War!

  We've bumped around in history a bit this past week, getting to relive it with those re-telling their own stories, or watching an interpretation of it played out before us.  Parts of the wonderful blessings of homeschooling :)
  A while back, while posting some of my Granddad Murray's World War II pictures to the internet, I discovered that his division, the 504th Bomber group was on-line and I got hooked up with them.  It has been my desire to be able to attend one of their reunions and this year it was only an hour away from us in Kansas City!  Granddad did not fly on the bombers, he was part of the medical division and was an x-ray technician.  He used to tell stories of how he would watch the bombers come in to the island of Tinian where he was stationed.
  Our oldest, Bubby, is especially in to anything war related lately.  This includes everything from the Civil War, World War I or II, so Hubby and I made sure he was able to attend with us :) The day we picked to attend consisted of a POW-MIA ceremony and dinner.
  The POW-MIA ceremony was performed by a local ROTC and involved a symbolic table set for the missing soldier and a reading of the 504th men who lost their lives during the war.

  Our favorite part of the day was getting to visit with the five 504th veterans and one Marine in attendance.  Bubby found a new friend, Fiske.  Fiske served on one of the bombers and was captured as a POW (prisoner of war). I have bemoaned the fact many times that this kiddo's great-grandpas are not around to share their experiences with him.  What an awesome experience for this kid to get to meet some of the men who served where one of his great-grandpas served!

  This may have been our first time attending something like this, but it's not our last.  This is another wonderful way to encourage the love of history for our next generation!
  Continuing with our war theme, just today we were able to witness a reenactment of the Battle of Hickory Point here in NE Kansas.  This is one of the battles during the Bleeding Kansas era when pro-slavery and free-staters were battling it out quite literally for control of Kansas Territory.  This was to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the battle (which took place 5 miles to the north of Oskaloosa where we were) and just a perfect day for it! We joined a couple hundred Jefferson County school kids to watch the excitement!

It was thrilling to see the battle and hear the roar of the cannon - well, only if you prepared yourself for that one, it was quite startling ;) 
Next week in further continuance of the war theme, Bubby will once again be able to take place in a reenactment of the Battle of BlackJack, another Bleeding Kansas battle.  We're setting quite a precedent with these kinds of trips, a museum might seem kind of tame after this...

Field Trip Friday: Emporia

   I've been wanting to try the Emporia theme for a while.  Its about an hour down the road from us and just full of wonderful Kansas history!  Not to mention tons of free things to do.  Our first stop on this cool and breezy day was the Geology and Natural History museums on the lower level of Breunkelman Hall on the Emporia State campus.  Both are about the size of a large classroom, but would be great for enhancing a science lesson.  There are hundreds of species of animals in the natural history museum.  Not just adult specimens either, some have eggs, juvenile and adults represented.  Mookie's favorites were the little guys. 

Not quite the dioramas of the KU Natural history museum, but definitely worth a look.

I loved the geology museum!  Excellent fossils, florescing rocks, Native American artifacts, an exhibit on the zinc mines of SE Kansas, but it had one problem.  It was steaming hot!  It drove Mookie and Shorty out after only a short time.  I sure would like to go back and take more time in there.  Luckily Bubby got quality time in there, most of my time at these museums is riding herd on those not so interested.  Someday that will change, so I just have fun in the running around in the meantime. :)
  Our next stop was the David Traylor zoo.  It had a bunch of native species as well a few others. 

This zoo was not fantastic because of its selection of animals, but because it was absolutely beautifully landscaped and so cozy and up close with the animals it did have.  They even have a portion that is open at times for a drive though.  The kids are ready to go back again!
  Right across the road from the zoo is the Veterans' Day memorial. Did you know that Emporia was essentially the birthplace of Veterans' Day?  They had the traditional tank and helicopter to view....

with some excellent extras...

