52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week #22 Theme - Conflict

My husband is a history buff.  While I research the history of both our families, he catches me up on what was happening in those years and locations.  Often we then take trips to the areas where family lived and learn more about them at history centers and libraries.  When we traveled through Alabama and Mississippi, we found that his paternal 3Gt. Grandfather, John Oliver Davis, a merchant from Tallapoosa Co, Alabama, had fought with the 37th Infantry at the second Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, Oct. 3-4 1862.  He had been elected First Lieutenant following the organization of the 37th Regiment, but had been promoted to Captain in the ensuing months.  At the 2nd Battle of Corinth, Captain Davis, age 40,  was wounded, seriously enough that he returned home and then resigned from service.  His daughter, Martha Lavonia (Vonie) Davis married Alonzo C. Bosworth, a young Confederate soldier,  who came home from the war after battles in Virginia and at Gettysburg. He was a sergeant with Company D of the Alabama 14th Infantry.  I will write more about this couple in the future.

Meanwhile in service to the Union was another of Gerry's ancestors, Gt Grandfather John McCool, born in Pennsylvania. His family had migrated to the frontier of Iowa, where John signed on as a private, with the Iowa Second Infantry, Co. B of Scott County.  McCool's regiment fought  alongside about 50,000 men under General U.S. Grant at Ft. Donelson, on the Cumberland River,  not far from Nashville, TN. The victory made Grant a national hero, and allowed the Union to push deeper into the heart of the Confederacy.  The 2nd Iowa was then involved at Shiloh (Pittsburgh Landing) and advanced on to the town of Corinth, Mississippi. Two railroads intersected in the downtown of Corinth... the Memphis / Charleston Railroad, running east and west, and the Mobile / Ohio Railroad, running north and south. These were necessary for moving supplies and had been under control of the Confederacy.  A Union victory there assured that the North could use Corinth and her railroads in relative safety for much of the remainder of the war.  However, there were thousands of dead and wounded on each side.   

I have found a map which shows the locations of regiments from both armies.  Within a few blocks of each other, in downtown Corinth, were McCool's 2nd Iowa Regiment of the Union, and Captain John O. Davis' 37th Alabama Regiment of the Confederacy. Blue is Union, Red is Confederate. I have marked these two in gold.   These men didn't hate each other, but they loved their homes and families, and stood to defend them.  Generations later, after the conflict of that battle was forgotten by descendants, the men are remembered as showing courage and loyalty, each to his own cause.

 

Out in the Sleet, I see Uncle Pete

Little kids in the Griffin family made jokes about the eccentric old Uncle who dressed up in his 3 piece (though mis-matched) suit. Carrying his black umbrella, he would walk to work, or just walk through the then small town of Edmond, Oklahoma. No one knew the story of Peter C. Griffin until we began to search the family of William and Elizabeth M. Griffin (see link in previous post.)

Peter was the youngest child of our 2Gt. Grandparents William and Elizabeth, born in West Virginia in 1860. So he was just a toddler when one older brother died of a virus, and 3 older brothers joined the Union armies and went to war. Only one of those brothers, Sam, came home from that war in 1864, when Peter was only 4. Other brothers, Robert and Alpheus, closer in age, died as children, as did sister, Rachel.

When Peter was about 7, the Griffin family, along with many uncles, aunts, and cousins, had been moved from their Braxton County homes to the safety of the Union Camp in Harrison County. Upon coming home, they found destruction of their farms and persecution by neighbors. So they boarded a steamboat on the Ohio River and sailed down the Ohio to the Mississippi, then to the Missouri River and up to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and on to Exira, Audubon County by wagon. Eventually, the families went to Missouri and on to Montgomery County, Kansas to homestead. Within a year or two, Pete's older siblings married, leaving 4 boys to help father William farm. Soon Pete was the only one left at home. He never married, possibly as he felt the responsibility for his parents and the farm.

In 1889, news of the free land in Oklahoma Territory spread. As Peter's father was elderly and probably not well, the young man decided to participate in the Land Rush. He traveled to Arkansas City where he boarded the crowded train and entered the Oklahoma Territory. Nearing the Edmond area, he jumped off near Waterloo Road, walked west to Deer Creek, and staked two adjoining claims of 160 acres each... one quarter section for himself and one for his parents. The family soon made the move from their Kansas home. William died Nov. 4, 1889, leaving Elizabeth, and Pete to construct buildings and start gardens and prepare for future crops.

In a couple of years, Lizzie Terry Griffin, widow of Pete's brother, Sam, came to Oklahoma from Kansas, with sons and a daughter, to farm with Pete and the elderly Elizabeth. The young men and women (my Grandpa's generation) also married and left the farm. Before 1910, matriarch, Elizabeth M. died, and all the Griffins moved into Edmond, leaving the large farm for smaller acreages, and Pete went to work at the bank in town. He was about 50 years old, and lived with relatives.

This was the time that his gt. nieces and nephews would make jokes "Out in the sleet, I see Uncle Pete." He must have just seemed like a strange old man. Little did they know, besides caring for his family members, he was saving his money for all those years. His death came at age 73, on April 25, 1934, just 4 days after the celebration of "Eighty Niners' Day". We find a photograph of Pete among other Eighty Niners (listed as Charles, his middle name) probably taken in the 1920s.

