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Cyrus Bitterman – Teamster & Coal Miner
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on August 14, 2018
Cyrus Bitterman was born 21 April 1837 in Berrysburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, the son of Hugh Bitterman (1813-1841) and Susanna [Bressler] Bitterman. On 18 November 1860, in Millersburg, Dauphin County, he married Louisa McCoy (1841-1892), daughter of William McCoy (1800-1894) and Eva [Bohner] McCoy (1810-1881).
At the time of the Emergency of 1863, when the Confederate Army was approaching Pennsylvania, Cyrus volunteered his services in the militia regiment, 26th Pennsylvania Infantry. He enlisted at Lykenstown [Lykens], Dauphin County, on 15 June 1863, and was mustered in with his Company D at Harrisburg as a Private, 19 June 1863. He was 26 years old at the time. The regiment immediately went to Gettysburg, and as a result of his peripheral service related to the battle, he was recognized on a tablet of the Pennsylvania Memorial.
At the end of the emergency, Cyrus Bitterman was discharged with his company. Since his service was limited to only about 6 weeks, he was ineligible for a pension (at least 3 months was required).
During the war and afterward, at least nine known children were born to Cyrus and Louisa. In censuses following the war, the couple lived in Wiconisco (1870) where Cyrus was employed as a teamster; Porter Township, Schuylkill County in 1880, where he worked as a mine laborer; and Lykens in 1890.
Louisa died in 1892. On 6 May 1892, the Harrisburg Patriot reported her death:
Lykens
(Special to The Patiot)
LYKENS, 5 May [1892] — Mrs. Cyrus Bitterman, for many years a victim of consumption, died this morning at her home on Wall Street. Funeral will take place from her late residence, on Sunday afternoon at three o’clock. Deceased leaves a husband and seven children.
In 1900, Cyrus lived in Lykens, where he worked as a school janitor. In 1910 he was a laborer in Wiconisco, where he also lived in 1920 working as a farm laborer.
Cyrus Bitterman died on 5 January 1926 in Harrisburg, at the home of his daughter. A brief obituary appeared in both the Lykens Standard, 8 January 1926 (1st below), an in the Harrisburg Evening News, 6 January 1926 (2nd below):
Summarizing the two similar obituaries, Cyrus Bitterman was 88 when he died at the home of his daughter Mrs. William Primm, Harrisburg. In addition to the daughter, three sons survived: Howard M. Bitterman and Jacob W. Bitterman, of Harrisburg; and William Joseph Bitterman of Baltimore. The funeral was held at the Heinly Funeral Parlor, Harrisburg and officiated by the Rev. S. S. Carnell, pastor of the Stevens Memorial Methodist Church. The Lykens paper noted that he was a former resident of that place; both papers gave his burial place as the Wiconisco Cemetery.
The Bitterman family plot at the Calvary United Methodist Church Cemetery, Wiconisco, has a large, above-ground stone marking it; smaller, in-ground stones mark the graves of Cyrus and Louisa – and the stone for Cyrus notes his Civil War service.
Cyrus Bitterman‘s name also appears on the Lykens G.A.R. Monument as a Private who joined the Heilner Post after it was organized.
Thank you again, for all you do, Norman.
Am interested if the Gravestone markings on Cyrus Bitterman are representative of something interesting? Possibly the community might know.
Keep up your good work.
Appreciative reader.