John A. Kellogg

John A. Kellogg was born on February 26, 1842, in Ohio, the son of Martin (d. 1909) and probably Eliza (b. 1818).

By 1860 Eliza was listed as the head of the household, and working as a tailoress in Fitchville, Huron County, Ohio. John left Ohio sometime before the war broke out, and immigrated to the United States, eventually settling in western Michigan.

He stood 5’7” with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion and was a 19-year-old laborer possibly living in Hastings, Barry County when he enlisted with his parents’ consent in Company E on May 13, 1861. He was a Corporal on duty with the regiment in late May of 1863, and was a Corporal when he reenlisted on December 23, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Cascade, Kent County. John was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February.

He was wounded by a gunshot in the left arm on May 6, 1864, at the Wilderness, Virginia, and was subsequently sent to Columbian College hospital in Washington, DC. He was transferred on May 15 to Patterson general hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, with a flesh wound below the shoulder caused by a minie ball. According to his hospital Records of May, 1864 he was not married and he listed his nearest relative as one Elisha or Elvira (?) Kellogg, living in Fitchville, Huron County, Ohio.

John was still absent wounded in the hospital when he was transferred to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He was furloughed from the hospital on October 24, 1864, and returned on November 13, returning to duty on November 29, joining the Fifth Michigan. He was promoted to Sergeant on June 1, 1865, and was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Following the war John returned to Michigan, probably Barry County.

John was married to New York native Jane Amelia Spencer (1849-1936), on January 2, 1866, in Hastings, by Israel Geer, Justice of the Peace, and they had at least five children: Lucy (b. 1867), Lydia (b. 1869), Frederick (b. 1872), Harvey O. (b. 1875) and Rena B. (b. 1881). (Israel had himself served in the Third Michigan during the war.)

By 1870 he was working as a farmer and living with his wife and two daughters in Baltimore, Barry County. He was residing in Maple Grove, Barry County in 1883. By 1889 he was living in Fishville, Montcalm County, where he probably remained through 1894. He was living in Stanton, Montcalm County in December of 1898 when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association.

John was a member of Grand Army of the Republic Stanton Post No. 37 in Stanton. In 1868 he applied for and received a pension (no. 96,682), drawing $4.00 in 1883 for a wounded left arm and $17 per month by 1908.

John died of apoplexy on January 1, 1909, at his home in Stanton. He was buried in Forest Hill cemetery, Stanton: lot no. 10 (or 2), row 5, grave no. 4, 1st addition.

Two weeks after he died Jane, still living in Michigan, applied for and received a widow’s pension (no. 675137). She was living in Stanton, Montcalm County when she died of influenza in 1936.