Civil War Blog

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 9, 2016

William Doubert Stites (1840-1915) is the “W. D. Stites” whose name appears on the Millersburg Soldier Monument.

On 31 August 1861, William D. Stites was mustered into service at Harrisburg in the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company D, as a Private.  At the time of enrollment, he gave his age as 21, his residence as Bloomfield, Perry County, and his occupation as cabinet maker.   He was discharged at the end of his term of service on 18 September 1864, at Berryville, Virginia, passing up an option to re-enlist.

Click on document to enlarge

In the 1890 Veterans’ Census for Millersburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (shown above from Ancestry.com), his name appears for his service in the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry.

On 9 July 1890, William D. Stites applied for a Civil War pension (Pension Index Card from Fold3, above), which he received and collected until his death on 8 November 1915 at Millersburg.  He is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery at that place.

Dr. Samuel Stites (1816-1882)

The father of William D. Stites, Dr. Samuel Stites, also saw service in the Civil War, but as a contract surgeon.  During the first seven years of his professional practice as a medical doctor, prior to the Civil War, he lived in and served the community of Fisherville, Dauphin County.  The information that he served in the Civil War was not found in any military records or in his obituary, but in a brief family history that was printed in a Harrisburg newspaper in 1903 [a transcript of that history appears below].  Dr. Stites is buried at the Peace Church Cemetery in Berrysburg and more information about him can be found in his Findagrave Memorial.

Dr. George Frederick Matter (1840-1897)

The brother-in-law of Dr. Samuel Stites was Dr. George Frederick Matter (1840-1897), who served in the Civil War in the 210th Pennsylvania Infantry.  He was the brother of Catherine Matter, the wife of Dr. Samuel Stites.  He was born in Mifflin Township, Dauphin County, and died in Schuylkill County.

More information is sought about each of of the men named above.

From the Harrisburg Daily Independent, 1 August 1903:

REUNION OF THE STITES FAMILY

Week of Pleasant Intercourse Among Members of the Different Branches Held at Millerstown Last Month

Brief History of the Family

Members of several branches of the Stites family will for a long time to come recall with pleasure a reunion week which was held by this family at Millerstown from 17 July to 24 July [1903].  As many of the members of the family as could conveniently arrange to do so spent the whole or a portion of the time with their relatives and many pleasant acquaintanceships were formed or renewed.

One branch of the family is now represented in this city, that of Dr. Harry Stites, of 825 North Sixth Street, and as the name has been more or less intimately connected with the history of this section of Pennsylvania, a brief sketch of the fathers is appended.

In tracing the history of the Stites family, the historian will find that in 1774, George Stites, Isaac Stites and William Stites, with their families, emigrated from England to this country.

It is supposed that Isaac Stites settled in Southern New Jersey.

George States found his way into the interior of Pennsylvania and settled a town at that time Stitesville, now Lebanon.

William Stites lived at Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey, until the breaking out of the Revolutionary War.  He entered into the Continental service and served up to the Battle of Princeton, 3 January 1777, when he was mortally wounded, and being removed to Paulus Hook, died.  His family consisted of a wife, and five children – three sons and two daughters.  Of the sons, William Stites located at Easton, Pennsylvania, where he married Sarah Rush, a descendant of Benjamin Rush, M.D., one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

The fruits of this marriage [William Stites and Sarah Rush] were thirteen children, five sons and eight daughters.  One of the sons was named Samuel Stites, who was born in Northampton County, 23 June 1816.  He chose as his life work the medical profession, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1850, and located in Fisherville, Dauphin County, where he practiced until the year 1857, when he moved to Millerstown, Perry County.  While in Dauphin County, he took an active interest in the State militia, being elected Lieutenant Colonel of his regiment.  When the Civil War broke out, being beyond the age of military duty, he nevertheless entered the Federal army as a contract or acting surgeon, and after the war was twice elected Coroner of Perry County, and at the time of his death in 1882, was serving in that office, at the age of almost 66 years.

Dr. Samuel Stites was twice married.  He first married a Miss Anna Doubert.  Two this union there was born two sons and two daughters.

Samuel Stites died in infancy.

William Stites is now residing in Millersburg, Dauphin County, and is a surviving veteran of the Civil War, having served three years and three months.

