Bovina in the Civil War - Soldier Biographies XV

Alexander White was born in Scotland in May 1843 and emigrated to the United States a decade later.  Enlisting in September 1862 , he was paid a bounty of $150 for doing so.  He was a drummer in the 144th New York Volunteers.  Alexander had a 30 day furlough from May 28, 1865 and was discharged in July 1865.  After the war, he settled in Arena where he died in 1914.

Jonathan White was born in Delaware County in 1836 and was living with his brother in law, William Rutherford during the war.  Enlisting in August 1862 in the 144th New York Volunteers as a private, he mustered out with his company in June 1865.  He was living in Hobart in 1890 and was in Kortright by 1900.  Jonathan died in Kortright in 1915.

Robert White was born in Scotland in 1837.  At the time of his enlistment in October 1861 in Bovina, Robert's profession was blacksmithing.   Joining the 8th New York Battery, he was discharged within a year due to illness.  He left Delaware County, settling first in Iroquois County, Illinois, then later in Phillips County, Colorado, where he died in 1913. His widow Julia died in 1926.  They are buried in the Holyoke Cemetery, Colorado.

James Wright is another Bovina connected soldier for whom we have little information beyond his service.  He was born in Walton in 1842 and was a boarder with William Gladstone in 1865.  He enlisted in the the 144th in September 1864 and then transferred only a couple of weeks later to the 1st New York Engineers.  He was discharged on July 3, 1865 at Hilton Head, SC. Wright was 5 feet 8 inches tall with dark eyes, hair and complexion.  No  information about Wright after the war could be found.

Charles Wycof was born in 1846 in Delaware County.  He was paid $140 bounty money from the town of Bovina to enlist.  Charles enlisted in December 1861 in the 72nd New York Excelsior Regiment as a private.  He was discharged within three months due to a disability.  One source states he re-enlisted the next year in the 144th New York Volunteers, but no evidence of such service has been located.

Bovina in the Civil War - Soldier Biographies XIV

Daniel, John B., and Robert Tompkins were the nephews of Robert Post of Bovina.  In the 1865 census, they were enumerated with their uncle while in the service, though the Tompkins family was from Roxbury.  The three nephews likely were brothers, the sons of William and Lydia (Post) Tompkins.  Daniel and Robert enlisted the same day, August 19, 1861, Daniel in the 3rd NY Calvalry, Robert in the 20th New York Volunteers.  Robert joined his brother's outfit a year later.  Their younger brother John enlisted in August 1864 as a substitute for Charles E. Loomis.  He was wounded twice - in September 1864 then again in October 1864.  At some point he was absent without leave but he was mustered out in July in New York City.  The information on all three brothers after the war is somewhat confusing.  There is no definitive information for John's life after he mustered out.  It seems that Robert at some point moved to Pennsylvania and in 1915 was admitted to a National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Hampton, VA.  Daniel late in life also went to a home for disabled veterans, this one in Ohio.  He died in 1922 and his body was sent to Union Grove, NY for burial.

Robert Tuttle was Bovina's only Civil War veteran to serve in the Navy.  He was born on Cabin Hill in October 1833.  When he entered service in 1863 in the Navy it was as a 1st Assistant Surgeon.  He left service at the end of the war and settled in the Town of Rockland in Sullivan County, working as a physician.  In 1875, he married Emma Bush Parksville.  Dr. Tuttle died in 1910 and is buried in Roscoe.

Charles A. and James Warren were the sons of Horace and Clarissa Warren.  Charles was born in Ulster County in 1835.  He enlisted in August 1862, joining the 144th New York Volunteers as a private.  Discharged after one year because of a disability, he re-enlisted a year later.  During the Battle of Deveaux Neck in South Carolina he was wounded when a bullet struck him under the ear and came out near the eye.  He mustered out with his company in June 1865.  Settling in Fallsburgh, Sullivan County, NY, he died there in 1882.  His brother James, also known as DeWitt Warren, was born in Stamford in 1838.  Enlisting the same time and into the same regiment as his brother, he mustered out with his company on June 1865.  Married to Jane Aitken of Bovina, he lived in Bovina after the war, then moved to Kortright.  He spent the last 25 years of his life in Delhi, where he died in March 1917. 

Bovina in the Civil War - Soldier Biographies XIII

William Storie was born in Delhi, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Storie.  He enlisted in February 1864 in the 16th Heavy Artillery.  Six months later, William was dead, having died in Point of Rocks, Virginia of disease.  He was buried near where he died.