When Peter Griffin's will was probated, many were probably surprised. His estate totaled about $103,000, comparable to more than $1,000,000 in 2008. After providing for his own funeral and estate expenses, he specified that a large stone would be placed in Gracelawn Cemetery of Edmond, OK, for the Griffin Family, with small ones for himself and his parents. Then he gave $4,000 to his remaining sister, Sarah McNutt, and provided $1,000 each for the education of orphaned great niece and nephew. The remainder was to be divided among 32 living nieces and nephews, which amounted to about $3,000 each. His obituary has not yet been found, but could have called Peter Griffin an eccentric millionaire today, rather than the strange little man with an umbrella "out in the sleet.... Uncle Pete."

John J. Miller Civil War Story

"John Jackson Miller and Diana Mary Harris began their married life 40 miles from the home of his father (John Miller & Polly Sands), by the State Rd. Near Suttonville, W. VA, nearer the bride's family (Adonijah Harris & Sarah Ann Rodgers).

Thousands of soldiers passed by continually during the first year of the Civil War. John J. was an abolitionist, disagreeing with his father, about reimbursing slave owners. John J., Taylor Sutton and James Harris (all sons or sons-in-law of Adonijah Harris), were forced to hide in the mountains for months to escape rebel soldiers. Diana Mary, John's wife, was forced to support herself and four small children. John J. was taken prisoner in 186_ at the home of his father, a rebel. Upon the protest of his parents he was left in the home, a prisoner with two soldiers left to guard him.

The guards fell asleep one night and John J. escaped to his own home 40 miles away, wading through mush ice in the rivers 5 times. He was quite ill by the time he reached home. The illness proved to be measles, which all but two members of several families contracted, and which caused the deaths of Julia Ann Harris (unmarried) and Mrs. Elizabeth Jane "Harris" Sutton, mother of A. H. Sutton and Mrs. Sara 'Sutton' Stokes. Mrs. Sutton's death occurred on Feb 12, 1862.

Immediately after his escape the families were taken, in 1862, by government wagons to Clarksburg 175 miles away as refugees. This removal from the family home near Suttonville to Clarksburg, W.VA was made upon the advice and with the assistance of a friend, Col. Samuel Young, who was afterwards the founder of Radical, KS.

In the year 1864, the family was moved to Fairmont, WVA, where John Jackson Miller enlisted in the Union Army, leaving wife and four children. The family also lived a short time in Grafton WVA.

In the meantime the father of John Jackson Miller had lost everything possible in raids by bush-whackers, rebels, etc. and nothing left at the end of the war but a house with an attic filled with honey. He died about 1870.

After returning from one year's service at the close of the War, John J. Went back to his home near Suttonville and found all the buildings gone and the farm overgrown with saplings and weeds. Too discouraged to begin again in that place, he traded the land for 80 acres near Exira, Iowa where he moved his family. [My note: The William Griffin family mentioned in previous post were in the group traveling west as well.]

But then he heard about the Osage reservation land in the Kansas-Oklahoma territories being opened up for purchase. He left Iowa to make a claim but heard wild tales of difficulties with Indians.

Instead, they moved to Carthage MO. They eventually moved to Montgomery Co. KS in 1871, near Sycamore, or rather Lay Station as it was called at that time in Sycamore Township.. Named after Eli Lay, an early settler."

[My note: According to my data John Jackson Miller died in 1904, Canby OR. Diana Mary died in 1911 in Canby OR.]

This story was written by the late Claude Miller of Independence, KS, and contributed by another Miller descendant).

Civil War Letter from Samuel Y. Griffin to his Father

This is one of the letters from our Gt Grandfather, Samuel Y. Griffin, age 22, Union Soldier in Ohio Vols. His younger brother, James, had just died of disease during service. Another brother, Levi, was in the 10th VA Union Reg. which Samuel asks about. Levi was also to die of disease before the war was over. Samuel did come home, but carried illness through his life. I marvel at the excellent command of words and the dedication of this young man who was born and raised on a mountain in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

Camp Meadow Bluffs [my note: Greenbrier Co. west of Lewisburg]
July the 24, 1862

"Dear Father and Family

I now take the present opportunity of writing you a few lines to inform you of my wellfare. I am in tolerable good health at this time and hope these few lines may reach and find you enjoying the same blessing. I received 2 letters from you the 8th, inst., one enclosed in a letter to the Captain. I was sorry to hear of Jameses death. But he is gone where the Salute of musketry is not heard over the grave of friends and fellow Soldiers, and where the sound of war is forever hushed. The health of the troops here is generally tolerable good. There has been but two deaths since we have been camped here.

We took another scout across Greenbrier River, it consisted of our entire Regiment and about 300 cavalry. After we crossed the River the cavalry had an engagement with some of the enemies cavalry. Our men killed one and took a few prisoners while the rebels were trying to make their escape. There is nothing of importance going on here at the present.

There are 3 Regs here and 6 companies of the 9th Virginiers. I want you to write soon & let me know where the 10th Virginies is stationed at. I heard that they was at Buckhanon but I don't know whether they are there or not. I received a letter from Uncle Benoni some time ago. They were well at the time the letter was written. I would like to see you all but I cannot at present. I must obey my countries call.

Our Regiment is tolerably well drilled; we have company drill in the morning from nine till half past ten and Battalion drill from 4 till half past 5 in the evening and dress parade at 6 o'clock. We don't drill Saturdays & Sundays. I have nothing of importance more to write and must close my present letter. Give my best respects to all inquiring friends. No more at present but remain your affectionate son as ever.

[To] Wm Griffin [From]Samuel Y. Griffin

P.S. I found six postage stamps enclosed in your letter. I am very thankful to you for sending them.

Yours S. Y. Griffin"