Sallie Stites, the wife of J. S. Gilbert, and Anna Stites, the wife of William Hartman, resided in Millersburg, Dauphin County, at the time of their death.

[The second wife of Dr. Samuel Stites] was Catherine Matter of Berrysburg, Dauphin County, daughter of Michael Matter of the same county, who was one of the original settlers of Lykens Valley, and a veteran of the War of 1812.  There were born of this marriage ten children, seven daughters and three sons….  [The three sons] were Dr. Harry Stites, Albert H. Stites, and Dr. George M. Stites.  [Three of the daughters were] Harriet V. Stites, Lydia Stites, and Clara C. Stites.

Dr. Harry Stites was born in Fisherville, Dauphin County, about 1854. About three years after his birth his father moved to Millerstown, where the doctor was sent to the public schools of the town, Juniata Valley Normal School, and Freeburg Academy, receiving the degree of B. E. at the last named.  He afterward entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which in 1876, he graduated with the degree of M. D.  Since that time he has taken post-graduate courses in medical specialties in Europe and this country, with a view to making himself a specialist in certain lines which he has done and is today enjoying a lucrative practice in the city of Harrisburg.  He has been President of the Perry County Medical Society.  He assisted in organizing the Southern Dakota Medical Society and was afterward a member of the State Medical Society of Florida, and also a member of the Association of Railroad Surgeons of the United States.  He served five years as Contract Surgeon in the the United States Government in the Western Territories.  Afterward, he permanently located in Harrisburg, and subsequently visited leading hospitals of Europe.  He was married in 1876 to Mary J. Singer, and there has been born to them four children.  Jennie Catherine Stites, the oldest… died in infancy.  The other three, Mabel Clara Stites, Lillian Florence Stites, and George Samuel Stites, reside with their parents at this time.

Albert H. Stites was born at Millerstown in 1858, where he attended the public schools of the town and afterward graduated at the College of Pharmacy in Philadelphia.  About 1879 he moved to South Dakota and engaged in the drug business where he still resides.  He was married in Chicago in 1884 to Elizabeth Law of that place.  They have two children, Samuel L. Stites and Eda G. Stites.  Albert H. Stites has been mayor of his city, Sioux Falls, twice State Senator of his district, and was prominently mentioned for United States Senator at the time of the death of Senator Kyle.  He has extensive interests, both public and private, in his resident town.

George M. Stites was born at Millerstown in 1860.  He attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, Maryland, from which school he graduated, and then took his father’s practice at Millerstown for a few years, when he moved to Williamstown, Dauphin County, where he is now actively engaged in the practice of his profession.  He, like the other male members of the family, is an active citizen of his community.  At the present, he is a member of the United States Pension Board, the County Medical Society, and a director in the Williams Valley Bank.  He was married in 1887 to Hannah Durbin, and has three children living.  Joseph Stites and Louise Stites, born on the same day, and Harry Stites, who is named after his uncle.

Clara Stites has, since the death of her mother, made her home with [her brother] Albert Stites in Dakota; Lydia Stites lives with her brother George Stites; and Harriet Stites, who married M. M. Laughlin, Esquire, lives in Lewistown, Mifflin County.

——————————-

The news story was transcribed from a clipping obtained through Newspapers.com.  Portraits are adapted from public family trees available on Ancestry.com.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on The Stites Family in the Civil War
Tags: Berrysburg, Fisherville, Mifflin Township, Millersburg, Williams Township, Williamstown

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 7, 2016

A photocopy of a crumpled newspaper story has been found in the Project files.  The clipping is entitled “Brave Johnny Hoover” and tells the story of a man from the Lykens Valley who is said to be the youngest soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War.  In addition to being named in the story as “Johnny Hoover,” there are other presented facts that can help to identify exactly which John A. Hoover is described and determine whether he was actually from the Lykens Valley.  It became clear from the various documents found that this is the John A. Hoover (1847-1933) who served in the 107th Pennsylvania Infantry.

Is the news story true?  This blog has often presented stories of the war to which there has been a degree of embellishment – but nevertheless based on truth.  First, the news story will be presented as it best can be transcribed from the clipping.  Following the story, a fact checking will be performed.

