Civil War Blog

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 31, 2016

John Peter Crabb, Civil War veteran and native of Gratz, Pennsylvania, moved to Harrisburg after the Civil War, where he became a founder and Commander of Stevens Post No. 520, G.A.R. and was very active in Republican Party politics. He was previously profiled here, and last week a blog post told of a fair held in 1889 for the purpose of raising funds to help needy African American war veterans, and widows and orphans of war veterans.  This fair occurred one year before the rules for obtaining a pension were relaxed to make it easier to obtain benefits for all veterans.

But, even after the Congress passed legislation in 1890, many were still not satisfied that the major parties were giving sufficient attention to the needs of veterans.  For that reason, John Peter Crabb became the Vice President of an inter-racial group of veterans which met in Harrisburg in late August 1890 to consider proposing a slate of candidates in opposition to both the Republican and Democratic candidates who would be running in the upcoming election.

The story was told by the Harrisburg Telegraph, 28 August 1890:

SOLDIERS MEET

An Organization to be Effected for Political Purposes

A meeting of old soldiers was held in the court house last night to hear a report from a committee appointed at a previous meeting to consider the advisability of placing a county ticket in the field in opposition to the two older parties.  About 100 veterans were present.  O. S. Houtz occupied the chair, with J. P. Crabb, a colored man, as vice president, and F. B. Kinneard, secretary.

Captain J. M. Meese, from the committee, reported that he had talked with numerous soldiers concerning the advisability of the old soldiers asking for political rights, and all were favorable to the scheme.

A resolution was offered by Dr. Cook that a committee of ten be appointed to prepare a plan of organization to be submitted at a secret meeting.  W. J. Adams warmly protested against any secrecy.  He said the call was to old soldiers, and it not only included those favorable to the project but also those opposed to it, and if the latter were excluded there could be but one side of the question heard.  Colonel Henry C. Demming spoke at length, claiming that the old soldiers were not fairly treated by either of the old parties, and he insisted that they should assert their rights.  A long discussion followed, in which pretty much everybody took part, ending in the adoption of the resolution as read.

The Chair appointed as the committee: Colonel H. C. Demming, I. E. Cook, J. M. Meese, F. B. Kineard, A. H. Baum, of Harrisburg; John Stoner, Hummelstown; James Snow and Thomas Milligan, Dauphin; and Philip Swab, Halifax.

The meeting then adjourned to meet at Barr’s Hall on September 10th.

At this time it is not known what became of this group.

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News clipping from Newspapers.com.

Category: Research, Stories | Comments Off on John Peter Crabb – A Third Party Slate of Candidates?
Tags: African American, Gratz Borough, Halifax

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 30, 2016

The following are some mishaps which occurred in 1917 involving Civil War veterans and their families.

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From the Harrisburg Telegraph, 14 March 1917:

Stricken With Paralysis While Top of Tree

Columbia, Pennsylvania, 14 March 1917 — William T. Strauss, Civil War veteran, and a former borough engineer, was stricken by apoplexy while on top of a tree which he was trimming, and fell to the ground in an unconscious condition.  His condition is serious.

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From the Harrisburg Telegraph, 5 October 1917:

Civil War Veteran Lost for Two Days in Woods

Lewistown, Pennsylvania, 5 October 1917 — Lost for two days and nights in the woods between Yeagertown and Vira, and found only after a wide search early yesterday morning, was the experience of W. H. Kreider, aged 78, of Yeagertown.  Almost famished from lack of nourishment and weak from exposure, the missing man, a Civil War veteran, was located near Vira, and an auto was rushed to the spot and he was brought to Lewistown.

Mr. Kreider disappeared from the home of a daughter on Tuesday morning.  When he failed to return that night fear was felt that harm had overtaken him and searching parties were organized.  Thirty Boy Scouts helped to hunt for the missing man.  Mr. Kreider had left the home of a daughter in Yeagertown to visit a daughter at Maitland and lost his way.

