and their final monthly pay, and were free to return to their families.

Frank’s furlough the previous year had not been uneventful and, on October 13, 1865, Dorothea gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth aka Lizzie, who was followed by eight more children: Augusta on July 16, 1869; William F. on May 8, 1871; Wilhelmina aka Mina on June 22, 1863; Dorothea Elice Friedricke on April 7, 1875 according to a “family record” or April 7, 1876 according to church records; Frederick Detrick on September 7, 1877; Albert Henrich on February 4, 1881; his twin brother Charles Wilhelm, aka Carl and Charley on February 4, 1881; and Ludwig Franz aka Ludwick and Louis on April 13,1883.

The family made their home in Littleport and there, on April 2, 1866, Frank signed an application for an invalid pension with Woodward & Young of Elkader as his attorneys. As a result of his wound, he said his left hip joint was lame, his left leg was stiff and at times it “pains him severely;” “his occupation has been driving team a very little.” Still optimistic, he told Dr. A. B. Hanna he thought he would “recover his health in due time.” With Dr. Hanna’s report and an affidavit from Alexander Bliedung, an officer in Company D, a certificate for $4.00 monthly, payable quarterly, was issued on December 22, 1866. Over the next twenty years Frank’s condition steadily worsened and he frequently walked with a cane or crutches. In 1873 he said the pain “became acute in or before a storm, in 1874 (signing for the first time as “Beckman”) that he “felt he was entitled to an increase,” in 1875 that it was worse along the track of the musket ball and in 1881 that he was “disabled for nearly half of my time.” Two years later Frank said he had “tenderness on right side” and doctors found a large number of varicose veins on both legs.

By 1884 the monthly amount had been increased to $17.00 when he applied again. His illness, he said, was contracted while in the rebel prison and resulted in “rheumatism and ulcerated sores” on his legs. Military records made no mention of leg problems and this was the first application in which Frank mentioned them, but three of his former comrades signed affidavits saying they had seen the varicose veins, swollen legs and sores while in the army. Charles Schecker said, “poor Frank got seriously wounded in the abdomen, close by me, and that was the last time I saw him in the service. After the war Frank came home a cripple. The time he stayed in prison proved that it had been too much for his strong constitution.” Frank’s claim was still pending when he died on May 22, 1888, at fifty years of age. He is buried in Littleport’s Union Cemetery (then Protestant Littleport Cemetery).

On June 4th Dorothea retained Elkader attorney W. A. Preston and applied for a widow’s pension and an additional $2.00 monthly for each of her six children who were under sixteen years of age when their father died. Witnesses confirmed her marriage, that she and Frank had not been married previously and that she had not remarried, but her claim was difficult since the law at the time required that Frank’s death be service-related. She said “my dear husband died on the 22d day of May 1888,” but proving the death was related to his wound or imprisonment at Camp Ford proved to be impossible despite medical testimony. A Special Examiner deposed Dorothea, hotel keeper and farmer H. L. Gifford, sixty-six-year-old G. L. Gifford, blacksmith Ernst Enders who said he was sometimes helped by Frank, pension surgeon Dr. Hanna and Dr. B. F. Hall who had first seen Frank three weeks before his death and said Frank “conversed quite rationally and intelligently and he was anxious to know if I could do anything to save him.” Some felt the death was due to war-related lung problems, but a pension office Medical Examiner felt any lung disease had no “pathological connection” with the abdominal wound for which he had been pensioned. The wound, “while painful and inconvenient” was not, he said, the cause of death. Similarly, Frank had lived with varicose veins for many years before his death, “nor can it be admitted that he was as a result of said pensioned causes so debilitated as to be unable to resist the fatal attack.”

Fortunately, a new law enacted in 1890 did not require that the veteran’s death be service-related and on August 8, 1893, a certificate was issued providing for a widow’s pension and additional amounts for five of the children. On August 18, 1921, the Elkader Register reported that eighty-year-old “Dorothea K. Beckman died at Littleport Tuesday, August 9, 1921" after “an illness of five years caused by dropsy.” She, like Frank, was buried in Union Cemetery.

~Compiled & submitted by Carl Ingwalson December 2020

BEESON, BYRON A

was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, February 26, 1838. His education was obtained in the public schools, and in 1854 he removed to Iowa, locating on a farm in Marshall County. When the Civil War began he enlisted in a company raised by William P. Hepburn which became a part of the Second Iowa Cavalry. Mr. Beeson served in that famous regiment three years and then reenlisted as a veteran in 1864 and was promoted to first lieutenant of Company B, serving to the close of the war. He was elected treasurer of Marshall County, serving until 1882. In July, 1878, he was commissioned adjutant in the Iowa National Guards and was repeatedly promoted holding the position of captain, lieutenant-colonel, colonel and Brigadier-General. In 1889 he was appointed Adjutant-General of the State, and in 1890 he was elected on the Republican ticket, State Treasurer, serving four years. In 1897 he was appointed quartermaster of the Iowa Soldiers' Home at Marshalltown where he served until 1903, when he was appointed Treasurer of the National Soldiers' Home at Norfolk, Virginia.

BELKNAP, WILLIAM W

was born in Newburg, New York, in 1829. He graduated at Princeton College in 1848, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1851. He came to Iowa in 1853, locating at Keokuk where he entered upon the practice of law in partnership with Ralph P. Lowe, afterwards Governor of the State. He was elected to the House of the seventh General Assembly in 1857 on the Democratic ticket. When the War of the Rebellion began he was commissioned major of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry. He was in command of the regiment at the Battle of Corinth and was soon after placed on the staff of General McPherson. After the Battle of Atlanta he was promoted to Brigadier-General and at the close of the war was brevetted Major-General. He was offered a commission in the regular army but preferred to return to civil life. General Belknap had become a Republican, supporting Lincoln for President in 1864 and in 1866 was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the First District. When General Grant became President, General Belknap was invited into his Cabinet at Secretary of War, where he served seven years, resigning in March, 1876. Charges of official misconduct had been preferred against him by the House of Representatives in a time of great political bitterness, but in the trial by the Senate he was acquitted. Judge George G. Wright, who was a member of the Senate from Iowa, pronounced his acquittal just and his opinion was heartily indorsed by the people of Iowa who never lost confidence in the gallant officer. General Belknap died at Washington, October 13, 1890, and was buried in the National Cemetery at Arlington. Hugh J., a son of General Belknap, became a member of Congress from Chicago.

BENNETT, JESSE T - Obituary

Jesse T. BENNETT, deceased, was a son of John and Rachel BENNETT, the latter
being the eldest sister of the late Jesse T. PECK, a bishop of the M.E. church. He was born Jan. 19, 1831, Warren Co., Penn. and was a brother of the Rev. Geo. P. BENNETT of Portland, Ore., who is the sole survivor of a large family and a superannuated minister of the Des Moines, Ia., conference. In 1840 the family moved from Pennsylvania to Cincinnati, Ohio, where the father died very suddenly in 1843. Thereafter the aged mother and two younger sons, Geo. P. and Jesse T. returned to Warren County, Pa. He was married to Helen Louisa TAGGART, August 17, 1848. Ten children were born to them, three of whom are living, viz: Mrs. Lottie WYATT of Duarte, Cal.; Mrs. Nellie DAVENPORT of Glen, Ore.; and L.P. BENNETT of Salem, Ore.

He served his country faithfully and well during the Civil war, enlisting as a private in the 29th Iowa infantry volunteers, Company G. Aug. 9, 1862 and was discharged at the close of the struggles, as first sergeant, Aug. 10, 1865.

He surrendered his heart and life to his maker in 1850 and remained a faithful soldier of Jesus Christ throughout the remainder of his life. He was a licensed exhorter and local preacher of the M.E. Church. Supplied two circuits but left the ministry because of certain physical conditions. He came to Oregon in 1878 and moved to Salem in 1883 for the purpose of educating his children and removed to his Mehama home in 1888 where he remained until Oct.

1906, whereupon he and his aged companion, who still survives him, returned to Salem that they might reside near their son who is a letter carrier in this city. Scarcely had they become established in their new home, when disease laid its hand upon him and near the midnight hour on Dec. 20, his soul took its flight. He was patient during these long weeks of intense suffering, and willing and anxious to go. Thus lived and died a good man, a useful citizen and an ardent follower of the Lowly Nazarene. A man who never feared to speak against any known wrong, nor faltered in his convictions of right and justice. The body was laid to rest in City View cemetery by comrades of the G.A.R." discharged as a first-sergeant possibly in the GAR section.

HISTORY OF JESSE T. BENNETT

Jesse Truesdell BENNETT, 12th and youngest son of John and Rachel (PECK) BENNETT was born in and apparently grew up in Warren County, Penn. January 19, 1831. He married on the 17th of August 1848 to Helen Louisa TAGGART. The marriage took place just across the state line in Busti, Chautauque County, New York by Rev. Elder MOZIER. Jesse was converted early in life and joined the Methodist church. He had five uncles (brothers to his mother) who were Methodist-Episcopal ministers. One was named Jesse Truesdell PECK. Jesse T. PECK was a minister in the Methodist-Episcopal church and was quite prominent both in writings and in church activity. Before he died Rev. Jesse T. PECK was a Bishop in that church. Jesse T. PECK was one of the founders of Syracuse University. Jesse Truesdell BENNETT, namesake of his uncle, later also became a minister but did not actively preach long due to poor health and civil war injuries.

Jesse T. BENNETT enlisted in the Civil War in 1862, enrolling August 9, 1862 at Mt. Ayr, Iowa. Jesse's nephew, William E. BENNETT, son of his brother Luther P. BENNETT, enrolled the same day in the same company. Their service was in Co. G, 29th Regiment Iowa Volunteers. For three years Jesse served his country, he suffered the usual distresses most of the soldiers did. For a time he was in hospitals. In 1864 he was shot through the ear and suffered a hearing loss. This was in April at the Battle of Spoonville (Akaloma), Arkansas. Then four weeks later on April 30, 1864 he was slightly wounded in the left leg at the Battle of Saline River, at Jenkins Ferry, Arkansas. He was honorably discharged at New Orleans, La. on August 10, 1865.

A description of Jesse says he was 5 ft 10 inches, dark complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes. We have a picture of Jesse in uniform. (?) Following service in the war Jesse and his family lived for a time in Iowa. It was while there that he was licensed to preach (about 1865). That fall he was on two circuits but he could not stand on his feet to preach, so he did not take regular work.

From all indications Jesse T. BENNETT was the first of the BENNETT family to settle in what is now Antelope County, Nebraska. This was about 1869.

Jesse took up land in Cedar Township on the northwest quarter of section 9. In June 1869 he was already settled on his land as at that time he is mentioned as being the nearest neighbor of Mr. HORNE. The neighbor moved part of his goods into his new home and was planning on moving the rest in the next day.

During the night it was ransacked by Indians and a group of settlers went out in hot pursuit, Jesse was one of those settlers. To protect the settlement from such incidents a group was organized called the "Elkhorn Guards" and Jesse T. BENNETT's name appears on the roll of the "Elkhorn Guards."

In 1871 Jesse T. Bennett appears on the tax list for Cedar Township, Antelope County. During that year he wrote to his brother, Andrew P. BENNETT, who lived in Ringgold County, Iowa, to come and "take up land" in Antelope County. Andrew came that fall bringing their "oldest brother, Hyrum, from Michigan" and a nephew, John H. BENNETT.

In 1872 Jesse purchased a steam saw mill and moved it onto the Elkhorn River at Oakdale, Nebraska, He operated this mill for several years.

Jesse T. BENNETT and his wife, Helen L. BENNETT are listed as among the first six members of the Cedar Creek Class of the Methodist-Episcopal Church organized by Rev. George H. WEHN Sept. 24, 1871. Among memories of that group is one of "Uncle Jesse T. BENNETT, with tears streaming down his cheeks asking for absolution from sin....." then the author of that statement goes on to say, "......and I never heard of his committing any....." According to Jesse's statement when he later applied for a civil war pension he lived in Antelope County nine years, then he moved on to Oregon.

He applied for his original invalid pension from Yamhill Co., Oregon May 28, 1880. He says then that his home was in Dayton. His occupation - farming, and that he was partially disabled from was service. By 1904 he was having much disability and so by act of congress (bill - H.R. 9756) he was granted an increase in his pension.

Jesse's wife said in a letter to her niece in 1907 that --"his (Jesse's) army disabilities was so bad he suffered for years more than anyone could tell. He was not able to work for a long time." Jesse T. BENNETT died at his home in Salem, Marion County, Oregon on Dec. 20, 1906 a month before he was 76 years old. The Grand Army had charge of the funeral. His wife survived him. She applied for and received a widow's pension from Jesse's service in the Civil War. Jesse's brother, (Rev.) George BENNETT, a preacher from Portland attended the funeral.

George became the last of his parents' children to survive.

Helen L. BENNETT, widow of Jesse T. BENNETT died at her home, 2161 Maple Ave., Salem, Oregon, June 9, 1910, three and a half years after her husband. Both Jesse and his wife are buried in City View Cemetary, Salem, Oregon.

There are ten children listed for Jesse and Helen. Five died young and five grew to maturity. Elbert B. BENNETT, born 1856 in Ohio, died Jan. 5, 1882 in Dayton, Oregon. Married to Ella Julia HOWARD. Lillie May BENNETT, born July 27, 1866, probably in or near Mt. Ayr, Iowa. Died before 1907 in Oregon. She married Frank BAKER. Lottie Dell BENNETT, born Apr. 23, 1869, probably in or near Mt. Ayr, Iowa. She married Will WYATT and was living in Monrovia, Calif. in 1910. Leveret Peck BENNETT, born June 12, 1872 Oakdale, Antelope Co., Nebraska. Married Alma ________. Living in Salem, Oregon in 1907. Helan (Helen) Elberta BENNETT, (called Nellie), born 24 Apr. 1876 Oakdale, Antelope Co., Nebraska. She married Job William DAVENPORT 27 Nov. 1891. She died 29 Mar 1962 at Newport, Lincoln Co., Oregon. In 1907 she was living in Glenn, Lincoln Co., Oregon on a ranch.

Jesse T. BENNET enlisted as a Private on August 9, 1862, age of 31, mustered into service with Company G. 29th Iowa Infantry Regiment on November 18, 1862; promoted to full 5th Sergeant February 8, 1863; promoted to full 3rd Sergeant July 1, 1864; promoted to full 2nd Sergeant July 16, 1865; promoted to full 1st Sergeant August 9, 1865; mustered out of service at New Orleans, LA August 10, 1865.

William BENNETT, nephew of Jesse T. BENNETT, enlisted from Ringgold County, Iowa as a 4th Corporal on August 9, 1862, at the age of 28 years. Mustered into service November 18, 1862 with Company G, 29th Iowa Infantry Regiment; died of disease December 18, 1864, Keokuk, Iowa.

~ Source: Service information from American Civil War Soldiers, ancestry.com
~ Submitted by Michael Smith, February of 2009

BENTON, THOMAS H JR

was a nephew of the great Missouri statesman whose name he bore. He was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, on the 5th of September, 1816. His education was acquired at Huntington Academy and he graduated from Marion College, Missouri. In 1839 he located at Dubuque, Iowa, where he taught school and afterwards became a merchant. In 1846 he was elected to the Senate of the First General Assembly, two years later elected on the Democratic ticket Superintendent of Public Instruction and was reelected, serving six years. Mr. Benton became a resident of Council Bluffs and was chosen Secretary of the State Board of Education in 1858, serving four years. In 1862 he was appointed colonel of the Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, served during the war and in 1865 was brevetted Brigadier-General. In 1865 he was the Democratic and anti-negro suffrage candidate for Governor but was defeated. In 1866 he became a supporter of President Johnson after the latter left the Republican party and in August was appointed by the President Assessor of Internal Revenue in place of the Republican incumbent removed. He died in St. Louis on the 10th of April, 1879.

BENTON, WILLARD A

Willard A. Benton was born in Afton, New York, on December 3, 1829, learned the tanner and currier's trade, worked in California gold fields, traveled in Australia and Ecuador, was shipwrecked off the California coast on October 1, 1854, spent a year in San Francisco, returned to New York, moved to Iowa in 1856, and returned again to New York where, on August 26, 1857, he was married to Anna Marian (aka Maria) Buck.

Moving to McGregor, he ran a market garden for two years before being appointed Postmaster in 1860. The federal census ofthat year included William, his wife, and their two-year old daughter, Nellie, who would die at age three. On April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery fired on Fort Sumter and, less than two months later, on June 2d, a son, Elmer, was born to Willard and his wife.

On August 11, 1862 thirty-two year old Willard Benton was appointed as a Captain and charged with raising a Company in the northeastern counties. Physically, he was described as being 5' 9½' tall with grey eyes, black hair and a dark complexion, and he worked quickly to secure enlistments. He enrolled thirteen men on the 12th and three on the 13th, but time was short if the draft were to be avoided.

On Thursday and Friday, August 14th and 15th, McGregor was abuzz with excitement as enlistments soared. Joining on the 14th were farmers John Ano, William Wallace Farrand, John Kain (aka Kane), Christopher Kellogg, Andrew "Judge" Lawrence, Henry Lewis, Edward Murray, Edward Patterson, Robert Pettis, Nelson Reynolds, Oliver Shull (who also worked as a painter), James Withrow, and Sam Withrow. With them were Dan Donahue who had been working as a steward and porter, laborer Tyler Featherly, and musician Tim Hopkins. On the 15th, the ranks were further increased when farmers John Birch, Pat Burns (who also worked as a shoemaker), John Carpenter, Smith Chernois, John Conant, Thomas Daniels, William Dunn. Orlen Gates, William Johns, Peter Mcintyre, Linus “Line” McKinnie, Maple Moody, George Moore, Knute Nelson, George Penhollow and Charles Wilson enlisted. Joining them were John Conant, a sailor and musician, and barber William Reed.

On August 22, 1862, at Dubuque, they were mustered in as Company G and, on September 9th, the regiment was mustered into service. They started south on September 16, 1862 going first to St. Louis by steamer and from there to Rolla by rail. At Salem on October 20th, Willard received his commission and took the oath of office, swearing to ''faithfully discharge the duties of Captain."

