Thursday, July 26, 2007

Henry Philos and Hiram Bateman - updated 7/17/11

Henry Philos Bateman was born January 19, 1843, in Canada, the son of Hiram (1812-1891) and Philena B. (Cook, 1817-1895).
Sometime before 1841 Hiram and his wife had settled in Canada where they probably lived until about 1843 when they may have lived briefly in Clinton County, New York. In any case, sometime between 1843 and 1848 they moved to Michigan, eventually settling in Ottawa County. By 1850 Henry was attending school with his siblings and living with his family in Tallmadge, Ottawa County. In 1860 Henry was working as a farmer and living with his family in Tallmadge, where he was also probably attending school.
Henry stood 5’9” with black eyes and hair and a dark complexion and was 18 years old and probably still living in Tallmadge when he enlisted in Company B on November 6, 1861, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, and was mustered on December 23 at Detroit. (His father Hiram had enlisted in June in Company I.) Henry was shot “through the deltoid muscle near his shoulder joint” probably on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run, and was hospitalized in Washington, DC, at one point in Armory Square Hospital, under the care of former Third Michigan Regimental Surgeon Dr. D. W. Bliss. According to Henry’s sister Harriet, their father, Hiram, although suffering himself from chronic dysentery contracted near Malvern Hill, Virginia, apparently went and took care of his son. Henry was eventually discharged on December 15, 1862, at Washington, DC, for immobility of his left arm caused by a gunshot to the shoulder.
After his discharge from the army Henry may have returned to Ottawa County, although he gave his mailing address on his discharge paper as Grand Rapids. In any case, Henry died on September 29, 1866, probably at his family’s in Ottawa County and was buried in Lamont cemetery, Ottawa County.
No pension seems to be available.
Hiram Bateman was born January 26, 1812, in Clinton County, New York.
Both of Hiram’s parents were born in New York and presumably married there. In 1810 there was one Simon Bateman living in Champlain, Clinton County, New York; he was reportedly in Champlain, New York in 1830 as well.
Hiram was probably living in New York when he married New York native Philena Betsey Cook (1817-1895) on June 26, 1838, at Belmont, Franklin County, New York, and they had at least seven children: Harriet Amelia (b. 1839), George Orcut (b.1841), Henry Philos or Phillip (b. 1843), Celia Matlilda (b. 1848), Clarissa (1851-1905), Laura (b. 1855) and Nellie (b. 1858).
In 1840 Simon and Simon Jr., were living in Champlain, New York; one Robert R. Bateman was residing in Mooers, Clinton County. Hiram and his wife may have been living in Rawdon (?), Quebec, between 1839 and 1841, but were probably residing in Champlain, Clinton County, New York by 1843. According to a statement he made in 1881, Hiram settled in Lamont, Ottawa County, Michigan around 1844, and certainly sometime before 1848 Hiram and his wife settled in Lamont, where they were still living in 1850. (In 1850 there was one Simon Bateman, age 44, probably Simon Jr., living in Champlain, Clinton County.) By 1860 Hiram was a farmer living with his wife in Lamont. He was well acquainted with Albert Babcock who was from Tallmadge, Ottawa County and who would join Company B.
According to a statement given after the war, Hiram’s oldest son George enlisted in the 3rd Michigan sometime in May of 1861, but injured himself with an axe and was consequently unable to muster in on either May 23 (state service) or June 10 (federal service), 1861. At George’s suggestion, Hiram “took his place in the company and also recruited fifteen men at my own expense that would muster on condition that I would, for three months’ service,” but that shortly afterwards in the wake of President Lincoln’s call for additional men, the Regiment voted to enlist for three years or during the war “and thus I went.”
Hiram stood 6’0” tall with blue eyes, auburn hair and a fair complexion and was 49 years old and still living in Tallmadge, Ottawa County when he enlisted on May 10, 1861, in Company I. (Company I was made up largely of men from Ottawa County, particularly from the eastern side of the County.)
One source reported that by August of 1861 Hiram along with William Comstock were working in the regimental hospital tending the sick. “We understand,” wrote the Grand Haven News in mid-August, “that Mr. Bateman and Mr. Comstock, both from Lamont, are in the regiment’s hospital, on the camping ground, detailed from the company to aid in the care of the sick and wounded, so that our own acquaintances will receive and prepare for the sick such comforts as have been sent from this village.”
On October 28, 1861, Hiram, under the command of Captain Charles Lyon of the Third Michigan, was sent home to Michigan in order to recruit for the Regiment during the fall and winter of 1861. The first man Hiram recruited was his youngest son Henry, who enlisted in Company B. Hiram returned to the Regiment in Virginia sometime in February of 1862 and was subsequently reported in the regimental hospital. Indeed, according to Hiram he was “doing duty as nurse in [the regimental] hospital” throughout the winter and spring of 1862, and that he was in fact taking care of Albert Babcock of Company B, another Lamont, Ottawa County solider, who was suffering from typhoid fever.