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From the Harrisburg Telegraph, 27 February 1917:

American Woman and Her Daughter Died of Exposure After Sinking

London, 27 February 1917 — United States Consul Frost at Queenstown has telegraphed the American Embassy here that Mrs, Hoy and her daughter died of exposure and that their bodies were buried at sea.

Consul Front’s message read:

Mrs. Mary Hoy and Miss Elizabeth Hoy, passengers on the Laconia, died from exposure.  Their bodies were buried at sea.

Mrs. Hoy’s husband, Dr. Albert H. Hoy, who is a Civil War veteran, and her son, Austin T. Hoy, reside in London.  The latter called at the embassy this morning and received a copy of the message from Consul Frost.

As far as the embassy knows, these were the only two Americans lost on the Laconia….

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From the Harrisburg Telegraph, 8 February 1917:

Pensioner Applied for License to Wed Negress

Dan Cupid’s darts brought two strange victims to the marriage license bureau yesterday, when George Ettinger, white, aged 81, and Emma Terry, colored, age unknown, applied for a certificate so that they could be happily wed.

Ettinger explained that he was a veteran of the Civil War and was getting a pension.  The woman could not remember her age.  Recorder James E. Lentz investigated and learned from the Directors of the Poor that Ettinger’s pension barely was enough for him, let alone providing for his wife.  Both appeared to be greatly disappointed when told they could not get a license.

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From the Harrisburg Telegraph, 27 September 1917:

VETERAN KICKED BY BULL

Lewistown, Pennsylvania, 27 September 1917 — David Hough, one of the best known citizens of Mifflin County and veteran of the Civil War, had his face crushed, the teeth with part of the jawbone attachment driven from his mouth and the jawbones badly fractured and splintered by the kick of a mule.  He is confined to be at his home on the Hough farm, near here, in a critical condition.  Mrs. Hough found him in a dazed condition and he has not recovered sufficiently to give an account of the accident.  The mule which kicked Mr. Hough put a boy by the name of Soles out of commission several years ago when it got into a hornet’s nest and broke the leg of Frank Hough, a son, with a kick some time ago.

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From the Harrisburg Telegraph, 9 November 1917:

Brakeman Cut in Two When He Falls Between Cars of Freight Train

Grover Polm, 22, of Oberlin, was killed on the Philadelphia and Reading Railway this morning, between Harrisburg and Reading.  Polm was a brakeman and while he was walking over the the cars he fell between two of them and was cut into two pieces.  His mother, Mrs. John Polm, had breakfast ready for him to appear when the news that he was dead came to her.

Polm was married just a few months ago to Margaret Markwood Richwine. He had many friends here.  He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Polm, of Oberlin.  His father is a veteran of the Civil War.

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From the Harrisburg Telegraph, 16 January 1917:

FIND JANITOR DEAD

Noticing that the building was getting cold, employees of the State Printery last evening instituted a search to discover the cause and found the janitor, Samuel Crook, lying beside the coal pile dead.  Crook, who lived at 1422 Derry Street, was a veteran of the Civil War.  He was a janitor for the State Printery and the Harrisburg Burial Case Building adjoining for many years.  He has been in ill health since a fire at the Burial Case Company when he jumped from a window, breaking several bones in his right foot.  No funeral arrangements have been made.

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News stories from Chronicling America.

Category: Stories | Comments Off on Some Mishaps Involving Civil War Veterans in 1917
Tags: African American

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 27, 2016

An invitation from Jake Wynn….

Join local historian Jake Wynn at Calvary United Methodist Cemetery in Wiconisco on Sunday, May 29 at 7 PM for a memorial program commemorating the incredible lives of the region’s Civil War veterans.

This hour-long program will bring visitors into the oldest sections of the cemetery and highlight the stories of individual soldiers and their experiences during and after the Civil War.

Wiconisco Township sent dozens of young men off to fight between 1861 and 1865. At the time, this growing community thrived on the rich veins of anthracite coal being dug out at Bear Gap on the northern end of the township. That coal went on to drive the Union war effort and bring untold new wealth to the combined communities of Lykens and Wiconisco.