On January 11, 1863 he participated in a daylong battle at Hartville, Missouri, and he was with the regiment as it moved through the Ozarks of Missouri and worked its way to the Mississippi River at Ste. Genevieve.

On April 7, 1863, when the regiment was on its way from from Memphis to Milliken’s Bend, a correspondent of the North Iowa Times wrote that he had visited with officers of the regiment and met a “worthy citizen of McGregor, Capt. Benton, who quietly pursues the even tenor of his way, and will doubtless make his mark if a secesh should cross his path.”

From there they moved south on the west side of the river as part of General Grant's massive army intent on capturing the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg. They crossed to the east bank on April 30th and, on May 1st, Willard led his company during the Battle of Port Gibson. That night he "went into camp late without blankets or blouse (his blankets having been taken to be used in the hospital at Magnolia Church & blouse lost during the battle)." By morning he had "a severe cold and it settled on his bowels." As his condition worsened, the Surgeon certified that Willard was "suffering from nervous derangement attended with general debility which unfits him for active service."

Willard tendered his resignation ''for the good of the service as well as my own life and health" and, on May 26th, it was accepted by Colonel Merrill who was, himself incapacitated by a severe wound received nine days earlier while leading the regiment in an assault at the Big Black River.

Returning to McGregor, Willard took a contract furnishing ties for the narrow gauge railroad. On November 4, 1863, the North Iowa Times reported that Willard “has committed a raid on the orchards of Michigan and in company with Met Lampson he has captured 1200 Barrels of Applies of the choicest fruit.- Most of them are now in Lampson’s cellar. We are told the Captain will be authorized to receive volunteers under the new call.” With President Lincoln calling for more volunteers, the North Iowa Times reported on November 18, 1863, that Wisconsin was drafting soldiers “with great activity” and it might be necessary in Iowa “unless the people rouse to the necessities of the occasion and bend every nerve to the work of filling our quota. Capt. Willard A. Benton is now ready to enrol volunteers and subsist them.” In 1873, Willard was elected County Sheriff, a position he held for "six years, and never failed to take his man; never let one get away."

On June 17, 1886, suffering from service-related chronic diarrhea and other ailments he applied for an invalid pension. Five months later he signed an affidavit supporting the pension application of Sam Withrow who was, at the time, represented by Lime Springs’ pension attorney George Van Leuven, Jr. Van Leuven had an excellent reputation. He had references from a U.S. Senator, members of Congress, attorney Thomas Updegraff of McGregor, and many others. He was generally credited with being "the most successful pension agent in the state." Several years later, with his own application languishing, Willard Benton hired Van Leuven who soon learned that Willard's application was based merely on an affidavit from Colonel Merrill and another from McGregor resident Lucius Edgerton. Merrill, however, had relied on hearsay when he approved Willard's discharge and Edgerton had not worked with Willard until several years after the war. What was needed, said the Commissioner, was evidence from a surgeon or comrade who served with Willard and had contemporaneous personal knowledge of the origin and extent of his suffering.

That was no problem for Mr. Van Leuven. Two weeks after learning what was needed, he had a sworn affidavit from one of Willard's comrades who was then living in Colorado. On July 6, 1892 the affidavit was filed with the Pension Office, on March 3, 1892 Grover Cleveland started his second term as President, on April 13, 1893 William Lochren became the new Pension Commissioner, and on May 22, 1893 Van Leuven was arrested. His extraordinary success had not gone unnoticed to the President or Commissioner. Van Leuven was indicted and charged with pension fraud - securing perjured affidavits from comrades of applicants and bribing or attempting to bribe surgeons responsible for examining pension applicants. Claims of his clients were immediately suspect. Special examinations were ordered of witnesses. New medical examinations were required and Willard's Colorado comrade was contacted.

With Willard and his attorney both in Iowa, how had Van Leuven so quickly located a comrade almost 900 miles away with the requisite knowledge of Willard's wartime condition? The special examiner thought the affidavit was "written in the usual Van Leuven form, and appears to have been prepared in the office of Geo. M Van Leuven and copied by some one." When asked for the source of his knowledge, Willard's comrade said merely that "he believes he is aiding a deserving soldier to obtain pension."

On March 26, 1894, Willard's wife died. She was buried in McGregor's Pleasant Grove Cemetery while the investigation of Willard's claim continued. From January through October, witnesses were examined, medical exams were conducted, and new affidavits were secured. During a deposition in October, Willard testified that he "never knew until this week” that his Colorado comrade had signed an affidavit more than two years earlier. It was the creation of the now-disgraced George van Leuven who, somehow, had known of Willard's comrade without ever talking to Willard.

Nevertheless, Willard's claim was legitimate, it was approved, and, on November 22nd, a Certificate was issued entitling him to an invalid pension of $5.00 per month. On December 15th, Van Leuven was convicted, fined, and sentenced.

Willard continued living in McGregor, engaged in farming, dealt in wood, became a Mason, and joined the Ancient Order of United Workman. His pension was increased to $10.00 in 1898 and $12.00 in 1904.

On September 10, 1905 Willard Benton, "whose life was one of great adventure," died in a Prairie du Chien sanitarium at seventy-five years of age. He was buried with Anna Maria in Pleasant Grove Cemetery where an engraved stone reads:

BENTON
Capt. W. A. Benton
Dec. 3, 1829 -Sep. 9, 1905
Anna Maria
wife of
W.A. Benton
June 11, 1834 -Mar. 26, 1894

Nearby is a small stone for "Elmer," their son.

~Compiled & submitted by Carl Ingwalson December 2020

BETHARD, JAMES

Dover Township is on the eastern boundary of Union County, Ohio. Land is generally flat with dark, productive soil good for farming, but many of its early residents were attracted to less expensive land in the west. At the request of his church, Fortner Mather moved from Union County to Clayton County in 1853 to serve as pastor of the Clayton County Episcopal Church. His brothers -Darius, Squire, Sterling and John - would soon join him. Their Ohio neighbors, Joel and Sarah Rice, also moved to Clayton County. With them were their six children -George, James, Caroline, Robert, Marshall and Tero. Following the Rice family, or at least Caroline Rice, was another Ohio neighbor, Jim Bethard.

Jim was born on October 11, 1837; Caroline on June 9, 1841. On January 27, 1859, Jim and Caroline (he called her "Cal") were married. They made their home along Roberts Creek in Grand Meadow Township not far from Cal's five brothers and her cousins, the Mather brothers.

Jim and Cal lost their first child when their daughter, May Belle, died as an infant, but, on June 9, 1862, another daughter, Nellie Charity "Ella" Bethard, was born. By then the Civil War had been underway for more than year. Major battles had been fought and many men had died. On July 9, 1862 President Lincoln issued a call for another 300,000.

Answering the call on August 11th, Jim Bethard, Jim Rice and John Mather enlisted. Three of their friends joined them -Robert Pool on the 11th, David Shuck on the 12th, and Frank Farrand on the 13th. On August 16th they were ordered into quarters at Dubuque’s Camp Franklin and, on August 18th, these six men, the self-styled "Roberts Creek Crowd," were mustered into Company B of a regiment still being recruited.

On September 9, 1862, with all ten companies of acceptable strength, they were mustered in as the 21st Regiment of Iowa’s Volunteer Infantry. Knowing they would soon be leaving for war and unable to get a furlough, Jim Bethard and Jim Rice wrote a joint letter to Cal indicating they "would be verry pleased to have you come and see us before we leave." On the 12th, Cal and baby Ella (Jim’s “little jade”) boarded a steamer in McGregor and went downstream. Cal no doubt had an enjoyable, but somewhat apprehensive, visit with her husband, brother, cousin and many friends, but before long it was time to leave. Cal took an evening steamer back to McGregor and, on the 16th, loaded down with Enfield muskets, knapsacks, haversacks, and other accessories, they crowded onto the steamer Henry Clay and two barges lashed to its side and left for war.

They went first to Missouri - St. Louis, Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville and back to Houston. That’s where they were on January 3, 1863 when Jim wrote to Cal, “I dreamed last night that I was at home and saw you leading our Ella around the house by the hand.” A few days later word was received that Confederate infantry was heading for Springfield. A relief force was quickly assembled. Included were twenty-five volunteers from each of the regiment's ten companies, ten company officers, and their Lieutenant Colonel. They were accompanied by a similar number from an Illinois regiment. The entire force was led by Colonel Merrill of the 21st Infantry. They spent the night of January 10, 1863 camped west of Hartville, met the Confederates early the next morning, and fought a one-day battle in the town of Hartville. They arrived back in Houston, by way of Lebanon, on the 15th and, the next day, Jim wrote to Cal. "You will no doubt hear of the battle of Hartsville before this letter and will of course be uneasy." He was, he said, "the only one of the Roberts Creek crowd that was in the scrape and I came out unscathed although the bullets whistled and the cannon balls howeled rather uncomfortably close to my head I felt almost used up yesterday evening from the effects of marching but am all right today."

After recuperating in Houston, they marched to West Plains, Thomasville, Eminence, Ironton, Iron Mountain, and St. Genevieve. From there they took transports down the Mississippi River to Milliken's Bend where General Grant was assembling a massive army to capture the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg. Grant's army moved south through swamps and bayous west of the river, but, by the time they reached Judge Perkins' Somerset plantation, Jim was unable to continue. He had been sick for weeks, too sick to write to Cal, and was left behind with many others while their regiment moved on.

The Federals crossed the river on April 30, 1863 with the 21st Iowa taking the lead as they moved inland. On May 1, 1863 they participated in a battle at Port Gibson, Mississippi, on May 17th they and the 23rd Iowa led an assault at the Big Black River, they participated in a May 22d assault at Vicksburg, and they took their position on the siege line around the rear of the city.

Meanwhile, Jim, other convalescents and about 350 men from Colonel Owen's 60th Indiana were preparing to cross the river and rejoin their regiments, but they were unaware that a Confederate force was only a few miles away and moving in their direction. When alerted by their scouts, and knowing they had neither cavalry nor artillery and only a limited number of infantry, the Federals moved closer to the levee, strengthened defenses and kept watch. On the morning of May 31, 1863, fire was exchanged with the Federals receiving support from a gunboat. Artillery gave cover as Jim and the others rushed on board a transport and made their escape.

On June 3, 1863, Jim reached his regiment, received five letters from Cal and the next day wrote to assure her he was safe. Enclosed with one of Cal’s letters was a photograph of Ella. On the 7th, Jim told Cal he liked it “verry well but it is rather a nubby looking picture it has three hands and is spekled all over as though it had been dotted over with a pen and ink I suppose the mischief was in her so big that she would not sit still.” Jim remained with the regiment during the balance of the siege, during a subsequent expedition to and siege of Jackson, Mississippi, and during its service in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama during the Mobile Campaign, and Arkansas.

Three of Cal's brothers (Jim, John and Robert) served in the war and all survived. Four of her cousins, the Mather brothers, served, but only Sterling survived. John and Darius died from disease at Vicksburg, while Squire died at home while on a sick furlough. On June 26, 1865, her husband wrote the long awaited letter: "Cheer up we are coming home." Jim was mustered out with his regiment at Baton Rouge on July 15th. They boarded the Lady Gay on the 16th, reached Cairo on the 20th, boarded cars of the Illinois Central Railroad, and arrived in Clinton on the 21st. On July 24th they were formally discharged.

While Jim was gone, Cal had accompanied her parents when they moved to Sigourney and, still in uniform and carrying his Springfield musket (that had replaced the Enfield originally issued), Jim left Clinton to find them. Ella knew her father was coming and family lore says she sat for days on a fence in front of their house waiting to see him. It had been a long three years.

Jim and Cal had three more children, all girls: Sarah Gertrude in 1871, Bessie Belle in 1878, and Edith Maud in 1879. On September 9, 1889, at forty-eight years of age, Cal died. She was buried in Sigourney's Pleasant Grove Cemetery.

Jim moved to Delta and, on June 14, 1894, married Elizabeth Kile. A son, James Dale Bethard, was born October 5, 1895. By then the war had been over for thirty years and men, both North and South, had resumed their lives the best they could. Abel Hankins had fought for the South. From a "truly Confederate family" in Tazewell County, Virginia, he joined the cavalry, survived the war, and returned to Virginia. From there he moved west and settled in Delta, Iowa. When Jim applied for a pension in 1889, he signed an affidavit that was notarized by Abel Hankins, now an Iowa Justice of the Peace.

Jim had resumed farming, first in Sigourney and then in Delta, but war-related health problems forced him to quit in 1873. He then went to work with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, but his health "compeled him to call for his time in a few weeks." Eventually, he moved into town, served as one of Delta's councilmen, and went to work in Abel Hankins' harness shop.

On July 13, 1912, he wrote to his thirteen year old grandson Roy Blakely, son of Sarah Gertrude. Jim was glad that young Roy had enjoyed the recent 4th of July celebrations and hoped he understood why we celebrate "the day on which was signed the greatest document in this world the document that made the united states of America a free and independent nation It was then our flag was born," he said, "and has since been sealed with the blood of hundreds of thousands of as good men as the world ever produced."

Less than four weeks later, on August 8, 1912, Jim died. A few days after his burial in Delta's Garrett Cemetery an obituary reported his death:

"A few years ago A. Hankins, who was a confederate soldier, asked James Bethard if he would see that a flag was placed over his grave when he died. Mr. Bethard said he would provided Mr. Hankins would perform a like service for him should he survive him, and so the pact was formed. After Mr. Bethard's death last week, Mr. Hankins accompanied by C. F. Kendall, went to the grave yard where the wearer of the grey placed the flag on the northern soldier's grave."

By then, Baby Ella had been married to William A. Dunn for almost thirty-two years. William died on March 31, 1923 and is buried in Sigourney’s Conner Cemetery. His widow, Nellie C. Dunn, died on July 2, 1931 and was buried in the same plot in Conner Cemetery.

~Compiled & submitted by Carl Ingwalson December 2020

BETHARD, JONATHAN

Married in 1833, Alexander and Diana (Clark) Bethard lived along Mill Creek southeast of what became Dover (now New Dover), in Union County, Ohio. Jonathan, the oldest of their children, was born on August 19, 1835. He was followed by James in 1837, Nancy in 1840, Thomas Henry in 1842 and Elizabeth Ellen “Lib” in 1847. When Diana died on October 9, 1856, she was buried in the old Baptist (now Mill Creek) Cemetery and the following year Alexander married Sarah Jane Lake.

When he was old enough to leave home, Jonathan moved to Meredosia, Illinois, where he worked as a farmer. Jonathan and his wife, Sarah Jane Stevens, had three children - James “Jimmy”, a daughter whose name is not known and Harvey Alexander who was born on March 14, 1859.

On April 14, 1861, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Illinois Governor Yates asked Richard Smith of the state militia to raise a strong force and a week later they marched to protect a bridge over the Big Muddy Creek. Organized as the 10th Illinois Infantry they were mustered in on April 29th for three months’ service and on July 29th for three years’ service. The following month, on August 9th, at twenty-five years of age, Jonathan, as “John,” enlisted in Company “A” while Sarah and the children moved to Jacksonville in Morgan County.

Jonathan was mustered in on August 20th at Cairo, Illinois, a city of “mud and mules” at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Surrounded by levees, it had a pre-war population of 2,188 and was described by Charles Dickens as "desolate" and "dismal." A surgeon viewed it as "the biggest mudhole in the country" and a reporter from New York’s Tribune felt its “jet-black soil generates every species of insect and reptile known to science or imagination.” According to another writer, “the season here is usually opened with great éclat by small-pox, continued spiritedly by cholera, and closed up brilliantly with yellow fever.”

Almost predictably, Jonathan quickly became ill with chronic diarrhea, a nervous disability and heart palpitations. For a year he was treated in hospitals at Cairo (where his illness worsened when he contracted typhoid fever and measles from other patients), at Mound City in Illinois, and at Hamburg and Savannah on the Tennessee River before being admitted on July 16, 1862 to the hospital at Camp Dennison, Ohio.

His twenty-five-year-old brother, Jim Bethard, enlisted in the 21st Iowa Infantry that August and on September 16th left Dubuque and started south with his regiment while Jonathan, from his bed in Ward 29, replied to a letter he had received from Jim’s wife, Caroline. He was “pleased,” he said “to learn that you take so much interest in my welfare” and hoped she would be able to again “enjoy the society of your friends (that have enlisted in the service of their Country) from whom you have been separated on account of this terrible war brought on us by traitors. I hope they (the rebels) will be annihilated from the face of the earth that slavery is the cause of this war cannot be denied it is the root of the whole trouble and until that is entirely destroyed we never can have a permanent peace and the sooner we turn our attention to it the sooner we will have peace it is our great national sin and this war is our punishment.” He was hopeful a draft would not be needed, “although there is a great many in the country I would like to see drafted some on account of disloyalty and others for cowardice there is plenty such people that will stay at home and use treasonable language and discourage enlistments such men ought to be compelled to fight they are enjoying the country that brave men are defending.”

By November, Jonathan had recovered sufficiently to join his regiment then at Nashville. He saw subsequent service in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama before going into winter quarters at Rossville, Georgia. With the end of the war not in sight, soldiers were offered an incentive - a $400 bounty and 30-day furlough - to reenlist and Jonathan elected to do so. On December 31st he was mustered out and on January 1, 1864, was examined by a surgeon and remustered as a “veteran volunteer” for another three years. On the 11th, he started his furlough and headed north.

Meanwhile, Jim had not heard from his brother or his wife’s brother George who was with the 9th Iowa Infantry and told her, “as I see by the papers that both of their regiments have gone into the veteran service I expect that George and Jont have both reenlisted.” He soon learned that Jonathan, but not George, had reenlisted and in mid-March received a letter from Jonathan “at Chattanooga where he had just arrived” although Jim said “he is sorry that he reenlisted.”

