Don't Miss the Details

  War is boring.  Well, that's what I always thought.  In my college days and in my research except for the acknowledgement of a major war or veteran I would pass it over with just a glance.  I'm a social historian, more interested in the stories that historical people had than names and dates of battles - bleh!  Of course that was until a couple of years ago and then my quest for knowledge of the Civil War veterans in our own back yard forced me into those names and dates that I had so long avoided.  It also made me interested in what could be found in pension records from the National Archives. My first pension was for my own genealogical research and it was a goldmine of information.  My grandpa George R. Marshall served with the 2nd Arkansas, which despite the location was a Union regiment.  It gave me the maiden name of his 2nd wife (my ggg-grandmother) Martha as well as tons of other information.  Actually it pretty much read like a soap opera, but that's another story!
  Because of our work on the local Civil War veterans, I became especially interested in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) amongst them.  There are a few that served with the 1st Kansas Colored, which was the first African-American regiment mustered after the start of the war.  One of "my" guys, George Thompson was especially favored by me.  George served with the 1st Kansas Colored and in his obituary it stated that on his way out of slavery he stayed with a "Rev. McAfee". Well, to me that hinted at an Underground Railroad possibility since most of the 1st Kansas were refugee or runaway slaves.  I did some poking around and found a Rev. Josiah McAfee who was a staunch abolitionist, lived finally in Topeka, and also served with the 2nd Kansas Colored as a chaplain during the war.  So when I finally caved to my curiosity and ordered George's pension record I was looking for a statement from "Rev. McAfee" amongst the file.

Josiah McAfee (courtesy of www.kansasmemory.org)

  I found a researcher who was willing to look up the pension record for me for a cut rate (NARA will do the search for $80 and I was able to get it for $35 - awesome!).  I anxiously awaited its arrival.  The turnaround that this researcher quoted was 10 days and NARA takes at least a couple of months on average, although my ggg-grandpa's took about a month.  My wait was just 10 days, but there is nothing more impatient than a researcher waiting on that key piece of information! Finally it came and lots of fun information but no Josiah McAfee!  I scoured that info for the reason why - I knew McAfee would have been an excellent reference for George and he should be in there! And then I found this...

  Josiah McAfee was listed on the index as one of the statements as an "excellent" source.  Ok, so where was his statement??? I looked back over all the scanned images again - nothing.  I contacted my researcher.  They were amazing and said they'd go check again.  It took a few days, but paydirt!  There was his statement.  The moral of this story...pension files can be HUGE, they can be fragile, they can stick together and researchers are human.  Check the index when you request a pension file.  Make sure all the statements are in what you are sent.  I was specifically looking for Rev. McAfee  or I would have missed it in my excitement to just get this bounty of information.  Every piece counts and might hold that one key to your ancestor's past ;)

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!

Grandma

  I am in the process of trying to reorganize my house.  I have gotten past the getting rid of huge rafts of things and now am tweaking it to move more efficiently.  The problem with Hubby and I, we are both keepers.  So, past the stuff that we use on a daily basis with our 5 person household, the rest is like a museum of family items.  I was digging around in my recipe cabinet and found Great Grandma Laura (Gill) Duff's recipe book.  What a treasure!  It was also a reminder to me to check everywhere for family references!  As I perused the pages, I came across a recipe for "Grandma Tarver's fruit cake".  That made me stop.  Who is Grandma Tarver?!? I went back to the drawing board. I did have both of Grandma Duff's grandmas accounted for, but did this go further back past them?  I couldn't let it rest!
  How to figure such a thing out.  First I did some basic searches on Ancestry and Google combining Gill (Grandma Duff's maiden name), Duff, Tarver, and Pennsylvania (where the Gills and Duffs were from).  No dice.  Second I did a search in Osage County, Kansas for Tarvers, assuming it may have been a family friend.  I found an Edmund Tarver, born in 1815 that immigrated to that county in Kansas in 1867.  The Duffs came in 1871.  Sounds good.  Edmund Tarver and his wife Rebekah were born in England.  They resided in Valley Brook township (proximity) and are buried in Lyndon cemetery where the Duffs and Gills are buried as well.  I can only assume at this point that since Grandma Duff left both of her own Grandmas in Pennsylvania, she found a wonderful Grandma on the Plains of Kansas to help fill that void:)  I can't imagine, leaving your family a half a country away, possibly never to see them again.
  Doing all that reminded me of how I proved that a "Grandmother Glenn" was Grandma Duff's real grandmother.  In some of the things Hubby inherited was a large amount of Victorian calling cards.  They span the time period from before the Gills/Duffs left Pennsylvania to after they arrived in Kansas.  Many are family, and some just friends. Several years ago when I sorted through them I found one that stuck out - "Grandmother Glenn". 

The majority of these cards were Laura's.  I knew her Grandmothers to be Martha (McKee) Gill & Harriett (Stewart) Morehead.  So who was this gal?  Then I came across a memorial cabinet card for a Harriet Glenn and an obituary for the same who was a "grandmother to many".  So was I looking at a grandmother figure like "Grandma Tarver", or since Harriett Morehead had the same first name was this her remarried?  

  A comparison of birth & death dates & also finding corroborating evidence on-line I concluded that it was in fact Harriett (Stewart) Morehead who married a Robert Glenn after her first husband passed.  Interestingly, Robert's first wife was a cousin to Harriett's first husband. 
  So, we should conclude that we should never assume, but always check out any lead - who knows what you'll find! :)
 

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