BRAVE “JOHNNY HOOVER”

The following was taken from a speech delivered in the State Legislature shortly after the close of the rebellion by Col. A. Wilson Norris.  The subject of his eloquent encomiums being John A. Hoover, native of Lykens Valley, a now resident of Liverpool; in the eloquent address of General Devens last year, the portrait of one of the greatest and trusted commanders of the Potomac Army was drawn with careful and loving hand.

Would that I could with like faithfulness describe the character and bravery of a young soldier of my company whose enthusiasm, resolution, and and unblanched cheek in the face of danger were like the touch of inspiration and who today, black as when enveloped with the smoke of battle, is peaceably earning his livelihood not twenty miles away in a coal mine, blissfully ignorant of the mention made of him in this distinguished assembly.

Let us see if we can recognize in this boy’s modesty, valor and generous and manly qualities, types which every soldier recalls as the recollections of the years ago came swarming out of the past.  In 1861, while on a recruiting service in a small town in the central part of this state, a fine looking, open faced, stout little fellow came up to me one day and asked in a manly but beseeching way if if didn’t want a drummer.  “I ain’t big enough for a soldier, but won’t you let me drum for you?” was his anxious question.  Go home, I told him, and have your mother write a note to me that you can go and I will take you, I replied.  “She can’t write Sir,” was his response, and as he spoke, he hung his head.  “But if you will ask I know she will let me drum for you.” and as he raised his head, his bright eyes flashed at the thought.

Struck by the lad’s earnest manner, I went to his humble home, and big tears rolled from his mother’s eyes as she gave her consent, and patting him on the head, told him to be a good boy, to be true to his country, love his mother and fear God.  How proud the little fellow looked when clad in the army blue and with his big drum hung about him.  A few months developed the stripling, and he grew stronger and taller.  In our first fight I found him with the company at the front instead of the rear, where he ought to have been, and when ordered back, I noticed his reluctance to go.  A few days after, he begged permission to enter the ranks and take a gun.  “I am big enough to fight, and I ought to,” was his chivalrous reply, as a a musket was placed in his hand.

A month afterwards, the little drummer distinguished himself for daring and coolness in the Battle of Second Bull Run. In every engagement he displayed the same conspicuous gallantry, foremost in every charge, among the last to leave the field, the surest and most deliberate shot in the whole company; always neat and tidy, with gun and equipment shiny and bright; erect, manly and respectful, he was the type of a true soldier, and considering his excellent and generous qualities, I can safely say of the gentleman.

My heart went out to the boy, and there was no happier experience of my life than of the morning I told that brave little fellow he was Sergeant and he stepped out of the ranks in response to the cheers of the company who loved and were proud of the young soldier.  No man in the company envied the boy Sergeant for they knew he had won his promotion by soldierly, bearing the most persevering attention to duty and unquestioned pluck.  He had purchased his honors clearly and fairly, and yet his soul rushed to his cheeks with the vivid flush of modest as he meekly received the congratulations of his friends.

It was hard to believe him the same lad who was always found in the fight, when steel answered to steel, saber to saber, and the fate of the battle hung perhaps upon the points of a hundred trusty bayonets.

Look at the ____ first day’s fight at Gettysburg.  Ordered to be down, the regiment is crouched behind a _____, while overhead the streaming shot and shell are whirling through the air and musket balls are pattering like rain against the barrier that shields that shields us from the foe.  He,alone of the company, is standing firing deliberately and cooly, while at his feet half dozen men loading the guns he discharged.  For thirty minutes, at least, he stood there, while about him whistled a perfect storm of bullets.  Get down, sergeant, get down, you will be shot! I cried.  “One shot more Sir,” he answered, and again his powder-blacked cheek was laid across the gun and his hand sought the trigger.  As the smoke curled up from the muzzle, he whirled like a top, the gun in his hand went flying through the air, and staggering, the brave boy fell shot through the head.  Oh! how my heart ached as I raised him partly up and he smiled sadly and fainted away.  That night it was my misfortune to be captured, and the next morning I received a message from the brave little fellow, also in the enemy’s hands, to come and see him die, but the rebels refused his petition, coupled, as it was, with my tears.  Often during my long imprisonment in the South my gallant boy Sergeant would appear to me blackened with the smoke of the fight, glancing along the polished barrel of his musket and speeding its vital bullet to its goal, and often it seemed to me I could hear its death wail and supplication come and see the brave boy die.