A Braille Pledge of Allegiance

And a Rainbow footbridge over the Cottonwood River

It was a great place to get out and stretch our legs a little more!
  We also went and tracked down some statues of famous Emporia personalities.  It is located right on the corner of the Lyon County fairgrounds, so we felt a little conspicuous taking pictures by all the traffic, but not too much ;)

The people represented were William Allen White, Preston Plumb (one of the founders of Emporia), a Native American chief, and Nathaniel Lyon (Lyon county is named for him and Emporia is the county seat).
  We took our packed lunch and sat by the train tracks to watch passing trains, to Shorty's delight.
  Our last stop was the Lyon County Historical Museum.  I had been dying to see its Civil War exhibit.  We walked in and Shorty started telling the staff about the trains he saw, to which the reply was "oh, you want to see the train?", and she led us to the train room.  And not just any train room, but one with a camera on the front with a screen on the wall so you could watch as the train followed the track, went through tunnels and you could even catch a glimpse of yourself on the big screen! Um, yeah, awesome!

To heck with mommy wanting to see the GAR button of Preston Plumb's in the Civil War room and read all the interesting placards.  Luckily I could see him in the train room playing at the Thomas the Tank Engine table from the Civil War room and bought my self some time.  Preston Plumb led the 11th Kansas (of which Burlingame's Company I was a part of) and I was so excited! The Civil War exhibit was also interactive and had a basket where you could chose a real soldier's name and find an artifact or mention of him in the room and then look up his name in a book.  The two older ones loved this.  Laura was excited because she got Plumb's name - we accused her of cheating ;)

Bubby looking for his soldier

The museum right now is really small, just one other room beside the train and Civil War exhibit rooms, but that will change after the first of the year.  They are moving to a building with 40,000 sq. ft. (where they have 4,000 sq. ft. now) and they are merging the research library with them too.  They are very excited about getting more of their fun stuff out, and I am too!  I'll make a trip back down for sure, the Gazette has some of neat sounding newspaper artifacts we want to check out too, as well as possibly his house - Red Rocks.
  The only thing we paid for today was the gas to get there and happy hour drinks at Sonic.  Not a bad deal at all :)

My Forgotten Buddies

  What started out as a service project for our homeschool coop is a continuing project for me.  I am slowly looking up all the obituaries and regimental information for all of the veterans in Osage County.  I've gotten to know these guys so well by now that I call them my "buddies".  My most intensive searching has been at Burlingame Cemetery, partially because I can access most Burlingame papers for the time period I need on the internet for free. Because of this I've been able to find many veterans buried there that are unmarked by any tombstone - something my family hopes to be able to correct.  I've been focusing on these forgotten buddies so that they can be remembered too. 
  The first one that I was able to find information on was James S. Montgomery.  James signed up with the 2nd California Cavalry.  Before the war he was engaged to a woman, who said that she would wait for him.  While he was in service he was "dangerously" wounded by a gunshot wound to the lung and was discharged because of it.

When he came home, he found that his betrothed had not waited for him.  He was so saddened that he became a mountain man/miner and wandered the Wild West.  His lung troubled him terribly and he took the common treatment for the day - laudanum.  Unfortunately the nature of laudanum lends itself towards overdoses and he died from one while on a trip back to Topeka. He was buried by his Burlingame G.A.R. veteran friends with a full military burial.
  One of the newest veterans is going to be a challenge.  John Hardison was a gentleman of African descent who lived primarily in Topeka, but moved to Carbondale in the mid-1890s.  He had served with Co. I of the 17th United States Colored Troops as an Orderly Sergeant.  He became paralyzed in later life and the $12 pension he was receiving was not cutting it.  If you were receiving a pension, you could not be placed in the county poor farm, and the city of Carbondale would not offer him assistance, so he was on his own.  He died in a house fire in 1904 before anyone could get to it.  There is no record of his burial in Carbondale, and none that I have found yet in Topeka.  The search continues!

One of my other buddies is Isaac Williams.  Isaac also served with the USCT.  Because of his common name it has been hard to track down a pension record for him, and none of the newspaper articles listed his service designation.  I finally found a reference in the 1885 census that put him in the 4th Missouri.  Yay!  Trying to find his regimental designation after the USCT went federal, I did find that he was one of the first 4 people of color in Burlingame in 1865 (the town was about 300 people).  I also found this newspaper article on him:

1885 Osage County Chronicle

The title makes it seem like its going to be prejudiced in one way, and then what a slam!  The Stoddards that owned the Osage County paper at this time were very equal in their treatment of their colored friends.  They published such wonderful articles on people from the black community that it met with opposition.  They responded with an awesome editorial that pretty much said that they were just covering people of note in their community and that there were good and bad of both races and people just needed to let it go.  :)
  Another one of my guys is William "Pitt Green" Gaines who is also of African descent.  His double name confuses me, but it has me wondering if it doesn't have to do with his previous life in slavery (I would definitely appreciate any thoughts on this).  Pitt served with the 83rd USCT.  He was a well known penny pincher, in fact, the paper did a whole article on the time he spent a nickel.  The whole community of Burlingame was dying to know what he spent it on!  At the end of his obituary even, it said that he was supposed to have hidden a great deal of money in his house and the people of the community were going to hunt for it.   
  There are more than 20 veterans in Osage County without stones.  I am hoping I can bring them back from their forgotten status and share their wonderful stories!

Field Trip Friday: Sleeping Heroes and Rockets

  Today we wrapped up our Sleeping Heroes Civil War veteran documenting for the summer at Lyndon. We were able to finish two of our county cemeteries this summer.  Bubby was at a sleepover, so it was just Mookie, Shorty and I with our buddies.  It was a beautiful morning for it.

Cheese!

We had to drag Bubby away from an air soft war, but we finally made it on our way to watch another of our buddies launch rockets not too far from our house.

blast off!

Next week a trip to the Kansas City Zoo to celebrate Mookie's 9th birthday!

Field Trip Friday: Lyndon

  We didn't really take a "field trip" per se this last Friday, but we had a lot of fun in the process!  We had rescheduled our Sleeping Heroes (documenting Civil War soldiers) at Lyndon Cemetery from the week before, and boy are we glad we did - the temperatures were SO much better and we got to hang out with more of our buddies too!  We documented over 55 veterans and even found a Civil War nurse!

We had a great time.  It helped that Shorty was in an agreeable mood for wandering through the stones.  He didn't last the whole time, but for a 1 year old, he did excellent!
  Then we ate a picnic lunch at the city park and just played. 

my monkeys:)

  Mom really wanted to go to the Osage County Historical Society too, both to make it an official "field trip" and to visit with a fellow researcher there.  It turned out to be a quick trip (ie. mostly chasing a toddler up and down the aisles) but Bubby got to see some cool fossils, Mookie liked the handiwork, and I found a G.A.R. picture for my research!

checking out the fossils

 

 

an identified picture of the Lyndon G.A.R. band (thanks to the Os. Co. Hist. Soc.)

  I'm thinking next week we may venture north and check out some territorial Kansas sites!

First Field Trip Friday of the Year!

Downtown Burlingame.  Streets wide enough for oxen teams to make a u-turn

  This week we started our school year.  I know, I know you're thinking "What!?!".  Think of it this way, we start school when it's hotter than blazes here in Kansas and then let out in late March/early April when it's getting nice!  We've done it the last couple of years and it's worked out great, well, except for this year when it was still cold when we let out, but one out of 3 isn't bad:)
  One thing we started last fall was "Field Trip Fridays".  We've been aiming for local and low cost for most of them.  Today Bubby chose the Schuyler Museum in Burlingame.  The Schuyler Museum used to be Burlingame's school and it has been turned into the town museum and research center.

  It's a typical small town museum, but it seems like we notice something new each time we go.  Burlingame has been around since the 1850s.  An uncle of Hubby's, George Bratton, was one of the town founders. 
  Today we got to see inside the military room, it's usually locked for security reasons.  It was lined with reproductions and donations of uniforms and accessories from every war in the United States.

  One of the favorite parts of the museum for the kids is the coal mine exhibit...

  Ok, so I had my flash on, but this room is lit only by black lights and just thrills them to no end:)  They thought it was pretty cool when I told them that their gggg-grandpa J.J. Parrish was a coal miner there.  One of the best ways to get kiddos interested in history is to make it personal!
   Our trip would not be complete without me making the kids wait while I do a little research (I like to torture them a little, actually it becomes torture for me if I make them wait too long!).  This is what I found today:

it is a picture of the Burlingame G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) members.  Unmarked.  It was a new acquisition to the museum and they had it displayed in hopes that people would identify the gentlemen in it.  Oh, how I'd love to know who they all are!  After documenting all those soldiers in Burlingame Cemetery last year I've come to feel like these guys are my buddies:) 
  After a totally successful field trip, now we're wondering what's on tap for next week!