Jonathan continued with his regiment and by May was “much better contented than he was when he wrote before.” They “were preparing for a long march and expected to start the next day but where they were going he did not know he was well and in good spirits.” In June, Jonathan was with his regiment when they participated in an attack on Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia but on July 17th Jim received a letter from “Lib” with “some bad news. Jonts family have all been sick with the scarlet fever resulting in the death of two of the children little Jimmy the oldest and their little girl. little Harvy barely escaped with his life.”

Still in Georgia, Jonathan’s health began to decline. He has “certainly had trouble enough to discourage any one,” said Jim. He “has had sickness in his family and lost two of his children and now lost his own health. is it not enough to discourage a stout heart.” Weeks went by and neither Jim nor Lib nor Nancy heard from Jonathan. They were worried. “I am afraid something is wrong,” said Jim. Unknown at the time was that Jonathan had been captured near Atlanta, Georgia, on November 10th but, on January 22, 1865, Jim was able to write, “I received a letter from Jont last week being the first I have received from him since last July or August.” To his surprise, Jonathan had written from Ohio. “I think he was very lucky in making his escape as judging from all accounts death is almost preferable to being a prisoner in the hands of the rebels.” Whether he had escaped or been paroled is unclear but, while in Ohio, Jonathan learned that their father was thinking of selling the family farm. In June, Alexander did sell the farm and he, his wife Sarah and daughter “Lib” left for a new home in Coffey County, Kansas.

After being mustered out on June 16, 1865, at Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Jonathan moved to Kansas where he and his wife had three more children - Samuel Lewis on September 14, 1866, Cora Maude on February 3, 1868, and Nancy Emilene on January 29, 1870.

Alexander had died on January 30, 1868, and Jonathan served as administrator of the estate, but he and Sarah then moved briefly to Colorado for their health. In 1877 they returned to Kansas and settled in Wilson County where they made their home near New Albany. Sarah died on April 16, 1881, and the following month Jonathan applied for an invalid pension based on his service-related medical problems. The boys had helped him work his farm but by then, he said, “the last one has gone to do for himself.” Supporting the application was another New Albany resident, Robert Mooney (who had married Jonathan’s sister Nancy) and a Middletown resident, Edgar Pruitt (who had married one of Jonathan’s daughters - also named Nancy and with whom Jonathan was then living). Jonathan was receiving a pension of $14.00 monthly when he died on September 30, 1905, while a resident of the National Soldiers Home in Leavenworth, Kansas. He is buried in Jackson Cemetery, New Albany.

Eight years after Sarah’s death Jonathan had married Emily Blevins Puckett on September 30, 1889. In 1909, giving her address as Buffalo, Kansas, Emily applied for a widow’s pension. She died on November 21, 1913, and is buried in Hillside Mission Cemetery, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

~Compiled & submitted by Carl Ingwalson December 2020

BETTYS, MASON D

Benjamin and Mary C. Bettys had at least three children, all born in Wisconsin: Phillip about 1840, Susan about 1842, and Mason about 1844.

The family moved to Grand Meadow Township in Clayton County in 1854 and, on September 28th of that year, Benjamin purchased twenty acres of farmland. Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860 and the following spring, on April 12th, Confederate artillery opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. By that fall the country was at war, a civil war, and more enlistments were needed.

On September 2, 1861, Phillip Bettys enlisted in Company L of Illinois' 8th Cavalry. Phillip was with his regiment the next month when it moved east to the city of Washington and during its subsequent service in Virginia.

On August 11, 1862, his brother, Mason D. Bettys, enlisted in Company B of what would be Iowa's 21st infantry regiment. Only eighteen years old, Mason was described as being 5 feet, 8¼ inches tall with brown eyes, black hair and a dark complexion. He received the standard $25 .00 advance on the $100.00 enlistment bounty and a $2.00 premium. His company was mustered into service at Dubuque on August 18th with ninety-nine men.

On September 9th, with all ten companies at sufficient strength, the regiment was mustered in with a total complement of 985 men, commissioned and enlisted. On September 16, 1862, they boarded the Henry Clay, a four-year old 181-foot long side-wheel steamer, and two open barges lashed to its side and started down the Mississippi River.

They went first to St. Louis where they spent one night at Benton Barracks and then traveled by rail to Rolla where they arrived on September 22d. They found good spring water and enjoyed their stay, but many were sick and several died. On October 18th they left Rolla and on the 19th arrived in Salem. There they camped until November 2nd when they were again on the move, this time for Houston where they arrived two days later.

Meanwhile, Mason's brother continued his service in the east (Poolsville, Monocacy Church, Barnesville, South Mountain, Boonesboro and Antietam). Then it was Martinsburg with the Army of the Potomac, Barbee's Crossroads, Falmouth, Fredericksburg, and up the Rappahannock.

In Missouri, Mason's 21st Infantry camped in Houston and Hartville and, on November 24, 1862, had a wagon train attacked at Beaver Creek. They were back in Houston when word was received that a Confederate force was moving into southwestern Missouri. Rushing in that direction, a 262-man contingent from the 21st Iowa engaged in battle at Hartville on January 11, 1863. From there it was back to Houston, then West Plains, Thomasville, Ironton and Iron Mountain. Walking slowly, mile after mile, often in mud several inches deep, drinking water from nearby streams, living on a limited diet, and enduring the bitter cold of winter in the Ozarks caused most to suffer and some to die.

Among the sick was Mason Bettys. On March 19, 1863, suffering from chronic diarrhoea, he died in Ste. Genevieve, an old French town on the Mississippi River. Jim Bethard lived near Mason in Grand Meadow Township and was serving with him in Company B. On March 21st, Jim wrote to wife, Caroline (Rice) Bethard, that:

"there has been two deaths in our company this week you will probably see Mr Lyons our orderly sergeant who went home with the dead body of Mason Bettice before this letter reaches you."

Mason Bettys was buried in Grand Meadow Cemetery, along U.S. Highway 52 west of Luana and not far from his parents' farm.

Mason’s brother, Phillip, continued on duty with the 8th Cavalry, "Farnsworth's Abolitionist Regiment',' according to President Lincoln. On June 9, 1863 it fought near Brandy Station in the largest mainly-cavalry battle of the war and the following month it saw action at Gettysburg. That fall, in a corps led by Major General Alfred Pleasonton, they were back in Virginia and planning an attack at Culpeper Court House, the headquarters for Confederate J.E. B. Stuart. On September 13th they met the enemy. Fighting was heavy and the Federals were victorious, but Phillip Bettys was killed. He is buried in Culpeper National Cemetery in Virginia, although there may also be a marker with his name in Grand Meadow Cemetery.

With their two sons having died in the war, Benjamin and Mary continued to work their farm. An 1866 township map shows three parcels in the Bettys' name but, in about 1876, they moved across the county line to Postville (where Joel Post had erected a log house more than thirty years earlier). There, on January 14, 1878, at sixty-seven years of age, Benjamin died. He was buried in Grand Meadow Cemetery.

Mary then lived many years with a niece in Chicago, but usually visited Postville every summer. In August 1894, a party was given to celebrate her ninetieth birthday. She had, said the Postville Review, "withstood the storms of time" and survived a broken limb and ill health, but seemed to be in very good health.

Mary died on February 1, 1902. She is buried with Benjamin and two of their children (Mason and Susan) in Grand Meadow Cemetery.

~Compiled & submitted by Carl Ingwalson December 2020

BETZ, JOHN B

John B. Betz, one of Iowa County’s earliest residents, passed away on July 5, 1922 at his home in Ladora, IA after a long illness. He was 80 years old.

He was born on November 9, 1841 near Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio to Samuel and Barbara(Mosseney) Betz. He was the oldest of five children, two boys and three girls. His mother died in 1849 when he was eight years of age. Shortly after, he and two sisters, Mary and Margaret, went to live with his Uncle and Aunt, John T. Orin and Mary(Mosseney) Orin. The other sister went to live with her Grandmother Mosseney, and his brother Nelson, remained with his father, who later married Juliet Bishop. They had two children. After Juliet passed away he later married Rachel Himebaugh of Michigan. To this union were born nine children. The Orin’s came by covered wagon from Ohio to the Ohio Community in Iowa County, 3 1/2 miles south of Ladora in 1854 when he was 12 years of age. He grew to manhood in this household one mile west of the Ohio Methodist Church. The Orin’s had a large number of children of their own in addition to the three Betz children.

At he age of 19 he enlisted in Company G of the 8th Iowa Infantry Regiment from the Genoa Bluffs area. This was September 3, 1861. He was with that command until the close of hostilities, participating in a number of hotly contested engagements, including the battles of Shiloh, Corinth and Jackson. He went through the 40 day siege of Vicksburg. He received honorable mention in Col. Bell’s report of the charge of Spanish Fort, where other officers were killed or wounded and he, a Sgt. at the time, took command of the Company, and although slightly wounded, led the Company through the remainder of the battle.

He was promoted successively to Third, Second, and First Sergeant, and then 1st Lieutenant and had the pay and duties of Captain when the war closed, stationed at Mobile, Montgomery and other points in Alabama during the Reconstruction Period. He was mustered out at Selma, Alabama on April 20, 1866.

He returned to Iowa and married Rachel Veach Tyler on November 29, 1866. Her first husband, Jehiel Tyler had died in the war. He became stepfather to two children, John Tyler and Elmer Tyler.

Mr. Betz bought a farm in Sumner and Hartford Townships, 2 1/2 miles south of Ladora. He cleared timber from much of the land to bring it under cultivation. At one time he owned 209 acres.

John and Rachel had eleven children, Hattie(Elmer) Fiser, William, Joseph, Charles, Molly, Robert, Annie(Dale) Maudlin, John Arthur, Versa(Arthur) King, and Rachel who died in infancy and an infant son who died in infancy.

he was converted and united with the Ohio Methodist Church in 1868 and was an active part of the Ohio Settlement south of Ladora. He was one of the last survivors of the original group of settlers.

The home place was a true Christian home and here the children were trained in the Christian life and learned to follow the same Christ. Later they transferred their membership to the Ladora Methodist Church and it became the family spiritual home.

He and his wife moved to Ladora in 1908 and purchased two lots and a home. She passed away on December 9, 1908, and is buried in the Ohio Cemetery. His daughter, Molly lived with him until he passed away. His Granddaughter, Lois Fiser, a registered nurse, returned to care for him in his last months. He was buried beside his wife in the Ohio Cemetery.

He was survived by the children listed above, eight grandchildren, two sisters, Margaret Loiler of North English, and Catherine Fox of Kentucky, and half brothers and half sisters in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. He was preceded in death by his parents, two children, one brother, Nelson in Ohio, and a sister Mary Wyant of Marengo.

Mr. Betz was very active in a number of organizations. he was a charter member of the W.B. Bricker Post, G.A.R. of Ladora. He was a member of the Odd Fellows. he was a delegate to frequent conferences of his church. He held office in his township when living on the farm, was a member of the Soldier’s Relief Commission for a number of years, served on the Ladora Town Council, and was a Director of the Farmers Savings Bank from its organization.

Funeral services were held in the Ladora Methodist Church conducted by Rev. J.C. Leonard of Keswick and Rev. S.S. Cole of Millersburg. The burial service at the Ohio Cemetery was in charge of Ladora Lodge No, 622, I.O.O.F.

~ Source: The above information was compiled by John Betz's Great-Grandson, Randall Betz, from the obituary for John Betz and The History of Iowa County.

JOHN BIRCH

John Birch was born in New York and married Eleanor in June 1841. Their children included David Birch who was born on November 8, 1852. David had one older brother and several younger siblings. The family was living in Iowa and John was working as a farmer when he enlisted as a Private at McGregor on August 15, 1862, for a three year term in what would be Company G of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry.
He was described as being thirty-eight years old, 5' 8¼' tall, with gray eyes, brown hair and a light complexion. He was present and mustered in with the Company on August 22d and was present when the Regiment was mustered into service of the United States on September 9, 1862 by Captain Pierce of the 19th U.S. Infantry. Like other volunteers, he was paid $25.00 of the $100.00 bounty plus a $2.00 premium.
John was marked “present” on the bimonthly Company Muster Rolls, with only minor illness, through the end ofAugust 1863 but, on the next roll, was reported as being absent and sick in a convalescent camp in Carrollton, Louisiana. On November 7, 1863 he died in the post hospital, New Orleans, of chronic diarrhoea, a common ailment in all regiments.
Men tried to clean cooking utensils and wash away dirt, but water was rarely hot. Drinking water was often contaminated. Food fried in heavy grease caused one surgeon to complain of “death from the frying pan.” Intestinal infections were rampant. Also known as “camp diarrhea,” "the bloody flux," "the summer complaint, "the screamers," "the Virginia quickstep," "the Tennessee trots" and other colorful names, diarrhea and dysentery became chronic, led to malnutrition, anemia and increased susceptibility to other disease resulting in extreme dehydration, up to fifty percent weight loss, and an estimated 50,000 deaths in the Union army, at least sixty-five in the 21st Iowa.
John Craig, a Millville resident who had been promoted to Captain a few months earlier, signed a Final Statement certifying that John Birch had served "honestly and faithfully with his Company in the Field to the present date, and is now entitled to a discharge by reason of Death. He died at Post Hospital, New Orleans, La. of chronic diarrhea on the 7th Nov. 1863." John had been paid by Paymaster Major Rodgers through June 30, 1863, and was entitled to pay accrued subsequent to that time. He had received $44.93 dollars advanced by the U.S. on account of clothing and had clothing due to him from the date of his enlistment. John's personal effects were inventoried and sold. The proceeds were forwarded to his wife in McGregor.
Eleanor Birch applied for a widow's pension. On February 16, 1864, the Adjutant General's Office in the War Department reviewed records confirming John had died on November 7, 1863 in New Orleans but, before she could finalize her claim, Eleanor and two of her children died in McGregor on April 4, 1864 of small pox.
John V. D. Benton was appointed guardian of twelve-year old David. John was a McGregor resident and secretary of a local board of trade. As his father’s dependent and still under sixteen years of age, David was awarded an $8.00 monthly pension effective April 7, 1864. On September 1, 1865, David Birch, wrote that:
"he was taken and removed by an uncle to the State of Illinois where he has since resided and the most of the time in said Stark County; that his uncle and other friends while he was in his minority used every endeavor, and at considerable expense, to obtain his pension money from his said guardian but without success and that since he has attained his majority the state of his health has been such that he has been unable to attend to it himself; that he is without means of support and unable to labor and now in the County Poor House of said County of Stark; That he is informed his guardian, the said John V. D. Benton, drew his pension from the 7th day of April 1864 to the 4th day of Sept 1864 at the Des Moines Agency, Iowa; and from that date to the 4th day of March 1866 at the Dubuque Agency, Iowa; that he then removed into or near the city of New York; that he has been unable to procure a return of his pension certificates or any of his money from him. "
On November 15, 1875, William H. Whitten and William Budine, residents of Bradford, Illinois, appeared before a Justice of the Peace in Stark County and signed an affidavit saying they had known the Birch family for more than 20 years and:
"are acquainted with all the facts of the widow & part of the children dying in the spring of 1864 leaving but one child, David Birch, under the age of 16 years and who is now an inmate of the County Poor House of said Stark County, Illinois; That he was brought to this County in the year 1864 soon after one J. V. D. Benton of McGregor, Iowa, was appointed his guardian; That said Benton drew a portion of this boys pension money and an effort was made to obtain the money and get a settlement with him but it was never accomplished; That said Benton moved to New York City or thereabouts sometime in 1866 and has the pension Certificate as they are informed; That the reason why this thing was not looked after before was that while the boy was in his minority it was thought to be in the hands of & under the control of Benton and since his majority he has been sick the most of the time & unable to attend to it. "
A pension certificate dated December 16, 1875, indicated that David was awarded $8.00 retroactive to March 4, 1866, and continuing to November 7, 1868 (the day before David's 16th birthday) plus an additional $2.00 to be paid from July 25, 1866, to November 7, 1868, but former payments were to be deducted.
~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

BLACKMORE, SAMUEL C

There is no man more worthy of a place in the history of Rice county than Samuel C. BLACKMORE, a representative farmer and stock-raiser of that locality. His paternal grandfather, Thomas BLACKMORE, was a native of Pennsylvania, but of English and Irish descent. He was a farmer by occupation, and at an early day came to Ohio, making his home with a son until he died at a ripe old age. He was the father of three children, namely: Benjamin; Samuel, the father of our subject; and Betsey, who died in Pennsylvania. His son, Samuel, the father of our subject, was a native of Pennsylvania, where he was married and later moved to Ohio. There he became one of the pioneers of Ashland county, where he bought and improved a good farm in the midst of the forest, and there he reared his family and remained for many years. In 1862 he sold out and moved to Iowa, settling in Ringgold county, where he bought and improved a farm, upon which he remained until his death, which occurred in 1881. He was a prominent and successful farmer, commanding the highest respect of the people where he lived, was a kind and good neighbor and very generous to friends, which often proved very expensive to him, but he prospered and accumulated a competency for old age. He was reared a Democrat and voted with that party until the opening of the Civil war, when he became a Republican, and held many positions of trust while in Ohio. He was a Universalist in religious faith, and in his life and daily conduct manifested the principles of his Christian belief. His integrity was above reproach, his word being as good as his bond.

He married Miss Elizabeth THOMPSON, a native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of William THOMPSON, a native of Scotland. After emigrating to America he settled in Pennsylvania, where he died. His children were: Alexander, William Jr, Patty and Elizabeth, the latter the mother of our subject. Unto Samuel BLACKMORE, Sr, and his wife were born the following children: Alexander, who died in Iowa; Martha, who became the wife of I[saac]. OLIVER; Jane, who married J. SMITH; Elizabeth, now Mrs. J, McCLURE; and Samuel C. Jr., our subject.