Some years after the war Hiram claimed that just “before the Battle of Malvern Hill in 1862, while on the march, with Capt. [Abraham] Whitney of same Regiment and two other hospital attendants, and going from Savage Station to James River, following up the retreat of the army, in its flank movement to the river, he was injured on left side in the following manner, to wit: while jumping over a boggy place with poles (?), his companions doing the same, ‘Hiram’ slipped and fell, and struck on some chunks in the groin, . . . and was then so disabled that he could not go forward that day. . . .”
Captain Thomas Tate, who was commanding Company in July of 1862 when the Regiment was at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia, wrote that Bateman “had never been considered fit to do duty in the ranks” and that he had been to the hospital “most of the time since he was enlisted.” During the same time former Hospital Steward Walter Morrison, then acting assistant surgeon of the Regiment, examined Bateman and found him suffering from “general debility resulting from his advanced age.” Morrison recommended that Bateman be discharged and so he was on July 9 or 17, 1862, at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia, for “general debility”.
By the third week of July Hiram had returned to his family and home in Ottawa County.
By 1870 Hiram was living with his wife and three daughters in Lamont, Tallmadge Township, and working as a farmer.
In March of 1879 he received a pension (no. 157,744), for a hydrocele on the right side, drawing $2.00 per month in 1883.
In 1879 he was living in Lamont, and in Tallmadge with his wife in 1880 (a granddaughter was also living with them), and he was living in Lamont in 1885, 1888 and 1890. In fact, Hiram probably lived the remainder of his life in the Lamont area.
He became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association in 1885, as well as Grand Army of the Republic Randall Post No. 238 in Coopersville.
Hiram died of chronic diarrhea in Lamont on October 11, 1891, and was buried in Lamont cemetery, next to his son Henry who had died during the war.
Hiram Bateman, one of the oldest and best known of the pioneer citizens of Ottawa County, died at his residence "Valley Farm," at 2:20 o’clock Sunday, p. m., the 11th inst.
He was taken sick Sunday evening, the 4th inst., with severe chills, which were followed by the fatal diarrhea, to which he was subject. From the first his illness assumed a dangerous type. He rallied Wednesday so that some hope was entertained by his physician and family that he might recover, and he expressed his own belief that he should, but all was vain. Thursday the alarming symptoms returned and he was soon beyond hope. Friday and Saturday he was unconscious most of the time and on Saturday at the hour named he passed quietly away, leaving the already small number of pioneer citizens of Ottawa County one less, and one being taken who will be sadly missed by his many friends and acquaintances, including army comrades who will all deeply sympathize with the bereaved widow and family circle.
The funeral of their comrade was conducted under the auspices of Randall Post, with much credit to the post and fulfilling a well-known wish of the deceased to be laid at rest by the "boys in blue’ under the old flag where he should receive his "final discharge and muster out."
The following mention of the deceased in the funeral remarks of Rev. O. H. Johnson many be of interest to many who have known Mr. Bateman.
"Hiram Bateman was born in Moore’s, Clinton County, New York, January 26, 1812, moved from New York to Grand Rapids in April 1844, and to Steel’s Landing, now known as Lamont, in December of the same year, where he has resided ever since. He entered the army in 1861 as a soldier of the late War of the Rebellion, serving until 1862, when discharged for a disability which has finally caused his death.
He became a professor of religion and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church when a young man, learning his trade as tanner, in Cassville, New York, and was known as an earnest laborer in Sunday school work. His membership with this church was discontinued and one with the Congregational church in Lamont began in 1850, when he united with his wife and has been a member up to the time of his death. His hope and trust in the merits and love of Christ as his Savior were abiding until the end, for his last articulate sentence, two days before his death, was ‘Yes, leading, leading on.’ This was in answer to an inquiry if the Savior was leading him."
Shortly after Hiram’s death his widow went to live with one Mrs. John B. Allen, possibly a daughter, in Washington, DC. She received pension no. 327,477.

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