A Fallen Hero

  With the start of our Civil War veteran documenting project again this summer, it's started me thinking about all the vets of that war in my own family.  This unmarked tintype our family has always has intrigued me.  There's two possibilities, an uncle and a cousin, because frankly he doesn't look like any of my grandpas who served in the Civil War.  One of the possibilities is my cousin Gill Judah (pronounced Jew-dee).  Gill is the son of Henry and Margaret (Martin) Judah.  Henry is the brother to my ggg-grandpa Eli Judah.  The Judahs were a close knit bunch and the ones that made it out to Buchanan County, Missouri and Atchison County, Kansas from Indiana were frequently found in each others households in the census.   Gill is one of those not fortunate enough to make it through the war. So, I started hammering away on what happened to him.

photo taken courtesy of a wonderful Find a Grave volunteer

   In 1860 Gill's family was living in Atchison County, Kansas.  That same year his dad died at the young age of 55.  So, it would be a safe bet that after the official start of the Civil War, Gill used signing up as a way to help his mom out.   Gill served with Company C of the 8th Kansas Infantry, mustering in on November 30, 1861.  Interestingly enough, the Colonel in charge of the 8th Kansas (and would later become governor of Kansas), John A. Martin, was from Atchison.  His company was stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas for a while, but then went out east to see action in the Tullahoma & Chickamauga campaigns.  His last battle was the battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, almost 2 years after he enlisted.  These guys from the 8th Kansas were so tough that General Wood said that "what that regiment could not take, it was not worthwhile to send any other regiment to look for".  At Missionary Ridge the minie balls fell like hail upon them and the heavy ammunition fire was well, heavy.  By the end of it all, Gill ended up with a minie ball that had fractured his left knee.  He was carried to a field hospital in Chattanooga where he later died from his wounds. 
  In his pension record, it contains a letter to his mother from a man serving with the U.S. Christian Commission:

Chattanooga, Tennessee
December 17, 1863

Mrs. Margaret Judah,
   I am about to announce to you the saddest fact perhaps of your life.  It is the death of your dear son Gill M. Judah which occurred on the night of the 15th or morning of the 16th.
   I went down on the morning of the 16th to find him with two others dead.  He passed off in peace without much pain I think.  I am very thankful and glad to say to you that I believe he died the death of the righteous--that his last days were spent in Christ.  I met him a few days before his death and felt quite an interest in him.  I spoke with him about his soul; he said he had no hope.  I pointed out with emphasis the importance of a preparation for the result that might occur.  He was fully resigned to his fate, submissive to the Lord's will.  The letter I wrote for him to you was in part dictated by me.  Yet he was fully imbued with its spirit. 
  I send ot you a lock of his hair knowing that you would place high value on it.  THis is my practice as far as I can do it.  There is about $3.00 in money and other effects of his in charge of General Ward Master Mr. Stewart.  You can secure it by writing to him or me for them.
  May God give you sustaining grace to hear with patience, fortitude and Christian resignation this heavy stroke of affliction.  His profession of the saviors love in his hear will certainly be cheering and soothing facts to soften and temper your bereavement.
  May the Lord satisfy to your soul this sad trial.  Trust Christ for all needed consolation.

Yours truly,
Rev. J. L. Landis
U.S. Christian Commission

What a beautiful letter!  It saddens me that something like that could not be conveyed in the current climate in the U.S. armed forces. 

Gill is buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery with numerous other brave men.
 
While I still don't know the identity of my Civil War soldier, I sure am thankful that he got me interested enough to find out more about the brave men in my family that served their country:)

8th Kansas monument at Missionary Ridge courtesy of www.kansasmemory.org

 

Our Summer Project

This summer our family along with some of our buds embarked on an adventure to document Civil War vets across our county.  It is part of a larger project being led by the State Historical Society called the Sleeping Heroes Project.  Bubby and I started in April with some prep work by doing our own town cemetery.  In May we had our first group project where we tackled a local country cemetery.  We had a huge turn out from our homeschool group, a majority of them showed up which was awesome! We documented 25 soldiers, most having served with Kansas regiments.

