Monday, June 30, 2008

Ezekiel Hannan Dewey

Ezekiel Hannan Dewey was born October 8, 1827, in Richford, Tioga County, New York, the son of Ezekiel Jr. (1797-1887) and Lucy (Johnson, 1800-1828).

In about 1816 Massachusetts native Ezekiel Jr. settled in Richford, Tioga County, New York, where he married Vermonter Lucy Johnson the following year, and they lived in Tioga County for many years. Sometime after Lucy died in 1828 Ezekiel Jr. married a woman named Eunice and by 1850 they were living in Berkshire, Tioga County. Ezekiel H. left New York and moved to Michigan probably around 1847 or 1848, and by 1850 was working as a laborer for one Major Shute in Easton, Ionia County.

On October 20, 1856, Ezekiel married New York native Fidelin or Fidellia Warden (1833-1904), in Grand Rapids, Kent County, and they had at least one child Naomi (b. 1858).

By 1860 Ezekiel H. was working as a laborer and living with his family in Walker, Kent County.

Ezekiel stood 5’10” with black eyes, black hair and a dark complexion and was 34 years old and still living in Kent County when he enlisted in Company B on May 13, 1861. He was discharged for “chronic diarrhea of three months’ standing resulting from exposure incident to the service”, at either White’s Ford, Maryland, on October 17, 1862, or, according to his discharge paper, near Edward’s Ford, Maryland on October 27, 1862.

In 1863 he applied for and received a pension (no. 29878).

After his discharge from the army Ezekiel returned to Michigan. (His parents were still living in Richford, Tioga County, New York in 1870.) By 1880 Ezekiel was working as a teamster and living with his wife and children in Rochester, Oakland County where he was residing in 1890. He was probably still living in Rochester in December of 1892 when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, and in 1894. By 1910 Ezekiel was rooming with one James Ritchie in Avon, Oakland County.

Ezekiel was a widower and probably living in Avon, Oakland County, when he died on November 20, 1910, and was buried in Rochester cemetery.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Newton Derbraw

Newton Derbraw, also known as “Durbarand”, was born in 1839, in New York, probably the son of Thomas (b. 1798) and Mary (b. 1801).

Pennsylvania natives Thomas and Mary eventually settled in New York where they lived for many years. By 1850 Newton was probably attending school with his siblings and living with his family on a farm in Clarence, Erie County, New York. Newton’s parents were still living in Clarence, Erie County, New York in 1860.

Newton eventually left New York and moved west.

Newton was 22 years old and probably living in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company D on May 13, 1861. (Company D was composed in large part of men who came from western Ionia County and Eaton County.) Although possibly on duty with the Regiment through the spring of 1862, he was a provost guard in July of 1862, absent sick in August, on guard duty from September through October, on guard at Brigade headquarters in November, and was on guard at Division headquarters in December of 1862. Indeed, it appears that Newton probably never rejoined the Regiment.

From January of 1863 through March he was a guard at Corps headquarters and in April he was at Division where he remained through July. In October he was absent sick in a hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, through December, and in January of 1864 he was sick in Washington, DC. He was reportedly wounded in the hand in early May, and was mustered out of service as a Corporal on June 20, 1864.

It is not known if Newton ever returned to Michigan, although it seems likely since he married Michigan native Alice (b. 1853), and they had at least one child, a son: Glen (b. 1878).

Newton and Alice left Michigan (assuming they were living there) and eventually settled in Missouri where they were living when their son Glen was born. By 1880 Newton was working and living with his wife and son in Lincoln, Jasper County, Missouri. Next door lived his father and Newton’s two sisters Mary and Sarah (both born in New York). Newton was probably living in Seymour, Webster County, Missouri around 1907.

He was residing in Missouri in 1890 when he applied for and received a pension (no. 585156).

Saturday, June 28, 2008

William K. Denny

William K. Denny also known as “Denning”, was born 1839 in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.

In 1840 there was an Edward, Nathaniel (2nd) and Richard Denny, all living in Gibson, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, and by 1850 there was one Esther Denny living in Gibson, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. In any case, William left Pennsylvania and moved west, eventually settling in Lansing, Michigan where, by 1860 he was working as a gunsmith and living with a farmer named Rowling in the Second Ward. He was quite possibly still living in Lansing in early 1864.

William stood 6’3” with gray eyes, black hair and a fair complexion, and was 25 years old and probably working as a laborer when he enlisted in Company G on January 11, 1864, at Pittsfield, Washtenaw County, crediting Pittsfield, and was mustered on January 12 at Grand Rapids. (Company G, formerly the “Williams’ Rifles”, was made up predominantly of men from the Lansing area.) He joined the Regiment on February 17 at Camp Bullock, Virginia, and was transferred to Company A, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864.

It seems that sometime after his transfer to the Fifth Michigan William was taken sick and indeed he was reported sick in August, possibly in Washington, DC. William died of chronic diarrhea on September 7, 1864, at Lincoln Hospital in Washington, DC, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

No pension seems to be available.

Friday, June 27, 2008

John J. Dennis

John J. Dennis was born 1827 in Ohio.

John married New York native Rebecca A. (1833-1910), on February 3, 1857, possibly in Michigan, and they had at least two children: George (b. 1857) and Fanny (b. 1859).

The family settled in Michigan sometime before 1857 and in 1859-60 John was operating a saloon on the northwest side of Fountain Street between Division and Bostwick Street in Grand Rapids. In late 1859 or early 1860 John became involved with the Valley City Guard, one of the three prewar militia companies in Grand Rapids and whose members would serve as the nucleus for Company A. In March of 1860 John was elected First Corporal, replacing Miles Adams who had resigned, and by the end of December was elected Third Lieutenant, replacing Ben Luce who had also resigned. In 1860 John was still operating a saloon and living with his wife Rebecca in Grand Rapids’ Third Ward (also living with them was Amanda Dennis, possibly John’s younger sister).

John was 34 years old and probably still living in Grand Rapids when he enlisted as Captain of Company F on May 13, 1861. According to at least one member of Company F, Captain Dennis was well liked by the men. Nevertheless, John resigned on account of ill health on August 20, 1861, at Camp Hunter (Hunter’s farm), Virginia.

After his discharge John returned to his home in Grand Rapids where he reentered the service in Battery E, First Michigan Light Artillery at the organization of that unit in Marshall, Calhoun County. The battery was organized in Grand Rapids, Albion and Marshall during the fall of 1861. Indeed, by late fall of 1861 John was actively recruiting for that Regiment in Grand Rapids and sometime in mid-November he opened a recruiting office in Nevius’s block, Grand Rapids, “for recruits for an artillery company to be attached to the Fusilleer Regiment under” Colonel William Innes, and which would count Dennis among its officers.

Presumably John was with the battery when it left Michigan on December 17, 1861, for Louisville, Kentucky and then on to Bacon Creek, Kentucky where it remained until February of 1862. The regiment participated in the advance on Nashville, Tennessee from February 10 until March 3, in the march to Savannah, Tennessee in late March and early April and in the siege of Corinth, Mississippi from late April to late May of 1862 when it occupied that city. (Apparently it did not take part in the battle of Shiloh.) John resigned for reasons unknown on June 9, 1862.

After his discharge from the Michigan artillery, John returned to western Michigan and by early fall of 1863 he was again trying to raise a company of recruits, this time for the Tenth Michigan cavalry. On September 5, the Grand Rapids Eagle reported that Dennis was “raising a company for the Tenth cavalry,” and had “already enlisted between 20 and 30 stalwart men.”

On September 17 the Eagle wrote “A few more men are wanted to fill up Captain John J. Dennis’ company, now being raised for the Tenth cavalry. Everybody, hereabouts, knows the Captain, and, knowing him, with his valuable experience in military matters, and fitness to command, will be pleased to join his company. He has already about fifty men enlisted, and he wants a few more of the same sort. To the rescue, boys -- the tenth will be a ‘bully’ Regiment, led by a brave and true man, and officered throughout b y experienced and competent men.” Apparently John failed to raise enough men, however, since he is not found in the records for the Tenth cavalry.

John remained in Grand Rapids where he opened up a dining saloon in late May of 1864, opposite the Rathbun House, and in the city director for 1865-66 was operating a saloon at 31 Monroe Street. According to an advertisement he placed in the Eagle of May 28, 1864, he had recently “purchased the Saloon . . . formerly owned by the Sergeant brothers, and fitted it up nicely, added a large Dining Room to it. I am now prepared to furnish the public with warm meals, everything the market affords in the eating line, on the shortest notice, and got up in the best possible manner. Beef steak, Ham and Eggs, Broiled Chicken, Cold Tongue, Pig’s Feet, etc. etc.”

According to Dr. William deCamp, formerly surgeon with the First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, and who knew John before the war and to whose unit John’s battery was reportedly attached at one point in the spring of 1862, John quite probably suffered from chronic lung disease. When deCamp returned home to Grand Rapids in 1864 he found John “suffering from severe pulmonary disease which terminated fatally some time in the summer of 1865.”

Indeed, John died, probably of pulmonary disease on July 21, 1865, and presumably in Grand Rapids. (There is however no record extant of his burial in any of the city cemeteries.)

In 1869 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 132602).

By 1870 Rebecca was working as a hairdresser and living in Lansing’s Third Ward; also living with her was her son George. In 1880 she was listed as a widower and living alone and doing “hair work” in Lansing. She eventually remarried to one George Little in 1885 in Marshall, Michigan. By 1905 she was living in St. Louis, Missouri when she sought to have her previous widow’s pension restored, her second husband having died the year before.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

John Dennis

John Dennis was born 1833 in England.

John immigrated to the United States sometime before 1860, settling in Lyons, Ionia County, Michigan where he was a farm laborer working for and/or living with A. Byron Johnson, Justice of the Peace.

John stood 5’7” with blue eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion, and was 28 years old and still living in Lyons when he enlisted in Company E on May 13, 1861. (Company E was composed in large part by men from Clinton and Ingham counties, as well as parts of Ionia County.) He was shot the left arm and thigh sometime during the Peninsula campaign, probably on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, subsequently absent sick from July of 1862 through January of 1864, probably as a consequence of his wounding. He eventually recovered, and returned to duty by the time he reenlisted on February 17, 1864, at Camp Bullock, Virginia, and was mustered the following day, crediting Lyons. He was on veterans’ furlough in March, returned to the Regiment, probably in April and was absent sick in the hospital that same month.