Samuel Stott was born in Delaware County in October 1845, the son of George Stott.  He enlisted in the 3rd NY Cavalry in February 1864.  Wounded at Stoney Creek, Virginia, Samuel was taken prisoner.  After five months, he was exchanged.  He mustered out at a hospital in Baltimore in June 1865.  Samuel never recovered from his experiences, dying less than five years later in January 1870 of "malignant kidneys," possibly caused by the challenges of being a prisoner of war.

William Stott was the son of Walter and Mary Stott.  Born in March 1842, he enlisted in August 1861 in company F of the 3rd NY Cavalry as a corporal but was demoted to private less than a month later.  William is one of only two Bovina soldiers to be killed in action, dying in the battle of Chala Bridge on May 14, 1864.  His body was not recovered, but there is a memorial stone for him in the Bovina Cemetery. (See the blog entry for April 12, 2011 for more about the family of Walter and Mary Stott.)

William G. Thomson was born in Stamford in October 1842.  At the time of his enlistment in September 1864 in the 144th New York Volunteers, he was six feet tall, with black eyes, auburn hair and a dark complexion.  William mustered out with his company in June 1865 at Hilton Head, SC.  A year after mustering out, William married Frances Frisbee in Delhi.  Settling in Walton, he died there in October 1906.

Bovina in the Civil War - Soldier Biographies III

A cousin of brothers John and Solomon Coulter (featured last month), Thomas Coulter was born in Bovina in 1844.  He was the son of David Coulter.  He enlisted on August 28, 1862 and joined the same company and regiment as his cousins, the 144th NY Volunteer Infantry, Company E.  For enlisting, he was paid a bounty of $50.  Thomas was a farmer and had blue eyes, brown hair, a fair complexion and was 5 feet 11 inches tall.  In August 1863, he was sick in the hospital, but recovered and mustered out as a private on June 25, 1865 at Hilton Head, SC.  Thomas left Delaware County soon after the war and settled in Montana Territory as a gulch miner.  He died January 16, 1895 in Montana and is buried in the Forestvale Cemetery, Helena, Montana.

Born January 3, 1841, John P. Dennis, son of Thomas and Louisa Dennis, lived in Bovina when he enlisted on August 21, 1862.  He was paid $100 bounty.  He mustered out of the 144th NY Volunteers on June 25, 1865.  Dennis farmed in Bovina after the war.  In 1890, he reported as a disability a rupture and bad left hip.  Between 1900 and 1910, he and his wife Mary moved to Charles City County, Virginia.  The both appear in the 1920 census but by the 1930 census, Mary was widowed.  Exactly when and where John died I have not yet determined.

William Dennis may be the brother of John (there is conflicting information about his parents, so I'm not totally sure).  He was born in Bovina in 1836 and married Lydia Betts in December 1861.  When he enlisted August 24, 1864, joining the 144th New York Volunteers as a private, he was working as a miller.  He mustered out with his company on June 25,1865 at Hilton Head, S.C.  He moved several times after the war.  In 1870, he was a farmer in Colchester, with his wife and five children.  By 1890, he was in Delhi, when he reported in a special military census that he suffered from diarrhea and piles, an effect of his service.  He appears on the 1900 census in Walton.  William moved yet again and by 1910, he and his wife Lydia were living in Bergen County, NJ with two of their children.  They do not appear in the 1920 census, so it is possible that William and his wife were deceased by or before 1920. 

Walter Dickson was a blacksmith, born in 1834 in Bovina.  At his enlistment in Middletown on August 26, 1862, he was described as being 5 feet 6 inches tall, with light complexion, blue eyes and dark hair.  He mustered into the 144th NY Volunteers, Company G.  Mustering in as a sergeant, he was promoted to first sergeant in January 1864 and was a second lieutenant at the end of that year.  Walter mustered out with the company at Hilton Head, SC on June 25, 1865.  Dickson left Delaware County and was an early settler at Garner, Iowa, where he was the town's first blacksmith and, later, a farmer.  He died in 1892 in Crossville, Tennessee.

James R. Douglass was born in October 1822.  In August 1864, at the rather advanced age of 42, he enlisted into the 144th New York Volunteer Infantry as a private.  He mustered out with the company on June 25, 1865 at Hilton Head, SC.  James was married twice, first to Nancy Scott, then to Mary McCune.  He died at the age of 50 in 1873 and is buried in the Bovina Cemetery.

