Daniel and George Houseman

Daniel Houseman was born in 1831 or 1833 in Orleans County, New York, the son of John (b. 1790) and Charity (Vidor, b. 1807).

New York native John married Charity and they settled in New York. The family left New York between 1833 and 1836 when they were living in Michigan. By 1850 Daniel was working on the family farm with his father and living with parents in Odessa, Ionia County. His younger brother George who would also enlist in the Third Michigan was attending school with some of his siblings. By 1860 Daniel was a farm laborer working for and/or living with John M. Young, a farmer in Berlin (Saranac), Ionia County.

Daniel stood 5’11” with blue eyes, light hair and a dark complexion, and was 30 years old and still residing in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company E on May 13, 1861, along with his younger brother George. Daniel was reported as the company “laundress” in December of 1861. He was wounded on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run, subsequently absent sick in a general hospital in November and December of 1862, and present for duty from January of 1863 through October.

He reenlisted (as did his brother George) on December 23, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Wyoming, Kent County, was on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864. Apparently he returned to his home in orange, Iona County where he married Canadian-born Anna Badder (1841-1920) on January 6, 1864, in Ionia, and they had at least one child: Alice Victoria (b. October of 1864). He probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February. He was reported on duty at Brigade headquarters in March and present for duty from April through June of 1864.

Daniel was transferred to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, and was wounded severely on June 16 or 26, 1864, near Petersburg, Virginia. He was hospitalized on June 28 in Satterlee hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and returned to duty on July 12. He was taken prisoner on August 19 at Deep Bottom, Virginia, confined at Richmond, Virginia on August 20, and sent to the prison in Salisbury, North Carolina, on October 19. (His brother George was captured near Cold Harbor about the first of June, 1864.)

Daniel was reported mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana, but it it appears in fact that he probably died in prison. According to his widow Daniel died in either January or February of 1865 in Florence, South Carolina, and was presumably buried among the unknowns at that place.

In March of 1865 his widow was living in Berlin (Saranac), Ionia County when she applied for and received a pension (no. 97844); some years later, having remarried Artemus Estabrook (d. 1911) in1873, she applied as guardian on behalf of the child or children of Daniel, for a minor’s pension, which was also granted (no. 168,806?). Anna Estabrook was living in Escanaba in 1920 when she died.

George Houseman was born on April 29, 1841 in Ionia, Ionia County, the son of John (b. 1790) and Charity (Vidor, b. 1807).

New York native John married Charity and they settled in New York. The family left New York between 1833 and 1836 when they were living in Michigan. By 1850 George was attending school with his siblings and living on the family farm in Odessa, Ionia County -- his older brother Daniel who would also enlist in the Third Michigan was helping in working the farm. By 1860 George, who was working as a farm laborer -- along with five of his siblings -- were living with the family of William and Charlotte Hunt, in Odessa.

George stood 6’2” with blue eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion and was 20 years old and living in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company E on May 13, 1861, along with his older brother Daniel. George was wounded accidentally on or about June 21, 1862 (and possibly hospitalized briefly), was reported missing in action from June 30, and absent sick in the hospital from July 1.

He soon returned to the Regiment and was reported wounded in August, possibly at Second Bull Run on August 29, and in the hospital through February of 1863. He reenlisted (as did his brother Daniel) on December 23, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Paris, Kent County, was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February.

George was reported missing in action on June 1, 1864, at New Market, Virginia, and in fact had been taken prisoner near Cold Harbor, Virginia. (His brother Daniel was taken prisoner in August of 1864.) George was transferred as a prisoner-of-war since June 1 to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864.

He was confined at Richmond, Virginia on June 3, sent to Andersonville, Georgia on June 8, then to the prison in Salisbury, North Carolina, and was returned to Richmond on February 22, 1865. He was paroled at Aiken’s Landing, Virginia on February 24, 1865, and sent to Camp Chase, Ohio on February 28 where he arrived March 5. He was furloughed on March 7 for 30 days, and was mustered out at Sebawa, Ionia County, on July 28, 1865.

After the was George returned to Michigan and by 1870 he was living in Battle Creek or Convis, Calhoun County where he may have married his first wife, Louisa Hollister (d. 1904), on December 31, 1870 or July 25, 1868, in Convis, and they had at least one child, Ona.

He eventually returned to Ionia County where for many years George worked as a farmer. He was residing in Saranac in 1880, 1888, 1890 and 1894, and in Oceana County in 1904 when Louisa died and in Pentwater, Oceana County by 1911.

He was married a second time to a widow named Charlotte Hyde Brooks on May 9, 1905 in Hart, Oceana County.

George married his third wife Illinois native Amelia Vaugh (b. 1861), on August 9, 1917, and was living in Pentwater in 1919, 1920 and possibly in 1923.

George may have been a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association (his death is mentioned at one of the annual reunions), and he was a Protestant.

In 1874 he applied for and received a pension (no. 360,363), drawing $50 per month by 1923.

On July 25, 1923, Amelia was appointed George’s guardian as he was “alleged mentally competent.” That same day he was admitted from Pentwater, Oceana County to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 7808), and on July 26 the examining surgeon for the Home, wrote, “Houseman is very senile mentally and physically. His mind is quite weak. He is totally incapacitated for earning any part of his support.”

He died at the Home on October 22, 1923 of valvular heart disease, and although upon admission to the Home he requested to be buried at Shelby, Oceana County, and that his wife would handle all funeral arrangements, he was in fact interred on October 24 in the Home cemetery: section 7 row 19 grave 33.