Abram and William Herrick

Abram G. Herrick was born in 1820 in Cayuga County, New York, possibly the son of William.

Abram was married to Buffalo, New York native Mary Frayer (1832-1914), on November 22, 1850, in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, and they had at least four children: Lenora Ann (b. 1852), Walter Jasper (b. 1856), Sarah Elizabeth (b. 1859) and Emma Rosalia (b. 1861).

Abram and Mary left New York and sometime before 1852 had settled in Michigan.

He stood 5’8” with gray eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion and was 43 years old and living in Muskegon County when he enlisted in Company H along with his older brother (?) William on January 10, 1863, at Muskegon. (Company H, formerly the “Muskegon Rangers,” was made up largely of men from the vicinity of Muskegon and Newaygo counties.)

Abram joined the Regiment January 25, 1863, at Camp Pitcher, Virginia, and was absent sick in June, again in August, and on September 22. He eventually returned to duty and was killed in action on May 12, 1864, at Spotsylvania, Virginia, and was presumably buried among the unknown soldiers interred on the battlefield at the Wilderness.

In October of 1865 his widow was living in Muskegon when she applied for and received a pension (no. 79245), drawing $12 per month by 1914. She was still in Muskegon in March of 1866. And by 1870 Mary was running a boarding house in Muskegon’s Second Ward, Muskegon County; also living with her were her four children.

Mary was living at 15 Herrick Street in Muskegon when she died in 1914.

William Herrick was born either in 1810 or 1818 in Cayuga, New York, possibly the son of William.

William (elder) brought his family from New York to western Michigan and eventually settled in Byron Township, Kent County, by 1860.

William (younger) stood 5’9” with blue eyes, dark hair and a light complexion, possibly unable to read to write, and was 53 or 45 years old possibly working as a farm laborer in Byron, Kent County, when he enlisted in Company H along with his younger brother Abram on January 10, 1863, at Grand Rapids, crediting Grand Rapids. (Company H, formerly the “Muskegon Rangers,” was made up largely of men from the vicinity of Muskegon and Newaygo counties.) William joined the Regiment on January 25 at Camp Pitcher, Virginia, and was sick in the hospital from July of 1863 until he was discharged on February 27, 1864, at Columbian College hospital in Washington, DC. He was diagnosed as suffering from chronic rheumatism and varicose veins of left leg and the examining physician added that he also suffered from “old age (59 years) and loss of nearly all his teeth.” He apparently served in the Veteran’s Reserve Corps as well.

After he left the army William returned to Michigan and for many years lived in Byron Township. He was possibly the same William Herrick (b. 1814 in New York) who was working as a farm laborer for and/or living with the James Sharp family in Gaines, Kent County in 1870. By 1880 he may have been the same William Herrick, b. 1802 in New York, who was listed as a widower and working as a farm laborer and/o living with Andrew J. Pelton in Gaines; Pelton too had served in the Old Third during the war.

In 1887 he was living in Michigan when he applied for a pension (no. 627025), but the certificate was never granted.

He was admitted as a single man to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 236) on February 22, 1886, and was living in the Home in 1890.

William died of bronchitis at the Home on October 4, 1893, and was buried in the Home cemetery: section 4 row 3 grave no. 6.