Bovina in the Civil War - Soldier Biographies II

Samuel Bouton was born in Roxbury in 1830, the son of Nathaniel Bouton and Elizabeth Corbin.  His service in the war appears to have been relatively brief.  He enlisted in Company H of the 8th Pennsylvania Battery in Scranton in May 1861 and was discharged less than three months later at the end of July 1861.  He was in Bovina in 1863 when he was registered for the draft but saw no subsequent service.  Married to Ann Gillie in Andes in 1864, the couple lived in Lake Delaware, where he died in 1912.  Samuel is buried in Bovina.

Known more familiarly as Sinclair, John Sinclair Burns, was Bovina's first Civil War casualty.  He was born in Bovina on August 29, 1841, the son of John and Nancy Burns.  On his 21st birthday, he enlisted for three years in Company E of the 144th NY Volunteer Infantry.  The following spring, on April 4, 1863, Sinclair died at the Fairfax Seminary Hospital in Virginia of typhoid fever.  His remains were sent back to Bovina for burial.
   
Andrew Chisholm was one of the many victims of typhoid fever in the Civil War.  Born November 1, 1839, Andrew was the son of Andrew Chisholm.  He enlisted in Company E of the 144th Infantry on August 19, 1862 in Bovina and was paid a bounty of $150. A little over a year later, on October 19, 1863, Andrew died at Folly Island, South Carolina.  He was buried on Folly Island, though there is also a memorial stone in the Bovina Cemetery.

James Clark was from Delhi, and appears to have spent most of his life there, but was living in Bovina at the time of his death.  Born in 1830, he enlisted in the first year of the war, joining company I of the NY 72nd Infantry.  He mustered out in June 1864 and settled in Delhi for some time.  By 1890 he was living in Downsville.  In the 1900 census, he was listed as widowed and living in Bovina.  He died in Bovina in 1902 and was buried in the Bovina Cemetery.

Brothers John and Solomon Coulter, sons of James and Nancy Coulter, enlisted in the 144th New York Infantry in August 1862.  John was quite successful, as a soldier and after his military service.  Born on April 19, 1842, he enlisted on August 15, 1862 and was paid a bounty of $150.  At the time of his enlistment, he was described as six feet tall with blue eyes, dark hair and a fair complexion.  John enlisted as a Sergeant and was promoted several times, becoming a 2nd Lieutenant before he was discharged on July 12, 1865.  After the war, John headed west, settling in Georgetown, Colorado.  In 1874, he married Annie Gaffney Leggett, a widow, and adopted her two children.  His career was quite successful, becoming a lawyer and a justice of the peace and, later, mayor of Georgetown.  John also served one term in the state legislature.  He moved to Moffat County, Colorado in 1900, continuing his legal practice.  In 1915, he moved to Boulder and retired from the law.  On New Year's Day, 1919, John Coulter died of heart disease and senile dementia at the age of 78.  He was buried in Boulder.

John's younger brother Solomon was not so lucky.  Enlisting a week after his brother, Solomon also was paid a bounty of $150.  He was a couple of inches shorter than his brother but also had blue eyes, black hair and a fair complexion.  A little over two years after enlisting he became yet another victim of typhoid fever, dying on September 23, 1864, in South Carolina at the age of 20.  There is conflicting information as to whether he was buried at Hilton Head, SC, where he died, or back in Bovina, where there is a memorial stone.

Bovina in the Civil War - Bovina’s Old Soldiers

Seems appropriate on the day after Veteran's Day, a holiday which did not exist until over 50 years after the Civil War ended, to remember those Bovina soldiers who survived the Civil War.  Many of them returned to the life they were living before the war, though not without challenges.  A number of them suffered from life long after-effects of the war.  In a special census of Civil War veterans, conducted in 1890, John P. Dennis reported suffering  from rupture and a disabled left hip.  Henry Hogaboom suffered a ‘general disability’ that ‘is not overcome.’  Albert McPherson stated that he became deaf from his war service.  Berry Shaw Miller reported that he had ‘neurology and rheumatism’ and that he was deaf in one ear.  His brother Gilbert 'Gib' Miller suffered from chronic diarrhea.

A number of Bovina soldiers left New York State after the war.  John Coulter left sometime in the 1860s and by 1870 was living in Cross Creek, Colorado, working as a lawyer.  He married a widow, Anne Gaffney, and adopted her two children.  When Coulter died on January 1, 1919, in Boulder, he was a judge. 

In 1866, John's first cousin, Thomas, headed west, along with Thomas J. Liddle, another Bovina Civil War vet. They traveled by train as far as Omaha and then took a boat on the Missouri river for Fort Benton, Montana.  Coulter settled in Lewis and Clark County in Montana and in 1870 was a gulch miner.  What ultimately happened to him is not known, but he was named in his aunt Mary McGibbon’s will in 1889 and shows up on the 1890 Military census, still in Montana.