Samuel C. BLACKMORE, Jr., whose name introduces this record, was born in Ashland county, Ohio, June 7, 1842. He was reared to the honest toil of the farm and was educated in the common schools. In 1862, when twenty years of age, he accompanied his parents to Iowa and remained under the parental roof, assisting his father on the farm, until 1864, when he enlisted [as a Private on August 6, 1864] for one hundred days' service in Company G, Forty-sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, which was consigned to the Army of the Tennessee. At Holly Springs, Mississippi, where only a part of the regiment took part, many of his comrades fell by rebel bullets, and their bodies were buried in southern soil, but our subject was never wounded or captured. However, from hard marching and exposure in southern swamps, he contracted rheumatism and was compelled to use crutches. He also contracted chronic diarrhea, from which he was a great sufferer. He continued with his command until the expiration of his term of enlistment, when he was sent to Davenport, Iowa, where he received an honorable discharge [on September 23, [1864] and then returned home to his father's house, where he recovered from the diarrhea, but the rheumatism will continue to torture him as long as he lives. As soon as he had sufficiently regained his health to allow him to do so he resumed farm work, which he continued until 1870 upon his father's farm. In that year he was married and settled upon a farm of his own, there remaining until 1873, when he left the farm and came to Kansas. Here he located on the homestead in Rice county which he yet owns. Having small means he moved his family and household goods across the country by wagon and team, built a small frame house and was soon ready to begin farming on a small scale.

The herd law enabled him to plant a crop without fencing, and he planted corn and oats with good prospect for a harvest, but the grasshoppers came and destroyed everything that was green upon the place. However, he had planted some wheat the fall before, which he harvested before the grasshoppers appeared, and by strict economy he managed to continue his farming operations, realizing more from his crops each year, which enabled him to get his farm fenced and add some more rooms to his small house, thus adding greatly to the comfort of the family. When he came to Kansas the country was very sparsely settled, buffaloes and antelopes were plentiful, furnishing the table of the pioneers with fresh meat, wild beasts roamed at will in the forests and little of the land had been placed under cultivation. As soon as Mr. BLACKMORE felt assured that this section of the country would develop and become a prosperous commonwealth he traded his Iowa farm for a vacant quarter adjoining his farm, fenced and placed it under cultivation and carried on farming quite extensively, raising some stock also. Later he sold one quarter, but still owns the original homestead and hires it cultivated. He ran a threshing machine for three years and prospered in his undertakings.

In 1870 Mr. BLACKMORE was united in marriage to Miss Hattie WATSON, a well educated and cultured lady, who was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1839, a daughter of James and Jane (HAWTHORN) WATSON, both natives of Pennsylvania, where they were married. They were both of Irish descent and he was a railroad man and followed that line of business in Pennsylvania until his death, which occurred in 1850. He left a wife and two children in limited circumstances, but the mother kept the children together and moved to Illinois in 1856, locating in McLean county, where she remained until 1868, when she removed to Iowa, remaining there until both daughters married, and then in 1875 came to Kansas, where she finds a good home with her two daughters. She is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, but her husband was a Lutheran. They were the parents of eight children, but all died in childhood with the exception of the two daughters, Hattie, the wife of our subject; and Maggie, who married William HISER, and moved from Iowa in 1875, and is now living in Anderson county, Kansas. Both were school teachers, the former having taught for ten years, and the latter for six years. The maternal grandmother of this family, Mrs. HAWTHORN, had five children, namely: Jane, the mother of Mrs. BLACKMORE; John; Nancy, who married D. SNIVELY; George; and Eliza.

Unto our subject and his wife were born six children, namely: Jennie, who was married June 19, 1901, to C. B. WATSON, living in Meade county, Kansas; Samuel, a farmer; Pearl, who is successfully engaged in teaching; James, who is conducting the homestead farm; Hattie, who died at the age of sixteen years; and Katie, who is still with her parents.

Mr. BLACKMORE is a man of strong character, practical, energetic, enterprising and the soul of honor, commanding the highest respect and esteem of all with whom he is associated. He is very social in his nature, kind and benevolent, ever lending a helping hand to those in need, and by go-(?) in security for his financially embarrassed friends has lost considerable money. In his political affiliations he is a stanch Republican and does all in his power to insure the success of the party, but has never sought or desired political preferment. He is deeply interested in all movements for the progress and advancement of the community in which he makes his home, and is a loyal and substantial citizen, well worthy of representation in this volume.

~Sources:
A Biographical History of Central Kansas, Vol. II, p. 1067. Lewis Publishing, Co. Chicago & New York. 1902.
American Civil War Soldiers Database, ancestry.com
http://iagenweb.org/ringgold/
~Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2009

BLANCHARD, LUCIAN C

is a native of Diana, Lewis County, New York, where he was born April 15, 1839. Not satisfied with the meager education obtainable in the district school of that period, he attended Carthage Academy, coming west in 1858. He entered Rock River Seminary at Mount Morris, Illinois, teaching school a portion of the time. Coming to Iowa, at Newton he taught school and studied law.

When the Civil War came he enlisted in Company K, Twenty-eight Iowa Volunteers and participated in the battles of Port Gibson, Champion's Hill and the siege of Vicksburg. In 1864 he entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan from which he graduated in 1866. He began the practice of law at Montezuma and soon after was elected county judge of Poweshiek, serving in that position until 1868 when he was chosen Circuit Judge of the Sixth Judicial District, filling the position for twelve years. In 1890 Judge Blanchard was chosen senior vice-commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. In 1893 he was elected on the Republican ticket Representative in the Legislature for Mahaska County, and in 1895 was elected Senator, serving in the Twenty-sixth, Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eight and Twenty-ninth General Assemblies. With the assistance of Judge Wilson he prepared the Masonic Digest published by the Grand Lodge.

~ Source: A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY,BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931

ELISHA BOARDMAN

Elisha Boardman’s grandfather, also named Elisha Boardman, was born in Connecticut in 1781. After his wife died at fifty years of age, he never remarried but moved west and in 1836 settled in what became Clayton County, Iowa, where he was credited with being the founder of the city of Elkader. Remaining in the east was his daughter, Amy Boardman, who married Henry Boardman. Amy and Henry settled in Vermont where Henry died in 1837 and Amy in 1843. They’re buried in the town of West Milton.
Their son, Elisha Boardman, was born on January 27, 1827, in South Hero, Vermont, a town on the banks of Lake Champlain. On May 1, 1848, in Milton, he married Julia Grannis. A son, Roland Boardman, was born on June 10, 1849. A year or two later Elisha moved to Iowa to help his grandfather, but soon thereafter brought Julia and Roland to the county where three more sons were born: Henry (or Harry) Clinton Boardman on October 24, 1851, William on November 4, 1857 and Homer (or Harry) on September 12, 1860. While Roland and Clinton grew to adulthood, the younger boys died as infants.
Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and war followed. Elisha did not enlist immediately, possibly because he and his grandfather were having money problems. Three judgments were entered, two against both of them and one only against Elisha’s grandfather. When the judgments weren’t satisfied, the District Court issued writs of execution on July 5, 1862, and two days later a Notice of Sheriff’s Sale was issued. By then the war was well into its second year and President Lincoln called for another 300,000 volunteers. Iowa’s quota was five infantry regiments. If not raised by August 15th, a draft was likely.
On August 8, 1862, Elisha was appointed Captain of Company D, a company then being organized for the state’s 21st infantry regiment. An active recruiter in the county, he attended a large war meeting in Volga City on August 12th and enrolled sixteen volunteers for his company. On the 14th, while he was recruiting in Elkader and Highland, the Clayton County Journal published the Notice of Sheriff’s Sale. The sale was on the 15th while Elisha was in Elkader and McGregor enrolling more men. On the 20th another sale was scheduled, this one to satisfy a debt Elisha and Julia owed to Obadiah Brown. Two days later Company D was mustered into service with a total of ninety-seven men.
When all ten companies were of sufficient strength, they were mustered in at Dubuque’s Camp Franklin with a total of 985 men, officers and enlisted. After brief training, they boarded the sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges lashed alongside and started downstream. On October 21, 1863, Elisha signed his oath of office while they were camped five miles southwest of Rolla, Missouri. From there they walked to Salem, Houston and then Hartville where Elisha was among many in the company who were sick, “an average of 20 men per day” said Gilbert Cooley. On January 11, 1863, Elisha and twenty-five volunteers from Company D were among 262 from the regiment who participated in the Battle of Hartville. Bimonthly company muster rolls indicated Elisha was “present” on February 28th at Iron Mountain (although he was “sick in quarters”) and April 30th when the regiment crossed the Mississippi from Disharoon’s Plantation to Bruinsburg, Mississippi. On May 1, 1863, he participated in the Battle of Port Gibson. In his report of the battle, Colonel Merrill recognized Elisha as a “cool and brave” officer. On May 17th Elisha participated in an assault at the Big Black River after which Lieutenant Colonel Van Anda said Elisha and several other captains “behaved with great coolness.” On May 22, 1863, the regiment participated in an unsuccessful assault at Vicksburg. Most made it back to their lines, but many dead and wounded remained on the field. Colonel Merrill later reported:
“Capt. Boardman of Company D won imperishable fame by a single act before the rebel works at Vicksburg. During the hot action attending our assault and repulse before the strong works of the enemy, the Twenty-first Iowa Regiment suffered severely. The color bearer who was a member of Capt. Boardman’s company, fell, wounded, right before the rebel works, and with all the killed and wounded was left behind when our forces fell back. Notwithstanding, heretofore, the enemy’s sharpshooters had unerringly picked off those who returned after the wounded, Capt. Boardman said he would take off his men himself, or fall beside them in the effort. Divesting himself of his coat, sword and belt, he went boldly upon the field and finding the color-bearer lifted him up and bore him from the field. Whether impressed by his audacity or not, the rebels reserved their fire, and others, inspired by the captain’s glorious example, went forward, and the wounded were taken off and cared for.”
The siege of Vicksburg followed, but Elisha “was taken to the division hospital violently ill caused by the severity of his duties.” Suffering from “acute diarrhoea attended with great prostration,” Elisha was granted leave for thirty days and “started for Iowa June 10th.” On August 15th, Dr. J. W. Stout, an Elkader physician, said Elisha needed more time, “nothing short of six weeks.”
General Order #100 issued by the War Department a year earlier said officers “absent more than sixty days on account of wounds or disease contracted in the line of their duty, will be reported to the Adjutant-General of the army for discharge.” Elisha, Colonel Merrill, Captain Harrison and Captain Greaves had been gone for more than sixty days when Lieutenant Colonel Van Anda, then in field command, notified the War Department of their absence and they were discharged. All four wanted to return to their commands. Many at home and in the regiment thought the discharges were “hasty” and Colonel Merrill said Van Anda needed “a few lessons in military ettiquett” for not having verified their current health and whether they intended to return. Elisha had actually started south weeks earlier. He reached the regiment on September 29th, learned of his discharge and returned to Iowa.
Although aware that Elisha was able for duty, Van Anda sent a copy of the dismissal order to Governor Kirkwood on October 13th and asked that William Grannis be appointed Captain “in accordance with the wishes of the Company expressly to me.” On the same day, however, all twenty-seven members of the company then present, including William Grannis, wrote to the Governor asking that Elisha be recommissioned so he could “return to his Company.” William wrote separately to the Governor and said, “It is the wish of all of the members of his Co that he should be returned if possible He has been a faithful and good officer” and “I do not wish to stand in the way.” Colonel Merrill also wrote a supportive letter saying Elisha was “the coolest & bravest man in my regiment.” On December 22, 1863, Special Orders #566 provided that Elisha:
“is hereby restored to his command, with pay from the date he rejoins his regiment for duty, provided the vacancy has not been filled, evidence of which must be obtained from the Governor.”
Ultimately all four were returned to duty and, on January 30, 1864, Linus McKinney wrote to the North Iowa Times that, “it was read to us on dress parade that Col Merrill and Capt. Boardman had been reinstated, and would report at once to their command. This was good news to us all. Their return will be hailed with joy.” Twelve days later, Elisha reached the regiment then stationed at Indianola, Texas. On bimonthly company rolls he continued “present” during subsequent service in Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas. After the resignation of William Crooke on January 23, 1865, Elisha served as Acting Major but was never commissioned. According to one of Julia’s nephews, “through a personal difficulty with Gov. Stone the necessary papers were not offered him until on his return home. Through pride he refused to accept them.”
Elisha continued to serve as Acting Major during the successful campaign to capture the city of Mobile and, in June, 1865, was appointed to oversee paroles for 6,000 to 7,000 Confederate soldiers. He was mustered out with the regiment at Baton Rouge on July 15th, discharged at Clinton on July 24th, returned to Elkader, was elected sheriff and on December 16, 1866, died from pulmonary consumption. Elisha is buried in Elkader Cemetery.
Julia applied for a widow’s pension that was granted at $20.00 monthly retroactive to the day after Elisha’s death. In 1872 Elisha’s grandfather was appointed to a committee planning an Old Settlers’ Reunion, a reunion held on June 11th when “twenty coons, an ox and deer were roasted for the occasion.” In 1873 Julia attended a Company B reunion in Volga City. With her she carried the company flag embossed with the names of the company’s battles. Her son, Roland, died on February 27th of that year and Elisha’s grandfather, the pioneer settler of Clayton County, died on July 5, 1876. Both men are buried in Elkader Cemetery.
On October 26, 1879, Julia married A. J. Pease and, as a result, her widow’s pension was terminated. In 1883 the marriage was annulled when Julia said her husband “was of unsound mind and insane and could not at the time of marriage contract.” Her pension was then reinstated. It was also in 1883 that the Elisha Boardman Post, Post #184 of the G.A.R., was chartered in Elkader with nineteen charter members.
Clinton Boardman, died of yellow jaundice in Tampico, Mexico, on July 31, 1893. Julia died on July 9, 1903, and was buried in Pickwick Cemetery, Winona, Minnesota.
After the annulment of his marriage to Julia, Mr. Pease married Addie Gardner. He died in 1910 and was buried in Strawberry Point Cemetery. An obituary said he was “well and favorably known.” The Elisha Boardman Post of the G.A.R. was disbanded in 1916.
~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

BOLLES, LORENZO JR

Lorenzo Bolles, Jr., was born in Ashford, Connecticut, on October 13, 1822, and on March 9, 1853, married thirty-year-old Rachel M. (Crossman) Sibley. It was a second marriage for each. Prior to the Civil War, Lorenzo had two children, Celia in 1846 and Mary in 1850, with his first wife and three with Rachel: Lorenzo in 1854, Caroline “Carrie” in 1856 and Eliza in 1858.
In 1857 while serving as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he was delegated to go west, purchase land and make arrangements for church members moving from the east. The land he purchased was near Sand Spring (as it was then known) in Delaware County, Iowa, where the “wild and giddy speculation” of 1856-1857 had been followed by a statewide financial “Panic of ‘57.” Despite these hard times, ten members of his Exodus Colony arrived in 1858. The “soil provided a good living, and the surplus products of the farm could be could be exchanged for the few simple manufactured articles which the settler was obliged to have.”
Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. War followed and quickly escalated. On July 9, 1862, with Northern ranks depleted, Iowa Governor Sam Kirkwood received a telegram asking him to raise five new regiments in addition to those already in the field. On the 28th of the same month, Lorenzo enlisted as a Private in what would be Company K of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry while a Dubuque newspaper, hoping he would be made Chaplin of the regiment, noted that “when it comes to fighting he will be found with a gun in his hands whanging away at the enemy with the best of them." However, after letters were received from pastors in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, it was McGregor’s Congregationalist minister, Sam Sloan, who was appointed Chaplain.
Company K was mustered in on August 23, 1862, at Camp Franklin on Eagle Point in Dubuque and the regiment on September 9, 1862, also at Camp Franklin. Rachel gave birth to their fourth child on September 16th, the same day the regiment boarded the four-year-old sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside and started down the Mississippi. They reached St. Louis on the 20th, were inspected on the 21st and that night boarded rail cars usually reserved for freight and livestock. They reached Rolla the next morning and, after realizing water at their first camp smelled like “the breath of sewers,” moved five miles to a new location with good spring water. While there, they practiced drill and were organized in a brigade while Lorenzo was detailed as a hospital nurse and ward master.
On September 30th he wrote to Rachel and on October 11th she replied from their home in Sand Spring. “I was glad to hear from you,” she said. “I thought perhaps you had been in a battle was kiled or some awful thing had happened.” From Rolla they moved to Salem where Lorenzo wrote again. His letter was apparently not received and on November 3rd Rachel wrote, “I think you was to write every week” but “I shall be patient untill spring if you donot come Home then I shall have to go to the War myself.” Speaking of their seven-week-old daughter, Rachel added, “our little one is well and growes nicely we are anxious to know what you are going to name her.” On the 8th she wrote again and told Lorenzo “I have not been from the house since I went with you” but “our people keep up Sunday School and meetings yet.”
There had been many objections to the appointment of Henry Hyde as the regiment’s surgeon since, said “Many Ladies” of Dubuque, “the whole course of himself and family has marked them as secession sympathizers and when asked to contribute to our Sanitary Stores they have replied that if they had any thing to give it would be given to their Southern brothers.” Lorenzo felt the appointment “was very unfortunate” and, when Dr. Hyde was transferred to a Missouri regiment, he supported the appointment of Assistant Surgeon Lucius Benham as a replacement. Others proposed Dr. Asa Horr, brother Company F’s Captain Leonard Horr, but Governor Kirkwood diplomatically went outside the regiment and appointed Dr. William Orr.
On December 15, 1862, they were stationed in Houston, Missouri, when Chaplain Sloan submitted his resignation due to poor health. After hearing the news, Rachel wrote, “I do hope you will get the Chaplincy this time. I think you ought to have it if you must be in the army.” Six-year-old Carrie had been sick, she said, and now “our sweet little baby is sick with Diptheria.” Both girls recovered and, with the support of Colonel Merrill and eleven field and staff officers, Lorenzo was promoted to Chaplain on January 6, 1863. Writing the next day, he said “a Christian Association was formed three weeks ago, which numbers one hundred ninety five members” but “the camp is full of shameless wickedness, mainly of the tongue, that ‘world of iniquity which no man can tame.’”
On January 8, 1863, word was received that a Confederate force was moving north to attack Springfield. A relief force including 262 men from the 21st Iowa, a similar number from the 99th Illinois, 200 cavalry, two howitzers and assorted wagons, mules and teamsters was quickly organized and, with the 21st’s Colonel Merrill in command, left Houston on the 9th unaware that the Confederates had already attacked Springfield and were headed in their direction. When Lorenzo learned the Union force was likely to be attacked, he rode alone all night and arrived in Hartville on the 11th as fighting was about to begin but “was more than rewarded by the smiles and greetings he received from his men when they saw their chaplain arrive.”
For New Year’s he had sent Rachel a photograph (a “miniature”) and, she said, “I can’t help kissing it. Carrie has kissed it over and over again she let the Baby kiss it and talked to her about it.” By March the regiment was in Ste. Genevieve when Rachel wrote, “I expect if you came Home to stay I should live my young days over again, you know I used to be very fond of kissing & c.” Lorenzo’s reply was “so loaded with love,” said Rachel, “that I pay extra on it but I don’t care for that.”
From Ste. Genevieve the regiment was transported downstream to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant was organizing a large army to capture Vicksburg and Colonel Merrill appointed Lorenzo as the regiment’s postmaster. On April 30th they crossed from Disharoon’s Plantation in Louisiana to the Bruinsburg landing in Mississippi and started inland with the 21st Iowa as the point regiment for the entire army. They participated in the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1st and an assault at the Big Black River on May 17th before taking their position on the Union line now extended around the rear of Vicksburg. On the 22nd they participated in an assault and then joined in a siege of the city that ended with its surrender on July 4th. Throughout most of the siege Confederate forces under General Joe Johnston had been lurking behind the Union line and, on the 5th, the regiment joined others in a pursuit of Johnston but Lorenzo had stayed in Vicksburg where, on July 16, 1863, he submitted his resignation citing “physical debility.” The resignation was accepted the same day.
After returning to Iowa, he left in August for a visit to Massachusetts and wrote to Rachel from Milford that “I feel grateful for the success which I have met with and for the prospect of geting up a neat little church. This will be the finishing stroke of the colony job.” He died on June 24, 1869, in Madison County, New York, and was buried in Kenwood’s Oneida Community Cemetery.
Fifteen years later, on October 1, 1884, Rachel applied for a widow’s pension with support from long-time friends and from Robert Matsell who remembered that, about July 7th, “while said Bolles who was Chaplin then was caring the mail he received a partial sunstroke for which I treated him” and he knew Lorenzo had to “go north to save his life.” Rachel died on March 9, 1886, and was buried next to Lorenzo in Oneida Community Cemetery. Of her four children, Eliza died when she was only one-year-old, but Carrie lived until 1940 and Lorenzo until 1944. Anna, Rachel’s “little one,” died in 1938.
~ Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