He soon returned to duty, however, and was again wounded, this time in the left shoulder and arm on May 5, 1864, at the Wilderness, Virginia. On May 15 he was admitted to Armory Square hospital in Washington, DC with “three flesh wounds” and a compound comminuted “fracture of middle portion of humerus, ball entering 3 in. above external condyle of humerus and escaped at upper third of arm at the extremity of out border of axilla.”

John was still absent sick when he was transferred to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, although he probably never returned to active duty. He remained absent sick probably at Armory Square hospital until he was transferred on May 14 or 15, 1865, from Armory Square hospital to Summit House hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a “compound fracture of left arm and humerus (lower Third), flesh wound left shoulder, flesh wound left thorax, flesh wound left leg,” the result of being struck with several minie balls at the Wilderness, Virginia on May 5, 1864.

On July 5, 1864, John was transferred from Philadelphia to Harper hospital in Detroit, with the same admission diagnosis, and he was discharged on February 9, 1866 at Harper hospital for a “gun shot wound of left thigh entering at lower third externally passing out internally at upper third not injuring the bone but lacerating and dividing the nerves, producing atrophy & loss of use of the limb, also compound comminution fracture of left humerus from gun shot wound; wound of left shoulder caused by a minnie [sic] ball piercing it; also flesh wound of back across the left side under the scapula by a minnie [sic] ball.”

John gave his mailing address as Muir, Ionia County on his discharge paper, and apparently he returned to Ionia County and settled in Muir, where he lived the rest of his life.

John was probably married to a woman named Lorinda and they had at least four children: Minnie (b. 1868), Venia (b. 1872), Herbert J. (b. 1874) and George (b. 1877).

He was working as a farmer and living with his wife Lorinda and four children and one stepson (Henry Stowell, born 1861) in Muir in 1880. John was living in Muir in 1883 drawing $24.00 per month for a wounded left humerus (pension no. 72,939). He was still living in Muir in 1882, 1890 and when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association in December of 1892; he was living in Lyons Township, Ionia County, in 1890, and in Muir in 1894.

John was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Dresser Post No. 100 in Lyons.

Although the details remain obscure, John was reportedly killed in Muir on December 19, 1906, and presumably buried there.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

George E. Decker

George E. Decker was born August 1, 1841, in New York, the son of Isaac (b. 1802) and Susan (Rideout, 1811-1875).

New Yorker Isaac married New Hampshire (?) native Susan and by 1830 had settled in New York where they lived for many years. Sometime after 1854, however, Isaac moved his family to Michigan, and by 1860 had settled on a farm in Hastings, Barry County, where George attended school with four of his younger siblings.

It appears that George was living in Clinton County when he enlisted as a private in Company D, Fourteenth Michigan infantry, on either November 30, 1861 or February 13, 1862. In any case, he was listed as under arrest for desertion on June 15, 1865. There is no further record.

George stood 5’8” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion, and was a 22-year-old farmer probably living in Rutland, Barry County when he enlisted in Company E on December 23, 1863, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, crediting Rutland, and was mustered January 4, 1864. He joined the Regiment on February 10, 1864, and was probably absent sick when he was transferred to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He remained absent sick until he was discharged from Mower hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 26, 1865.

After the war George returned to Michigan and may have been living in Caledonia, Kent County in 1870. He may have for a time lived in Sherman Township, Isabella County where he worked as a farmer, and was living in Mellbrook, Mecosta County in 1890. (He may have been the same civil war veteran named George Decker living in Winfield, Montcalm County in 1894.)

George was admitted to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 6842) as a widower on July 3, 1915, discharged on February 24, 1916, readmitted on September 21, 1916 and discharged on October 15, 1917; he was admitted for the final time on April 12, 1920.

George was probably married twice: his first wife had apparently died since he was admitted to the Home in 1915 as a “widower.” But while a resident of the Home his personal record listed a wife named Mary and she was living in Port Huron during his stay at the Home.

In 1891 he was living in Michigan when he applied for and received a pension (no. 844029).

George died of general arteriosclerosis on March 5, 1922, at the Home and was buried in the Home cemetery: section 7 row 17 grave no. 5.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Meerweis DeKraker

Meerweis DeKraker, also known as “John M. Dekraker,” and “Munnis DeKraker”, was born 1839 in the Zeeland, the Netherlands.

Meerweis immigrated to the United States sometime before 1861 and eventually settled in western Michigan. (In 1860 there was one Isaac R. DeKraker, born around 1802 in the Netherlands living with his wife and family in Holland, Ottawa County.)

Meerweis stood 6’0” and had blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion, and was a 22-year-old farmer possibly living in Grand Rapids when he enlisted in Company A on June 10, 1861. (Curiously, Meerweis did not enlist in either the German-dominated Company C or in Company I, the Ottawa County-dominated company which was made up of a significant number of Netherlanders.) He was reported missing in action during a charge of the enemy’s position before Richmond on June 30, 1862, and he returned to the Regiment on August 12 at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia. (He may have been held briefly as a prisoner or perhaps he had been hospitalized.)

Meerweis reenlisted on December 24, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Grand Rapids, was presumably home on veterans’ furlough in January of 1864, possibly in Michigan and he probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February. He was reported absent sick in June of 1864, and was supposedly still absent sick when he was transferred to Company A, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864.

In any case, he was serving with the Fifth Michigan at Petersburg when he was wounded in the right arm and shoulder on June 18; the arm, which had been fractured at the shoulder, was amputated at the shoulder joint on the field the same day and he was admitted to the II corps hospital at City Point, Virginia on June 23, furloughed on June 26, and admitted to Campbell general hospital in Washington on June 28.

In July he was reported as a corporal as absent wounded. He was furloughed again on October 24, re-admitted on November 14 and remained hospitalized until he was discharged on March 21, 1865, at Campbell hospital in Washington, DC on account of “resection of head of humerus of right arm from wound received in action. . . .”

Meerweis gave his mailing address as Grand Rapids on his discharge paper, but by 1874 he was living in Plainwell, Allegan County.

He was probably living in Allegan County when he married Michigan native Mrs. Helen H. Plantz (1844-1922) on October 5, 1875, in Martin, Allegan County, and they had at least one child: Thomas Edgar (b. 1877). (Helen was a widow whose husband George Plantz died in 1874.)

By 1880 Meerweis, known as “John M.” was working as a farmer and living with his wife and son in Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County; also living with them were two stepchildren: Carrie (b. 1868) and Burt (b. 1871). Meerweis was living in Orcutt (?), Kalamazoo County in 1883 drawing $18.00 for wounded right shoulder (pension no. 42,274), and drawing $30 per month by 1885.

He was probably a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, and a member of Grand Army of the Republic Orcutt Post No. 79 in Kalamazoo County.

Meerweis died of lung disease on February 1, 1886.

His widow was living in Michigan when she applied for and received a pension (no. 224462). She was living on 1546 Sherman Street in Grand Rapids, Kent County, when she died in 1922.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Johannes Laurentius DeGroot

Johannes Laurentius DeGroot, also known as “John DeGroot,” was born around 1829 in Groningen, the Netherlands, the son of Dirk and Alida (Jacoba).

John was married to Ebeltje Boetes (b. 1836) on April 29, 1857, in the Netherlands and they had at least one child, a son Henry (b. September of 1857). While his family remained behind in the Netherlands, John and his brother Dirk (or Durich) immigrated to the United States sometime before 1860 when John was probably living with the Huburtus family in Polkton, Ottawa County, Michigan, where he was working as a miller with his brother Dirk.

Unfortunately 1860 turned out to be a bad year for John, as he made clear in at least two letters home to his family back in the Netherlands. He was living in Eastmanville, Ottawa County when he wrote on August 23 to his “Dear wife and little son”

I received a letter on the 20th of Aug. with great pleasure. I have tried to obtain employment in a mill and I succeeded at last. But after a few days I was taken sick, very seriously, and confined to bed. My employer sent for the doctor. I bled from the nose fort 5 hours. The doctor advised me to return to the place from whence I came, because the climate and water would not agree with me and I would die if I should stay any longer. I am now recovering. I had saved $23 and all of that was . . . during my sickness. I feel assured that with the help of the Great Lord I will completely recover. Give my best love to our old mother.

He was still in Eastmanville and when he wrote home on November 22.

Dear wife and little son, with great pleasure I received a letter from [you] and hasten to write a few lines in answer. I have been very sick for 10 weeks. It has cost me over 100 guilders (1 guilder = 42 cents, translator) and that is the reason that I have not come home in the fall although I had a great desire to do so. But it cannot be helped now, as the distance which now separates us is too great; even if I should try it, it is not so easy. Be patient and trust in God; what He does is well done and for a good purpose – to make man better. Everything will come out straight.

John stood 5’9” with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion, and was 32 years old and probably living in Kent County with his brother’ family or perhaps in Georgetown, Ottawa County when he enlisted in Company C on May 13, 1861. (Company C was made up largely of German and Dutch immigrants, many of whom lived on the west side of the Grand River in Grand Rapids. This company was the descendant of the old Grand Rapids Rifles, also known as the “German Rifles”, a prewar local militia company composed solely of German troopers.)

John reenlisted on December 21, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Polkton or Ada, Kent County, was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864, possibly in Michigan, and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February. He was transferred to Company I, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, and was reported absent sick in February of 1865.

In fact he had apparently been admitted to the 3rd division hospital II Corps on January 20, 1865, suffering from chronic diarrhea and was transferred on February 1 to the 2nd division hospital at city Point, Virginia. Although he was returned to duty February 10 he entered the general hospital at Point Lookout, Maryland on February 12.

