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Samuel M. Fenn – Connecticut Soldier Was Lykens Editor
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on February 15, 2019
A “Resolution of Respect” was published in the Lykens Standard of 19 October 1923 for Samuel M. Fenn:
At a meeting of the Directors of the MINERS DEPOSIT BANK, of Lykens, Pennsylvania, held the 16th day of October 1923, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted.
WHEREAS, by the inscrutable laws of Providence, our Associate Director, Mr. Samuel M. Fenn has been removed from our midst,
RESOLVED, that in the death of Mr. Fenn, the Miners Deposit Bank has lost one of its most useful and efficient directors, his wife a kind and dutiful husband, his children a loving father, and the community a good and conscientious citizen.
RESOLVED, that these resolutions be spread on the minutes, a copy be presented to the family of the deceased and be published in the Lykens Standard.
ISAAC MOSSOP
FRED J. DOUDEN
FRED G. KNILEY
Committee
One week prior, in the Lykens Standard, the community was informed of the death of Samuel M. Fenn, with the following obituary:
DEATH OF SAMUEL M. FENN
Samuel M. Fenn, an aged and well known former publisher died at his home in Main Street, 5:30, after an illness of about six years duration. The past two years he was confined to his home practically all the time because of infirmities.
Mr. Fenn was the son of Benjamin Sedgwick Fenn and Sarah Scranton, and was born August 2, 1839, in Canaan, Connecticut. In early life he removed to Harrisburg where he resided with his uncle, Theophilus Fenn, then editor of the Pennsylvania Telegraph, where he received such advantages of study as could be afforded him. At the age of sixteen he entered the office of the Palladium, at New Haven, Connecticut, and served an apprenticeship to the art of printing. In September, 1862, Mr. Fenn enlisted in Company C, 16th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers [16th Connecticut Infantry], and served until the close of the war for the Union.
After an interval he returned as foreman on the Hartford Times (Connecticut), and in November 1868, removed to Lykens, where he purchased the office and effects of the Upper Dauphin Register, which was subsequently changed to Lykens Register. He published that periodical for a number of years.
April 14, 1872, he married Addie Miller, who survives with one daughter, Emma M. Fenn (Mrs. J. M. Miller), of this place [Lykens], and one son, George B. Fenn, of New York.
Funeral services will be held at the Fenn home Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock, the Rev. R. H. Comly of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church officiating. Burial will be made in the Odd Fellows Cemetery.
The portrait at the top of this post was featured in the death notice that was featured in the Harrisburg Telegraphof 13 October 1923:
AGED PUBLISHER BURIED TODAY
Nephew of Theophilus Fenn Who Died at Lykens Laid to Rest in Odd Fellows Cemetery
Lykens, October 13 [1923] — Samuel Fenn, an aged and well-known publisher, who died at his home Wednesday morning after an illness of six years, was buried this afternoon at 3 o’clock in the Odd Fellows Cemetery, the Rev. R. H. Comly, of the Methodist Episcopal Church officiating.
Mr. Fenn was born in Canaan, Connecticut, in 1839, but spent his earlier days in Harrisburg with his uncle, Theophilus Fenn, then editor of the Pennsylvania Telegraph, later the Harrisburg Telegraph. At the age of 16 he entered the office of the Paladium at New Haven, Connecticut, where he served as apprentice till the outbreak of the Civil War, when he enlisted in Company C, of the Connecticut Volunteers. At the close of the war he returned to Hartford, later moving to Lykens, where for a number of years he was editor of the Upper Dauphin Register.
In 1872 he was married to Addie Miller, who survives, with one daughter, Mrs. J. M. Miller, Lykens, and one son, George Fenn, of New York.
On 26 August 1891, Samuel M. Fenn applied for pension benefits based on his Civil War service. He received the pension until his death in 1923, whereupon his widow, Addie Fenn, applied. She was awarded the pension which she collected until her death in February 1933. The Pension Index Card shown above is from Ancestry.com
Documentation of two other pieces of information is found on the Pension Index Card from Fold3: (1) Samuel M. Fenn served as a Sergeant in the 16th Connecticut Infantry; and (2) his death date was 10 October 1923, and place of death was Lykens.
The name of Samuel M. Fenn is listed on the Lykens G.A.R. Monument with the 1st Sergeants who joined the Heilner Post, G.A.R. at Lykens, after its organization.
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News clippings are from Newspapers.com.
Enjoying your info as usual!