Submitter Notes: Lorenzo and Rachel Bolles moved to Iowa from the east, returned there after the war and are buried in New York, but she was in Sand Spring (as it was then known) during the war and his connection to the Exodus Colony should be of interest to those in Delaware County.
I’ve read hundreds of Civil War letters and these are unique in that they very clearly expressed their emotions. I don’t have copies of his letters (although she refers to their content) but I do have originals or copies of several of her letters. She mentioned kisses several times and said that during her “young days” she was “fond of kissing & c.” which could get one speculating about how far “& c” went. Apparently she was fond of kissing and more.
She gave birth to their fourth child on the same day his regiment left Dubuque. I’d assume he stayed behind for the birth but I found nothing to confirm that. She also said she had not left the house “since I went with you” but I couldn’t find out when or where that was. Another interesting comment was that they couldn’t wait to see what Lorenzo was going to name their new baby. Usually that’s a joint decision and I’ve always assumed it was the same during the Civil War.

BOUQUET, HENRY LOUIS

Clerk of the Supreme Court, was born in Amsterdam, Holland, February 14, 1840. In 1849 he emigrated with his parents to the United States and located in Pella, Iowa. He attended the public schools of Pella until 1854 when he entered Central University where he remained as a student for two years. In 1856 he became a clerk in a general store at Pella and in July, 1862, he enlisted in Company "G" of the 33rd Iowa Infantry. In December, 1864, he was transferred and promoted to First Lieutenant and Quartermaster of the 4th Arkansas Cavalry. He remained with his regiment until the close of the war and was mustered out of service in July, 1865. He returned to Pella after the war and in 1868 was elected Clerk of the District Court for Marion county, which office he held for four years. From 1875 until 1884 he was assistant cashier of the Pella National Bank. After leaving the bank he engaged in the general merchandising business at Knoxville with A.B. Culver, under the firm name of Culver & Co. He remained in this business until the store was burned in 1901. In 1902 he was a candidate before the Republican state convention for Clerk of the Supreme Curt, but was defeated for nomination by John C. Crockett and upon the election and qualification of Mr. Crockett he was appointed deputy clerk which position he held until Mr. Crockett resigned in January 1908, when he was appointed by the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy. He was nominated at the Republican primaries in 1908 to fill the unexpired portion of the term and was elected at the general election in 1908. A Republican in politics.

BOYD, JOHN

a progressive and efficient farmer of Richland township [Decatur County], was born in Highland county, Ohio, in 1821. His father, Thomas BOYD, who was of Irish descent, early settled in Highland county, where he carried on agricultural operations. His political allegiance was given to the republican party and his religious faith was that of the Methodist Episcopal church. He died in 1867 when about sixty-three years of age. His wife, who in her maidenhood was Miss Annie MILLER, was born in Pennsylvania of German ancestry. She was also a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Her demise occurred in [January 18] 1864 when she was sixty-three years old. They were the parents of six children, of whom our subject was the second in order of birth. His brother Allen enlisted in the Thirty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry in 1862 and died in a hospital from the effects of wounds received at the front on the 15th of April, 1865, the day on which President LINCOLN died.

John BOYD attended the district schools of the Buckeye state [Ohio] and in his early manhood taught school for a time. In 1852 he came to Iowa with his parents, the family first locating in Wapello county, but in 1855 they removed to Decatur county and took up their residence on a farm in Richland township which they owned. Our subject continued to follow the profession of teaching in this [Decatur] county during the winter months, while the summers were devoted to farm work. In 1878 he purchased an excellent farm of two hundred and eighty acres on section 28, Richland township, and thereafter gave his entire time to agricultural pursuits. He carried on general farming and stock-raising and his labors yielded him a good financial return. His widow owns one hundred and sixty acres of land a mile north of Grand River.

Mr. BOYD married Miss Elizabeth Annie BULLOCK, who was born in Decatur county, Indiana, December 11, 1841. Her parents, Curtis and Martha (ZIEGLER) BULLOCK, emigrated to Iowa in 1850, locating on a farm in Keokuk county, whence they later removed to Missouri.

Mr. BULLOCK was a successful farmer and also an ordained minister of the Baptist church, to which his wife also belonged. Both passed away in the Iron state, he in 1898 when in his eighty-third year and she in 1892 when in her seventy-sixty year. They were the parents of eight children, of whom Mrs. BOYD is the second in order of birth. Her brother George enlisted for service in the Civil war in the Eighteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry in 1862 and served until the close of hostilities. He was in many important engagements and was with SHERMAN on his march to the sea. He held the rank of first sergeant. John W. BULLOCK, another brother, enlisted in the Thirty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry in 1862, when but a lad of sixteen years, and served throughout the war.

Mr. and Mrs. BOYD became the parents of seven children. Henry Russell, who was born in 1862, is farming in Ringgold county and is president of the bank at Tingley. He married Miss Margaret EDIE and they have four children. Martha J., born in 1866, is the wife of Henry BRYANT, of Richland township. Curtis A., who was born in 1869 and is farming in Grand River township, married Miss Susan FEAR and they have three children. Ida Ellen, born in 1873, has for the past eight years been teaching in the Ames high school. Nora J., whose birth occurred in 1877, is cashier of the Farmers State Bank of Grand River. Frank and Laura, twins, were born in 1881. Frank, who is managing the home farm, married Miss Mary JUDD, and they have one child. Laura is the wife of Boyd GALE, by whom she has two children. Mrs. BOYD has nine living grandchildren. She is a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church and her many admirable traits of character have gained her the esteem of those who know her.

Mr. BOYD was a republican in politics and took interest of a good citizen in public affairs, although he never sought official preferment. In his work as a farmer he was prompt and energetic and not only gained success for himself but also contributed to the development of his locality along agricultural lines. His demise, which occurred August 4, 1901, was sincerely mourned, and his memory is yet cherished by his friends.

NOTE: Thomas BOYD died January 16, 1867 at the age of 63 years, 2 months, and 21 days, with interment at the Young Cemetery near Grand River, Decatur County, Iowa, beside his wife Anna (MILLER) BOYD.

John BOYD, according to his gravestone, was born in 1832, and died in 1901. He married Elizabeth Anne BULLOCK on March 14, 1861. Elizabeth was born December 11, 1841, Decatur County, Indiana, and died June 6, 1922. John and Elizabeth were interred at the Young Cemetery near Grand River, Decatur County, Iowa.

Allen BOYD enlisted as a Private on August 15, 1862, at the age of 28, and served with Company I of the 34th Iowa Infantry. He died of disease at Keokuk, Iowa, on April 17, 1865.

George BULLOCK enlisted as a 2nd Sergeant at the age of 22 years on July 10, 1862 at Osceola, Clarke County, Iowa. He served with Company B of the 18th Iowa Infantry, was promoted to full 1st Sergeant on February 1, 1863; promoted to full Sergeant Major on December 26, 1864; promoted to full 2nd Lieutenant on March 16, 1865; and was mustered out of service at Little Rock, Arkansas on July 20, 1865. John W. BULLOCK enlisted as a Private from Osceola, Clarke County, Iowa, on August 22, 1862, assigned to Company K of the 39th Iowa Infantry. He was promoted to full 2nd Corporal on May 3, 1865, and mustered out of service as a full 8th Corporal on June 5, 1865 at Washington, D. C.

Henry Russell BOYD died in 1938, and was interred in Tingley Cemetery, Tingley, Ringgold County, Iowa. Margaret (EDIE) BOYD was born in 1862, and died in 1935 with interment at Tingley Cemetery.

~ SOURCES:
HOWELL, J. M. & CONOMAN, Heman. History of Decatur County, Iowa, and Its People Vol. II. Pp. 126-29. S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Chicago. 1915.
American Civil War Soldiers, ancestry.com
WPA Graves Survey
~Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, February of 2009

WILLIAM “WILL” C BOYNTON

William C. ("Will") Boynton was born in Rodman, Jefferson County, New York, on August 28, 1843. His mother died eight days later and his father in 1850. Orphaned at a young age, William was cared for by his uncle, Charles S. Boynton. In 1857 they moved to Strawberry Point.
William was an eighteen year old farmer when, on August 7, 1862 he was enrolled by Charles Heath in Company B of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry, a regiment being organized in the northeastern counties, then the state's 3rd Congressional District. He was described as being 5' 6½" tall with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion.
The company was mustered in on August 18th and the regiment on September 9th, both at Camp Franklin in Dubuque. A week later they marched from their camp and through town to the levee at the foot of Jones Street. There they boarded the Henry Clay, a four-year old 181-foot long, side-wheel steamer, and two barges lashed to its side, and left for the South.
After one night at Benton Barracks in St. Louis, they boarded cars of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad and traveled through the night to Rolla where they camped and waited for further orders. On October 17th, General Fitz Henry Warren arrived, took command, and ordered the regiment to Houston, fifty miles to the south. William was ill and received medical treatment for a week, but recovered and was present with the regiment during its subsequent service in Houston, Hartville, West Plains, Ironton, Iron Mountain and Ste. Genevieve.
On April 10, 1863 he was with his regiment at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, where General Grant was amassing a large army to capture the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg. They were assigned to a brigade led by Charles Harris ofthe 11th Wisconsin that included his own regiment together with the 21st, 22d and 23d Iowa. Designated the 2d Brigade of Eugene Carr's 14th Division of John McClernand' s 13th Corps, they moved slowly south through swamps and bayous on the west side of the Mississippi River, crossed to the east side on April 30, 1863, and, on May 1, 1863, fought the one-day Battle of Port Gibson.
William participated in the battle and was present on May 16, 1863 during the Battle of Champion's Hill. His regiment was held in reserve during the battle, but Companies A and B did some light skirmishing after the battle. He continued present during the subsequent siege of Vicksburg, but again became ill and was treated for chronic diarrhoea, a problem that plagued western regiments and led to many deaths. Initial treatment was in a field hospital, but he was later transported upstream and admitted to the hospital at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. His Uncle Charles went to the barracks where the Surgeon in Charge certified that William "had done no duty since May last and is not a fit subject for the Invalid Detachment."
On July 30, 1863, by order of Major General John Schofield, William was discharged. His uncle took William home and helped him recover his health.
By the end of January, 1865, regimental muster rolls carried the names of 657 men, but many were too ill for active duty. On February 1st, William Boynton, Albert Knight (brother of Company B's Myron Knight) and several other recruits signed one-year enlistments and, before long, were on their way south. Albert became ill and was detained briefly in New Orleans, but William and the other recruits reached the regiment on March 8th while it was camped on Dauphin Island at the entrance to Mobile Bay.
On the 17th they crossed to the east side of the bay and started a march north towards Confederates manning Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely guarding the approach to the city of Mobile. Along the way, William was again ill, but he was well enough on April 11th to join Jim Bethard, Myron Knight and Albert Knight on a visit to Fort Blakely that had fallen to Federal troops two days earlier. With the enemy also withdrawing from Mobile, the Federals occupied the city and the regiment was assigned to a site at Spring Hill where they would camp for the next month and a half.
Eventually, they returned to New Orleans and saw service in Arkansas before being ordered to Baton Rouge. While there, William was hospitalized and treated for a fever. On July 12, 1865 he and the other recruits were transferred as unassigned recruits to the 34th Infantry to complete their one-year enlistments while the balance of the regiment was mustered out on July 15th. William and others in the 34th Infantry were sent to Texas, but mustered out a month later.
On October 23, 1867, William and Katharine "Kate" Knight, a younger sister of Myron and Albert, were married in Delhi by Judge J.B. Boggs. That was the same year the Illinois Central Railroad extended its service into Iowa. During the 1880s and 1890s, its reach gradually expanded from Dubuque to Peosta, Epworth, Farley, Dyersville, Earlville, Manchester, Winthrop, and towns farther west. This may have been a factor that caused Will and Kate to move to Manchester in 1883 and Winthrop in 1886 where Will opened a furniture and undertaking business. A religious man, he became active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, led a Sunday morning class, and became a member of the Buchanan County Holiness Association.
In 1892, bothered by war-related health problems, he requested a pension based on a law effective in 1890. The pension was granted in 1893 but, later that year, the Bureau of Pensions issued orders necessitating a review of all pensions that had been based on the 1890 law. William's pension was suspended and he was dropped from the rolls. Basically, he was too healthy and not incapacitated enough to have "ratable" disabilities. In 1897 he reapplied, but it was not until 1905 that he was readmitted to the rolls. He was granted $6.00 per month. This was later raised to $12.00, an amount he received until his death on January 5, 1908.
Out-of-town relatives who attended his funeral included Kate's brother, Myron Knight, with whom William had served more than forty years earlier. Also attending was William's uncle, Charles Boynton, who had cared for William after William's parents died, who had gone to Benton Barracks to help William return home, and who helped nurse him back to health. Many friends gathered at the Winthrop depot to pay their respects as William's body was carried on board one of the cars of the Illinois Central Railroad for transport to Strawberry Point.
Kate applied for and was granted a widow's pension of$12.00 per month. She returned to Strawberry Point and was living in the family's "old home" when she died on August 27, 1920. She is buried with William in Strawberry Point Cemetery.

~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

BRADLEY, WILLIAM H

farmer, section 5, Athens Township, was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1829. His parents were William H. and Maria (BELL) BRADLEY, the former a native of Ireland, and the latter of Washington County. They reared a family of four children - William H., Mary, Ellen, and Margaret. William was the oldest child, and when he was four years of age his parent removed to Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where he received his education. He attended the same school with James G. BLAINE* for a time. In 1839 the family removed to Jefferson, Greene County, where they remained until 1843, thence to Washington County, thence to Allegheny County in three years, and in 1852 removed to Wayne County, Ohio.

He was married October 16, 1856, to Miss Catharine STAIR, a native of Germany, and daughter of John and Christina (MOSSES) STAIR. In the fall of 1856 Mr. BRADLEY came to Iowa, and settled in Poe Township, Ringgold County. At that time Mt. Ayr had only eight log houses. In the spring of 1857 he located on the B. B. DUNNING place, where he remained until the fall of 1860, then removed to section 21, Poe Township, where he remained until the breaking out of the civil War.

He enlisted August 10, 1862 [from Mount Ayr as a Private] in Company G, Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry, and was engaged in the battled of Helena, Little Rock, Camden, Mobile, and several minor engagements. He wa honorably discharged [on August 10, 1865, New Orleans, Louisiania] and returned to his home in Ringgold County.

In 1870 he removed to section 1, and in 1876 to section 6, Athens Township. In 1879 he moved upon his present farm, which was then in a wild state. He has improved it until he has brought it to its present condition. He has a fine residence, and a barn, 32 x 36 feet, an orchard of eighty trees and small fruits, and is engaged in general farming and stock-raising.

Mr. and Mrs. BRADLEY are the parents of five children - Keziah, Joseph, Louis (sic), Seigel (sic), and Zephina. Mr. BRADLEY is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic post at Mt. Ayr, and also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge 69. By honest dealing he has won the confidence and respect of all who know him. Postoffice, Kellerton.

NOTE: William H. BRADLEY died on May 25, 1901. Catherine (STAIR) BRADLEY was born on December 17, 1824 in Germany, and died July 25, 1903. William and Catherine were interred at Rose Hill Cemetery, Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa.

Joseph BRADLEY, son of William H. and Catherine (STAIR), was not listed with the family in the 1880 Federal Census.

Lois BRADLEY, daughter of William H. and Catherine (STAIR), was born circa 1859, Ringgold County, Iowa.

