David Andrew Munson

David Andrew Munson was born on January 18, 1828 in Jefferson County, New York.

David was married to Ohio or Michigan native Christina Francis (1832-1897), and they had at least four children: Sumner (b. 1856), Herbert (1859-1931), Clara O. (Mrs. George Hadley, 1860-1941) and Lillian A. (1867-1936).

By 1856 David and Christina were living in Michigan and by 1860 he was working as a joiner and living with his wife and two sons in Antwerp, Van Buren County.

David stood 5’9” with gray eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion and was 42 years old and probably living in Antwerp when he enlisted in Company D on August 15, 1862, at Lawton, Van Buren County, for 3 years, crediting Antwerp, Van Buren County. He joined the Third Michigan Regiment on September 8, 1862, at Fairfax Seminary, Virginia, and was wounded in the right arm, on May 2 or 3, 1863, at the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia. He was subsequently hospitalized in the Division hospital through June, and by July was reported absent wounded in Paw Paw, Van Buren County, probably home on furlough recovering from his wounds.

Although he was listed as absent “in the hospital” through August, it is likely that David never returned to Virginia and in fact he was discharged on July 8, 1863, at Detroit Barracks, for “permanent anchylosis of the right elbow and paralysis of the extensor muscles of the right hand.”

In 1863 he applied for and received a pension (no. 21634).

David probably returned to Michigan after his discharge (he listed Antwerp as his mailing address on his discharge paper). He and Christina may have moved back to New York soon after the war since their youngest daughter Lillian was born in New York State. David may have been living in Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in 1870. In any case, he eventually returned to New York and by 1880 he was working as a store clerk (listed as “Andrew”) and living with his wife and four children in Mumford, Monroe County, New York.

By 1890 he was living in Wheatland and/or Scottsville, Monroe County, New York. In 1900 David was listed as a widower and boarding at Owega, Tioga County, New York, and in 1910 he was living with his daughter Clara Hadley (Clara’s husband not listed) as well as two granddaughters Lillian and Clara; also living with them was his other daughter Lily who was manager of the local telegraph office. He probably suffered a stroke which left him “paralytic” around 1905 or 1906, and was under the subsequent care of a nurse.

David was a widower when he died on May 21, 1912, in Mumford, Monroe County, New York, and was buried in the Rural Cemetery in Mumford.