On February 25, 1865, while a patient at Point Lookout hospital in Maryland, John wrote to Dr. Van Camp, the surgeon in charge of the hospital requesting a furlough. “Dear Sir: I am a patient in your hospital [ward 3], suffering from chronic diarrhea. I have been three years and eight months in my country's service and have had but one furlough. My sickness is of near four months’ standing and I believe that a visit home enjoying the climate and advantages that would thus surround me would aid materially toward my recovery and restoration to the service. I therefore would most respectfully ask a furlough at your hands. . . .”

DeGroot’s request was approved and on March 16 he returned to western Michigan recover his strength. On March 25 the Grand Rapids Eagle reported “John DeGrote [sic], one of the bravest and best of soldier boys, who went out with the glorious ‘Old Third’, after four years of service has just returned to his home in this vicinity. He has just been compelled to leave his comrades in arms for a time, by that army scourge, chronic diarrhea. Young DeGrote left here, the picture of good health, robust and strong, and now, though he has been sick but a few weeks, he is a complete skeleton, so emaciated that his most intimate friends scarcely knew him at first sight. We hope he will soon recover and be able to exclaim, ‘Richard’s himself again.’”

John was reported as a deserter as of April 30. In fact, his health had deteriorated significantly while at home on leave and he died of chronic diarrhea at his brother Dirk’s home in Grandville, Kent County, on Saturday, April 7, 1865. He was buried in Grandville cemetery.

By 1878 Ebeltje was living in Grootegast, province of Groningen when she applied for and received a pension (no. 185320).

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Martin DeBoe

Martin DeBoe was born March 19, 1837, in the Netherlands, the son of John (b. 1810) and Caroline (Van Loob. 1811).

As a young boy Martin immigrated to the United States with his family, and eventually settled in Holland, Ottawa County, Michigan, perhaps as early as 1847. In any case, by 1850 Martin was living with his family in Grand Rapids where his father worked as a laborer.

Martin married Jannetje or “Janke” (“Jane”) Goodluck (b. 1838) on November 2, 1859, and they had at least two children, a son by the name of Jacob, who was, according to one report, born around the time they got married, and another son Peter.

Martin apparently worked off and on in Grand Rapids and in 1859-60 he was working as a carpenter and boarding at John Minderhand’s in Grand Rapids; by 1860 he was reported to be working for Leonard Storb, another a laborer, in Grand Rapids’ Third Ward but was living with his wife and son in Holland, Ottawa County.

Martin stood 5’4” with hazel eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 24 years old and probably still living in Holland when he enlisted in Company I on May 13, 1861. (Company I was made up largely of men from Ottawa County, particularly from the eastern side of the County.) He was shot in the right hand/wrist on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia. He was subsequently hospitalized in Stewart’s Mansion hospital in Baltimore, but by early July he was reported to be “doing well.” He was discharged for a disability caused by his gunshot wound on August 9, 1862, at Baltimore.

After his discharge from the Third Michigan Martin returned to Holland where he reentered the service as First Lieutenant in Company I, Twenty-fifth Michigan infantry at the organization of that Regiment on August 22, 1862, for 3 years, commissioned as of August 10, crediting Holland, Ottawa County.

In April of 1863 he was promoted to Captain, commissioned to date February 17, and was mustered out as of March 1 to accept the promotion, replacing Captain Dowd. In June of 1863 Martin was with the regiment at Green River, Kentucky, but from October 14, 1863, through at least January of 1864 he was at home on sick leave, although the details of his illness are unknown. He was absent sick again in April of 1864, suffering from “remittent” fever, and from typho-malarial fever April 19-24 and again from fever on July 11 but was present for duty in August of 1864. He was suffering from “debility” August 1-18 and from acute diarrhea in November of 1864.

Martin was wounded in the right foot at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 16, 1864, returned to duty and was mustered out of service at Salisbury, North Carolina, on June 24, 1865.

After the war Martin returned to Holland where he resumed the carpentry trade, and for some time worked for the Cappon & Bertsch tannery.

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, as well as Grand Army of the Republic Van Raalte Post No. 262 in Holland, a Protestant, and he received pension no. 74,396, drawing $6.00 per month in 1883 for a gunshot wound to the right hand, increased to $12.00 in 1907 and then to $15.00.

He was living in Holland in 1883, 1890 and in the Third Ward in 1894, and indeed he probably lived in Holland until he was admitted to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 4948) on April 4, 1907. In September of 1907 Martin had one of his hands amputated at the Home hospital.

Martin died of carcinoma of the right arm and axilla at the Home hospital at 8:00 a.m. on October 17, 1908, and his remains were sent to Holland where he was interred in the Pilgrim Home cemetery, Holland.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Frederick L. Day

Frederick L. Day was born October 31, 1840, in Moreau, Saratoga County, New York, the son of Perry E. (b. 1797) and Martha (b. 1800).

Vermont-born Perry and Martha were married, probably in Vermont sometime before 1823 when their son Aurelius was born but by 1830 had settled in Saratoga County, New York where they lived for many years. By 1850 Frederick was attending school with his siblings and living with his family in Moreau, Saratoga County, New York, where his father worked as a carpenter.

Frederick moved to Michigan from New York, possibly along with or joining his older brother Aurelius and his family. In any case, by 1860 Frederick was working for and/or living with Vermont native John H. Standish (b. c. 1818), a lawyer in Brooks, Newaygo County. It is possible that Fred had been married sometime before the war, but this is not known for certain. (Aurelius and his wife and child were also living in Brooks that same year.)

Frederick was 22 years old and probably living in Newaygo County when he enlisted as Third Corporal of Company K on May 13, 1861.

He was left sick at Grand Rapids when the Regiment departed for the east on June 13, 1861, and subsequently reported as having deserted.

David Robinson, chronicler of the men of Company K, claims that “As the trains pulled out [of Grand Rapids on June 13] 22-year old Corporal Frederick Day of Company K lay sick in a Grand Rapids hospital. On June 16, he deserted the hospital and rejoined his company and Regiment. He got sunstroke in July of 1861 and was finally discharged at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia in July 1862. He wanted to be with his comrades, but he couldn’t take the hot weather.”

However, according to his pension records, Fred was reported in the hospital in Grand Rapids until December 8, 1861, but then his name disappears from the company rolls until April 10, 1863. He was subsequently reported as a deserter on November 1, 1861, and was officially returned from desertion on April 7, 1863, at Camp Sickles, Virginia, under the President’s proclamation of amnesty for deserters.

Frederick was listed as absent sick in a general hospital in Washington, DC, from June 30, 1863 and again from December 30, 1863. In fact, he had apparently been treated for “intermittent fever” and diarrhea from April 28 to June 2, 1863, following which he returned to duty. Additional medical treatments took place on June 6 and again from June 14 to 17, 1863. He was reported sick from June of 1863 to June 24, 1864, suffering from, among other things, varicose veins of his left leg.

Although Fred was reported as having eventually returned to duty, in fact he was transferred to (originally) Company H, Fourteenth Veterans’ Reserve Corps, later changed to Fifty-third Company, Second Battalion, Veterans’ Reserve Corps, on either February 17 or April 30, 1864, possibly at Washington, DC or perhaps at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In any case Frederick was eventually discharged on June 9, 1864, at Mower hospital in Philadelphia.

It is not known if Fred ever returned to Michigan after the war.

By 1870 his brother Aurelius was living with his family in Newaygo, Newaygo County; also living in Newaygo was another brother, Albert. (John H. Standish had moved his family to Grand Rapids, Kent County and by 1870 was the U.S. District Attorney.)

By 1880 Fred was working as a lawyer and boarding at Ann Runnicle's boarding house on South Eighth Street Eastside, in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. By November of 1890 Frederick was residing at 734 Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia, but by early 1891 Fred was living in Glens Falls, New York (possibly with a brother Henry), and by the end of the year he had moved back to 734 Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia. He was still living on Spring Street in 1896.

He was reportedly never married, and worked for some years as a lawyer after the war.

In 1891 Frederick applied for and received a pension (no. 807,584).

Frederick died on January 22, 1902, in Glens Falls, and was presumably buried there (or possibly in Philadelphia).

Friday, June 20, 2008

Washngton Davis

Washngton Davis was born January 8, 1841, in Newfane, New York, the son of Nelson (b. 1808) and Rosina.

Sometime between 1841 and 1850 New York native Nelson moved his family from New York to Michigan, and by 1850 Washington was living with his father Nelson and possibly a stepmother named “H.I.” in Grand Rapids, where his father worked as a carpenter and Washington attended school with his sister "A. M." By 1860 he was a farm laborer living with his father and stepmother, New York native Phebe Ann (b. 1820) in Grand Rapids’ Third Ward where Nelson worked as a the Superintendent of Water Works.

“Wash” Davis was 20 years old and probably still living in Grand Rapids when he enlisted in Company A on May 13, 1861. (He was possibly related to David Davis of Company I and/or the brother of Nelson Davis also of Company I.) He was reported as a mail carrier in August and September of 1862, and the following month he was detached at Division headquarters, at Corps headquarters in November and at Brigade headquarters from December of 1862 through February of 1863. He was employed as a hostler for the Brigade in March and was a teamster at Division headquarters in April. In February of 1864 he was a hospital attendant, and was mustered out of service on June 20, 1864.

Following his discharge Washington returned to Grand Rapids.

He married New York native Rebecca A. (1845-1912), and they had at least three children: a son (d. 1879), Ella A. or Stella (1867-1879) and a second daughter.

In 1868-69 he was working as a teamster for the M.U. Exchange Co. in Grand Rapids, and living on the north side of William Street between Almy and Summit Streets. Wash was living with his wife and daughter in Grand Rapids’ First Ward where he worked as a teamster. (His father was also working as a teamster and living with his second or third (?) wife Phebe in the First Ward in 1870.)

Washington was working as a railroad freight and deliveryman and living with his wife and daughter and boarding at Lorenzo Lowe’s house on Ottawa Street in Grand Rapids’ Second Ward in 1880 and in Grand Rapids in 1886 and in 1890 in Grand Rapids’ Second Ward.

In August of 1890 a rock “weighing about 4 tons” fell and crushed his foot at the freight depot of the Michigan Central Railroad in Grand Rapids. That same year he was living at 314 Lyon Street in Grand Rapids. In fact, Washington probably spent all of his postwar life in Grand Rapids where he worked as a teamster and freight agent and conducted a freight transfer business for some 20 years in connection with the Lake Shore railroad. He sold that interest to F. Blake when he organized the Grand Rapids Storage and Transfer Co., and Davis went to work for him as superintendent.