James K. BRADLEY, son of William H. and Catherine (STAIR), was born circa 1861, Ringgold County, Iowa.

Sigle Henry BRADLEY, son of William H. and Catherine (STAIR), was born in 1882, Ringgold County, Iowa, and died in 1947, with interment at Maple Row
Cemetery, Kellerton, Ringgold County, Iowa.

Zepheniah W. BRADLEY was born in 1869, Ringgold County, Iowa, and died in 1948, with interment at Maple Row Cemetery, Kellerton, Ringgold County, Iowa.

* James G. BLAINE (1830-1893) was a Senator and Representative from Maine, editor of The Portland Advertiser and the Kennebec Journal, unsuccessful candidate for nomination for President of the United States on the Republican ticket in 1876 and 1880, Secretary of State in the cabinets of Presidents James GARFIELD and Chester ARTHUR and Benjamin HARRISON, and was the first president of the Pan American Congress.

~Sources:
Biography & Historical Record of Ringgold County, Iowa, p. 372, 1887.
American Civil War Soldiers Database, ancestry.com
1880 Federal Census, Athens Township, Ringgold County, Iowa
WPA Graves Survey
https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/B000519
http://iagenweb.org/ringgold/ from Biography & Historical Record of Ringgold County, Iowa Lewis Publishing Company of Chicago, 1887, p. 372
~Transcription by and note Sharon R. Becker, March of 2009

ELNATHAN WARREN BRAMAN

Elnathan Warren Braman was born in Erie County, New York. Caroline Cobb was born in New York on December 25, 1829. On October 25, 1850, according to a post-war marriage certificate, they were married in DuPage County, Illinois.
They were residents of Clayton County, Iowa, when, on August 13, 1862, Warren was enrolled by Charles P. Heath in an infantry company then being raised in the state’s northeastern counties. As Caroline said, “he seldom used the name Elnathan, usually signing his name E. Warren Braman,” and that’s how he was reflected in military records. He enlisted at Strawberry Point and was described as being a thirty-three year old farmer, 5' 9½” tall with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion. They were mustered in as Company B on August 18, 1862, at Camp Franklin in Dubuque.
Infantry regiments had ten companies of approximately 100 men each. When all ten companies in Warren’s regiment were of sufficient strength, they were mustered in on September 9, 1862, with a complement of 985 men, officers and enlisted. Another 145 men would enlist as new “recruits” before its service came to an end.
After brief training at Camp Franklin, the regiment left Dubuque on September 16, 1862, crowded on board the Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside. Due to low water, they transferred to the Hawkeye State below Montrose and traveled to St. Louis where they spent one night at Benton Barracks. Warren continued with the regiment as they then traveled by rail to Rolla and, from there, marched to Salem, Houston, Hartville and, after a wagon train was attacked in November, back to Houston.
That’s where they were stationed when volunteers were requested to go to the relief of a Union garrison in Springfield that was under threat from a Confederate force under John Marmaduke heading north from Arkansas. Warren was one of twenty-five from Company B who volunteered, but they never made it as far as Springfield. Instead, they met the enemy in a one-day battle at Hartville, Missouri. Carl Possehl, Charles Carlton and Harrison Hefner were killed while William Jones was wounded and died the next day. Another thirteen men had wounds that were not life-threatening.
Later that month they moved south to West Plains, but Warren Braman was one of many who were sick and left behind in Houston. He regained his health sufficiently to rejoin the regiment but, on April 13th, was granted a thirty-day furlough. When he didn’t return, he was reported as a deserter. He was arrested in Athens, Illinois, on August 13th, taken to Camp Douglas in Chicago, and then sent back to the South.
Also from Clayton County and serving in Company B were Jim Bethard and his brother-in-law Jim Rice, brother of Caroline (Rice) Bethard. Jim Rice had received a furlough in July and, on September 13, 1863, Jim Bethard wrote to Caroline:

If Jim is there yet tell him they have got Warren Braman at New Orleans he got a furlough last spring and forgot to come back again. I understood that he was caught in Illinois

A week later, Jim wrote directly to Jim Rice:

Old Bramen is in jail in New Orleans he was caught in Illinois near Chicago

Warren was still under arrest when he was returned to the regiment on September 25, 1863, at Brashear City, Louisiana, and, on the 27th, Jim Bethard wrote:

Warren Bramen is also here he came to us night before last I don’t know whether they are going to do anything with him or not

Charges were preferred, a court martial hearing was convened, and Warren was “honorably acquitted.” While military records don’t reflect the reason, it’s likely that Warren, like so many others, had over-stayed his furlough due to continuing health problems and had failed to request extensions.
The rest of his service was relatively uneventful and he was marked “present” on all bimonthly muster rolls as the regiment performed service in southwestern Louisiana, the Gulf Coast of Texas, and along the White River in Arkansas. Its final campaign was during the spring of 1865 when it moved up the east side of Mobile Bay, occupied the city of Mobile, and camped at Spring Hill before returning to Louisiana. On July 15, 1865, they were mustered out at Baton Rouge and, on July 24th, received their discharge at Clinton.
Warren and Caroline moved to Chicago after the war, but little is known of his post-war life. On November 26, 1885, he was admitted to the Cook County Hospital and he was still there on December 22nd when he died from heart disease and asthma.
In 1890, Caroline retained Ada C. Sweet, a well-known humanitarian, reformer and very experienced pension agent to pursue a claim for a widow’s pension. At the age of sixteen, Ada had become an assistant to her father who was the United States Pension Agent for paying pensions in Chicago. He became First Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue in Washington and, after his death in 1874, President Grant appointed Ada as the United States Pension Agent in Chicago. Her office employed a large clerical force and disbursed millions of dollars annually.
On October 14, 1890, with Ada Sweet as her attorney, Caroline signed an application seeking a widow’s pension under the general law of 1890. The Pension Office verified Warren’s service but, for reasons not indicated, no pension was granted. Caroline then retained Milo B. Stevens as her attorney.
On November 2, 1905, saying “a prior application for pension has been filed, she believes, about 1890, through Ada C. Sweet,” Caroline reapplied for a pension under the general law and a new law enacted in 1900. This time she signed with an “X” and, in a subsequent affidavit, explained “I am unable, and have been for the past seven years, to write my name, my hands being drawn out of shape and stiff from rheumatism.”
Her application was approved and she was granted a $12.00 monthly pension payable quarterly through the Chicago agency. She was living at 1824 West Adams Street, Chicago, when she died on December 27, 1910, two days after her eighty-first birthday. Caroline was buried nine miles to the west in the city’s Forest Home Cemetery.
A daughter, Mary (Braman) Pratt applied for reimbursement of her mother’s final expenses. Census records indicate that Warren and Caroline may also have had two sons, Eugene and Willis.
~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

BROWN, LEONARD

was born in Syracuse, Indiana, July 4, 1837; he died at Chicago, August 24, 1914. He attended the common schools of Syracuse until thirteen years of age and then worked for three years in a blacksmith shop. He removed to Des Moines in 1853 and attended Des Moines academy for one year. The next year he went to Burlington where he remained for four years as student and tutor in mathematics in a university. Returning to Des Moines, he associated with Rev. John A. Nash in establishing Forest Home Seminary in 1860. In 1866-7 he was superintendent of schools in Des Moines and Polk county and in 1875-6 professor of language and literature in Humboldt College. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company F, Forty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry and served with his regiment the one hundred days of their enlistment.

He spent much time on the lecture platform, speaking on education and political subjects, and contributed much to campaign literature. He was the author of several books and pamphlets, among them being Poems of the Prairies; Our Own Columbia; Popular Perils; Iowa, the Promised of the Prophets; and the Rights of Labor.

~ Source: "Notable Deaths" Annals of Iowa. Vol. XI, No. 1, 3rd Series. p. 632. Historical Society of Iowa. Des Moines. April, 1913.
~Transcription by Sharon R. Becker

WILLIAM SLOCOMB BROWN

The son of George and Lucy (Tracy) Brown, William Slocomb Brown was born in Dudley, Massachusetts, on November 13, 1821. Sarah Ann McCracken was born farther north, in Northampton, in 1823. On November 9, 1848, they were married in Webster, Massachusetts.
Sarah had a younger sister, Mary Ellen McCracken, who was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on August 28, 1831. On Christmas Eve, 1851, she married Joseph Marsh, in Dudley. Three years later they moved to Volga City. A year after that Joseph built a small house on land he bought from the government. At an Old Settlers Reunion many years later, he described how happy they were in Iowa. Their first winter was “delightful,” game was plentiful and Joseph enjoyed tramping “over Volga’s hills.” Their experience may have been what induced Sarah and William to also move to Iowa where they lived with Joseph and Mary Ellen.
Initially, life was good, but the “Spirit Lake Massacre” of March 1857, caused William to reconsider his move and decide to return to Massachusetts. To pay a debt that Joseph owed to him, they traveled together to Dubuque where Joseph hoped to raise money by selling two oxen. Unfortunately, the financial downturn suffered by Iowa and much of the rest of the country in 1857 was well underway. A sale could not be arranged and the men returned home where William bought the oxen and rented a farm near Strawberry Point.
Crop failures and the financial panic were endured and life gradually improved, but that too came to an end with the advent of the Civil War. William was forty years old and working as a shoemaker when he enlisted at Volga City on August 12, 1862, in what would be Company D of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He was described as being 5' 6½” tall with blue eyes, a light complexion and brown hair.
Those able to travel left their Dubuque training camp on September 16th, crowded on board the side-wheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside, reached St. Louis on the 20th and left for Rolla by rail the next day. The regiment’s early service continued in Missouri and William was marked “present” on all bimonthly company muster rolls as they walked from Rolla to Salem, Houston, Hartville, back to Houston, south to West Plains, and then northeast to Thomasville, Ironton, Iron Mountain and, finally, into Ste. Genevieve where they arrived on March 11, 1863.
On April 10th, they reached Milliken’s Bend where General Grant was organizing a large, three-corps army. Assigned to a corps led by General John McClernand, they started south - walking, wading and slowly making their way along roads and through bayous west of the Mississippi. From Disharoon’s Plantation on April 30th, they crossed to the Bruinsburg landing on the east bank and, with the 21st Iowa as the point regiment, started a march inland. They encountered enemy pickets about midnight and shots were exchanged, but all soon rested in anticipation of a more significant encounter the next day.
On May 1, 1863, William participated in the daylong Battle of Port Gibson, on May 17th he participated in an assault on entrenched Confederates at the Big Black River in which the 21st and 23rd Iowa routed the enemy, and on May 22nd he participated with the regiment and the rest of the army in an assault on Confederate defenses at Vicksburg. In those three engagements, the regiment suffered 31 killed in action, 34 who incurred fatal wounds and at least 102 with less serious wounds, although many of the wounds were severe enough that the men, some after suffering amputations, were discharged.
Convinced that the city could not be taken by assault, Grant settled on a siege, the Union lines were strengthened and defenders in the city did their best to survive on increasingly limited food and other supplies. On July 1st, a Union outpost at Hankinson's Ferry was attacked by an enemy force estimated at 2,000 with artillery support. This was a brief engagement but, coupled with an earlier report of Confederates on their way to Rocky Springs, was enough for Grant to order a brigade to rush to the ferry. Michael Lawler’s brigade, a brigade including the 21st Iowa, was selected. They were roused about midnight and left before daybreak on the 2d. Not having marched for almost two months, men suffered intensely from heat, thirst and fatigue. Many fainted by the roadside with blistered feet, parched throats, swollen veins and blood-shot eyes. By the time they reached the ferry that afternoon, the regiment could muster fewer than one hundred men. A relief detail searched for those who had fallen, but it was past midnight before all were accounted for, the rebels were never found, and the brigade camped for the night near Red Bone Chapel.
William Brown was one of many who suffered. As 2d Lieutenant Gilbert Cooley would later explain, William “became disabled from duty by sun stroke or excessive heat and fatigue.” He had been promoted from Private to 8th, 6th and finally 4th Corporal but, on August 9th, was sent “up the river sick.” Sarah said he “came home on sick furlough” and she thought “his head was affected as he continually complained of a buzzing sensation in the head & manifested symptoms of insanity” that he attributed to sunstroke. He eventually rejoined the regiment and received a promotion to 3rd Corporal but, in Texas on December 25, 1863, he was reduced to the ranks at his own request.
At the end of May they returned to Louisiana and, on June 16th, William and several others were admitted to New Orleans’ Charity Hospital where the order for their admission “stated that they were insane and to be sent by first conveyance to the Insane Asylum at Washington City.” On June 21st, they left New Orleans on board the steamer Cahawba and on June 30, 1865, William was admitted to the Government Hospital for the Insane. Opened ten years earlier, its mission, said its founder Dorothea Dix, was to provide the “most humane care and enlightened curative treatment for the insane of the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia.” William remained a patient until September 4, 1864, when, according to hospital records, he died “of softening of the brain.” He is buried in the cemetery of the hospital which, in 1916, changed its name to Saint Elizabeths.
With three children under sixteen, Sarah secured affidavits from her sister and others who testified to her marriage to William and who assisted with births of their children or otherwise knew of their legitimacy and ages - Mary Lucy thirteen, Frances J. eight and Emma E. six. Finally, on January 19, 1867, Alvah C. Rogers, a Clayton County Judge, signed letters of guardianship giving Sarah “full power and authority to demand, sue for and take possession of all money and estate belonging to her said wards.”
She then filed an application with the Department of the Interior’s pension office seeking pensions for the children and secured affidavits to prove William had died while in the service, he was the father of her children, she was their mother, and they were entitled to pensions provided for minors. Her attorney, Herman Hemenway, contacted Hiram Hunt who had been a surgeon in the regiment, but Hiram’s “chest containing his official records was broken open and the papers stolen” while going up-river after the war and he could no longer recall William’s case. Fortunately, others did and the pensions were granted.
Another veteran of the war, John P. Nichols, had served with the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery. During a hard march from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Washington, D.C., “one of the veins of his right leg became ruptured.” Having enlisted in 1861, he was discharged in 1864 and spent the next year visiting friends and relatives in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. During “the winter of 65-66 came to Volga City,” he said, and on December 6, 1865, he and Sarah Brown were married.
On April 13, 1880, John signed an affidavit for an invalid pension. Varicose veins in his leg had worsened and, as a result, he said he was now partly disabled. Former comrades, one a sergeant and one a musician, recalled the difficult march in Maryland and said John had been treated by the regimental surgeon. The surgeon was Samuel Skinner, but he couldn’t remember the circumstances of John’s injury. By then John and Sarah had moved to Sioux City where a doctor said John’s varicose veins extended from the knee half way to the ankle. While he felt the disability was slight, another doctor thought John was “seriously disabled.” Joseph Marsh, Sarah’s brother-in-law, recalled that John had worked as a farm hand and in a brick yard in Volga City, but was now “unable to perform manual labor so as to support himself & family.” John said he had tried “Gardening. Teaming. Farming. Blacksmithing”, but as soon as he exerted himself his “old complaint” would prevent him from continuing. Sarah said John had “very coase veins in His leg that Cripled Him.” It took a long time but finally, on January 30, 1888, a pension was approved.
Sarah and John moved to Akron in Plymouth County where, on November 16, 1894, John died. He was buried in the town’s Riverside Cemetery. A week later, Sarah applied for a widow’s pension and once again secured supportive affidavits. Her sister-in-law Eliza (Nichols) Fenner, her sister’s husband Joseph Marsh, her son-in-law Conrad Reuschling, Dr. R. D. Clark, Dr. Herbert Cilley, Rev. J. W. Neyman and several others signed affidavits. On December 21, 1897, a certificate was issued that would entitle Sarah to $8.00 per month, payable quarterly through the local pension agent. On October 28, 1899, Sarah died. She is buried in Floyd Cemetery, Sioux City.
Sarah had no children with John Nichols, but she and William Brown reportedly had seven children, four of whom died young. The three for whom she had secured minors’ pensions lived to adulthood. Emma Edna (Brown) Judd died on February 23, 1917. Mary Lucy (Brown) Reuschling died on August 28, 1919. Frances J. (Brown) Tuck died on February 3, 1930. Emma, like her mother, is buried in Floyd Cemetery, Sioux City. Mary and Frances are buried in Graceland Park Cemetery also in Sioux City.
~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

BROWNELL, GEORGE WASHINGTON

George Washington Brownell was one of at least four children born to Alonzo and Abigail "Abbie" Brownell. He was born on February 9, 1836, in Brockville, a town on the St. Lawrence River in what was then known as Canada West. On September 24, 1857, George and Sarah Jewett were married. A daughter, Ella M. Brownell was born on August 19, 1858, and another daughter, Emma J. Brownell, was born on July 28, 1860, the same month the Clayton County Journal announced its support for Abraham Lincoln in that fall’s election.

In October, South Carolina’s governor said the state would secede if Lincoln were elected but the Journal discounted the threat as one routinely made every four years. "Bah! No one anticipates such a result - This cry was invented only to frighten the people into voting for the Democratic candidate" it said, but Lincoln was elected and South Carolina did secede. Still, the Journal wasn’t worried. "We hope however our readers will not become too excited over this, because it is not worth while. There are men enough in Pennsylvania alone to subdue South Carolina without the aid of Iowa volunteers." On April 12, 1861, General Beauregard’s cannon fired on Fort Sumter.

By the fall of 1862, with thousands of men having died, President Lincoln called for another 300,000 volunteers with Iowa given a quota of five new regiments. If not met by August 15th, the difference would be made up by a draft. Governor Kirkwood was concerned. The war was much more serious than anticipated, initial military enthusiasm had subsided and disloyal sentiment was rampant in some parts of the state but he assured the President "the State of Iowa in the future as in the past, will be prompt and ready to do her duty to the country in the time of sore trial. Our harvest is just upon us, and we have now scarcely men enough to save our crops, but if need be our women can help."

