Jerome N. Kibbe

Jerome N. Kibbe was born in 1833 in Montgomery, Orange County, New York.

In 1850 there was a 21-year-old laborer named Jerome Kibbe living with and/or working for one Allen Higly (?) in Windsor, Ashtabula County, Ohio. In any case, Jerome had probably just moved to Michigan from Geneva, Ashtabula County, Ohio when war broke out.

Jerome stood 5’11” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion, and was a 28-year-old carriage-maker possibly living in Allegan County when he enlisted in Company I on May 13, 1861. By June of 1862 he was reported to be suffering from debility in a hospital in Bottom’s Bridge, Virginia, but he soon recovered and rejoined the Regiment. He shot himself accidentally in the right hand, probably in July or August of 1862, resulting in the loss of the right thumb, and was subsequently hospitalized from August through September of 1862.

It is possible that Jerome rejoined the Regiment and was promoted to Sergeant, or he may have been confined to his quarters or perhaps in the Regimental hospital as a result of his wound until he was discharged for disability as a Sergeant on December 9, 1862, at a camp, possibly Camp Pitcher, near Falmouth, Virginia.

It is not known if Jerome ever returned to Michigan.

Jerome eventually returned to Ohio.

He was married to New York native Amelia B. (b. 1847), and they had at least three children: Carrie (b. 1871) Guy A. (b. 1875) and Ray J. (b. 1878); all born in Ohio.

By 1880 Jerome was working as a farmer and living with his wife and children in Geneva, Ashtabula County, Ohio. He was living in Geneva, Ohio in 1887 and 1911.

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association. In 1880 (?) he applied for and received a pension (no. 356683).

He probably died in 1917.

In 1917 (?) his wife was living in Ohio when she applied for a widow’s pension (application no. 887433), but the certificate was never granted.