Bubby and his friends taking notes at Ridgeway (notice the GAR star on the left)

  Our next project was a huge one, Burlingame Cemetery.  Burlingame was pre-statehood settlement started by abolitionists, so I was expecting to find a bunch of vets there.  It did not disappoint!  Even though we had a much smaller crew once summer kicked into full swing, they were a super dedicated group who faithfully showed up each month, even in the hottest part of summer to honor these guys!  
  We did our last day of documenting this week, and ended up with a total of 150 vets.  There were two Confederate veterans, one of which was given a military burial by his Union vet buddies:)  There were 6 (2 black, 4 white) who served with different regiments of the Colored Troops (just a side note, the white soldiers, serving as officers in the Colored Troops, all came from the 11th Kansas, Co. I, which is going to require further research as to why that was).  One of the things that stands out with what we have found out so far is that a large amount of the soldiers at Burlingame who served with Kansas units served with 11th Kansas, a fair number of which were either wounded or killed at Prairie Grove, Arkansas. One of the soldiers from Burlingame that was killed at Prairie Grove had Rooks County, Kansas named after him in memorial. 

an oddity for Kansas, an 1812 vet!

  Our family also stopped on the way home from a family gathering this summer to walk a very small cemetery.  We found 6 vets there, one of which may have participated in the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado.
   I must say, prior to this project, the Civil War was just a bunch of battles and dates to me, I never got too excited about it.  Now, however, give me half a chance, and I may talk your leg off! :)

The Civil War Monument at Burlingame

Happy Accidents

Today I had planned to do other people's research.  In an attempt to do a little "cemetery stomping" (as my mom and I like to call it), my mom & I took Mookie & Baby to the Burlingame cemetery to take some pictures that were requested on www.findagrave.com - one of my favorite sites.  I picked Burlingame for 3 reasons: 1) it had the highest # of unanswered photo requests from that site 2) I wanted to scout out the Civil War veterans there and check on the possibilities for going there for an adventure I'm planning with our homeschool coop this summer (more on that later) & 3) a bunch of my husband's family was there and even if the photo requests didn't pan out, I could take digital pics of the family stones and post those on Find A Grave.
  It was way too cold to walk the cemetery with the little ones, so we mostly did a drive by and found a few of the requests, and looked at a few Civil War vets along the way.  We ended by taking the family pics.  As I surveyed the familiar stones, I noticed something I had forgotten, that grandpa John Wagner was a G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) vet.  That family has perplexed me for years.  I started with sketchy info on them, and since they moved around from NY, to Canada, to PA, finally settling in KS I didn't know where to start to find their state of origin so I gave up on extending further into the past for a while.  However, this summer I am planning on leading a bunch of our homeschoolers to help in something the Kansas State Historical Society is calling it's Sleeping Heroes project, where they document where Civil War veterans throughout the state are buried.  I have picked out a few cemeteries I would like to work on and selected a veteran from each that I will have researched to give some fun background to the kids so they can see what history can lie beneath the Company, Regiment & State and dates we'll be gathering.  I have already had success with finding that one marched with Sherman through Georgia, and another fought at the Battle of Wilson's Creek (the 1st major battle west of the Mississippi). So, when I saw grandpa Wagner, I knew I needed to revisit my efforts and make him my man for that cemetery!  I had no idea where that would lead me!
  When I attacked Ancestry.com at home, I found a pension record for him, narrowed down by the fact that he filed in Kansas, was from Pennsylvania, and applied for it himself, since he died not too long before his wife.

Ok, I had a starting place.  Then I Googled the 84th Pennsylvania Infantry and found a John Wagoner listed.  Now, the 84th Co. F was from Lycoming County but I was still in the dark as to being for sure that was him.  I was missing Grandpa John in the 1860 census so I looked him up there in that year and BINGO!  There he was with Grandma Susan and their 3 kids, so this was the correct John Wagoner!  The cool thing was that the info the Google search came up with was that he was captured at the battle of Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863 - so much more yet to learn!!
  But wait!  There's more!  After he returned from his own expedition with Grandpa Duck & Daddy, I was sharing with Bubby what we had found.  He was anxious to find more (I love that my almost 9 year old loves this stuff!).  So, I did another Ancestry search and found the marriage record for Grandpa John and Grandma Susan!  But apparently Lycoming County, Pennsylvania records during this period are wonderfully detailed because it listed both of their parents!

  So a day of not planning to work on any genealogy of my own, turned into the biggest breakthrough I've had in a long time.  Wow!