Thomas Liddle, after two years of ranching, mining and carrying mail in Montana, set out for Puget Sound, but ended up settling in Walla Walla, Washington. Hiring out to a pack train, he went back to Montana and then returned to Walla Walla, the round trip occupying one month.  In 1872, he settled in Colfax in Whitman County, Washington, where he remained for at least 50 years.

Some veterans stayed in Delaware County, though not necessarily in Bovina.  John D. Ferguson learned the carpenter trade until moving to Delhi in 1881, where he was in the mercantile business.  His firm changed names several times as partners came and left: Ferguson and Groat, Ferguson and Churchill, and Ferguson and Thomson.  He retired in 1916 from the business.  His obituary reported that Mr. Ferguson “was eminently successful, his foundation principles being integrity, courtesy and square dealing with all.”  Ferguson was active in the England Post, GAR and was at the time of his death serving as Commander. 

James S. Adee was promoted several times during his war service, first to the rank of Sergeant, then to Orderly, or First Sergeant, and finally to First Lieutenant, the rank he held at the time of his discharge.   He returned to Bovina after the war.  The year after the end of the war, he bought his fathers farm.  He moved to Kortright in 1880, taking over the farm of his father-in-law and later purchased a farm about four and one-half miles from Delhi.  Adee was noted in the Biographical Review as “a strong Republican and is a member of England Post, No.142, Grand Army of the Republic.”  He died in 1899, having been widowed for 8 years.

The aforementioned Miller Brothers answered the call for soldiers in 1864 and both enlisted in the 144th.  The brothers were honorably discharged on the 18th of July, 1865.  Berry never fully recovered from the ill effects of the exposures and privations of the Civil War, though he did survive the war by over 40 years, dying in1906.  Berry’s brother, Gib, was Bovina’s last surviving old soldier, dying 70 years after the war started.  He was 87 when he died in Oneonta in 1931 from the effects of a fall a few days earlier.  Delaware County's last Civil War soldier died in 1941 and the nation's last surviving soldier from the conflict died in 1956

This picture came from the Cecil Russell family collection.  It dates from May 1910 and is a veterans gathering in Andes.  The names that have been identified:  Left to right: 1. James Elliott, 2. Unknown, 3. Matthew Lambert, 4. Unknown, 5. Unknown, 6. James G. Seath, 7. Thomas Gordon (father of Margaret Gordon, who taught Social Studies in Delhi for many years), 8. Alex White, 9. William Richardson (grandfather of Isabell Irvine Russell), 10. Andrew Anderson, 11. William Reside, 12. Simeon Goodman, 13. Gilbert D. Miller, 14. Joseph Hughes. Thank you to Tim Duerden and Rachel Thrasher for helping to identify more of the names.

The stories of these and other Civil War soldiers with Bovina connections will be a monthly feature of this blog starting in 2012.

Bovina in the Civil War - Slavery in Bovina

There were slaves throughout the United States during the colonial era and after independence, but northern states began to abolish slavery in the early 19th century.  New York abolished it in 1827, but before then, did Bovina have any slaves?  From what I can find, Bovina appears to have had one or two slaves.  In the 1820 census, there was one slave owned by Alexander Johnson (or Johnston).  Murray's Centennial History of Delaware County claims that when slavery was abolished, there were two slaves in Bovina - Johnson's and one slave owned by John Erkson.  The census doesn't show this, however.  And Murray's book has the wrong year for abolition of slavery.  Before Bovina's creation but after its settlement, there could have been some other slave owners, but there appears to be no record of these slave holders.

Bovina was generally but not unanimously anti-slavery during the Civil War. Near the end of the war, the Bovina United Presbyterian Church took issue with one of its members for opposing the church's stand against slavery.  The Presbyterian Church in the USA in the 1840s passed a resolution against slavery:  "The system of slavery, as it exists in these United States, viewed either in the laws of the several States which sanction it, or in its actual operation and results in society, is intrinsically an unrighteous and oppressive system, and is opposed to the prescriptions of the law of God, to the spirit and precepts of the Gospel, and to the best interests of humanity."  The church over the years continued to reaffirm its opposition to slavery.