George Brownell was a twenty-six-year-old farmer when he was enrolled on August 14, 1862, at Strawberry Point by William Grannis in what would be Company D of the 21st regiment of Iowa’s volunteer infantry. On the 22nd, at Camp Franklin on Eagle Point in Dubuque, the company was mustered in with a total of ninety-seven men and, when all ten companies were of sufficient strength, 985 men were mustered in as a regiment on September 9th. On the 16th, on board the four-year-old sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside they left for war. After spending a night on Rock Island, they had to debark at Montrose due to low water and take a train to Keokuk where they boarded the Hawkeye State. They reached St. Louis on the 20th, were inspected on the 21st , that night boarded rail cars and the next morning arrived in Rolla.

They would spend the next seven months in Missouri - Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville and back to Houston - and that’s where they were on December 28th when Sarah gave birth to another daughter, a daughter named Edith. They were still in Houston on January 8th when word was received that a Confederate column was advancing on Springfield. A hastily organized relief force, with George as one of the volunteers from Company D, left on a forced winter march on the 9th and the following night camped along Woods Fork of the Gasconade River unaware the Confederates were camped nearby. On the morning of the 11th bugles alerted each to the other and both sides soon moved into Hartville where a daylong battle was fought before the Federal soldiers withdrew north to Lebanon and the Confederates started south. The sixty-mile return from Lebanon to Houston through ice and snow and freezing streams was hard on men already weakened by the forced march a few days earlier and by the stress of battle and many, including George Brownell, would suffer the effects the rest of their lives.

From Houston they moved south to West Plains. Most thought they would continue into Arkansas but, instead, they started a movement to the northeast on February 8th, the same day four-year-old Ella died. They were still on the move on 12th when two-year-old Emma died. The girls are buried in Strawberry Point Cemetery. Continuing to the northeast, the regiment moved through Thomasville, Eminence and Ironton and that’s where they were on the 23rd when George made an entry in his journal that he "got 6 letters from home about the news of the death of Ella Emma" and on the 24th that he "wrote a letter to Sarah felt so bad that I had to get some one to cook in my plase to day."

From Ironton they moved to Ste. Genevieve where they arrived on March 11th and from there were transported downriver to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant was assembling a large three-corps army to capture Vicksburg. Assigned to a corps led by John McClernand, they left "the Bend" on the 12th and started a long tedious march south along roads, across bayous and through swamps west of the river. It was Grant’s intention to cross the river at Grand Gulf but when it proved to be too heavily fortified he took the advice of "Old Bob," a former slave, who led the way to Disharoon’s Plantation and on April 30th crossed to the Bruinsburg landing in Mississippi. With the 21st Iowa as the point regiment for the entire army and "Old Bob" as their guide, they moved inland until about midnight they were fired on by Confederate pickets near the Abram Shaifer house. On May 1st, George participated with his regiment in the day-long Battle of Port Gibson. Casualties included three fatally wounded and another three with less serious wounds and the following day they were allowed to rest, bury their dead and care for the wounded while other regiments took the lead.

By May 15th they were near Mississippi Springs when George received a letter from his sister Carrie "stating the death of my wife I am just about wore out." Sarah had died on April 26th and was buried near Ella and Emma while four-month-old Edith was cared for by Carrie.

On the 16th they were present but did not participate in the Battle of Champion Hill where they were held out of action by General McClernand (although one man accidentally wounded himself and lost two fingers). As a result, they were rotated to the front on the 17th and were among the first to arrive at the Big Black River where entrenched Confederates were hoping to keep its long railroad bridge open until all of their forces had crossed. Colonels Merrill of the 21st and Kinsman of the 23rd conferred and then ordered an assault across an open field directly into enemy fire. Again George participated and this time casualties were heavy with seven killed in action, eighteen with fatal wounds and another forty with wounds that were less serious but caused many to be discharged.

From the Big Black they moved to the rear of Vicksburg and participated in the siege that ended with the city’s surrender on July 4th. On the 27th George was granted a furlough to go north. Twice while back in Strawberry Point, he received letters from Dr. Clark Rawson (Carrie’s husband) saying George was suffering from pneumonia and chronic diarrhea and unfit to return to the regiment but eventually he was arrested as a straggler who had overstayed his furlough. He rejoined the regiment in Louisiana, was promoted to 5th Corporal and remained present during its service in southwestern Louisiana, more than six months along the Gulf Coast of Texas and during it final campaign that ended with the occupation of Mobile. While camped nearby at Spring Hill he was treated for intermittent fever and rheumatism but two months later was present in Baton Rouge when they were mustered out. The next day they started north and on July 24th were discharged from the military at Clinton.

On April 15, 1866, thirty-one-year-old George remarried giving his wife’s name as Letha Jane Richard (although her name is shown elsewhere as Richards). Five of their children - Millie Astell born in 1867, Harley L. in 1868, Addie M. in 1870, Fred R. in 1872 and Flora B. in 1874 - were born in Iowa while five more - Carrie Verdie in 1875, Emma Louellen in 1877, Stella B. in 1881, Dora A. in 1885 and Jesse L. in 1889 - were born after the family moved to Kansas.

On August 19, 1884, giving his address as Maud, Kansas, George applied for an invalid pension saying he had contracted rheumatism during a "forced march in mud and snow and slush" in January 1863 while on the way to assist Springfield and "were in a state of perspiration and heat" whenever they stopped to rest. His application was supported by Gilbert Cooley who had been Captain of Company D and recalled the difficulty of the mid-winter march. George and Almira Hempstead, who had known George for decades when he often worked on their farm, recalled that he had frequent attacks and was sometimes confined to bed for months at a time and George’s seventy-five-year-old mother said he was healthy when he enlisted but not when he returned from the war. On January 26, 1886, he was approved for an $8.00 monthly pension, payable quarterly, but his rheumatism was permanent and getting worse according to surgeons who examined him.

Like most veterans, George applied periodically for increases and in 1889 said he was also suffering from an "affliction of the mind." A doctor confirmed that about two years earlier George "had a severe attack of rheumatism and rheumatic carditis from the effects of which his mind became very much affected" and he was in constant pain. Over a period of many years, his pension was gradually increased to the $24.00 he was receiving at the time of his death. Letha died on February 27, 1901, and George on November 27, 1906. They’re buried in Maud Cemetery southeast of Cunningham.

~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

HIRAM G BUEL

Hiram Gray Buel, the son of Alvin and Hester (Gray) Buel, was born on February 22, 1835, in Pennsylvania. On October 30, 1854, he married Lurinda Diana Fields in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania.
They were living in Waterloo, Iowa, when Hiram enlisted in the Union army on February 25, 1862. By then, the Civil War was well into its second year and Hiram was recruited by William Getchell for the state’s 18th Infantry but, when it was over-subscribed, Hiram and more than eighty other enlistees were transferred to what would be Company A of the 21st Regiment of Iowa Volunteer Infantry. This resulted in the company being more geographically diverse than the other companies which were predominantly from the far northeastern counties and were composed mostly of men who enlisted in July and August.
On June 11th, Hiram was appointed 1st Corporal and on, August 18th, he was promoted to 3rd Sergeant, both before the regiment was mustered into service on September 9th at Dubuque. On the Company Muster-in Roll, he was listed as twenty-six-years-old [sic], six feet tall with dark eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion.
Regimental officers were Colonel Sam Merrill (a McGregor merchant and banker), Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Dunlap (a blue-eyed bachelor attorney from Mitchell) and Major Salue Van Anda (an attorney from Manchester). On a rainy September 16, 1862, they left Dubuque crowded on board the sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside and started downstream. On the way south they spent one night at Rock Island, encountered low water at Montrose, debarked, traveled by rail to Keokuk, boarded the Hawkeye State, arrived in St. Louis on September 20th, left by rail on the night of the 21st, and arrived in Rolla the next day.
Water at their first location was poor and smelled like the “breath of sewers,” so they moved to a new location a few miles farther west where there was good spring water. Their month-long stay in Rolla was mostly uneventful - except for Hiram. On October 7th, he was charged with passing the guards without permission and using insulting language, refusing to be arrested, and evading arrest. William Lorimier had been ordered to arrest Hiram and take him to the guardhouse, but Hiram told him, “Don’t bother me now.” He said he had to place the new guard and would be down in a minute. Hiram was found guilty of only the first charge and was given a “moderate reprimand.”
He continued with the regiment as it moved from Rolla to Salem, Houston, Hartville and back to Houston. A wagon train was attacked on November 24th and a battle was fought at Hartville on January 11th, but there’s no indication that Hiram was involved in either engagement. From Houston they were ordered to West Plains and, from there, to Ste. Genevieve on the Mississippi River with Hiram detailed to scour the countryside to purchase cattle. As they moved slowly to the northeast, tensions were strained among the senior officers. On February 15th, from Eminence, officers from ten of the companies wrote to Colonel Merrill that a “conspiracy has existed for more than four months to destroy your influence,” but they said they had “entire confidence in your ability and integrity and bravery.” Confidence was also expressed in Lieutenant Colonel Dunlap who, said one private, “has always been a favorite with the 21st.”
On March 3, 1863, Major Van Anda, apparently unilaterally, reduced Hiram from 3d Sergeant to the ranks “for using abusive language to his Superior officers and for his ungentlemanly action towards the same.” Only a week later, perhaps demonstrating the tension among officers, Lieutenant Colonel Dunlap, who outranked Van Anda, promoted Hiram not to his former rank of 3rd Sergeant, but to the higher rank of 2nd Sergeant. From Ste. Genevieve, the regiment went south to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant organized a large army to capture Vicksburg. They left “the Bend” on April 12th and started a slow movement south along the west side of the Mississippi. On the way, at Cholula, Hiram was detached from the regiment and detailed to the Division commissary.
The crossed the Mississippi on April 30th, participated in a one-day battle at Port Gibson on May 1st and, with the 23rd Iowa, assaulted and routed Confederates entrenched along the Big Black River on the 17th. Again, there is no indication that Hiram was involved, perhaps due to him still being detailed to the Division. The regiment was not present for a May 19th assault on Vicksburg, but did participate on May 22nd when twenty-three members of the regiment were killed in action and another twelve were fatally wounded. With Grant then resigned to a siege, men crouched behind breastworks facing the city’s railroad redoubt.
Still there on June 13th, Hiram was accidentally wounded. According to two of his comrades, Hiram “had loaded his gun, cocked it, and placed it in his Port Hole but before firing withdrew the same to change port holes as we supposed and placing his left hand on the breast works holding his rifle in his right hand he raised up so suddenly the breach of the gun hit the ground behind him so hard that the concussion caused the gun to go off. The contents shattered his hand.” A surgeon amputated the hand above the wrist and Hiram was taken to Memphis where he was admitted to the Webster U.S.A. General Hospital.
Hiram was furloughed to Iowa, returned to the regiment in August, and was discharged on September 18, 1863. In October he applied for an invalid pension. Two friends said Hiram was a “man of temperate and steady habits” but, a butcher by profession, “he has engaged in no occupation” since returning home. Before action could be taken on his application, Hiram offered to raise thirty new recruits for the 2nd Iowa Infantry if, in exchange, he would receive a lieutenant’s commission.” The offer was accepted, the recruits were raised and, on March 7, 1864, Hiram signed the oath of office as 2d Lieutenant of Company I in his old regiment, the 21st (not 2nd) infantry. On March 11th, a requisition was issued to provide transportation for Hiram and forty-one recruits from Cairo to Memphis. They reached the regiment at Matagorda Island, Texas, on April 11th.
The regiment was stationed in St. Charles, Arkansas, when Hiram tendered his resignation on October 13, 1864, saying his arm made him unfit for duty and “the service would be greatly benefitted by the acceptance of my resignation and make room for others more able than I.” The request was passed up through the commands, going first to Salue Van Anda then commanding the regiment, the same Van Anda who had earlier reduced Hiram to the ranks only to see his order negated a week later. “His moral character is notoriously bad,” said Van Anda, “and he is very unfit for an officer. He is now released from arrest only for the purpose of resigning. The Regt. and the service will be greatly benefited by acceptance of this resignation.” There is no indication of when Hiram was arrested, or for what, or on whose orders. The resignation was approved at Brigade headquarters, then Division headquarters, and finally by Major General E. R. S. Canby then commanding the 19th Army Corps and Hiram was discharged “for the good of the service.”
His still-pending pension application was approved on March 8, 1865, and he was granted $8.00 monthly retroactive to the date of his discharge. Hiram was “furnished with an artificial arm” in 1866 and died on December 17, 1874, of typhoid fever. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Red Oak, Iowa, as is Lurinda who died on April 18, 1904.
In an 1880 affidavit asking that she list the “children of her deceased husband and herself, under sixteen years of age” who were then living, she had listed them as:
Lottie H. Buel , born on the 10th day of August, 1856
Willis P. “ , born on the 17 day of November, 1858
Minnie R. “ , born on the 2 day of August, 1864
Online, others have said Lottie’s first name was Charlotte and she married George W. Gray; Willis was William (P. or T.) Buel and he married Daisy Henry; and Minnie married John R. Jones.

~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

BURDETT, SAMUEL S

was born in England, in 1835, and emigrated to America in 1856. After graduating at Oberlin College he located at De Witt in Clinton County, where he engaged in the practice of law with Judge Graham. He was a radical Abolitionist and an active agent of the "underground railroad," a warm friend of John Brown, assisting many fugitive slaves on their way to Canada. He was a prominent Republican speaker in the Lincoln campaign of 1860. When the Rebellion began he helped raise a company for the First Iowa Cavalry, was commissioned lieutenant of Company B, and was soon promoted to captain. He was appointed Provost Marshal at St. Louis and organized the plans for the arrest of Mulligan and his gang of so-called "Sons of Liberty" in Indiana. In 1868 he was one of the Presidential electors in Iowa, casting the vote of the State for General Grant. He removed to Osceola, Missouri, where he served two terms in Congress. In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes Commissioner of the United States Land Department at Washington, where he served eight years. In 1885 he was chosen Grand Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.