After my return, as I was sitting in my quarters near Washington, a stalwart young fellow stepped into my tent and, raising his hat, respectfully saluted me, I looked at him without a sign of recognition, when a peculiar smile lit up his features and springing to my feet I exclaimed, Great Heavens, who are you?  Do you come from the dead?  Are you not John Hoover?  “The same, Captain,” he replied, “not, however, from the dead, but from the infernal invalid corps,” which is the next thing to death for an active fellow who loves the excitement and perils of a campaign.

I need not tell you of my happiness when I held the brave fellow’s hand and looked into his hones, handsome fave with not one feature marred, except the right eye, through which the dread bullet had passed that I thought had marshaled him with the dead.  Fame and honor were as dear to that boy as ever they were to an officer who buckled sword to his side.  Beneath his humble cap was head as honest and noble in all its thoughts as any that every wore a helmet or bore a knightly crest; beneath his blouse beat a heart as pure, unselfish, and guileless as a girl’s, but filled with the loftiest courage, and the hand that poised his musket was as firm and true as any that ever splintered a lance in the courtly and chivalrous contests of old.  His sphere was lowly and narrow; his ambition scarcely dared to soar above his humble place in the company.  There were few to observe and know of his daring and speak his praises. He might have stepped from the ranks at the call of death or skulled away at the summons of fear, and the great world been none the wiser; and yet again the shame that would attach to his disgrace, small as it might seem, he weighed death but as a trifle and flung himself into his very jaws, as if he disdained his grim terrors.  There can be little fear of mistake in classing his with the heroes of the land.  He is one of that vast number who, like him, filled our armies during the war and who are today lost in the crowd.  _________.  _________. They served to show us our capacity to be good and great.

Basically, the facts of this story are true for a soldier named John A. Hoover, who is buried at Maple Grove Cemetery, Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

John A. Hoover (1847-1933) and his wife Susan E. Fickinger (1849-1926) are buried together.  Next to the main stone is an in-ground stone noting John’s Civil War service:

John A. Hoover served in the 107th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company D.  His rank is not given on the stone.

The Pennsylvania Veterans’ Card (shown above from the Pennsylvania Archives) states that John A. Hoover enrolled on 14 January 1862 at Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (exact location not given).  He claimed to be 19 years old (not 15 as he actually was at the time),  He was employed as a miner and was living in Lykens.  On 24 January 1862, he was mustered into service in Company D, 107th Pennsylvania Infantry, as a Private (not as a Drummer Boy as is stated in the article).  The summary of the military record includes that he was promoted to Corporal (not Sergeant) at a date unknown.  He was wounded at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on 13 December 1862, and also at Gettysburg, on 7 July 1863.  The nature of his wounds is not specified on the card.  In February 1864, he was transferred to the Invalid Corps (a.k.a. the Veteran Reserve Corps).  A discharge date is not noted on the card.

Click on document to enlarge

In the portion of the Register of Pennsylvania Volunteers for the 107th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company D [shown above from the Pennsylvania Archives] John A. Hoover‘s enrolling officer is named as Capt. Norris, confirming the statement in the news article that it was Norris who recruited him.  While the Register says Hoover was recruited at Harrisburg, it was likely that he was actually recruited at a “small town” in Dauphin County, and when he arrived at Harrisburg to be mustered, he was credited to Norris.  Thus, the story of speaking to Hoover’s mother for permission could be true.

Who was Norris?

A. Wilson Norris was a student who enrolled in the 107th Pennsylvania Infantry on 2 November 1861.  However, his initial enrollment was as a 1st Lieutenant, and he was not promoted to Captain until 18 April 1864 (according to the card). He was twice captured – first at Bull Run, then exchanged, and second at Gettysburg, where afterward he was noted as missing in action.  The dates and battles conform to the story told by Norris in the news article.

Click on plaque to enlarge

The plaque shown above is from the Pennsylvania Monument at Gettysburg.  Note that both Norris and Hoover are named on the plaque.  However, there is an absence of a Captain in the company and Norris rank is 1st Lieutenant.  Hoover is a Corporal.