The men who went off to fight left home and family to save the Union. They had been students, writers, laborers, and miners before the war began. On the battlefield they were citizen soldiers, fighting in the deadliest battles of the war: Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House, among many others. They returned to Wiconisco as changed men, physically, mentally, and emotional altered by the fury of America’s bloodiest war. Yet, there were others who never returned.

These men laid down their lives on the battlefield so that, as Abraham Lincoln proclaimed at Gettysburg in November 1863, “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Hear their stories, discover the fascinating story of the region during the Civil War, and honor the sacrifices of these veterans who now rest in silent repose in this cemetery and across the battlefields of the South.

Tour will meet at the flag pole in the lower part of the cemetery beginning at 6:45 PM and will begin at 7 PM.

Jake Wynn began his Internet publishing on The Civil War Blog while a Sophomore at Hood College where he was majoring in History and Communications with a concentration in Public History. In February 2014, he began his own blog, Wynning History.  Since graduation in May 2015, he has served as Program Coordinator for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland.   Jake is a native of Williamstown, Pennsylvania.

Category: Events | 1 Comment »
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Cemetery, Lykens Borough, Wiconisco, Wiconisco Township

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 26, 2016

The first wife of Thomas W. Hoffman (1839-1905) was Sallie Shindel, who was born in Gratz in 1941 and died in Mount Carmel, Northumberland County, on 26 April 1890.  The couple had at least 3 children together.  After Sallie died, Thomas W. Hoffman moved to Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, where he lived with his second wife, Dr. Helen Delucia Fisk.  Dr. Fisk was featured here in a blog post entitled Dr. Helen Delucia Fisk – Wife of Medal of Honor Recipient Thomas W. Hoffman.  The circumstances which led to the awarding of the Medal of Honor to Thomas W. Hoffman were also reported here in a post entitled Obituary of Thomas W. Hoffman…

Sallie Shindel was the daughter of Solomon Shindel (1808-1863) and Elizabeth [Fry] Shindel (1818-1848).  Solomon was appointed Postmaster of Gratz in 1834, a position in which he served for about 6 years while conducting a mercantile business in Gratz.  Solomon, who was born in Lebanon, was the son of Rev. Jeremiah Shindel, the second pastor of the Simeon Lutheran Church of Gratz.  In addition to Sallie, the Solomon Shindel‘s had several other children, including Susan A. Shindel, born in Gratz on 26 May 1844.

Orton F. Ingersoll was born in New York State on 14 December 1836, the son of Thomas Ingersoll and Sarah Ingersoll.  In 1860, Orton was living in a hotel in Fulton City, Whiteside County, Illinois, where he was forking as a foreman on the railroad. On 6 May 1861 he was mustered into service in the 11th Illinois Infantry, Company A, as a Sergeant.  Later, he was promoted to Captain.  Following his discharge from the army, he married Susan A. Shindel in 1866.  By 1880, the couple had moved to Arkansas City, Cowley County, Kansas, where he was working as a railroad station agent.  Kansas Grand Army of the Republic Post Reports through at least 1916 have him at that same location, but by 1920, he was living in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, where his occupation was “none,” most likely meaning he was retired.  In that same census, his wife’s name was given as “Ray” with her age of 79 to Orton’s age of 83.  This second marriage to Ray most likely occurred after Susan A. [Shindel] Ingersoll died in 1907.

Numerous articles in the Arkansas City Daily Traveler in the 1890s attest to the financial troubles of Orton Ingersoll and his wife Susan.

At this time it is not known how Orton Ingersoll met his first wife or whether he knew the Shindel family, including Susan’s sister Sallie and her children with Thomas W. Hoffman.

Orton F. Ingersoll died on 3 February 1923, and is buried at the Riverview Cemetery in Arkansas City.  Some additional information can be found at his Findagrave Memorial.  Both wives are buried at the same cemetery, but Susan is named on the same stone (shown below from Findagrave), while Ray has her own stone. Ray, as noted on the Pension Index Card, shown above from Ancestry.com, survived Orton and was able to collect the widow’s pension until she died in 1925.

