CHAPTER VI. (CONT'D)

BELLE MACOMBER.

One of the earliest school teachers in the county was Miss Belle Macomber, daughter of K. W. Macomber. She taught James L. Byrd's children at his own house in 1855. Miss Macomber was married in 1860, in Lewis, to Wm. S. Reynolds, and afterwards removed to Illinois. She became quite famous during the war of the rebellion, and we extract the following mention of her career from "Kirkland's Anecdotes and Incidents of the Rebellion:" "Governor Yates, of Illinois, paid a rather unusual but well merited compliment to Mrs. Reynolds, wife of Lieutenant Reynolds, of Company A, Seventeenth Illinois regiment, and a resident of that city. Mrs. Reynolds accompanied her husband through the greater part of the campaign through which the Seventeenth passed, sharing with him the dangers and privations of a soldier's life. She was present at the battle of Pittsburg Landing, and like a ministering angel attended to the wants of as many of the wounded and dying soldiers as she could, thus winning the gratitude and esteem of the brave fellows by whom she was surrounded. Governor Yates, hearing of her heroic and praiseworthy conduct, presented her with a commission as Major in the army, the document conferring the well-merited honor being made out with all due formality, and having attached the great seal of the State. Probably no lady in America ever before had such a distinguished military honor conferred upon her."

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Transcribed by Deb Lightcap-Wagner, March, 2014 from:"History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 279-280.