Washington became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association in December of 1886, and was a member of Grand Army of the Republic Champlin Post No. 29 in Grand Rapids. In May of 1891 he applied for and received a pension (no. 732063).

Washington was crushed to death on March 31, 1892, in Grand Rapids

“The accident,” wrote the Grand Rapids Democrat,

occurred in front of Foster, Stevens & Co.'s store on Monroe Street. Mr. Davis was superintending the unloading of a heavy box of plate glass intended for the new front to the Boston store which is now being built. The box contained four plates 100x182 inches in size and weighed nearly a ton. It was ordered through Foster, Stevens & Co. and was consigned to them. Seven men from the shipping department of that firm had been sent to assist the teamster William Pond in unloading it from the transfer company's truck on which it had been hauled from the depot. The box stood on its edge and 4 men armed with pike poles were stationed on each side of it to brace, and at the same time move the heavy case off the end of the wagon. It was Mr. Davis' intention to let the end of the box down on the edge of the sidewalk and then turn it on its side. The men had worked the heavy package along with their pikes until about 3 feet of it projected over the end of the truck, which stood about 2 feet above the sidewalk. At this moment Mr. Davis stepped down into the gutter and despite a warning from the teamster that he was in a dangerous position, began arranging some timbers under the edge of the box. The ground around the wagon was wet and muddy and one of the men who stood on the side toward Mr. Davis slipped. He had been bearing heavily on his pike and as he lost his footing the box wavered. The other men on the same side made a frantic effort to check it, but were shoved aside by the weight. There was a warning yell as the heavy mass tottered over and Mr. Davis raised himself just in time to be struck full in the face by the falling box and borne backward directly under it.

When the workmen had sufficiently recovered their senses they raised the box and an awful sight met their gaze. Mr. Davis's head and face were crushed into an unrecognizable mass, and his clothing was covered with blood. He was tenderly raised and lifted to the sidewalk, and a faint pulsation indicated that life was not yet extinct. The ambulance was hastily summoned and the injured man was taken to his home, at 314 Lyon Street, where his wife and daughters were driven nearly frantic by the sad spectacle. Dr. William Fuller rode up in the ambulance and did all in his power to prolong the dying man's life and relieve his sufferings. He lived but a few minutes, however, and breathed his last apparently without regaining consciousness. Coroner Bradish visited the house shortly afterward and after viewing the remains and inquiring into the particulars of the accident decided that it was unnecessary to empanel a jury in the case.


Upon hearing of Davis’ accident and death, Colonel Edwin S. Pierce, also formerly of the Old Third Michigan infantry, told a reporter for the Grand Rapids Evening Leader, “’Well, that is sad about Wash Davis's death. He was all through the war with me, and was a first-class man. He had charge of the headquarters' teams and wagons -- that was his forte -- he always wanted to be doing some work of this kind. But he was in a good many fights too. He would jump out of his wagon, grab a musket, and go to blazing away as fiercely as any of the soldiers. 'Wash' was a splendid good fellow, but I have always expected he would be killed in some way, he was such a man to rush work without considering his personal safety. He hauled all the glass for my tower clock when I built it, and I used to caution him then. But he is dead now, poor fellow.’”

At the annual reunion of the association held in December of 1892, the following resolution was read and entered into the records:

Whereas -- during the past year by a sudden stroke that was appalling, our comrade Washington Davis, late of Co. A, was taken from us without so much as one minit [sic], to leave one pasting [sic] word or say good-bye to his beloved wife and children, Resolved -- that we deeply sympathize with the wife, children and relatives of Washington Davis. That we regret that one who has appeared so young and was of so happy a disposition, and so good a husband and father, could not longer be spared to cheer and protect his family, and to aid with us with his presence in our sojourn in this vail [sic] of tears, and . . . that we will always feel a lively interest in the family he has left to our care. That we recognize in Washington Davis the true man, soldier and citizen, that we cordially invite his wife to consider herself a member of the [association].

Washington was buried in Grand Rapids’ Oak Hill cemetery: section I lot 93.

In April of 1892 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 396047), drawing $12 by 1912.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Jefferson H. Davis

Jefferson H. Davis was born around 1841.

Jefferson was 20 years old and probably living in Muskegon County when he enlisted with the consent of the Justice of the Peace in Company H on May 13, 1861. (Company H, formerly the “Muskegon Rangers”, was made up largely of men from the vicinity of Muskegon and Newaygo counties.) He deserted on or about July 1, 1861, at Arlington, Virginia. George Lemon of Company H wrote home on July 12, 1861, that “we had Jeff Davis desert us while here” in Virginia.

There is no further record and no pension seems to be available.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

George W., James E. and William H. Davis

George W. Davis was born November 17, 1839, in Ottawa or Kent County, Michigan, the son of John (b. 1802) and Loretta (b. 1807).

Connecticut native John married New York-born Loretta, and they settled in New York, probably in Orleans County, where they were living in about 1832 when their son James was born. John eventually moved his family west and settled in Michigan by about 1834 when his son Thomas was born. He may have been the same John Davis living in Kent County, in 1840. In any case, John moved the family to Tallmadge, Ottawa, and by 1850 George was attending school with five of his siblings, including his older brother James and younger William, both of whom along with George would join Company G, Third Michigan infantry in the spring of 1861. In 1850 their father was working as a laborer.

It is possible that John's wife died and that he married New York native Laura E. (b. 1832). In any case, by early June of 1860 John was working at rafting logs, along with his son William and living in Georgetown, Ottawa County, with several of his children, including his youngest daughter Martha A. Martha would in fact marry next door neighbor Wilber Bement the following month. And Wilber would enlist in Company I, Third Michigan infantry. (Nearby also lived George Weatherwax who would command Company I at the beginning of the war.)

It is unclear where George was working in the summer of 1860. He may have moved to the Clinton County area where his older brother James had settled. In any case, it appears that shortly after war broke out George became a member of the Lansing militia company called the “Williams’ Rifles”, which was formed largely of men who lived in the Lansing area, joining his older brother James who had married and settled in Clinton County, not far from Lansing, and who would also join the “Williams’ Rifles”.

George stood 5’4” with hazel eyes, auburn hair and a light complexion, and was 21 years old when he enlisted in Company G on May 10, 1861, along with his brothers James and William.

In any case, by early December of 1861 William was tenting with his brothers James and George Davis as well as Orville Ingersoll and Case Wickham; Case too was from Clinton County and his family originally came from Orleans County, New York (although Case had been born in Ohio). On December 3, 1861, Case wrote to his sister back in Michigan “J. E. & G. W. & W. H. Davis and O. C. Ingersoll send their respects to you in return for yours. They stay in the same tent with me. They are pretty good boys and we have some tall times once in a while.”

George was reported sick in the hospital in November of 1862, sick in the Division hospital from April of 1863 through May and a nurse in the Division hospital in June.

George apparently recovered his health and had returned to the Regiment by the time he reenlisted on December 21, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Lansing’s First Ward. He was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough, probably in Michigan, in January of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February. He was again reported absent sick in the hospital in May of 1864, and was a Musician on detached service at Division headquarters when he was transferred to Company F, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864.

At some point in 1864 George returned to Michigan and married Regina M. Huff in Parkville, St. Joseph County. They had at least seven children: William E. (b. 1865), Cora (b. 1869), George R. (b. 1875), Loren D. (b. 1876), Vincent (b. 1879) and twins Edith and Guinevere (b. 1882).

He was absent sick in July, on detached service in September, in October he was in the Division hospital and in November was a Division provost guard. For reason(s) unknown, he was discharged on April 28, 1865, at Washington, DC.

George eventually returned to Michigan and by 1880 he was living with his wife and children in Constantine, St. Joseph County.

He may have been living in Lansing in 1883 drawing $8.00 per month (pension no. 577751), and $50 per month by 1922.

George was residing in Constantine, St. Joseph County in 1890, 1909 and 1910 but the following year moved to Toledo, Ohio where he was living at 626 Oakwood in 1914, and at 1018 Norwood in 1915. By 1920 and 1922 he had returned to Michigan and was living at 1117 Fourth Street in Three Rivers, St. Joseph County.

He was also a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association. He may at one time have been a member of Grand Army of the Republic Dewey Post No. 60 in Lansing.

George was probably a widower when he died on February 26, 1922, possibly at his home in Three Rivers and if so is presumably buried there.

James E. Davis was born December 3, 1832, in Orleans County, New York, the son of John (b. 1802) and Loretta (b. 1807).

Connecticut native John married New York-born Loretta, and they settled in New York, probably in Orleans County, where they were living in about 1832 when their son James was born. John eventually moved his family west and settled in Michigan by about 1834 when his son Thomas was born. He may have been the same John Davis living in Kent County, in 1840. In any case, John moved the family to Tallmadge, Ottawa, and by 1850 James was working as a laborer and attending school with five of his younger siblings, including his brothers George and William, both of whom along with James would join Company G, Third Michigan infantry in the spring of 1861. In 1850 their father was working as a laborer.

It is possible that John's wife died and that he married New York native Laura E. (b. 1832). In any case, by early June of 1860 John was working at rafting logs, along with his son William and living in Georgetown, Ottawa County, with several of his children, including his youngest daughter Martha A. Martha would in fact marry next door neighbor Wilber Bement the following month. And Wilber would enlist in Company I, Third Michigan infantry. (Nearby also lived George Weatherwax who would command Company I at the beginning of the war.)

James left Ottawa County and moved to the Clinton County area, at least by the spring of 1860.

James was married to Eliza Smith (d. 1861), on May 14, 1860 at the home of her sister, Mrs. Lucy Rall at Watertown, Clinton County.

By 1860 James and his wife Eliza were working for and/or living with Charles Ball in Watertown, Clinton County.