Orton Ingersoll is mentioned in two places in the Comprehensive History of the Town of Gratz Pennsylvania, each time in connection with his marriage to Sarah Shindel.

Category: Research, Stories | Comments Off on Orton F. Ingersoll – Brother-In-Law of Lykens Valley Medal of Honor Recipient
Tags: Gratz Borough

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 25, 2016

Francis Wade Hughes (1817-1885) was an attorney in Pottsville at the time of the Civil War and the leader of the county Democratic Party.  A nephew of his, John Hughes, was considered the most famous of all Schuylkill Countians who joined the Confederate war effort.  According to information found in an article that appeared in the Citizen Standard (Valley View, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania) on 25 June 1993:

John Hughes… practiced law in Pottsville with his uncle Francis Hughes.  At the outbreak of the war, John Hughes went south and joined a Confederate Regiment.  As his father and brothers lived in North Carolina, it is assumed that he served with a regiment from that state.  At the Battle of Antietam, he supposedly commanded a battery of artillery, according to rebels interviewed by members of the 96th Regiment [96th Pennsylvania Infantry].  Later accounts in the Miners Journal, claim that he served at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg.

However, there is an ongoing dispute as to whether Francis W. Hughes should have been blamed for his nephew’s sympathies – and whether those sympathies were his as well.  The article continues:

Critics claim that John Hughes story had been invented by the publisher of the Journal, Benjamin Bannan, a staunch Republican, sought to discredit Hughes uncle who served as the leader of the Democratic Party in the county, and hence was a political rival.

Francis W. Hughes died in 1885 and his obituary appeared in newspapers statewide. The Times of Philadelphia, 23 October 1885, printed one of the longest:

DEATH OF FRANCIS W. HUGHES

A Member of the Schuylkill Bar and Well-Known Politician.

Special Dispatch to THE TIMES.

POTTSVILLE, 22 October 1885 —  Francis W. Hughes died at his home in this place at 8 o’clock this evening.  Mr. Hughes was born near Norristown, Montgomery County, 20 August 1817.  While Mr. Hughes was yet only a boy it was determined for him that he should be a lawyer.  He was sent to the academy of the Rev. David Kirkpatrick, at Milton, then regarded as one of the best schools in Pennsylvania, where he had as classmates ex-Governors Curtin and Pollock and others.  He began the study of law in the office of the late George Farquhar, of Pottsville, in the autumn of 1834, and in the following winter he entered the office of John B. Wallace, of Philadelphia.

In 1837, Mr. Hughes was admitted to practice at the bar of Schuylkill County and established himself in gaining a large and profitable practice, which he retrained until the last.  Mr.Hughes held a high rank as a land lawyer and was well versed in the practice of equity and the intricacies of commercial and patent law.  He was no less accomplished as a criminal lawyer.  When the Mollie Maguire cases came up he took an active and successful part in their prosecution.  Though it was as a lawyer that Mr. Hughes made his reputation, he took a fairly prominent part in politics.  In party faith a Democrat, he was an advocate of a tariff for the protection of American industry.  In 1839 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General by Attorney General Ovid F. Johnson, was reappointed and held the office in all for eleven years.  In 1843 he was elected State Senator from Schuylkill County by nearly a unanimous vote but only served one year, when he resigned for the purpose of resuming his law practice.  When Governor Bilger was elected, in 1851, he appointed Mr. Hughes Secretary of the Commonwealth.  He resigned this office in 1853 to succeed Judge James Campbell as Attorney General, in which position he remained about two years.  in 1856 he was on the Buchanan electoral ticket.  He has been a frequent delegate to State and national Democratic conventions, where his influence was generally felt by his positions upon important committees.

Strangely, the Civil War period was completely omitted from the obituaries.

However, in 1904, with the publication of The Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the following appeared amid several pages of the family biography:

[Francis Wade Hughes] regarded a civil war with dread and hope until the last to avert it.  When, however, the resort to arms was inevitable, his support of the Union was prompt, energetic and valuable.  He denied utterly any right of secession and claimed that the government was one of the whole people, not a federation of states.  He aided in fitting out two of the first companies that reached Washington.  He maintained with voice and pen the legal right of the government to put down rebellion with force of arms.  He aided in the raising of regiments when the invasion of Pennsylvania was threatened by the forces of Lee, and one regiment was familiarly known as his regiment.