Some additional information:

On 6 May 1887, the Harrisburg Telegraph reported:

Johnny Hoover, “the brave soldier boy,” whom Col. A. Wilson Norris characterizes in his speeches as the youngest soldier who enlisted in the Army of the Potomac, is now a resident of Millersburg.

From the Harrisburg Evening News, 13 October, 1933, his obituary:

JOHN A. HOOVER

John A. Hoover, 86, of Berrysburg, Civil War Veteran, died at the Keystone Hospital yesterday.  He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, No. 58, served as Corporal of Company D, No. 107, was a member of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company C, No. 43, and the United States Infantry.  He served six years.

Funeral services will be held at the Hoover Brothers Funeral Parlors, Berrysburg, on Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock.  Burial will be in the Maple Grove Cemetery, Elizabethville. The body may be viewed at the funeral parlors on Sunday afternoon and evening.

From the obituary the other regiments in which Hoover served are noted, the fact that he died in Harrisburg and that he was a member of a Harrisburg G.A.R. Post, as well as his residence of Berrysburg.

It is not known at this time why he moved about but one result of his moving about is that not only Elizabethville can claim him as a veteran, but also Berrysburg, Millersburg, and Liverpool of Perry County.

The Pension Index Card, shown above from Fold3, names the various regiments in which John A. Hoover served including Company C of the 42nd United States Infantry (which included post-war service), and the various designated units of the V.R.C. (Veterans Reserve Corps).

On the 1890 Veterans’ Census, lines 34, top and bottom, name the regular Civil War regiment (107th Pennsylvania Infantry) and the incurred disability, “wounded – lost right eye.”   The census sheet (above) is from Ancestry.com.  Note that in 1890, John A. Hoover was living in Millersburg.

Finally, from the Harrisburg Evening News, 26 October 1933:

Children of John A. Hoover, late of this city, are heirs to his $650 estate,  W. W. Hoover, Berrysburg, is named executor.

Therefore, for the most part, the facts of the story told by Col. A. Wilson Norris are correct, but at times embellished.

If the story was told many times as indicated in the May 1887 article (above), then it is possible that it was printed in other versions in other places.  It is beyond the scope of this blog post to search out every instance where the story was told or to see how it was nuanced over the years.  That is not to say that it wouldn’t be worthwhile to continue to research John A. Hoover, his life and his military experiences.  As always, readers are invited to submit other information.  Particularly needed is a picture of John A. Hoover as it is hard to imagine how someone lived into the year 1933 and no picture of him has survived.  Because he is associated with Elizabethville which is having its bicentennial in 2017, it is desired to have his picture on a display of Civil War soldiers associated with that community.

Please add comments to this post or send information via e-mail.

For prior posts that included John A. Hoover, click here.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on Brave Johnny Hoover of Elizabethville
Tags: Elizabethville, G.A.R., Lykens Borough, Millersburg

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 4, 2016

A listing of the February 2016 posts on The Civil War Blog with direct links:

Update on Inglis V. Fairbain of Tower City

Philip C. Swab – A Grand Funeral!

January 2016 Posts

Jacob Swab & Jacob W. Swab – Two Different Elizabethville Area Veterans

Update on Benjamin Hartzog, alias Walter Davis, of Donaldson

Adam Hand – Tower City Area Veteran Moved to Illinois

Henry A. Higgins – 173rd Pennsylvania Infantry

Why is Patrick Fay Not Named on the Millersburg Monument?

Further Research Needed on These African American Civil War Veterans

Philadelphia Mural Has Civil War Theme

Some Interesting Newspaper People Who Died in 1913

Hamilton Bailey – Coal Wagon Inventor Was Married to Halifax Native

Lykens Valley Roots of Jared Bohn Faust, Monument Engraver

Category: Overviews | 1 Comment »
Tags: Table of Contents

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 2, 2016

John H. Heckert (1838-1921) is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Millersburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. At his grave there is a G.A.R. star-flag holder.

During the Civil War he served in the 6th Pennsylvania Infantry (Emergency of 1863), Company E, as a Private, serving from 12 September 1862 through discharge at the end of the emergency on 27 September 1862.  He had enrolled at Halifax, Dauphin County at age 27.  [Card above from Pennsylvania Archives].  For this short service of about two weeks, he was recognized in the community as a Civil War veteran.  However, because his service was less than three months in duration he was not eligible for a Civil War pension.  Pension applicants with less than three months service had to demonstrate that they had injuries directly related to their service.  Apparently, John H. Heckert was not injured during his service; there is no record that he ever applied for a pension.