It appears that James’ younger brother George may have moved to the Clinton County area to join his older brother James. In any case, shortly after war broke out George became a member of the Lansing militia company called the “Williams’ Rifles”, which was formed largely of men who lived in the Lansing area, joining his older brother James who had married and settled in Clinton County, not far from Lansing, and who would also join the “Williams’ Rifles”. In fact, James was one of the original members of the “Williams’ Rifles” of Lansing, a local militia company which would form the nucleus of Company G of the Third Michigan infantry, quite probably joining the company in 1859.

James stood 5’8” with hazel eyes, brown hair and a sallow complexion, and was a 28-year-old farmer and sawyer still living in Clinton County when he enlisted in Company G on May 10, 1861, along with his brothers George and William.

In any case, by early December of 1861 William was tenting with his brothers James and George Davis as well as Orville Ingersoll and Case Wickham; Case too was from Clinton County and his family originally came from Orleans County, New York (although Case had been born in Ohio). On December 3, 1861, Case wrote to his sister back in Michigan “J. E. & G. W. & W. H. Davis and O. C. Ingersoll send their respects to you in return for yours. They stay in the same tent with me. They are pretty good boys and we have some tall times once in a while.”
James was absent sick in the Regimental hospital in September and October of 1861, was present for duty from January of 1862 through June and absent sick in August. According to Homer Thayer of Company G, in early August James had been recommended for a discharge on account of disability.

In fact, on August 15 James was admitted to a general hospital, probably in Washington, and was very likely sent to a hospital in Baltimore in October. He was in Baltimore at West’s Building hospital on November 29 when he was discharged for “very bad hemorrhoidal tumors” which reportedly “bleed when at stool, and cause a great deal of pain.”

After his discharge James eventually returned to Michigan. They were living either in Wacoustra, Clinton County or Delta, Eaton County, where his wife Eliza died.

He married his second wife New York native Mrs. Eliza or Elizabeth D. Ketchum (nee Ferguson, 1837-1908), on March 18, 1865, in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan, and they had at least two children: James (b. 1867) and Elsworth (b. 1870). Eliza was a widow, her first husband Emerson Ketchum had died in 1863.

He was probably working as a sawyer and living with Eliza and their young son James in Grand Rapids’ Second Ward in 1870; also living with them were 13-year-old George Ketchum and his younger brother Mortimer. In 1880 James was working “at sawing” and living with his wife and two sons in Grand Rapids. James was working as a sawyer and living in Grand Rapids’ Fifth Ward with his wife Eliza, their two sons and the two Ketchum boys (also listed in the census as “sons”) as well as Eliza’s mother June.

James was probably living in Ionia, Ionia County in 1888, but by 1900 he was residing at 292 Travis Avenue in Grand Rapids and he worked as a laborer most of his life. He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association and Grand Army of the Republic Custer Post No. 5 in Grand Rapids.

In 1884 he applied for and received a pension (no. 424835).

James died of heart failure in Grand Rapids on March 24, 1908, of valvular heart disease, and was buried in Fairplains cemetery: section 1 lot 98.

In April of 1908 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 655052).

William H. Davis was born in 1842 in Michigan, the son of John (b. 1802) and Loretta (b. 1807).

Connecticut native John married New York-born Loretta, and they settled in New York, probably in Orleans County, where they were living in about 1832 when their son James was born. John eventually moved his family west and settled in Michigan by about 1834 when his son Thomas was born. He may have been the same John Davis living in Kent County, in 1840. In any case, John moved the family to Tallmadge, Ottawa, and by 1850 William was attending school with five of his older siblings, including his brothers James and George, both of whom along with James would join Company G, Third Michigan infantry in the spring of 1861. In 1850 their father was working as a laborer.

It is possible that John's wife died and that he married New York native Laura E. (b. 1832). In any case, by early June of 1860 John was working at rafting logs, along with his son William and living in Georgetown, Ottawa County, with several of his children, including his youngest daughter Martha A. Martha would in fact marry next door neighbor Wilber Bement the following month. And Wilber would enlist in Company I, Third Michigan infantry. (Nearby also lived George Weatherwax who would command Company I at the beginning of the war.)

William was 19 years old and possibly living in Ottawa County or perhaps he had moved to Clinton County joining his older brothers James and George when all three enlisted in Company G on May 10, 1861.

William was erroneously reported as absent at Bull Run on July 21, 1861. According to an eyewitness, Davis was in fact with the company that day. “Davis,” wrote Frank Siverd of Company G on August 8, “was marked absent by mistake when the roll was called on the night of the 21st [of July, after the Union fiasco Bull Run], and was consequently wrongly reported” as absent.

In any case, by early December of 1861 William was tenting with his brothers James and George Davis as well as Orville Ingersoll and Case Wickham; Case too was from Clinton County and his family originally came from Orleans County, New York (although Case had been born in Ohio). On December 3, 1861, Case wrote to his sister back in Michigan “J. E. & G. W. & W. H. Davis and O. C. Ingersoll send their respects to you in return for yours. They stay in the same tent with me. They are pretty good boys and we have some tall times once in a while.”

And in early January of 1862 Case wrote home to his sister Amanda, saying that “I want you to be punctual about writing for I am not the only one that looks forward with pleasure to the day when we expect a letter from you. Billy Davis asks me every Thursday if I have got a letter from Amanda and if I have not he is just as much disappointed as I be. He says that he never saw you but he knows that you are a brick.

Sometime afterwards William was detached as wagoner and was working as a wagoner in November and December of 1862, and a wagoner at Brigade headquarters from January to July of 1863. He reenlisted on December 24, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Lansing’s First Ward, and was absent in February of 1864, presumably still on veterans’ furlough.

William eventually returned to the Regiment probably in early March, although it is unclear whether he was still employed as a wagoner .

He was reported as a Corporal in May of 1864 when he was killed in action on May 5, 1864, during the Wilderness campaign. He was presumably buried among the unknown soldiers at the Wilderness.

No pension seems to be available.



Sunday, June 15, 2008

David Lyman and Nelson T. Davis

David Lyman Davis was born 1839 in Adams, Seneca County, Ohio, the son of David and Susan (b. 1803).

There was a David L. Davis reportedly living in Adams, Ohio, in 1840.

In any case, Vermont-born Susan and her son David eventually left Ohio and by 1860 Susan was living with the Oliver Corman (?) family in Ganges, Allegan County, Michigan. Next door lived a farmer named Nathaniel Plummer; his daughter Permelia or Pamelia would eventually marry David.

David stood 5’9” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 22 years old and residing in Allegan County when he enlisted in Company I on May 13, 1861, along with his older brother Nelson. They may have been related to Washington Davis of Company A (his father’s name was Nelson).

According to one source, David and Nelson were among the second wave of recruits to come out of Ottawa County and did not in fact enlist until the end of May, along with Albert Hamlin, Calvin Hall, Joseph Payne, Albert Gardner, James Rhodes, Perry Goshorn, Sylvester Gay, Joseph Solder (Josiah Schuler), Quincy Lamereaux, William Suret and John Ward.

David was taken ill with measles in July of 1861, (Nelson too was struck by measles in 1861) but soon recovered and was on duty with the Third Michigan when he was shot in the right hand on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run. He was subsequently absent wounded in Fairfax Seminary hospital from September of 1862 until he was discharged on February 26, 1863, at Camp Convalescent near Alexandria, Virginia, for a “disabled right hand from gunshot wound.”

David listed Ganges, Allegan County as his mailing address on his discharge paper, and probably returned to Allegan County after his discharge. (In 1870 there was a Vermont-born Susan Davis, age 65 living with the Richard Ames family in Saugatuck, Allegan County.)

He married Ohio-born Pamelia H. Plummer (1845-1926), and they had at least one child, a son Clarence (b. 1869).

By 1880 David was working as a farmer and living with his wife and son in Ganges, although by 1885 he was residing in Gaines, Kent County. He had returned to Ganges by 1890, and was still living in Ganges in 1894 where he worked as a fruit solicitor. He eventually settled in Fennville, Allegan County and for many years worked as a merchant. By 1912 he was living in Crichton, Mobile County, Alabama.

In 1878 he applied for and received a pension (no. 975808). He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association.

David died at 10:00 a.m. in the People’s Bank of Orchard, Alabama, on November 22, 1913, and his remains were sent to Michigan where he was buried in Taylor cemetery, Ganges next to his brother Nelson.

His widow was living in Crichton, Alabama in 1913 when she applied for and received a pension (no. 774679), drawing $30 by 1926 when she was living in Fennville.

Nelson T. Davis was born in 1837, the son of David and Susan (b. 1803).

There was a David L. Davis reportedly living in Adams, Ohio, in 1840.

In any case, Vermont-born Susan and her family (including at least Nelson and son David) eventually left Ohio (where David had been born) and by 1860 Susan was living with the Oliver Corman (possibly a brother-in-law?) family in Ganges, Allegan County, Michigan.

Nelson was 24 years old and probably living in Ganges when he enlisted in Company I on May 13, 1861, along with his younger brother David (known as Lyman). They may have been related to Washington Davis of Company A (his father’s name was Nelson). According to one source, David and Nelson were among the second wave of recruits to come out of Ottawa County and did not in fact enlist until the end of May, along with Albert Hamlin, Calvin Hall, Joseph Payne, Albert Gardner, James Rhodes, Perry Goshorn, Sylvester Gay, Joseph Solder (Josiah Schuler), Quincy Lamereaux, William Suret and John Ward.

Sometime during 1861 Nelson was struck with measles. (His brother David also suffered from measles in July of 1861.) He eventually recovered (as did his brother) and was on duty with the regiment when it join in the opening phases of McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign in Virginia in the spring of 1861. On May 29th Nelson wrote home to his mother,

It is not much that I have to write this time. I received yours of the 13th last night; it found me in good health and I hope this will find you all as well as it leaves me. You wanted me to help you to a pair of light shoes. Now I would do it if I had the money. From the time we left Yorktown till within a few days I bought my own living for I was sick and could not eat government food. We shall get our pay before many days and when we get it I will send the required amount. I shall not write anything of our late movements for it has been forbidden and I think it . . . is not our business to write home what is transpiring here. It is warm and pleasant here; corn is large enough to hoe; wheat is headed out; string beans are ripe. The season of cherries will soon be at hand and then I will enjoy myself while they last. I was sick with the measles last year when they was ripe. L. [his brother Lyman] has just got back from the spring with some cool water and I feel like indulging to the extent of a canteen full or less. I expect that you will see me at home sometime in July provided we both live for it is my opinion that the game of Rebellion is nearly played out. We made a point [?] at Williamsburg and we will shank [?] them at Richmond. Well I have wrote more than I expected when I commenced but my head is not quite empty so I will . . . write a little more. The Allegan boys are all here and they are all well. Harry Campion has been promoted to a corporalship. I guess that I won’t write much more for I am tired of writing; write often I will write when I can. Love to all and keep a share to yourself.