In those biographical pages, genealogical information is given about the Hughes Family.  There were eight children of John Hughes and Hannah [Bartholomew] Hughes:

Rachel Bartholomew Hughes was born at “Walnut Grove” (Montgomery County, Pennsylvania), 2 August 1801.  She married Jacob Dewees, M.D., of Trappe, Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Isaac Wayne Hughes, was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 14 February 1804.  He graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1825 and moved to New Bern, North Carolina, 1 June 1825, and married in 1828, Eliza A. McLin, daughter of Thomas McLin and Eliza McLin of New Bern.

Benjamin Bartholomew Hughes, was married to Mary Rambo, daughter of Jonas and Nancy Rambo, of Upper Merion, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in 1829, by the Rev. John C. Clay.

Slater Clay Hughes was married to Susan, daughter of Joseph Jarrett and Elizabeth Jarrett, of Upper Merion, 4 August 1836, by the Rev. John C. Clay.

Frances Wade Hughes, was born, 20 August 1817, in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Silliman, of Pottsville, daughter of Thomas Silliman and Sarah Silliman, in April 1839.

Theodore Jones Hughes was married to Caroline Fonville, daughter of Brice Fonville and Helen Fonville, of Onslow, North Carolina, 19 November 1844, by the Rev. N. Colin Hughes.

Nicholas Colin Hughes, born in Upper Merion, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, was ordained to the deaconate in the Old St. Thomas Church, New York City, 30 June 1844, by Bishop B. T. Onderdonk.  He moved south in August 1844, was ordained a priest in Old Christ Church, Raleigh, North Carolina, in May 1846, by Bishop Ives.  He married Adaline Edmonds, daughter of Dr. Robert Williams and Elizabeth [Ellis] Williams, of Pitt County, Carolina, 17 October 1848, the Rev. J. B. Cheshire officiating.

John Curtis Clay Hughes married, 13 March 1851, Mrs. Emma R. Heebner, daughter of Benjamin Coombe, and Sarah Coombe, of Pottsville.

The biographical and genealogical material in the Annals did not not include the children of Dr. Isaac Wayne Hughes, who moved to North Carolina; presumably he was the father of the John Hughes who was working in his uncle’s law office in Pottsville and who served in a North Carolina regiment.  The children of the two other brothers of Francis Wade Hughes who had North Carolina connections were also not mentioned in the Annals.

John D. Hughes, the son of Isaac Wayne Hughes, was located in pages of a Dewees family history, available on Ancestry.com.  He was born on 30 March 1830 and died on 9 September 1889.  He married Jane Graham Daves of Craven County, North Carolina on 24 January 1854.  From information obtained through Fold3 and through Findagrave, he served as a Major and Quartermaster of the 7th North Carolina Infantry (Confederate) during the Civil War, and after the war applied for amnesty and a pardon from President Andrew Johnson.  Additional information about him will be forthcoming in a future blog post.

With his Southern connections (his brothers and their children) in North Carolina, it is no wonder that the loyalty to the Union of Francis Wade Hughes was questioned.  In addition, he had one other strike against him in that he was the Democratic Party leader in Schuylkill County during the war – a party that in some respects was considered disloyal.  In the Election of 1864, Hughes delivered Schuylkill County for Gen. George McClellan in the presidential contest.  Even after the war, in 1866, he was actively campaigning for amnesty for former Confederate officers to the point where it was suggested in the press that his conduct was traitorous for wanting to allow former Confederate President Jefferson Davis to return to Congress.

Did the Molly Maguire trials help reverse his image?  Perhaps.

It is not known at this time how much of the biographical information about Francis Wade Hughes was manipulated in 1904 to cover his Confederate sympathies and whether those sympathies extended beyond loyalty to his brothers and their families.  Further research could enlighten the discourse on this subject.

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Tags: Valley View