Saturday, August 09, 2008

Abraham Eddy

Abraham Eddy was born August 16, 1840, in Eagle, Clinton County, Michigan, the son of Abraham (1803-1842) and Sophia (Harrington, 1803-1869).

Vermont-born Sophia married Abraham or Abram and they settled in Michigan by 1833 when their son Alanson (d. 1855) was born. Abram was living in Clinton County in 1840. Sometime after Abram died in 1842 (he was buried in North Eagle cemetery, Clinton County) Sophia remarried Daniel Newsome and by 1850 the family -- including young Abraham and his four siblings -- were all living in Eagle, Clinton County where the children attended school. By 1860 Abraham was a student living with his stepfather and mother in Eagle.

Abraham stood 5’10” with blue eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion, and was 20 years old and living in Clinton County (probably in Eagle) 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.) Abraham was reported in the hospital at Alexandria, Virginia from July of 1862 through October, and was discharged for general debility on December 9, 1862, at Portsmouth Grove, Rhode Island.

After he left the army Abraham returned to Michigan. He married to Orpha Cornelia Robinson (1844-1924) on October 6, 1863, in Dewitt, Clinton County, and they had at least three children: Emily M. (1864-1866), Gracie A. (b. 1868) and Carrie (b. 1880); one of the latter two was Mrs. Edward Savage.

Around 1869 Abraham left Clinton County and settled in Muskegon, where he worked as a laborer for the railroad for some thirty years.

He was living in Muskegon, Muskegon County on July 31, 1879, when he became a charter member of Grand Army of the Republic Kearny Post No. 7 in Muskegon. He was working on the boom and living in Muskegon’s First Ward with his wife and children in 1880. He was still living in Muskegon in September of 1885 when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association. (He probably served as the Association’s last secretary in 1927, the year the association was dissolved.) He was living at 156 Ottawa in Muskegon in 1888 and in 1890, and working for the Muskegon Railway; by 1894 he was residing in the First Ward. By 1907 he had moved to Grand Rapids and was probably living at 366 Ionia Street, and for a time was employed in a furniture factory.

In 1913 Abraham was living at 103 1/2 South Division Street, and on December 4, 1913, he was mustered into the Grand Army of the Republic Watson Post No. 395 in Grand Rapids. He remained in Grand Rapids until about August of 1924 when he moved to Sandusky, Ohio to live with his daughter, Mrs. Edward Savage, and was transferred from the GAR Watson post on August 16, 1924, probably to the McMeens Grand Army of the Republic Post in Sandusky, Ohio. By 1929 he was living at 1502 Central Avenue in Sandusky, Ohio.

In 1880 Abraham applied for and received a pension (no. 250189).

Abraham was a widower when he died at Good Samaritan hospital in Sandusky, Ohio on March 7, 1935, and his body was returned to Clinton County where he was buried in North Eagle cemetery: Center section 7 lot 3. Abraham may very well have been the last survivor of the original Third Michigan Regiment which left Grand Rapids for Washington, DC, on June 13, 1861, and one of the remaining two or three survivors of the entire Regiment.

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