Nelson added a postscript to his brother (or brother-in-law?) Oliver (Corman?):

I shan’t write to you until you write to me. Oll you had better enlist; Uncle Sam gives us two drinks of good whiskey every day [although] I don’t indulge; he also gives us plenty of hard bread, bacon, sugar and coffee, also plenty of beans. Lyman and I carry a three-quart dish to cool beans in; we can eat the full of it at one meal and wish that it held more. I was pretty hard up for nearly a month but I am well now. I hope that you are in as good health as your humble writer. Well Oll I will close for this time. Write soon. I remain your affectionate brother, Nelson.

Nelson was killed in action on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia. It is quite likely that his remains were returned to Michigan and he was interred in Taylor cemetery, Ganges, Allegan County; buried next to him is his brother David.

In February of 1863 his mother applied for and received a pension (no. 146670). In 1870 there was a Vermont-born Susan Davis, age 65 living with the Richard Ames family in Saugatuck, Allegan County.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Edward Porter Davidson

Edward Porter Davidson was born February 1, 1840, in Bradford, McKean County, Pennsylvania, the son of Jonathan.

Both of his parents were reportedly born in New York but settled for a time in Pennsylvania. Apparently Edward’s family left Pennsylvania and settled in (returned to) New York, quite probably Elmira, where Jonathan died when Edward was still quite young; he was subsequently raised by a lumber dealer in Elmira. (Curiously, in 1850 there was one Edward Davidson, eleven years old, living with a butcher named Charles Brooks and his family in Athens, Bradford County, Pennsylvania.)

Sometime around 1859 Edward came to Michigan and lived with his sister in Owosso, Shiawassee County where he worked in the lumber industry. By the following year, 1860, Edward had moved further west and was a farm laborer working for and/or living with William Thompson in Crockery, Ottawa County.

Edward stood 6’ tall, with black eyes, black hair and a dark complexion and was 21 years old and probably still living in Crockery when he enlisted in Company I on May 13, 1861. (Company I was made up largely of men from Ottawa County, particularly from the eastern side of the County.) He was wounded on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville, Virginia, but he soon rejoined the Regiment and had probably been promoted to Sergeant by the time he was wounded a second time on July 2 at the battle of Gettysburg, and was hospitalized from July 2 to July 8 and treated for a gunshot wound to the left groin. (He claimed after the war that the musket ball remained lodged in his groin.)

After he was wounded at Gettysburg, Edward was eventually transferred to Mower hospital in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He remained at Mower hospital until about November 20, 1863, when he was transferred to the convalescent camp at Washington, DC (probably Camp Convalescent near Alexandria, Virginia). He remained in the Washington area about three weeks before being sent home on furlough.

In January of 1864 he was reported in the hospital, but apparently had rejoined the Regiment by late February when he reenlisted on February 29, near Culpeper, Virginia, crediting Muskegon, Muskegon County (for which act he received a $150 bounty). He was absent on veteran’s furlough in from April 6, 1864, and probably returned to the Regiment sometime in late April or early May.

He was transferred as a Sergeant to Company I, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. On November 3, 1864, the Grand Rapids Eagle printed the following letter from Davidson, under the headline, “A Soldier's Sentiments.” “Speaking of the peace advocates he says:

They will tell you to vote for McClellan as the only man qualified to establish the old Union, and to secure an honorable and lasting peace. But be not deceived by these cunning tricks, for once masters of this Government and utter ruin and anarchy would be the inevitable result. In Abraham Lincoln we recognize the best man -- a man qualified to pilot the good old ship Union safely through the awful hurricane of civil war, that now sweeps with such unrelenting fury over the fairest portions of our once united and prosperous country. While we soldiers, ‘mid the angry roar of battle present to our enemies in the field a bold front, we earnestly entreat you, our former comrades in arms, at home, by everything you love on earth and by everything you hope for in heaven, to exhibit a like courage in standing by the present administration in the coming election, and repelling the cowardly assaults of domestic traitors, and by again elevating Mr. Lincoln to the high position he has so nobly and honorably filled for nearly 4 years, demonstrate to our enemies and ‘misguided brethren’ of the South the utter folly of longer contending for a separation of this great country. Elect Lincoln this fall and only a few more weeks of self-sacrificing devotion and we shall have conquered a sure and pasting peace. And then, oh how gladly will we soldier boys forsake the bloody path of war, and return once more to friends and the peaceful avocations of civil life. Be true to your friends and country.

Edward was First Sergeant when he was wounded severely and taken prisoner on October 27, 1864, at the battle of Boydton Plank road near Petersburg, Virginia. While a prisoner-of-war, Davidson was commissioned a Second Lieutenant as of October 15, replacing Lieutenant Fred Barker. The commission was forwarded to the Regiment on October 25, but he was never mustered as such, having been captured.

He was first confined at Richmond (probably Libby prison) on October 28, then sent to the prison at Salisbury, North Carolina, on November 4. He was paroled on February 2 (or 27), 1865, at N.E. Ferry, North Carolina (or Goldsboro), and apparently sent north to Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio.

Edward was furloughed from Camp Chase, Ohio on either February 18 or March 21, 1865, for 30 days, but did not in fact return from his furlough until May 11. By the end of March he was in Nunica, Ottawa County. On March 25 he wrote to the mother of Chauncey Smith, also of the Third Michigan and who had also been captured at Boydton Plank road.

Madam,

It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the death of your son Chauncey Smith. He was captured Oct. 27, 1864 in one of the battles in front of Petersburg with myself, and confined in the C. s. Military Prison at Salisbury, N.C. where he died sometime in Dec. I left my memorandum book in Grand Rapids & cannot give you the correct date today but if you desire it drop a lone to Grand Rapids or Nunica and it will receive prompt attention. Very respectfully, etc. Lieut. E. P. Davidson 5 Mich inft.

Edward was still in Nunica on April 5 when he wrote again to Chauncey Smith’s mother:

I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your note of the 2nd inst in regard to the capture and death of your . . . [T]he information would state that he died the 24th day of December 1864. He caught a severe cold and it settled on his lungs. He had entirely recovered from his wound. He had as good care as the circumstances of the place afforded. Tis true that was none of the best, but all that could be done for him by his comrades was done. He [died?] in a tent with some 15 of his own regt. . . . I think I may venture to say that he got enough to eat such as it was. I did not see him buried. He was buried the same as they buried all of our dead men there in trenches outside of the prison. He was in his right mind to the last moment. He realized that his time for this world was short. But he said he was ready and willing to die and died happy. He said that he had been a true and faithful soldier to his country and he believed that he had made his peace with his maker. By his premature and untimely death you lost a worthy son and the country lost one of its best soldiers. Very respectfully etc., Lieut. E. P. Davidson, 5 Mich Vet Vol. Inft.

On April 25 Edward was examined by Dr. O. J. Bissell of Nunica, Ottawa County, examined Davidson, and certified “that he is afflicted with chronic diarrhea and opthalmia . . . and in consequence thereof he is not only unfit for duty but unable to travel to rejoin his station or to report to the U.S. Military Commander at Detroit” nor would he be able “to report as required in a less period than twenty (20) days.” Edward was discharged as a First Sergeant on June 19, 1865, from Camp Chase, Ohio.

After the war Edward returned to Crockery before moving on to Indiana where he lived for a time working as a timber estimator for the railroad. By April of 1871 he was living in Waterloo City, DeKalb County, Indiana. He was residing in Kendallville, Indiana in 1874 but he eventually returned to Michigan where he lived the rest of his life. By 1880 he was working as a foreman on the farm of William Thompson in Crockery, Ottawa County.

Edward was living in Nunica, Ottawa County, when he married Ohio native Matilda Elizabeth Wherly (1851-1939) in Grand Rapids on December 30, 1881, and they probably had at least two children: J. (1888-1924) and Ora B. (1892-1909).

He was still living in Nunica in 1883 when he was drawing $14.00 per month for a wound to the abdomen (pension no. 113,312).

By 1888 and 1890 Edward was living in Sullivan, Muskegon County where he engaged in farming for some years, and was elected Sullivan Township clerk in April of 1891; he also served as Township treasurer in 1902.

Edward became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association in 1871 and he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Bartholomew Post No. 136 in Nunica.

Edward died of typhoid fever on March 22, 1907, in Sullivan, and was buried in Nunica cemetery.

In May of 1907 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 639287).

Thursday, June 12, 2008

John Dart

John Dart was born around 1822 in Vermont.

According to John’s wife, John’s parents left Vermont and moved to Milford, Michigan when he was still a boy, although John subsequently came back east to New York State to live with his sister at Riga, Genesee County, New York. (His older brother Elijah did indeed move to Michigan in the late 1830s and was reportedly married in Washtenaw County, Michigan in 1838, was living in Washtenaw County in 1840 and he settled in Grand Rapids, Kent County in 1841.)

John married New York native Mary E. Sparling (1820-1912), at the home of her cousin, Sylvina Terry in Castile, then Genesee County, now Wyoming County, New York, on May 20, 1844, and they had at least two children: Fred (b. 1855) and William (b. 1859).

John and his family moved from New York and by 1849 they had moved to Ionia County, Michigan and by 1850 had settled in Lyons, Ionia County, Michigan where John was apparently unemployed.