CHARLES C. BURGE

The son of James and Rachel Ann (House) Burge, Charles was born on April 12, 1835, in Carroll County, Ohio. By 1850 the family was living in Dubuque County, Iowa, when a census reflected a family including eight children: Harriet F. (17), George F. (16), Charles C. (15), James R. (13), Rachael A. (10), Clement H. (8), Mary E. (4) and Thomas C. (3). An 1880 county history said James and Rachel then had ten children, five boys and five girls.
Charles was twenty-five years old when he married seventeen-year-old Sarah C. Crabtree in Granby, Missouri, on April 19, 1860. Before long they were in Iowa and, on April 12, 1861, Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston’s harbor. Tens of thousands died and on July 9, 1862, Governor Kirkwood received a telegram asking him to raise five regiments as part of the President’s call for 300,000 three-year men. If the state’s quota wasn’t raised by August 15th, it "would be made up by draft" but, despite the Governor’s confidence, enlistments started slowly as "farmers were busy with the harvest, the war was much more serious than had been anticipated, and the first ebullition of military enthusiasm had subsided. Furthermore, disloyal sentiment was rampant in some parts of the State." All men between eighteen and forty-five were listed in preparation for a draft but it wasn’t needed.
On August 19, 1862, at Dubuque, brothers George “Fritz” Burge and Charles Burge were enrolled by Jacob Swivel, George as a 4th Corporal, Charles as a Private, both in what would be Company E of the state’s 21st regiment of volunteer infantry. The company had already been ordered into quarters at Camp Franklin in Dubuque, the Burge brothers joined them and on August 22nd the company was mustered into service. On September 9th, when all ten companies were of sufficient strength, they were mustered in as a regiment with 985 men (officers and enlisted). On the Company Muster-in Roll, Charles was described as being twenty-seven years old and 5' 8" tall with blue eyes, light colored hair and a light complexion; occupation miner.
On the 16th, from the levee at the foot of Jones Street, they boarded the four-year-old sidewheel steamer Henry Clay (an “old tub” according to a newspaper) and two barges tied alongside and started downstream. They spent their first night on Rock Island, resumed their trip the next day, debarked at Montrose due to low water levels, traveled by train to Keokuk, boarded the Hawkeye State and reached St. Louis on the 20th. On Sunday morning, the 21st of September, Brigadier General John Wynn Davidson conducted a general inspection. Men were ordered to fall in at 10:30 a.m. with full equipment. In broiling heat, they stood for hours before parading around the square and by evening were exhausted but enjoying supper when ordered to move out. They reached the St. Louis depot about 9:00 p.m. and, amid cheers from local residents, boarded cars of the Southwest Branch of the Pacific Railroad that were usually used for freight and livestock. The next morning they arrived in Rolla where they would spend the next month.
Bimonthly muster rolls were taken on the last day of the period and rolls taken October 31st at Salem, December 31st at Houston and February 28th at Iron Mountain - all in Missouri - and on April 30th at Bruinsburg and June 30th at Vicksburg - both in Mississippi - and on August 31st at Carrollton and October 31st at Vermilion Bayou - both in Louisiana - all reported Charles “present.” During that time some had participated in battles at Hartville, Missouri, on January 11th and Port Gibson, Mississippi on May 1st. They were held out of action during the May 16th Battle of Champion Hill but, with the 23rd Iowa, led a May 17th assault at the Big Black River. They were stationed opposite the railroad redoubt at the rear of Vicksburg when they participated in an assault on May 22nd and during the ensuing siege. Charles’ Descriptive Book mentioned no engagements but books were often not well-maintained and, since his muster rolls show no furloughs, detached duty, illnesses or other indications he wasn’t able for duty, it’s likely Charles did participate in most of the engagements.
On November 22, 1863, they were in New Orleans when ordered to leave for the gulf coast of Texas. Traveling on the Corinthian and St. Mary’s, they arrived later that month. On December 22nd, Charles and George were detailed for fatigue duty under the command of James Noble but left their post and assigned duty “without being regularly dismissed or relieved.” A court martial proceeding was convened and they were charged with violating the 44th Article of War and with conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline. Both pled guilty and were sentenced to “twenty days of hard labor” by the brigade commander.
Charles was present on the December 31st muster roll when they were on Matagorda Island and on February 29, 1864, when they were stationed at Indianola but on April 17th he was one of several men who were granted thirty-day furloughs to go north. The regiment’s “right wing” left Texas on the Alabama on June 11th (after getting hung up on a sand bar the previous day) and reached New Orleans on the 15th, the same day the “left wing” was leaving Texas. They were reunited on the 18th not only with each other but also with Lewis Eno, Tim Hayes, Perry Dewey, Alvin Merriam and Charles Burge who, on their return from furloughs, had been held in New Orleans to wait for the regiment. Despite having over-stayed his furlough, Charles was reinstated without a loss of pay.
For the next several months he was marked “present” on June 30th at Terrebonne Station and on August 31st at Morganza, both in Louisiana, and on October 31st when they were stationed along the White River in Arkansas and on December 31st at Memphis. In the spring they embarked on their final campaign of the war, a campaign to capture the city of Mobile. Transported on the Peabody, they went ashore on Dauphin Island on February 7th - "got our stuff all off about 10pm tired wet and sleepy,” said George Brownell - before bivouacking near Fort Gaines. John Johnson died of small pox on the 20th and John Delaney of malaria on the 25th. Many others had died or been discharged for wounds or illness and, even with new recruits, when the rolls were taken on February 28th Charles and George were two of only 656 still listed and many of them were sick, absent or otherwise unable for duty.
On the 29th, with a difficult march ahead of them, Charles was one of many who were “detailed for special duty in the Pioneer Corps” with Captain William Lyons in command. The regiment crossed to Navy Cove on the 15th and for the next four weeks moved slowly north along the east side of the bay with the pioneers working hard to build bridges and corduroy roads, roads that quickly sank into the mud as horses and men and wagons crossed over them. It was difficult work but on April 12th Dabney Maury’s Confederates abandoned the city and the Federals moved in.
The regiment camped comfortably at nearby Spring Hill until May 26th when they walked into the city and boarded the Mustang for a return to New Orleans. After brief service along the Red River they were mustered out at Baton Rouge on July15th and the next morning started north. Charles and George were discharged at Clinton on June 24th.
Charles lived in Ohio for two years and Dubuque for four years before moving to Bevier, Missouri. Pension laws at the time required proof of a war-related disability but Charles had maintained his health well and did not apply. A new law enacted on June 27, 1890, required proof of a disability but it did not have to be related to the applicant’s military service and on August 5th Charles applied. He said he was suffering from an “injury to left side” that impaired his ability to earn a living by manual labor. A pension was granted but he applied again on April 30, 1910, under a new age-based law and his claim was granted at $20.00 per month, an amount increased to $30.00 by the time of his death on June 9, 1913. An obituary said Charles, “a wealthy citizen of Bevier” who died “at his home at Brookfield,” was a member of the A. Jones Post of the G.A.R. and the Bloomington Lodge of the A.F. & A.M. and had previously served as postmaster. He was buried in the town’s East Oakwood Cemetery.
Not long after his death, Sarah applied for a widow’s pension, a pension that was soon granted at $12.00 monthly. In 1915 she “caused the arrest of L. B. Grimm, a traveling ‘optician,’ for obtaining money under false pretenses. He sold her a pair of glasses and an electric vibrator for a total of $193 and she claims that he is not a physician as she claims he alleged he was.” It’s not known what happened to Mr. Grimm but later that year Sarah was adjudged of “unsound” mind by the local Probate Court. She was allowed to continue drawing her pension “and spend it just as before as her mind was only bad with reference to one certain thing and she has to have money to live on” according to her guardian. On June 26, 1916, while “still under guardian,” she married J. W. Dixon, but her guardian quickly pointed out that it had been done without his knowledge and “is and was illegal as a person under guardianship cannot make a legal contract, it is presumed that the person marrying her thought he could get her pension.” Sarah, who by then was entitled to $20.00 monthly, was dropped from the pension rolls due to her marriage. On May 3, 1917, her guardian wrote to the pension office asking that she be reinstated and indicating “Mrs. Burge is now sick in bed and requires the constant care of a nurse.” Two weeks later, on May 17th, Sarah died. She, like Charles, is buried in East Oakwood Cemetery
Charles’ mother died in 1881; his father in 1883. Both were buried in Cottage Hill Cemetery, Cottage Hill, Iowa. George, with whom he had served during the war, died in 1902 and was buried in Forest Park Cemetery, Joplin, Missouri. Two other brothers also served in the war - Clement who served in the 13th Ohio Infantry, died in 1889 and was buried in Cottage Hill Cemetery and Thomas who served in the 187th Ohio Infantry, died in 1907 and was buried in Forest Park Cemetery.
~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

GEORGE FRITZ BURGE

Born on September 7, 1834, in Carroll County, Ohio, George was one of ten children born to James and Rachel (House) Burge. One of their other sons, Charles “Charlie” Burge was born a year earlier, also in Carroll County.
On July 3, 1856, near Dubuque, George married Sarah Morris. A daughter, Ada Burge, was born on May 20, 1857, and another daughter, Jenette Burge, was born on June 18, 1860. They made their home in the county where Julien Dubuque, a French-Canadian explorer, had been a friend of the local Meskwaki tribe that gave him permission to mine lead.
On August 19, 1862, George and Charles were working as miners when they were enrolled by Jacob Swivel, Charles as a private and George as a 4th Corporal, in what would be Company E of the state’s 21st regiment of volunteer infantry. Close in age, the brothers were each described in their Company Descriptive Books as having a light complexion, blue eyes and light hair. With a total of 101 men, officers and enlisted, their company was mustered in on August 22nd and, on September 9th, ten companies were mustered as a regiment. On the 10th, George was promoted to 3rd Corporal to fill a vacancy created when Matthais Bickel was reduced to the ranks at his own request.
Training was at Camp Franklin just south of Eagle Point. William Crooke felt habits of obedience had to be formed, but "the process of getting used to restraints of freedom, to inclemencies of weather, to hard beds, and new forms of food, sometimes not well cooked, was not always a pleasant one.” Four years later, an author wrote that “the rendezvous was so near the men’s homes, that their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, wives, sweethearts, and friends, were too often present to allow either drill or discipline to any great extent.” On a rainy September 16th from the levy at the foot of Jones Street they boarded the sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and started south.
The regiment’s initial service was in Missouri - St. Louis, Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville and then back to Houston. From there they walked south to West Plains and then northeast through Thomasville, Ironton and Iron Mountain to Ste. Genevieve where they arrived on March 11, 1863, and made camp on a ridge north of the town. Still there on the 21st, George was granted a 30-day furlough.
On March 23, 1863, while still on furlough, George was promoted to 2d Corporal. He returned to the regiment in April and was present on April 30th when, in an army led by General Grant, they crossed the Mississippi River from Disharoon’s Plantation to Bruinsburg and started a march inland as part of the campaign to capture Vicksburg. George was marked “present” throughout the campaign, but there’s no indication if he participated in the regiment’s May 1st battle at Port Gibson, May 17th assault at the Big Black River, May 22nd assault at Vicksburg or the siege that ended with the city’s surrender on July 4th.
It was during the campaign that his father, James Burge, died on May 7th at seventy-seven years of age. He was buried in Cottage Hill Cemetery. George’s mother would die on April 22, 1881, and be buried in the same cemetery.
After a brief round trip expedition to Jackson they camped near Vicksburg and were there on July 28th when George was reduced to the ranks at his own request. From Vicksburg they went farther south and camped at Carrollton, Louisiana, until September 4th before leaving for three months’ service in southwestern Louisiana. They returned by rail, reached Algiers about sun-up on November 22d, crossed to New Orleans and on the 23d were ordered to the Gulf coast of Texas where they would spend six months. On December 22nd they were stationed on Decros Point (also known as Decrow’s Point) on the Matagorda Peninsula where George and Charles were assigned to fatigue duty. Not enamored of their assignment, they abandoned their posts and on Christmas day a court-martial proceeding sentenced each of them to twenty days’ hard labor.
The rest of their military service was relatively uneventful and they were marked “present” on all bimonthly muster rolls during the regiment’s remaining service in Texas and subsequent service in southwestern Louisiana, along the White River of Arkansas and in Memphis. From there they were transported to Alabama where they engaged in their final campaign of the war, a successful campaign to occupy the city of Mobile. Back in Louisiana they were mustered out at Baton Rouge on July 15, 1865, and the following day started upstream on board the Lady Gay. They were discharged at Clinton on July 24th and returned to their homes.
In addition to Ada and Jeanette who were born before George’s enlistment, George and Sarah had a daughter, Lenora “Nora” Burge, who was born in 1863 several months after her father left for war. In answer to a government questionnaire, on May 3, 1898, George said he had six children still living: “Ada born May 20, 1857. Jenett Do June 18, 1860. Jas R Do June 17, 1866 Maud Do Oct 31, 1969 Ruth Do June 23 1875. Mary Do Aug 28 1877.”
Laws providing for invalid pensions when George was discharged, generally required service for a minimum of ninety days, an honorable discharge and a disability incurred during the applicant’s service that at least partially incapacitated him from performing manual labor and was not due to “vicious habits.” On June 27, 1890, Congress revised the law so veterans could apply even if their disability was not service-related. By then George had moved to Joplin, Missouri, and on August 2, 1890, with R. H. McFadden of Mattoon, Illinois, as his attorney, applied for a pension saying he had a “kidney affection and disability which incapacitates him.” He applied again in 1897, this time indicating his attorney was O. E. Howe, of Washington, D. C., and saying he had “contracted malarial fever and resulting chronic malarial poisoning affecting bowels, spleen and urinary organs” during the Vicksburg campaign.
George died on November 30, 1920, and was buried in Joplin’s Forest Park Cemetery. On December 20th, Sarah was living in a four-bedroom house at 402 North Cox Street, Joplin, when she applied for a widow’s pension with Harvey Spalding & Sons of Washington, D.C., as her attorney. Assessment records valued her personal property at $15 and real property in east Joplin at $150. She said her net income did not exceed $250 annually. Two neighbors who lived across the street confirmed George’s death and said they had been present “while he was a corpse” and had attended his funeral. An examination of the family bible confirmed the July 3, 1856, marriage date and George’s brother, Thomas, living on East 4th Street in Joplin, said that was George’s only marriage. Sarah’s application was granted and she was receiving a $12.00 monthly pension when she died on November 5, 1911.
Sarah was buried in Joplin’s Forest Park Cemetery as were George’s brothers (Thomas and Charles Burge), son (James Rankin Burge) and daughter (Ada May Burge Jones).
~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

PATRICK H. BURNS

National Archive records indicate that Patrick H. Burns was born in New York, but a death certificate says Ireland. The Civil War had been ongoing for more than a year when Patrick was enrolled in the Union army by McGregor postmaster Willard Benton on August 15, 1862, in what would be Company G of the 21st Iowa Infantry.
Physically, he was described as being 5' 3½" tall with brown eyes, brown hair and a light complexion. Only nineteen years old, he was unmarried. The Muster-in Roll said Patrick had been working as a farmer, but his Descriptive Book gave his occupation as shoemaker.
The Company was mustered into service on August 22, 1862, and the regiment on September 9, 1862, both in Dubuque where brief training of questionable value was received at Camp Franklin (formerly known as Camp Union).
The regiment traveled from Dubuque to St. Louis by river steamers, to Rolla by rail, and then by foot to Houston and Hartville, Missouri. While there they were dependent on supplies brought by wagon train from the railhead in Rolla. On November 24, 1862, one such train, with teamsters and guards from the 21st Iowa and other regiments, was nearing Hartville when it camped for the night in Hogs Hollow along Beaver Creek. That evening, as some were finishing dinner, others were tending to the horses and some were walking in the nearby woods, they were attacked by a heavily armed band of the enemy. George Chapman was killed immediately when "three balls pierced his breast" and two others, Philip Wood and Cyrus Henderson, were fatally wounded.
Some managed to escape, make their way to Hartville and sound the alarm. "The 21st fell in on the double quick. The noble boys plunged through the swift mountain streams waist deep, without a murmur," said Quartermaster Charles Morris, while others on horseback raced ahead. On arrival they found "our boys huddled around the burning remains of our wagons." The survivors, including Pat Burns, had been captured, stripped of their clothing and other possessions, and paroled on the spot before their attackers fled with what they could carry.
The Beaver Creek rescue party arrived back in Hartville about 6:00am the next morning. They had made a round-trip mid-winter night march of thirty miles through icy streams, not stopping to eat or rest, rushing their return for fear the attackers might circle around to attack their camp. For this General Fitz Henry Warren called them his ''foot cavalry," but men had suffered and many would never recover.
Pat remained on duty and, during the Vicksburg Campaign, was present for the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1, 1863, an assault at the Big Black River on the 17th, and an assault on May 22d at Vicksburg, but he never fully recovered his health. Vicksburg surrendered on July 4th, Pat was furloughed on August 5th, and he returned to the regiment at Berwick Bay, Louisiana, on September 27th. He then served with it during its subsequent service in Louisiana and Texas.
On November 28, 1864, they arrived in Memphis and, on December 17th, Pat was admitted to the Overton U.S. Army Hospital. He rejoined the regiment at Spring Hill, Alabama on May 10, 1865, and was present when they were mustered out at Baton Rouge on July 15, 1865.
On October 25, 1868, he married Ellen Brophy in a Jesuit Church in Chicago. On October 8, 1871, a great fire, erroneously attributed to Mrs. O'Leary's cow, started in Chicago and, the next day, Patrick and Ellen saw their marriage certificate consumed in the flames. Their four children were Mamie (born August 24, 1869), John (born April 19, 1871), and twins Thomas and Elizabeth (born July 27, 1876).
Patrick continued his work as a shoemaker, but life was difficult and his health was worse. On August 24, 1883, at only forty-one years of age, he applied for an invalid pension attributing his poor health to "exposure while in the service" when he "caught a severe cold in wading through streams of water" in the middle of winter twenty-one years earlier. Suffering from severe rheumatism, he said he was "entirely disabled." An invalid pension was awarded and gradually increased to $30.00 monthly, payable quarterly.
On Christmas Day, December 25, 1899, while living at 678 West Erie Street in Chicago, Patrick became ill. Suffering from chronic heart and kidney problems, he died at home a week later, New Year's Day, January 1, 1900. He was buried in the old Catholic Calvary Cemetery consecrated in 1859 in Evanston.
Five days after her husband's death, Ellen applied for Patrick's accrued but unpaid pension and for her own widow's pension. Her applications were granted and she continued to live in their Erie Street residence where Mamie and Elizabeth helped care for her.
Ellen was receiving $12.00 monthly when she died on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1916. She is buried next to Patrick in Calvary Cemetery
~Submitted by Carl F Ingwalson

BUSSEY, CYRUS

was born October 5, 1833, in Trumbull County, Ohio, and was educated at various places where his father was stationed as a Methodist minister. When eighteen years of age he began the study of medicine. In July 1855, he removed to Iowa, locating at Bloomfield in Davis County where he opened a store. In 1859 he was nominated by the Democrats of Davis County for State Senator and elected. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1860 which met at Baltimore and nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President. At the extra session of the Legislature in May, 1861, called by Governor Kirkwood to place the State on a war footing, Cyrus Bussey was among the Democrats who gave a warm support to the war measures. At the close of the session he helped raise the Third Iowa Cavalry Regiment of which he was commissioned colonel. He was a gallant officer and in 1864 was promoted to Brigadier-General. After the war he located at New Orleans and became President of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1868 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated General Grant for President. In 1880 he was again a delegate to the Republican Convention and was one of the famous three hundred six delegates who voted for Grant for a third term. In 1889 General Bussey was appointed by President Harrison Assistant Secretary of the Interior where he served unto 1893. General Bussey left the Democratic party early in the Civil War and became a Republican, often taking an active part in the national campaigns as a public speaker.

BYAM, EBER C

was born in Canada in 1826. He came to Iowa, locating in Linn County. He was for many years a minister of the Methodist church and at one time presiding elder. In the organization of the Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry, he was appointed by Governor Kirkwood its colonel. He did not prove adapted to military command and resigned his commission on the 30th of June, 1863. In 1871 he was appointed Register of the United States Land Office at Fort Dodge and remained in that city several years in the real estate business. He finally moved to Rochester, New York, where he died many years ago.

BYERS, MELVIN H

was born in Noble County, Ohio, January 12, 1846. When seven years of age his father came to Iowa, locating at Glenwood, Mills County, later removing to a farm where the son worked summers, attending the public schools winters. In January, 1864, Melvin enlisted in Company B, Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, serving until the close of the Civil War. He served as recorder of Mills County and mayor of Glenwood. In 1879 he enlisted in the Iowa National Guard and has been promoted from private to major. In 1898 he was appointed by Governor Shaw Adjutant General of the State. Upon him devolved the responsibility of organizing the quota of troops which Iowa was called upon to furnish for the Spanish War. This duty was performed with a degree of energy and ability that placed the Iowa troops in the field with thorough drill and equipment unsurpassed by those of any State in the Union. During his administration General Byers has brought the National Guard of Iowa to a high degree of efficiency in all soldierly qualities.

BYERS, SAMUEL H M

was born in Pulaski, Pennsylvania, in 1838. Coming to Iowa in 1851 with his father he was educated in the schools of Oskaloosa, where his father located. He enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Infantry and served in the army until March, 1865, was promoted to adjutant in April, 1863. He was in many battles and in a charge at Missionary Ridge was taken prisoner and for fifteen months suffered the horrors of Libby and other Confederate prisons. He finally escaped and returned to the army, where for a time he was on General Sherman's staff. At the close of the war he was brevetted major. While in prison at Columbia, South Carolina, he wrote the well-known song, "The March to the Sea," which brought him into national notice. It gave the name to Sherman's famous march and thousands of copies were sold immediately after the war. Major Byers was sent by General Sherman to General Grant and President Lincoln as bearer of dispatches announcing his great victories. He served fifteen years as American consul at Zurich in Switzerland and was under president Arthur, Consul General for Italy. Under President Harrison he served as Consul to St. Gall and later as Consul General for Switzerland. Major Byers has been a contributor to the leading magazines of the country. He is the author of "Iowa in War Times," "Switzerland and the Swiss," "Twenty Years in Europe" and several volumes of poetry.

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