In November 1864, word had been received that "Mrs Jane Maynard had been willfully opposing the principles of her solemn profession by uttering disloyal and unchristian sentiments."  She felt that the article in the church's testimony on slavery was not in accordance with Scripture. Elder Thomas Miller was appointed to speak with her on this issue, which he did in late December or early January.  During the conversation, Miller solicited money for missionary purposes. Mrs. Maynard responded that she had no money for such purpose but she did have for the southern people "whom we were persecuting..." She also cited the minister for injecting politics into his sermons.  She did not feel she could stay a member while being criticized for her political opinions. Her membership was suspended but as the year progressed, passions cooled.  Mrs. Maynard admitted that she said some things under excitement that she should not have said.  And though she still felt the church's stand on slavery was wrong, she wished to be restored to membership.  She was restored in October 1865. 

One of the challenges in researching this story was trying to figure out which Jane Maynard this was.  There are two candidates: Jane Falconer Maynard, married to Isaac Maynard and Jane McDonald Maynard, married to Elisha Maynard.  There was only one Jane Maynard who was a member during this time and it appears to have been Mrs. Elisha Maynard.  Jane McDonald was born in 1825 and married Elisha Maynard in 1852.  She was widowed in 1907 and died in 1916.

Bovina in the Civil War - The Sesquicentennial

It was 150 years ago this April that the United States Civil War began with the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The impact of the war was nationwide, even in states where no actual engagements took place, such as New York. And the war had its impact on Bovina. Over 90 men from Bovina served in the war, with 11 of them dying in the conflict. Thirty-three men eligible for military service applied for an exemption from such service. Bovina taxpayers in 1863, 1864 and 1865 were asked to ante up money for bounties to meet the town's quota of men. The minister of the Bovina United Presbyterian Church took a leave from the church to serve as a chaplain - and suffered serious illness as a result.

Over the next year, I will be doing monthly blog entries related to the impact of the Civil War on Bovina. I'll look at what was going on in Bovina when the war started, the various reasons men gave for exemption from service, those 11 men who died in the service (including two brothers), what happened to those soldiers who survived, and how Bovina voted during the war.

Here's the headstone of Solomon G. Coulter, one of Bovina's Civil War casualties. There are several headstones like this in the Bovina Cemtery. Photo courtesy of Ed and Dick Davidson.

Decoration Day and Bovina's Civil War Dead

Memorial Day started after the Civil War as 'Decoration Day.' First observed nationwide in 1868, it was intended to honor the dead from the recently concluded conflict. The Civil War Veterans organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, spurred on the celebration, choosing May 30 as the date each year.

In Bovina, as in other towns throughout the country, much of the work of placing flags and flowers on the graves of fallen comrades fell on Bovina's Civil War veterans - it's 'Old Soldiers.' Each year, these survivors of the conflict, likely with help from family and friends, would visit cemeteries to place the flags and flowers.

Bovina lost eleven young men in the actual war: Sinclair Burns, Andrew G. Chisholm, Solomon Coulter, Robert Dysert, James C. Elliott, Thomas Elliott, William T. Gillie, John Murray, Jr., James T. Oliver, William Storie, and William H. Stott. Only three of these died in battle: brothers James and Thomas Elliott and William Stott. The Elliott brothers both died in November 1864. Thomas was wounded October 19 at Cedar Creek, Virginia and died in a Baltimore hospital on November 6. His brother James died at the end of November. Six other Bovina soldiers died of Typhoid Fever and two others died of unspecified diseases. This ratio of battle deaths to death by disease is very typical of the Civil War. Some of the fallen soldiers are buried in Bovina, while others have memorial stones, with their actual graves in the south - three are in Beaufort, South Carolina.

As the years passed, there were fewer and fewer Old Soldiers around to carry out their acts of remembrance. In 1916, it was reported that though Bovina still had five Civil War veterans, only two of them were healthy enough to participate in placing the flags and flowers.

Decoration Day became a day to not just honor the dead from combat but to remember family and friends. My dad remembered his mother, Anna Bell LaFever, making sure the graves of all of her loved ones who had passed on had flowers that weekend. And as a child, I remember the trips we made over to the Beaverkill to put flowers on the graves of my mom's family. By then, Decoration Day had become Memorial Day. Though the latter term was in use later in the 19th century, it didn't become common until after World War II. In 1967, Congress passed a law making Memorial Day the official name of the holiday.

Today, those soldiers lost in the Civil War and all veterans of combat are remembered in Bovina cemeteries each year with the placing of flags on the graves by the American Legion. Bovina has around 120 veterans in its various cemeteries, from the American Revolution, War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.

So enjoy the weekend - but don't forget why we have this holiday in the first place.