Sometime in the early 1850s John moved his family to Grand Rapids, Kent County, following his brother Elijah who had moved there in 1850. By the summer of 1855 John joined with a number of other Grand Rapids men in forming a militia company on the west side of the Grand River in Grand Rapids. On July 22, Captain Lucius Patterson organized the Grand Rapids Artillery (GRA) on the west side, and he was assisted by Lieutenants Baker Borden, William K. Wheeler, and Alfred B. Turner, and Sergeants Silas Hall, Wilson Jones, Gideon Colton and one “Johann” Dart. (Borden and Jones would both join the Third Michigan in 1861.)

In 1859-60 John was living on the northwest corner of Leonard and Front Streets in Grand Rapids on the west side of the river, and by 1860 he and his family were living in Grand Rapids’ Fourth Ward and he was working as a teamster, probably running his own wagon business.

John stood 6’0” with blue eyes, dark hair and a light complexion, and was 39 years old and probably still living in Grand Rapids when he enlisted as Sixth Corporal of Company B on May 13, 1861. (The company was commanded by Captain Baker Borden and made up in large part by former members of the prewar GRA).

According to Alfred Pew, who also served in Company B, John was detailed to drive the regimental ambulance and Pew, who would serve as Sergeant, Lieutenant and then Captain of Company B, he “did not think [John] did any duty with the company.” At some point it seems he was reduced to the ranks since in July of 1862 he was reported as a Private working in the Brigade commissary department. In any case, he was absent sick in the hospital in August and discharged for chronic rheumatism on September 29, 1862, at Upton’s Hill, Virginia.

After his discharge John probably returned to Grand Rapids, and in 1865-66 was working as a drayman and residing at no. 42 Lincoln Street on the west side of the Grand river. He also worked for some years as a carpenter.

According to Mrs. Thomas Bennett, a niece of Mary’s, she learned from her mother (Mary’s sister, Mrs. Ira Gilmore) that “it was common knowledge with members of the family that when the soldier came home from the army he gave his wife a disease that affected her health and that a son born later was blind at birth and had sores about his eyes that troubled [him] for years.” The report went on to state that this story provided “insight to the soldier’s character and reason for him leaving home. It is hardly probably that he improved any after leaving [his wife Mary] and the rumor that he had a woman (or women) with him is probably well founded.”

Indeed, there may be something to this story. According to John sometime around 1869 or 1870 he and Mary separated. John stated in 1900 that he and Mary had “not lived together as man and wife for about thirty years. That she voluntarily left and deserted [him] and refused to live with him.”

In 1904 Mary testified that she

Never had any intimation that my husband [John] left here with a woman. I never knew of him being intimate with a woman while he was living with me. He and I lived together until he started away to follow the fairs. I have never heard it intimated that he had a woman with him when he was out west. I saw my two nieces from Nebraska when were here visiting and they said he was out there hanging around until they got sick and tired of him and turned him out but neither of them ever told me that he had a woman with him. I don’t know where they are but their father Ira Gilmore lives at Lyons, Mich. The girls are Clara and Emma. It was 2 or 3 years after he left here when these girls wrote home that he was out there and that was the first I had heard of him after he left here.

Furthermore, Mary testified that in fact

We lived together continuously until 1879. My husband was a great man to have a stand at the fairs, to sell pies & cakes & beer and that year I tried to persuade him not to do so for he always lost money at it but he went around following up the fairs he had a swing or something of the kind and I did not hear from him for about four years when he wrote me from somewhere in Nebraska and that was the only letter I got from him but I heard from nieces out there both now dead that he would be there occasionally and would say he was coming home but he did not and they both turned him out. . . . I never heard that Mr. Dart had another woman with him and I never heard that he ever got a divorce [from Mary] and I have no reason to believe that he ever got a divorce. He came back here in 1890 and I was then living with Mrs. Hobart and was in very poor health. He wanted to go to housekeeping but he had no money to do it and I could not then make our living with my needle as I had always done before so he lived with his brother Elijah Dart now dead until 1892 when he came to the soldier’s Home [in Grand Rapids] and when this annex was dedicated I came here. That was in February 1894. Mr. Dart did not stay here regularly. He would go out when he got any money to spend. Then when Col. [George E.] Judd in as [Home] commandant they did not agree. They served together in the army so finally Col. Judd gave him a dishonorable discharge and he went to the Nebraska Soldiers’ Home and died there. While Mr. Dart was in this house he would usually give me five or ten dollars when he drew his pension. . . .

According to John’s nephew Byron Dart (Elijah’s son), John “did not use his wife right and I cut his acquaintance. I used to see him on the Street here when he was in the Soldier’s Home [in Grand Rapids] but I did not know much about him. I never heard that either of them were divorced and I am quite positive there was no divorce but I have not a doubt that he lived with some other woman when he was away for he was that kind of man.”

Byron also noted that “Aunt Mary was always a good honest woman, exceptionally so and I know that she never applied for a divorce.”

By 1884 he was probably residing in Utah when he applied for and received a pension (no. 512491).

Around 1887 John settled in Nebraska, in the vicinity of Beatrice, and he spent quite a bit of time in both Gage and Seward counties. According to Katharine Shephard who kept a hotel in Grand Island, Nebraska, during this time, John stayed at her hotel “off and on.” “At one time he was sick,” she said,

at my place for about a month, and his wife came to see him and mended his clothes for him. As near as I can recall his wife came from Michigan. I can not say what her name was, he called her Mrs. Dart, and introduced her to me as his wife and I have all the reason to believe she was his wife, from the pleading I heard her do with him to go home with her. He would not go home with her for the reason that he liked Nebraska better and had gained a residence in the state as he had lost his residence in Michigan. I am sure that his wife was at my place twice. She sat with him and gave him medicine and mended his clothes. I do not think that they occupied the same bed during any of her stays at my place, at one time he was too sick and the other time he went to the Soldier’s Home to stay, so they did not occupy the same bed that time, although he called her wife and treated her as such, and introduced her as such. I do not know that John Dart ever applied for a divorce from his wife. I have never heard him say that he did or intended to, and it is my opinion that he never did. I never knew him to have money enough to pay the costs in a suit of that kind. I think that in the winter of 1892 he left her and went to Omaha, Nebraska. He was gone about a week when he came back, and he told me that he had been to Omaha and had married a woman and got $500 of his money. I asked him where the woman was, and he replied: ‘I don’ give a damn, I’ve got the money.’ He did not tell me what the woman’s name was. He stayed about a week and went away again, said he was going to the Black Hills, did not hear any more of him for a year or two, when I met him at a Soldier’s Reunion here in Grand island I think. When he told me that he had married the married in Omaha I asked him if he was not afraid of arrest, having a wife living, and he said he did not care. He had the money and that [is] what he was after. I do not know a thing about the woman he married, only that he told me that she kept a brothel in Omaha, and he got her money. John Dart was not very particular as to his morals; in fact he was very much the other way. He got drunk when he got a chance and was a great fellow to run after any kind of woman. I sent him away from my place a time or two on account of [his] making advances to my servants, which I could not tolerate in my house. I never heard Dart say that he ever did or intended to get a divorce from his wife, he always spoke of her as his wife, and even after he told me he married the woman in Omaha, he spoke about the wife in Michigan.

By 1890 John was living at the Nebraska Soldier’s Home in Grand Island, Hall County, Nebraska, when he gave an affidavit in the pension application of the widow of Francis Barlow who had also served in the Third Michigan. (Barlow and John had been friends in Grand Rapids before the war.)

John lived in various other parts of Nebraska and spent about two years at the Soldier’s Home in Grand Island. He reportedly returned to Michigan at least three times during 1887-1900 in an effort to “look up evidence for increase of pension” and “that during this time he spent about two years at the Soldiers’ Home" in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Still, even though he returned to Michigan he and Mary never lived together.

John was admitted to the Michigan Soldier’s Home (no. 2031) in Grand Rapids on October 18, 1893. (His wife was living at 193 Barclay in Grand Rapids at the time but John was listed as still receiving his pension of $12.oo per month through the Des Moines, Iowa agency.) He was in the Michigan Soldiers’ Home in March of 1894 when he gave yet another deposition in the pension application for the minor children of Francis Barlow.

John was discharged from the Home at his own request some six times until he was re-admitted for the final time on April 12, 1898. His wife Mary had been admitted to the Women’s Building of the Home on February 19, 1894, and it was reported that although the men and women occupied separate buildings “husbands are allowed to visit their wives in their rooms at certain hours of the day, and Dart availed himself of this privilege.” He was subsequently dishonorably discharged from the Home on June 9, 1899 and never re-admitted. “The cause of his dishonorable discharge was ‘cashing pension check in violation of rule.’” (It is not clear what this "rule" was however.)

John returned to Nebraska and reentered the Soldier’s Home near Milford in 1900; he listed one Fred Dart of Detroit as his next of kin).

John died of “old age aggravated by a broken down nervous system” on April 10, 1903 in Milford, Seward County, Nebraska and was buried in Blue Mound cemetery.

Mary was living in Michigan in June of 1903 when she applied and received a pension (no. 592,938). By 1903 and 1904 she was residing in the Woman’s Annex at the Michigan Soldier’s Home in Grand Rapids. She was probably still living at the Home when she died in 1912 and was buried in the Home cemetery: block 5, row 14, grave 5.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Abram J. Darling

Abram J. Darling was born June 6, 1834, in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, the son of David (1790-1843) and Marilla or Marilda (Atkins, 1805-1882).

Abram’s parents were probably married sometime before 1832, possibly in New York. And it is quite possible that they resided in New York for some years before moving to Pennsylvania. In any case, Abram left Pennsylvania, quite possibly with some or all of his family, and moved westward, eventually settling in eastern Michigan.

By 1850 Abram was attending school with his older brother Gilbert, and working as a laborer with Gilbert and both were living with their mother in Ida, Monroe County; that same year he was also probably working for his uncle (?) Jarvis Darling in Erie, Monroe County. Abram subsequently moved to the western side of the state.

He was living in Grand Rapids by the time he married New York native Harriet Ann “Hattie” Bates (b. 1838), on December 18, 1858, in Grand Rapids. They had at least five children: Paradise (b. 1857), Ames or Amos (b. 1859), Marilda Ethel (1866-1892), Anna (b. 1869), Lucy (b. 1870) and Harriet (1872-1930). (Harriet was probably the sister of Alfred and Benjamin Bates, both of who were born in Steuben County and who lived in Monroe County and who would serve in Company A, Third Michigan. And another sister Emily would marry James V. Smith who also served in the Old Third.)

