Albert Hamlin

Albert Hamlin was born in 1842, probably in Arlington, Dutchess County, New York, possibly the son of Elizabeth (b. 1804 in New York).

Albert left New York State and eventually settled in Michigan. He may have been the same Albert Hamlin (b. 1847 in New York) who by 1850 was attending school and living with the family of a shoemaker named Norman Rice in Lafayette, Van Buren County; another shoemaker named Amos Hamlin (b. 1826 in New York) and his wife Laura (b. 1828 in New York) and their 3-year-old son Frederick were also living in Lafayette with several other shoemakers in 1850. In 1860 this same Albert was attending school and living with the family of Benjamin Farley, a brick-maker in South Haven, Van Buren County.

Albert stood 5’10” with gray eyes, dark hair and a light complexion, and was 19 years old and working as a lumberman in Allegan or Ottawa County (or both) when he enlisted in Company I on May 29, 1861. (Company I was made up largely of men from Ottawa County, particularly from the eastern side of the County.) According to one source, he was 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 Calvin Hall, Nelson Davis and David Davis, Joseph Payne, Albert Gardner, James Rhodes, Perry Goshorn, Sylvester Gay, Joseph Solder (Josiah Schuler), Quincy Lamereaux, William Suret and John Ward.

He was shot in the right hand on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run, and subsequently hospitalized at Armory Square in Washington, DC, where he remained until he was discharged on account of his wounds on November 21, 1862.

Albert apparently reentered the military on January 2, 1865, in Company B, First U.S. veteran volunteers, for one year, and was honorably discharged on January 6, 1866. According to the Bureau of Pensions, however, Albert had “denied any subsequent service” after the Third Michigan, and they further speculated that “he also probably had an intervening service in 1863 and 1864, from which he deserted.”

After his discharged from the army Albert returned to Michigan, settling in Van Buren County where for many years he worked as a laborer.

In February of 1863 he applied for and received a pension (no. 11178).

He married Illinois native Minnie Rockwell (1855-1926), on November 30, 1871, in Bangor, Van Buren County, Michigan, and they had at least four children: Maud (b. 1874), Roy (b. 1878), Sevange (b. 1882) and Clare (b. 1884).

By 1878 Albert was living in Bloomingdale, Van Buren County, and by 1880 he was working as a shoemaker and living with his wife and children in Gobleville (Gobles), Van Buren County. He was still living in Gobleville in 1888, but had moved to Hastings’ Fourth Ward in Barry County by 1890.

Albert died on March 30, 1893, in Hastings, and was buried in Riverside cemetery, Hastings: he was removed from block D (“free ground”), lot 17, on November 20, 1895, and reinterred in block G-south, lot no. 47, grave southwest 1/4-2.

Minnie remarried Joseph Van Arman in 1902; he died in 1913. She was still living in Michigan when she applied for and received a pension (no. 394449) in 1893.