Nathan Jeduth Smith

Nathan Jeduth Smith was born in November of 1831, in Chenango County, New York.

By 1860 Nathan was possibly the same Nathan Smith, age 23 and born in New York, living with Garrett Smith and they were both living with a tailor named William Smith (b. 1798) and his wife and Mirty (b. 1814) and their children in Muir, Lyons Township, Ionia County. (Nathan and Garrett come at the very end of the census list for the William Smith family.) New York natives William and Mirty came to Michigan from New York probably sometime after 1855.

Nathan stood 5’10” with blue eyes, dark hair and a light complexion and was 30 years old and may have been working and living in Eaton County when he enlisted in Company D on May 13, 1861. (Company D was composed in large part of men who came from western Ionia County and Eaton County.)

Nathan was reported as a hospital attendant in July of 1862, and absent sick in the hospital from August of 1862 through January of 1863. He was missing in action on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville, Virginia, and in fact he had been taken prisoner on May 3 and was exchanged on September 1. He returned to the Regiment on October 8, reenlisted on December 23, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Boston, Ionia County, and was absent on furlough in January of 1864. He probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February, and was slightly wounded in the hand on May 5, 1864, at the Wilderness, Virginia.

Slight or not Nathan was subsequently hospitalized, and was still absent in the hospital when he was transferred to Company A, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. Nathan remained absent wounded through July of 1864, and possibly until he was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

After the war Nathan returned to Michigan after the war.

He was married to New York native Adeline (1849-1939), and they had at least one child: Mabel (b. 1889).

By 1880 he was listed as single and working as a laborer working for and/or living with William Timmons in Norwich, Newaygo County. He was living in Big Prairie, Newaygo County in 1890. and in Sunfield, Eaton County in December of 1892 when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association. By 1900 he was working as a farm laborer and living with his wife and daughter in Sunfield; next door lived 56-year-old Pennsylvania-born Solomon Smith and his family.

In 1890 he applied for and received a pension (no. 769061).

Nathan died of cancer on June 20, 1908, presumably at his home in Sunfield. He was buried on June 22 in Freemire cemetery in Sunfield Township: 25-3-75.

In July of 1908 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 686627).