By 1860 Abram was working as a laborer and living with his wife and family in Grand Rapids’ Third Ward.

Abram stood 5’7” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion, and was 28 years old and working as a farmer probably in Grand Rapids' Third Ward when he enlisted in Company A on September 3, 1862, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, and was mustered on September 5. Abram was assigned to the company on November 4, reported as deserted on November 14 at Washington, DC, and was returned to the regiment’s rolls from desertion on April 7, 1863, at Camp Pitcher, Virginia (per President Lincoln’s proclamation of amnesty for deserters). However, it is by no means certain that he ever joined (or rejoined) the Third Michigan, and by June and July of 1863 he was reported as serving on detached duty as a guard with the ammunition train.

Abram was sick in the hospital from October of 1863 through May of 1864, and was admitted to Mt. Pleasant hospital in Washington, DC, on February 5, 1864 for a varicocele. He was returned to duty on March 3, yet the same day he was reportedly admitted to Mt. Pleasant from Kalorama hospital diagnosed as “convalescent from varicocele.” In any case, he was eventually returned to duty on May 3, 1864.

Even though he had apparently recovered from his illness in early May, Abram was reported as absent sick when he was transferred to Company A, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. At some point he returned to Michigan to recover his health, and while at home he was a witness at the wedding of James V. Smith (also of Company A) and Emily Bates on July 14, 1863, in Grand Rapids.

He probably remained absent sick until he was discharged on April 20, 1865, at St. Mary’s general hospital in Detroit, for “aphonia, chronic hepatitis and general debility -- contracted while in line of duty.” The examining surgeon added that “This soldier has done no duty for the last fifteen (15) months,” that is, since about January of 1864.

Although Abram listed Grand Rapids as his mailing address on his discharge paper, he soon moved his family to Ida, Monroe County, where many members of both the Darling and Bates families settled during the late 1860s and 1870s. By 1870 Abram (or Abraham) was working as a farmer and living with is wife and three children next door to his brother Robert and his family in Ida.

Sometime after their daughter Harriet was born in March of 1872, Abram’s wife disappeared. In any case, Abram subsequently married Sarah Ann Odel Niles, on December 25, 1878, in Ida, and by 1880 they were living in Boardman Township, Kalkaska County.

They divorced sometime between 1880 and 1888 when Abram was living in South Boardman, Kalkaska County.

He then married Ella Silvernail Christianson on July 16, 1889, in Fife Lake, Grand Traverse County.

Apparently Abram was living with his new wife in Union Township (possibly in Fife Lake), Grand Traverse County in 1890. That marriage also ended unpleasantly, and they were divorced in 1893. By 1894 he was residing in Boardman, Kalkaska County.

In 1866 Abram applied for and was granted a pension (no. 255132), drawing $50 by 1923.

By 1900 Abram was back in Boardman Township, Kalkaska County, and by 1910 he had moved to Clearwater, Kalkaska County, where he was living alone, reportedly as a widower, in 1920.

Abram died in Clearwater on March 11 or 23, 1923, and was buried in Fife Lake cemetery. Hattie Darling (perhaps a daughter) and Abraham Darling (as well as Abram) are also listed as buried at Fife Lake.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

William Henry Daniels

William Henry Daniels was born 1842 in Steuben County, New York, the son of Napoleon (b. 1820) and Harriet (b. 1823).

William’s parents were both born in New York and presumably married there. By 1850 William was living on the family farm in Tyrone, Steuben County, New York. Eventually the family moved west and by 1860 William was working as a farm laborer, attending school with his two younger sisters and living with his family on a farm in Caledonia, Kent County, Michigan.

William was a 19-year-old farmer living in Gaines, Kent County when he enlisted in Company A on January 18 or 25, 1862, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, and was mustered on January 25. George Miller, also of Company A, and who was from Bowne, Kent County, probably knew William before the war, “Some new recruits,” wrote Miller on March 18, “came into camp while we were on picket, [and] among them was Bill Daniels. He appears to think soldiering a pretty nice thing so far. He looks healthy and I presume will be tough when he gets acclimated.”

By mid-April, however, William was absent sick. He was probably in Chesapeake hospital at Fortress Monroe, suffering, George Miller believed, from “some kind of fever.” He soon recovered, however, and a week later Miller wrote that Daniels had “just came out of the hospital a few days ago; he looks rather slim.”

Nevertheless, William recovered and returned to duty. He was killed in action May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, and was presumably among the unknown soldiers buried at Seven Pines National Cemetery.

Two years after his death, the Grand Rapids Eagle ran a story on William’s mother and how she had fared so far during the war. “One of the glorious women,” wrote the Eagle,

whose works will compare favorably with the matrons of revolutionary fame, of whom we have read in song and story, lives in Caledonia, and we wish there were more whose patriotic spirits were like hers, equal to the times that try men's souls. This spirited lady lost her only son William Henry [Daniels], in the battle of ‘Fair Oaks’, fighting under our lamented and gallant [Samuel] Judd, and who with him, fighting, fell; and since that time, or in fact since the war commenced, she has successfully managed her farm, and is now in flourishing circumstances. This spring she grubbed, with her own hands, 16 acres of new land for wheat, planted 11 acres of corn, and hoed the same, and spun flax and wool enough to clothe her family. All this work she did, besides doing her house work, and attending to all other of her business matters. Last summer [1863] she raked and bound a large crop of wheat, did the most of the work necessary to saving her hay, and this years she intends to do the same work, but says ere the time comes for that work, that she would like to go down south and help finish up the rebels. Though Mrs. Daniels looks a little sun-burned, and her hands bear the marks of her labor, she has the appearance of being an educated and an accomplished woman. She's a Spartan.

In 1870 his parents were living on a farm in Cascade, Kent County (his father owned some $4000 worth of real estate).

In 1882 his mother, then living in Michigan, applied for a pension (application no. 538,720) but the certificate was never granted. In 1890 his father, living in Cascade, Kent County, applied (no. 509,576) but the certificate was never granted.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Asa B. Daniels

Asa B. Daniels was born 1846 in Adrian, Lenawee County, Michigan, the son of Andrew P. (b. 1810) and Martha (b. 1821).

Massachusetts native Andrew married New York-born Martha and moved to Adrian, Lenawee County, Michigan sometime before 1845. By 1850 Asa was living with his family on a farm in Adrian, and by 1860 Asa was attending school with two of his younger siblings and living with his parents on the family farm in Olive, Ottawa County.

Asa stood 5’8” with blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion, and was an 18-year-old laborer and farmer living in Olive, Ottawa County when he enlisted in Company F on January 13, 1864, at Watertown, Clinton County, for 3 years, and was mustered the same day at Corunna, Shiawassee County. (His family apparently moved to Clinton County.)

He joined the Regiment on February 17 at Camp Bullock, Virginia, and on March 10 wrote home to his father “to let you know that I am well and hope that these few lines will find you the same. I am here in Virginia. Have you got that money that I sent you[?] and if you have got it write and let me know. Have you got that land[?] If you have got it let me know. It rains very hard here today. And when you get this letter I wish that you would write and let know. I have wrote you 5 letters since I have been here.”

Asa was transferred to Company F, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864.

Less than a week later, on June 16, 1864, he was shot by a minie ball in the right ankle near Petersburg, Virginia, and was sent from the field to the First Division hospital (“Woolf Street”) in Alexandria, Virginia. He was still in the hospital recovering form his wound in mid-September when he wrote home to his father that he was expecting to be furlough within the next week or so. In fact, Asa was furloughed from the hospital commencing October 25 and went home to Olive. Although it was reported that Asa remained hospitalized through May of 1865, in fact he rejoined his regiment on December 12, 1864. Sometime soon after arriving back with the regiment Asa wrote home to his father.

I now take my pen in hand to let you that I am well and hope these few lines will find you the same. I expect that I shall be on picket but I do not know whether I will or not. I have not been detailed yet. I have been mustered today for two months more. The paymaster has not come around yet and I hope [to[ get 4 months pay and . . . bounty and you see that I can send some to you. There is a young fellow here and he is in the same tent and he says that he wants you to write to him. His name is Henry Brown. He is the one that wrote my letters last winter. I was in the same tent last winter. Mr. [Chauncey] Webster is in the hospital. He was wounded the 27 of [October at Boydton Plank road, Virginia]. Charles Land is here to the regiment and well and tough. They say that the home guards are ordered to Washington and I am glad of that. They thought they had a good thing, they thought they could get read [sic] of the draft by enlisting in the home guards. They will not think it quite so wise if they do have to come here.

Charles Land, who tented with Asa, said in a statement after the war that Asa was in fact still serving on duty in the Spring of 1865.

Charles Land claimed that Asa was shot in the forehead by a musket ball on March 25, 1865, at Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, and that he “never appeared natural after he was wounded.” According to Asa, he was hit just above the nose, the ball coming out above the right eye and he was blind for some six weeks after being wounded. He was subsequently hospitalized and was discharged on either June 7 or 9, 1865, at Mower hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

After the war Asa returned to Michigan, probably settling with his parents in Clinton County. In July of 1865 he claimed that he had “partially regained the sight of it though not wholly and that the light on very light days causes him very much pain. Also that several pieces of the skull came out, that he was informed and believes the skull was cracked to about the center of the top of the head. That he thinks sometimes the edges of the fracture work together and pinch the nerves causing very acute pains. That when he bends forward his forehead pains him and feels as though something was dropping through the place where the ball entered.”

In July of 1865 Asa was living in South Riley, Clinton County when he applied for a pension (application no 79304) for his service in the Fifth Michigan. In 1870 his parents were living next door to Henry Cutler who had also served in the Old Third.

Asa died probably in 1872 and probably at his family home in Clinton County and was buried in Wacousta cemetery.

In late February of 1872 his mother applied for a pension (no 201983) and in 1881 his father applied (no 283320), but it does not appear that there was a certificate granted in either case. In fact his father’s pension application was reported first as rejected and then as abandoned.