The funeral was described in an article that appeared in the Harrisburg Evening News, 21 September 1921 [from Newspapers.com].

John H. Heckert, 84, Is Buried at Millersburg

MILLERSBURG — Funeral services for John H. Heckert, 84 years old, were held this afternoon at the residence on Union Street, with the Rev. John H. Garner, Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church, officiating, assisted by the Rev. J. H. Barnes, Pastor of the Methodist Church.  Burial was in the Oak Hill Cemetery.

Mr. Heckert was one of the few [remaining] Civil War veterans in this place.  He was born in this section, and for the last fifty years had been engaged in the newspaper business, handling all the Philadelphia papers coming here.

About twenty-five years ago he married his second wife, who has been bedfast from illness since last June.  He was an active member of the Trinity Reformed Church.

Surviving besides the widow are two sons, Kimbert E. Heckert and William B. Heckert, two brothers, William B. Heckert of Milton, and Charles B. Heckert of town.  The following relatives from a distance attended the funeral:  Mrs. Elizabeth Brigs and Mrs. John Lower of Philadelphia; William C. Heckert and Mrs. William Martin of Milton; John Landau and daughter; William C. Glessner; Mrs. Anna Rudy of Sunbury; and Mr. and Mrs. John Rathvon of Harrisburg.

John H. Heckert is recognized on the Millersburg Soldier Monument as J. H. Heckert:

For past blog posts that mention John H. Heckert, click here.

Additional information is sought about John H. Heckert including his family and his work.  Stories are especially welcome.  In addition, if anyone can provide a picture of him, it would be greatly appreciated!

Also, there is a good possibility that John H. Heckert was part of the group of Civil War veterans who were pictured at the dedication of the Millersburg Soldier Monument.  If a reader of this blog can identify any the persons in the picture, please do so!

Click on photo to enlarge

Add comments to this post or send the information via e-mail.

Category: Research, Stories | Comments Off on John H. Heckert – Buried at Millersburg
Tags: Halifax, Millersburg

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on February 29, 2016

93rd Pennsylvania Infantry

151st Pennsylvania Infantry

The chief engraver of several battlefield monuments at Gettysburg was Jared Bohn Faust, who was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on 27 August 1846, the son of Reuben Eirich Faust (1818-1890), a carpenter, and Mary Ann [Bohn] Faust (1812-1874).  Jared spent some of his early years in Lykens Township and Gratz Borough, of Dauphin County, and Valley View and Hubley Township of Schuylkill County.

The drawing of the monument for the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry (shown above) was previously featured in a post here on 21 January 2015.  This was one of the Gettysburg Battlefield monuments that were engraved by Jared Bohn Faust; another monument he engraved was the 151st Pennsylvania Infantry (shown above) from a post here on 24 April 2015.  Assisting Jared in creating the monuments was his brother David Faust.  These two monuments were contracted from the Penrose F. Eisenbrown Company of Reading and were completed in time for the 1888 dedication.

Two documents place the Faust family in Lykens Township in and around 1860.

(1) The Census of 1860 shows Reuben and Mary Ann, with four of their children:  Amelia Faust, age 16; Charlotte Faust, age 14; David Faust, age 13; and Mary Faust, age 6.

(2) An application for membership in the Gratz I. O. O. F. was made by Reuben Faust on 21 July 1860, wherein he gave his residence as Lykens Township, his occupation as cabinet maker, and his age as 40 years.  That application is shown below.

For the purpose of researching him for this blog post, Jared B. Faust has not yet been located in either the 1850 or 1860 Census, nor has the father Reuben been located in the 1850 Census.  This could mean that the young Jared in 1860 was apprenticed somewhere learning a trade.  However, a church record of communicants for Zion (Klinger’s) Lutheran Church, Erdman, Lykens Township, Dauphin County, notes that a Jared B. Faust received the sacrament there on 23 April 1865.

In the 1870 Census, for Hubley Township, Schuylkill County, Jared is living with his parents and working as a painter.  His brother David Faust, age 21, and sister Mary Faust, age 16, are in the household and David is also working as a painter.

Sometime shortly after the 1870 Census, Jared met Hannah Schwalm of Hubley Township and their first child, Oscar Faust, was born in early 1871.  The couple then appears in directories and census returns for Berks County.

Hannah [Schwalm] Faust (1846-1926)

No Civil War service has been located for Jared Bohn Faust and what he was doing during the Civil War is unknown at this time.

When Jared died, the Reading Eagle published his obituary on 20 November 1911:

Jared Bohn Faust

Jared Bohn Faust, superintendent of the lettering department of the Eagle Marble and Granite Works, died Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at his residence, 927 North Third Street [Reading], of heart failure, aged 65 years.  Mr. Faust was ill only a day and his sudden death was a shock to his many friends.

He was born in this city on 22 August 1846 and lived here ever since. He was a well-known member of the First Reformed Church, and also Chandler Lodge, 227, F. and A. M.; Excelsior Chapter, No. 247, Royal Arch Masons; Reading Commandery, No. 42, Knights Templar; Rajah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S, and the Temple Flower Fund; Reading Castle, No. 49, Knights of the Golden Eagle; Mystic Star Commandery, No. 47, Knights of Malta, and the Knights of Friendship.

He is survived by his widow, Hannah (nee Schwalm), also a daughter, Anna F. Eisenbrown, wife of Wilson H. Eisenbrown; and a son William H. Faust; and a brother David Faust, of this city; and two sisters, Mrs. Amelia Wenrich, of Northumberland County, and Mrs. Mary Harner, of Schuylkill County; and five grandchildren.

In the Complete Hand-Book of the Monuments and Indications and Guide to the Positions on the Gettysburg Battlefield, by J. Howard Wert, published in 1886, the first monument to the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry is described.  This first monument is on the battlefield about 300 yards from the position of the second monument.

The drawing of the first monument, is shown above from the Wert book, and its description, on pages 74-75, is given below:

The monument is perched on a massive rock as its natural base, part of the inscription being chiseled on this base.  The monument itself consists of a second base and a massive die with paneled sides, the faces sloping from either side above the panels so as to form in the top surface of the monument an enormous corps badge.  It is of red stone, while the blue Roman cross of the noble Sixth stands out in relief from one of the faces.  On another of the polished paneled sides is deeply carved the number “93.”  From an inscription beneath the cross we learn that the monument was erected by surviving members of the regiment, 3 October 1884.  It presents an imposing appearance at a distance; but the texture of the stone will bear no comparison, on a close inspection, with the Westerly, Concord, Chester, or Quincy granites, or with the granite of the battlefield.  The execution of the monument however is perfect and the enormous corps badge formed on the top surface, one of the finest conceptions on the field.

Since the second monument to the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry is now in a distinctly different location and is not credited to either of the Faust brothers, then a mystery surrounding the moving of the first monument may have nothing to do with the Faust role in the second, but it is worth noting here in the event that there is a connection.

In The Complete Gettysburg Guide, page 248, David Petruzzi notes the following:

The carved initials “L. H. M.” appear just below the date on the front of the boulder used as a base for the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry monument…. Here you will also find discarded stone originally used as the base for an earlier version of the monument….  Research into the unit’s roster has not turned up a member with those initials….  If you look closely, you will see similar carvings, which were professionally done, in other broken rocks lying about.  These designations initially appeared in this boulder when it was used as a base for the original smaller monument for the regiment that was placed here in 1884…. when the newer and larger present monument of the 93rd Pennsylvania Infantry was installed on this boulder in 1888, the top of it… had to be sheared off so the boulder would accept and support the new monument.  Apparently, no effort was ever made to clean up the sheared pieces, and so they lie here now, scattered about on this hallowed ground for well over a century.

The above reference indicates that the second monument, which we know was carved by Jared B. Faust, was placed atop the stone on which the first monument rested – and that the first monument had to be professionally “sheared off” before being moved to a new location.  The engraved initials “L. H. M.”, still a mystery today, could have been those of one of the workers of the Eisenbrown Company who would have had the proper carving tools at the site – or they could have been a secret message left by Jared or his brother David.

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